When you just cant win, but ended up with a trophy anyway. :)

Prospecting Australia

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Kato and I went away to her 'happy hunting' ground during the school holidays.

Keeping it short - she was looking for more historic evidence, and a location of a 'vege patch'.

This meant two nights on site and serious target hunting along with recording of finds.

First night we were approached by a Caretaker, staff of the local campground that is still closed. (probably on JobKeeper, so no motivation to work)
In SA we are lucky and all this stuff was allowed to open a month ago.
He threw his weight around and was quite drunk, I could smell it 3m away, all ended well...

Next day we continued with our work, had a problem with BBQ's (Caretaker crap - Council had ordered them to turn them on a month ago, they did not)
But toilets were usable and clean although seats were limited.
That night we had a visit by Police at 9.30pm while settled down to bed in the Van watching, 'The Detectorists' - no camping gear, we use the van on these sort of stops.
He checked things, we had a chat, and he explained he was just the meat in the sandwich so had to attend, he was fine with us and what we were doing.
Twice I asked if he wanted us to move or anything, he was totally okay with us.

Last day.... we were back at work, and making headway, almost finished that zone, but over by the Van was a Ute (Council Ute on a Sunday)
so we went over and checked it out. The guy was good, he had been sent out to checkout 'campers' but could see no camping of any sort
and was not worried that we had slept in the Van overnight, he left with a smile.

Back to work..
About an hour later two guys turned up, chatted with the Caretaker and then went to the Van and looked it over, I gave them a wave and they came over.
Council guys, about 6' 120kg Sunnies on, and 6'3" 95kg - Mr 6'3" spoke politely, Mr Sunny's had a bad attitude and agro tones !
Leaning on my plug digger I told them to stop approaching us, expressed the the tall guy was cool and I would speak to him but Mr Sunnies that he needed
to curb his attitude, tone it and that I would not speak to him at all !
With that I turned to Mr 6'3" and smiled. He explained he was from local council and had a report of "prospecting", they could not see a single mark anywhere.
(I know who did that, Mr SAPOL had told me the previous night)

He asked for ID, I refused that as we were on public ground and he had no rights to it, but did tell him my name and that he had recorded my rego.
So we had a conversation, and basically he said we needed a 'permit', I asked about from where, who and how much ?
He had no idea of any of it.
Then I advised we had permission to use almost ALL of the private land in the area naming the owner, and if he had any preconceived idea's on that.
He knew nothing about local ownership but pressed on about permits and we needed to pack up.
I pondered this, and then agreed, sometimes they just throw around their 'weight' to satisfy a caller, so we packed up and I explained to Kato that there
was no issue, "we recorded all our work and can return to it next time"
Besides we could investigate the owner of some land on the way home. :)

WELL there is the TROPHY !
We found the only family to be continuously living in that place since it was first settled in 1850, Kato and I spent 4 1/2 hrs
talking and discussing Kato's interests, she now knows exactly where that 'vege patch' is located, she has seen historic pictures in the living flesh in the
ownership of this family, got the stories, history and permissions, made new friends and even found a lithograph collection that there are only 150 copies of in the world,
all from the beginning of South Australia but assembled at home in the UK by the South Australia Company.
She has invites to be taken around the area and shown the family history.
What an awesome bonus ! :D

The person that called Council and Police, I tracked down and got him to call me, we had a good conversation and it wont be a problem in the future,
he just didnt know who we were and was doing what he thought best, I'm okay with that. :)
Council permits, well they need to be a well defined 'by-law' and everything needs to be available to be found by the Public, they cant just invent one - doesnt exist, funny about that !
Only 'Prospecting' in SA needs that, and by definition we were only fossicking which is quite legal in SA on Public area's, as long as you leave no visible or physical damage.

Will we return there ? HELL YEAH !! Got this place all nailed down now, LOL

Another BONUS score... Kato has been accepted to assist digitizing historical records for local Council Library, State Library and even the State Records (AG's Dept).
All voluntary roles but it will help her in her "hobby" and even future career.

So Winner Winner Winner :trophy: :trophy: :trophy:

Did she find anything detecting ?..... some lead sprue... is that important ? Yes if it matches the musket ball she had found nearly 9 months ago at the same site within meters.

:100: :Y:
 
This thread is nearly 2 years old, Covid did put a dent in Kato's travels.

So an update is due now.

In January 2022 we took a trip to the area, on the way down we managed to have the originally found musket ball and sprue scanned with a XRF scanner to assess the metallurgy of both.

AND they match perfectly, so the likely scenario is that they were cast on the spot, and sprue trimmed off.
A few pieces have minor traces of iron, and I wonder if it came from a rusty knife blade, now we need a good microscope to look at the cut edges,
the perfect matches could be 'spill' from the molds when they are over filled.

THIS trip was to see if we can find more artifacts.

However this trip also found us face to face with the dreaded "Council Inspector Caller"..... dumm dah dahhhhhh ! (dramatic sounds)

It was pretty funny because although I had never met him I knew exactly who he was, we introduced Kato and myself and basically told him where she was going to hunt and why.
He was chuckling and clearly there were not problems with that and he even suggested some other places that we know have never been hunted.
Kato was off like a shot, and later returned to display her finds, much to the amusement of the gentleman involved.

We are never going to have an issue there at that site again, he was worried about security, and now that he knows us, it is all happy families.
( until the area is listed as an archaeological dig site :8 :lol: :lol: :lol: )

So what did she find.....
More cast musket balls, more sprue, some tools and some more Naval buttons.
We are very confident of what she has discovered at this site.

Can you imagine finding the very first and "exact" place that Cook landed and camped in NSW ??

Another trip mid year to this site and earnest searching for the gardens plot to see if there is anything in the ground,
and hopefully she can take time to look thru the lithographs while taking some pictures.

If she has a few days we may even get to scan around a remote cricket pitch from long ago, some casual hunting. ;) ;)

While there we spoke with a sort of local and were told of an author that had written a book of the area and published, we soon owned the second to last copy
available in the Country from a limited run, she wants to meet him and see what materials he has been gathering from old families.
( oh God, another quest :awful: )

:lol: :lol: :lol:

She doesn't have time to do drugs, she is too busy doing my head in !! ;)

Cook and the crew of Endeavour were the first known Europeans to sight and chart the east coast of Australia, in 1770. They entered Botany Bay (Kamay), forced their way onto the shore, and spent eight days collecting specimens and exploring before setting sail once more. The Endeavour continued north, through Torres Strait, over the Indian Ocean and around Africa, then returned to England.
 

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