Old fossicking photo

[brendomac]

This is from the nsw art gallery. It was done in 1893 by walter Witherspoon.

Does anyone know what's going on with the scoop things? There is another thread on here that has giant scoops on a dredge, but these are smaller.

One thing it would allow you to rock while putting your dirt in.

I would imagine it would be hard to dig up the pay dirt?

 

[grubstake]

The (hopefully) paydirt is in the two buckets to the miner's left, dug with the shovel that's lying down between the goldpan and the buckets. The long-handled scoop is for the wash water, so the miner can keep rocking while washing, as you guessed. Quite how he manages to feed more dirt into the rocker while doing so, is an open question!

 

[Mackka]

Spot on grubstake and a fantastic painting. Mackka

 

[brendomac]

Ahh, of course!!! Thanks grubstake.

For you guys that are close to the nsw art museum in Sydney, I highly recommend a visit. It's free and there is a new building there too. I feel like I must have gone there at least once as a kid on a school excursion, but I can't remember.