C. Nyal de Kaye
New member
Everyone finds a bit of junk now and then, but I've got to tell you: I'm really good at finding it.
Here are a few pics of some rather useless things that we have found, and a few shots of the Australian goldfields in Victoria and Western Australia.
I hope that they prove to be of interest. These pics really motivate me to head off again.
This is a large quartz blow in WA. In the background you can hopefully see that the ground is totally covered with large lumps of broken up quartz. Detecting in this situation it is impossible to get the coil close to the ground. You are forced to swing about 4 to 6 inches above the soil level, thus much of the depth that the GPX4500 is capable of is lost.
This is a rather intimate shot of our fully-equipped bathroom with solar shower with expansive views in all directions. The yellow bucket catches the water for re-use in our next shower. There is no water out there and we have to carry it all in from about 60kms (35 miles) away, so it is used frugally. When the water is the same colour as the soil, and just about as thick, then you know it needs replacing.
Our up-market toilet may be seen in the background and it too has good views. You can see it better if you enlarge the pic. Our camper-trailer is hidden by the 4WD Delica.
We not only have a well-functioning bathroom and toilet, but also an amazing washing machine. In order for you to understand its full potential it is presented below on video. One extra benefit is that the washing machine cooks as well. See for yourself.
http://youtu.be/vZXVwZEvx7Y
This is an old shaft from about 150 years ago and shows the greenstone mullock dug from the depths by the old-timers. The gold was associated with the greenstone so, when your pick uncovered the green stuff, you knew you were close to the prize, provided there was some gold there in the first place.
I dug the item number 3 (in the pic below) from this greenstone heap. It only took about 25 minutes to dig it out!
Readers may well imagine just how much fun it is to slave away for 20 or 30 minutes and then find a 150 year old chisel!
Item 2 is a part of a horseshoe - again dug from the depths. I have lots of them - full ones, part ones, large ones, small ones.
Item 1 is all that remains from a pair of steel-capped boots found on a gold field out from Avoca in Victoria. Try as I did, I could not find any other part of the boots, nor any skeletal remains!
This is looking down the shaft seen in the greenstone mullock heap pic above. It is unusual, in our experience, to find an original ladder still in-situ in such an old shaft. It would take a brave and foolish prospector to climb down that ladder today.
However, about 45 years ago my brother, brother-in-law and I did climb down one shaft until we reached water at the 70 foot level. Looking back, I shudder to think of the foolishness of that action with all three of us hanging onto the almost 100 year old ladder at the same time. There's a fool born every minute, they say, but in our case it was three. The ladders (there were three or four of them all joined together to reach the bottom) were wobbling about all over the place, some steps were missing; but without a complete brain between the three of us, we pushed on anyway! It was such a stupid thing to do, but we were young then.
You may find it hard to believe, but our wives, even today, still remind us of that moment so long ago. The good news is that we are all still married to them.
This is a 2 1/2 foot hole dug in a Victorian gold-field out from Dunolly. It was a great signal and got better minute by minute. My mate is sitting by me and giving good advice. My sister-in-law stands ready to help should I suffer a heart attack or worse. In fact, they offered helps of all types, except for digging. "You are much better at it than us", my sister-in-law advised. They didn't offer to prove it.
I was using a mono coil on the GPX 4500, so it had no discrimination. I did later change to a DD coil to be able to discriminate, but no matter how close I got to the target the signal remained very positive. Finally my Garret probe told me that I was within an inch or two of the target.
Both onlookers were very keen to help at that point and would have willingly relieved me of the burden of recovering the target. However I summoned up the energy. Alas, it was a silver spoon, suitably hallmarked and all, and probably lost about 130 plus years ago by some poor sod, and later dug up by another poor sod. To make matters worse, I cannot now find the spoon.
I hope these pics prove to be of some interest.
END ___________
Here are a few pics of some rather useless things that we have found, and a few shots of the Australian goldfields in Victoria and Western Australia.
I hope that they prove to be of interest. These pics really motivate me to head off again.
This is a large quartz blow in WA. In the background you can hopefully see that the ground is totally covered with large lumps of broken up quartz. Detecting in this situation it is impossible to get the coil close to the ground. You are forced to swing about 4 to 6 inches above the soil level, thus much of the depth that the GPX4500 is capable of is lost.
This is a rather intimate shot of our fully-equipped bathroom with solar shower with expansive views in all directions. The yellow bucket catches the water for re-use in our next shower. There is no water out there and we have to carry it all in from about 60kms (35 miles) away, so it is used frugally. When the water is the same colour as the soil, and just about as thick, then you know it needs replacing.
Our up-market toilet may be seen in the background and it too has good views. You can see it better if you enlarge the pic. Our camper-trailer is hidden by the 4WD Delica.
We not only have a well-functioning bathroom and toilet, but also an amazing washing machine. In order for you to understand its full potential it is presented below on video. One extra benefit is that the washing machine cooks as well. See for yourself.
http://youtu.be/vZXVwZEvx7Y
This is an old shaft from about 150 years ago and shows the greenstone mullock dug from the depths by the old-timers. The gold was associated with the greenstone so, when your pick uncovered the green stuff, you knew you were close to the prize, provided there was some gold there in the first place.
I dug the item number 3 (in the pic below) from this greenstone heap. It only took about 25 minutes to dig it out!
Readers may well imagine just how much fun it is to slave away for 20 or 30 minutes and then find a 150 year old chisel!
Item 2 is a part of a horseshoe - again dug from the depths. I have lots of them - full ones, part ones, large ones, small ones.
Item 1 is all that remains from a pair of steel-capped boots found on a gold field out from Avoca in Victoria. Try as I did, I could not find any other part of the boots, nor any skeletal remains!
This is looking down the shaft seen in the greenstone mullock heap pic above. It is unusual, in our experience, to find an original ladder still in-situ in such an old shaft. It would take a brave and foolish prospector to climb down that ladder today.
However, about 45 years ago my brother, brother-in-law and I did climb down one shaft until we reached water at the 70 foot level. Looking back, I shudder to think of the foolishness of that action with all three of us hanging onto the almost 100 year old ladder at the same time. There's a fool born every minute, they say, but in our case it was three. The ladders (there were three or four of them all joined together to reach the bottom) were wobbling about all over the place, some steps were missing; but without a complete brain between the three of us, we pushed on anyway! It was such a stupid thing to do, but we were young then.
You may find it hard to believe, but our wives, even today, still remind us of that moment so long ago. The good news is that we are all still married to them.
This is a 2 1/2 foot hole dug in a Victorian gold-field out from Dunolly. It was a great signal and got better minute by minute. My mate is sitting by me and giving good advice. My sister-in-law stands ready to help should I suffer a heart attack or worse. In fact, they offered helps of all types, except for digging. "You are much better at it than us", my sister-in-law advised. They didn't offer to prove it.
I was using a mono coil on the GPX 4500, so it had no discrimination. I did later change to a DD coil to be able to discriminate, but no matter how close I got to the target the signal remained very positive. Finally my Garret probe told me that I was within an inch or two of the target.
Both onlookers were very keen to help at that point and would have willingly relieved me of the burden of recovering the target. However I summoned up the energy. Alas, it was a silver spoon, suitably hallmarked and all, and probably lost about 130 plus years ago by some poor sod, and later dug up by another poor sod. To make matters worse, I cannot now find the spoon.
I hope these pics prove to be of some interest.
END ___________
Ma Betty