Hi you all, just thought I would put a post up for those prospectors around chirnside park and east of Melbourne, first of all welcome, and I would like to share some good panning and sluicing spots in your area!
This is where I grew up, Gods own country down there, amazing mountains euycalpt trees and wildlife even if you don't find colour!
Just be carefull of joe Blake's in the scrub this time of year, make a lot of noise and they usually get out your way, take some salt for the leeches also it's works a treat
Ok if that hasn't scared you! Hears where to find gold!
Hoodles creek crosses the warburton highway after woori yallock and just before launching place ( so named because this is where the old timers launched there rafts to take supplies upstream in the timber days before roads were opened any further! ) the gold here is very fine but lots of it! Not unusual to get 20 to 30 colours a dish, it is also some of the purest gold in the state running at about 98%
Turn right at the fruit shop and you can pan anywhere on the left! It is quite sandy here in the creek and from memory doesn't have bedrock as such but more of a clay bottom where the gold sits!
Look for your normal spots, gravel beds and inside bends.
Heading further upstream the creek narrows and all has colour, just past the sports ground there are a couple of roads that head back down to the creek this would be a good place also as there are diggings and remains of an old puddler beside the creek.
Continuing up warburton highway you pass launching place pub. ( just a foot note here for those who like fishing also turn left here and drive to don valley and left again heading to healsville you cross a little mountain stream )
Amazing native blackfish here catch them on worms! Under logs or in the deeper holes! The creek is so small in spots you can jump it! Best tasting freshwater fish ever! Yep better than trout!
Next good spot is Yankee Jim's creek! At wesburn it crosses the road just pass the pub.
You want to turn off earlier though about 2 Kim before and head up the old warburton highway when you hit the bush any track on the left will do, the bottom is deeper in this creek and harder to find and the gold a bit patchy, but some nice chunky pieces can be found with persistence.
My father panned an unusual piece where this creek hits the yarra river downstream it was fingernail size and he put a right angle bend in it with a crowbar while digging it up!
Unusual because it was amalgamated together and not natural looking! But it was gold! Also cause of its size! Never seen anything else that big come out of this creek! It must of been smelted together! Don't forget to have to have a beer at the pub here made famous by the old gold digger Sam knott! And advertising for Carlton ale " allus I have one at eleven"
Next up the highway is mill grove, turn left before you get to the main bridge and follow the yarra river down stream, the next bridge you cross park there and pan underneath.
The bedrock rises here so it's not to deep and a good gold trap, there is nice colour here, a yabby pump would be good here as there is nice potholes in places you can't fit a shovel in
For those into gemstones don't forget around powetown turn off at yarra junction also brittania creek near the old scout camp, good quartz crystal hare and some nice citrine if your lucky.
Heading a lot further up through warburton getting closer to upper yarra dam around the peninsula blow hole is a great spot, here the old timers diverted the river to work the gold, just above the hole is good not to
deep like many places in the yarra, and nice colour. Great down there as unlike central Vic where I am at moment there will still be enough water even in middle of summer.
Past this spot and on the right before you get to the turn off to woods point I haves seen a nice little pea size quartz specimen panned in one of the gullies! From memory though it's overgrown with lots of blackberries so it's hard work getting in, up these tracks you may find the old tunnels punched into the side of the hills, they are amazing I remember exploring them as kids, plenty of bats inside! They were very stable, not that i would encourage anyone to go in now, we were young and silly!
After that your at the woods point turn off just before upper yarra dam, go over the yarra and turn immediate left, down here another creek joins the yarra I can't for the life of me remember it's name! But there is great panning here also and have spent many an hour there as a young lad!
Well I hope that helps someone, other creeks that come to mind are big pats creek, starvation creek and mc Mahons creek am sure all these have colour in the right spots also
Cheers and good luck!
This is where I grew up, Gods own country down there, amazing mountains euycalpt trees and wildlife even if you don't find colour!
Just be carefull of joe Blake's in the scrub this time of year, make a lot of noise and they usually get out your way, take some salt for the leeches also it's works a treat
Ok if that hasn't scared you! Hears where to find gold!
Hoodles creek crosses the warburton highway after woori yallock and just before launching place ( so named because this is where the old timers launched there rafts to take supplies upstream in the timber days before roads were opened any further! ) the gold here is very fine but lots of it! Not unusual to get 20 to 30 colours a dish, it is also some of the purest gold in the state running at about 98%
Turn right at the fruit shop and you can pan anywhere on the left! It is quite sandy here in the creek and from memory doesn't have bedrock as such but more of a clay bottom where the gold sits!
Look for your normal spots, gravel beds and inside bends.
Heading further upstream the creek narrows and all has colour, just past the sports ground there are a couple of roads that head back down to the creek this would be a good place also as there are diggings and remains of an old puddler beside the creek.
Continuing up warburton highway you pass launching place pub. ( just a foot note here for those who like fishing also turn left here and drive to don valley and left again heading to healsville you cross a little mountain stream )
Amazing native blackfish here catch them on worms! Under logs or in the deeper holes! The creek is so small in spots you can jump it! Best tasting freshwater fish ever! Yep better than trout!
Next good spot is Yankee Jim's creek! At wesburn it crosses the road just pass the pub.
You want to turn off earlier though about 2 Kim before and head up the old warburton highway when you hit the bush any track on the left will do, the bottom is deeper in this creek and harder to find and the gold a bit patchy, but some nice chunky pieces can be found with persistence.
My father panned an unusual piece where this creek hits the yarra river downstream it was fingernail size and he put a right angle bend in it with a crowbar while digging it up!
Unusual because it was amalgamated together and not natural looking! But it was gold! Also cause of its size! Never seen anything else that big come out of this creek! It must of been smelted together! Don't forget to have to have a beer at the pub here made famous by the old gold digger Sam knott! And advertising for Carlton ale " allus I have one at eleven"
Next up the highway is mill grove, turn left before you get to the main bridge and follow the yarra river down stream, the next bridge you cross park there and pan underneath.
The bedrock rises here so it's not to deep and a good gold trap, there is nice colour here, a yabby pump would be good here as there is nice potholes in places you can't fit a shovel in
For those into gemstones don't forget around powetown turn off at yarra junction also brittania creek near the old scout camp, good quartz crystal hare and some nice citrine if your lucky.
Heading a lot further up through warburton getting closer to upper yarra dam around the peninsula blow hole is a great spot, here the old timers diverted the river to work the gold, just above the hole is good not to
deep like many places in the yarra, and nice colour. Great down there as unlike central Vic where I am at moment there will still be enough water even in middle of summer.
Past this spot and on the right before you get to the turn off to woods point I haves seen a nice little pea size quartz specimen panned in one of the gullies! From memory though it's overgrown with lots of blackberries so it's hard work getting in, up these tracks you may find the old tunnels punched into the side of the hills, they are amazing I remember exploring them as kids, plenty of bats inside! They were very stable, not that i would encourage anyone to go in now, we were young and silly!
After that your at the woods point turn off just before upper yarra dam, go over the yarra and turn immediate left, down here another creek joins the yarra I can't for the life of me remember it's name! But there is great panning here also and have spent many an hour there as a young lad!
Well I hope that helps someone, other creeks that come to mind are big pats creek, starvation creek and mc Mahons creek am sure all these have colour in the right spots also
Cheers and good luck!