I'm usually known as Bob; I'm only called Robert when I'm in trouble. I'm a retired Primary School teacher living with my wife in Seymour, Victoria. My three boys are now independent adults.
During my teaching career I spent a fair amount of time teaching upper primary children. As well as many other things early Australian history was on the curriculum and gold was a major topic. One family holiday (many years ago) was spent in Bright, Victoria.
The resort where we stayed had gold pans for guests to use. With a miner's right you could borrow the pans and go down to the creek; but someone always seemed to be using them. In frustration the boys and I went into Bright and bought our own. I was the one that caught gold fever. I was the one pestering them to go down to the creek every time we had a spare hour or two. However on returning from our holiday, work intervened. I became involved in a school based program building and racing recumbent trikes. I'm still involved with this program but now that I've retired I have more time to pursue my own interests. I can now go out and experience the history that I spent so many years teaching.
I started prospecting about two years ago just like the old timers with a pan and a pick. Heathcote and Graytown were the areas I concentrated on the most. I also made a few trips to Eldorado near Wangaratta. It wasn't long before I made myself a simple sluice and a yabby type pump to help me in my endeavours. At Graytown I actually pumped up a yabby with some wash. I have also made myself a mini post hole digger to sample likely prospects. All the tools have worked okay and helped me find a little gold. In the last six months or so the water has disappeared from these gold fields so I have added a detector to my collection of gold finding tools. Now I can go prospecting whenever I choose. I try to get out once a week.
In closing I have to say I'm looking forward to an interesting and enlightening association with this forum.
Cheers Bob.
During my teaching career I spent a fair amount of time teaching upper primary children. As well as many other things early Australian history was on the curriculum and gold was a major topic. One family holiday (many years ago) was spent in Bright, Victoria.
The resort where we stayed had gold pans for guests to use. With a miner's right you could borrow the pans and go down to the creek; but someone always seemed to be using them. In frustration the boys and I went into Bright and bought our own. I was the one that caught gold fever. I was the one pestering them to go down to the creek every time we had a spare hour or two. However on returning from our holiday, work intervened. I became involved in a school based program building and racing recumbent trikes. I'm still involved with this program but now that I've retired I have more time to pursue my own interests. I can now go out and experience the history that I spent so many years teaching.
I started prospecting about two years ago just like the old timers with a pan and a pick. Heathcote and Graytown were the areas I concentrated on the most. I also made a few trips to Eldorado near Wangaratta. It wasn't long before I made myself a simple sluice and a yabby type pump to help me in my endeavours. At Graytown I actually pumped up a yabby with some wash. I have also made myself a mini post hole digger to sample likely prospects. All the tools have worked okay and helped me find a little gold. In the last six months or so the water has disappeared from these gold fields so I have added a detector to my collection of gold finding tools. Now I can go prospecting whenever I choose. I try to get out once a week.
In closing I have to say I'm looking forward to an interesting and enlightening association with this forum.
Cheers Bob.