Gold - The Detector Rush
Posted: Sun Sep 29, 2013 4:04 pm
GOLD – THE DETECTOR RUSH
I’d only been back from Coober Pedy for three or four years when the lure of the outback caught up with me again. This saw my brother Micheal and I doing a short stint old fashioned gold mining. We were out on Edjudina at a place called Yarrie and were crushing through the Yarrie State Battery. In those days they used to run two shifts, the regular crew worked the dayshift while the prospectors could work the afternoon shift. This meant the prospector was earning a wage as well as, (hopefully) making a few bob out of his crushing.
It was while I was there that I first became aware of people looking for gold with a metal detector. An old chap was trying his luck with an old world war-2 mine detector, but not having any success in the heavily mineralized soils of the Goldfields. Poor old Kingie was the butt of a fair bit of friendly ribbing, but little did we know that within a few short years fortunes would be found with new generation detectors. Being married by now and having two small children I had then reluctantly returned to a mundane city lifestyle.
A couple of years later I heard a whisper that a couple of blokes were finding good nuggets with a new type of metal detector. A friend of mine had given me the nod, as it was all a bit hush hush at that time.
For ever the optimist I just had to give it a go and talked my brother-in-law John in coming up with me. With a bit of luck we managed to get a couple of Detectors (They were in short supply at that time). The plan was that we would give it a couple of weeks to see if we thought it was worth persevering with. But first we had two day trip up to a place called Quins to get some idea of what it was all about. While there we met an Aboriginal Woman who was specking and who showed us several nice nuggets that she had just picked up. She then told us if we wanted to find good gold we should head up to Hoot-an-noo-ie out near the Mulga Queen.
We travelled up via a couple of places I was familiar with from my early mining days and we picked up odd nuggets wherever we went, including a 5oz piece that john spotted sticking out of the centre rut of an old long abandoned track. Most of the fields then had been abandoned for fifty years or more, all the tracks were overgrown and had disappeared for long stretches and not a soul had been anywhere near the places we went to. As far as using a metal detector it was all virgin and much of the gold we found was lying on the surface. We ended up with 22 oz’s on that first trip (mid seventies) as green as we were and I was hooked for life.
The lifestyle really suited me, along with peace of the outback there was the excitement of it all particularly in those early days. We would do trips of three weeks duration and then head back to our families for a couple of weeks, if the returns hadn’t been so good I doubt our wives would have put up with it, although I was blessed with having a very understanding wife. As the years rolled on Valma and the children would spend all the school holidays up bush with me and loved it. In later years Valma prospected full time with me for about ten years and was really good at it.
After the first few years I cut back to doing two or three trips a year as the kids grew up, but when the new Minelab Detectors arrived in the nineties I went back to full time prospecting. As mentioned it was about this time when Valma started working full time with me. These were undoubtedly the most enjoyable years of my prospecting life.
Because of a couple of minor health issues this has been the first time in nearly 40 years that I haven’t been out bush; oh well there’s always next year.
© T.E. Piggott
I’d only been back from Coober Pedy for three or four years when the lure of the outback caught up with me again. This saw my brother Micheal and I doing a short stint old fashioned gold mining. We were out on Edjudina at a place called Yarrie and were crushing through the Yarrie State Battery. In those days they used to run two shifts, the regular crew worked the dayshift while the prospectors could work the afternoon shift. This meant the prospector was earning a wage as well as, (hopefully) making a few bob out of his crushing.
It was while I was there that I first became aware of people looking for gold with a metal detector. An old chap was trying his luck with an old world war-2 mine detector, but not having any success in the heavily mineralized soils of the Goldfields. Poor old Kingie was the butt of a fair bit of friendly ribbing, but little did we know that within a few short years fortunes would be found with new generation detectors. Being married by now and having two small children I had then reluctantly returned to a mundane city lifestyle.
A couple of years later I heard a whisper that a couple of blokes were finding good nuggets with a new type of metal detector. A friend of mine had given me the nod, as it was all a bit hush hush at that time.
For ever the optimist I just had to give it a go and talked my brother-in-law John in coming up with me. With a bit of luck we managed to get a couple of Detectors (They were in short supply at that time). The plan was that we would give it a couple of weeks to see if we thought it was worth persevering with. But first we had two day trip up to a place called Quins to get some idea of what it was all about. While there we met an Aboriginal Woman who was specking and who showed us several nice nuggets that she had just picked up. She then told us if we wanted to find good gold we should head up to Hoot-an-noo-ie out near the Mulga Queen.
We travelled up via a couple of places I was familiar with from my early mining days and we picked up odd nuggets wherever we went, including a 5oz piece that john spotted sticking out of the centre rut of an old long abandoned track. Most of the fields then had been abandoned for fifty years or more, all the tracks were overgrown and had disappeared for long stretches and not a soul had been anywhere near the places we went to. As far as using a metal detector it was all virgin and much of the gold we found was lying on the surface. We ended up with 22 oz’s on that first trip (mid seventies) as green as we were and I was hooked for life.
The lifestyle really suited me, along with peace of the outback there was the excitement of it all particularly in those early days. We would do trips of three weeks duration and then head back to our families for a couple of weeks, if the returns hadn’t been so good I doubt our wives would have put up with it, although I was blessed with having a very understanding wife. As the years rolled on Valma and the children would spend all the school holidays up bush with me and loved it. In later years Valma prospected full time with me for about ten years and was really good at it.
After the first few years I cut back to doing two or three trips a year as the kids grew up, but when the new Minelab Detectors arrived in the nineties I went back to full time prospecting. As mentioned it was about this time when Valma started working full time with me. These were undoubtedly the most enjoyable years of my prospecting life.
Because of a couple of minor health issues this has been the first time in nearly 40 years that I haven’t been out bush; oh well there’s always next year.
© T.E. Piggott