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Jack Lange Detectors Pty. Ltd.
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Mountain Gold Hunt As I hadn't been detecting for quite some time, I had to make the time to do it. As always, my brother Ed was keen, and both our wives were looking forward to a break out the bush. We decided that we wouldn't go too far as we only had a few days. We headed for the high mountain country where it was cooler during mid summer. I can't handle oppressive heat too well. This time it only took me a few hours to pack as I finally installed a special shelf in the shed labelled “camping gear” All I had to do was load the shelf contents into the van and I was ready. In the past it took a long time to find all the scattered gear. I have even got a special place for my detecting gear now. Man was I getting organised! I was ready to go in no time. We hated hauling the van through heavy traffic and it was a relief to hit the country road. We set up camp by a fantastic creek, which was reputed to have trout and bass. In a short while we were ready to cook tea and turn on the gas fridge. But the gas wouldn't light. It turned out that the gas I was sold wouldn't burn. Just as well Ed had a spare bottle or we would have had warm lemonade and molten margarine. Anyhow we went looking for the farmer the next day and found he was more than willing to give us permission to detect on his land. He was a truly great character. He was ancient in years- I don't think I'll live as long and he had the energy and enthusiasm of three young men so did his old wife. Firstly he had strange and unusual cars all over the paddock and in his shed, which he had collected. He was doing up and old Merc for his wife when we arrived. One of the strange cars had a twin cylinder airplane motor that would do 100 MPH. Not bad for a vintage model! Secondly I thought he was great because he was building a two story house out of cemented river stones! I think he planned to live to be two hundred. Thirdly, he impressed us because he also ran a small farm. We thought it was Marijuana at first but it turned out we were wrong. After being entertained for an hour it was time to go out looking for gold. “Don't fall down any holes” were his parting words. Within twenty minutes we found the diggings on his property. No one had detected there before and there were no detector holes. I got a fantastic signal. It was deep and I knew it was a big target. I guessed that either it was a nugget worth a few grand or some deep meteorite because this was virgin hard ground. Twenty sweaty minutes later I looked down a two foot deep hold and felt my pulse race. This had to be gold! But experience has taught me not to get my hopes too high and my caution was justified. It wasn't gold but a chunk of rusty iron and I could not understand how it could have sunk so deep in such hard ground. We didn't have any luck at that spot so we went searching for a deep gully that penetrated the mountains in some wild country. The track was overgrown but we pushed my beige Pajero through the clawing branches. That was where I must have lost my caravan mirror. I was glad I didn't have a big metallic paint 4WD as even small twigs can scratch metallic paints. I picked up some good scratches but they will buff out easily enough. After a few km of fading track we reached what looked like the right gully. It had been ripped inside out and it had a tangled mass of undergrowth covering much of it. Parts of this isolated gully held swampy water where I almost stepped on a very large red bellied black snake. Not being like crocodile hunter who usually catches snakes and almost kisses them, we decided we'd leave the forbidding gully alone and look for easier detecting ground. We located some abandoned gold mines. One of them was an open cut you could have buried a truck in. I walked into it and noticed that there were some traces of quartz left in the giant hole. I carefully ran the detector over possible spots but didn't really expect to get a signal. I got no surprises. We spent the next few hours detecting the immediate area. The ground didn't look too bad and it was worthwhile detecting, but all we found was the usual assortment of iron junk, bullets and a few brass buttons. I hasten to add however that we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in that wild hilly country. Some blokes seem to get depressed when they don't find anything for a day or two, and they get bored in the bush. I guess detecting is not for them as you have to accept days like that. Everybody gets them. Fishermen don't catch fish sometimes, and golfers miss holes, but they don't give up if they enjoy their hobby. That night Ed threw in a worm while I looked forward to a feed of fish. Trout or bass I didn't care. Ed sat on the creek bank patiently for an hour with the same worm on his hook. The fish were either non existent or well fed, or very cunning. On the next day the women bought four fat trout on one of their tourist drives. They wrapped them in foil with herbs lay them on the red hot ashes. They tasted terrific but it wasn't quite the same as catching your own. It was a bit like buying a nugget if you couldn't detect one. Anyhow we were there to find a nugget and not catch a fish, so we looked forward to another detecting day with high hopes. Ed and I went separate directions the nest morning but kept in touch with portable CB Radios after walking about 2 km though trackless country I came upon a hill, which was covered in low grade quartz. However there were several old gold mines around its edge, which looked as if the old timers got serious. I couldn't see any detector holes except one or two on a mullock heap and decided I would give the area a go. The SD 2200 discriminator was a great help. In fact there was quiet a bit of junk around and without a discriminator I don't think I would have attempted to detect near the gold mines. A few hours later I decided to give up on the area. I think the gold must have been too fine to detect. I radioed Ed and he had found some excellent diggings about 3 km away. I had no trouble fining him with the help of the two way radio and Ed was right- the diggings did look good. Every now and then you get days where no matter how good the ground looks- you just cant get a nugget and it's a bit unnerving. I just keep reminding myself that I have had other goldless days but the good days more than made up for them. Toward the end of the day however I was pleased to detect a two gram piece. The girls were happy to see us back at camp and were far from bored, as they had been sightseeing and touring historic areas of interest. I sometimes come across wombats while detecting and wanted to show Margaret one. So that evening at sunset we set off with a powerful torch to try and spot one. We had only walked 100 metres from camp and I pointed out a large brown furry animal standing in front of his burrow rock still- as is the habit of wombats. I tried to sneak up to it with my flash camera but he wasn't stupid and dived down his burrow when I poked the camera at him from a nearby tree. On the following evening one trusting Wombat started grazing on a grassy patch quite close to camp but for some reason he didn't like my camera either and took off when I tried to sneak closer. On the following morning Ed and I went looking for a decent detecting spot in another direction but it started to drizzle. We found a small patch of diggings and put on our waterproof ponchos on and covered the control boxes with plastic bags. I found it very difficult to understand why we couldn't find a nugget so after a couple of hours; we gave up on that area. I remembered I had spotted some surfacing (shallow diggings) on a previous day so we decided to go there. The first three targets were junk and the fourth sounded like a nail. I often take my customers into the rear of my detector shop that is situated on an acre of bushland. There one of the things I demonstrate is how nails, because of their narrow shape give a double signal and aren't worth digging. However this fourth signal was a double signal yet something about the mellowness of the signal made me dig it. I was delighted to find a nail shaped nugget about two centimetres long and was totally smooth. Gold comes in an infinite variety of shapes and I have found rabbits, teddy bears, anchors and weird people shapes and a whole lot of others. It rained all day but we still detected most of the day and had a great time but with meagre results. Ed and Ros had to go home but I decided to stay on and give it one more day and I decided I would try the hills on the other side of the creek where we were camped. The creek was deep but there were some rapids by our camp and I crossed carefully in fast knee deep water wondering how I could protect my precious SD2200D if I stepped on the slippery wet boulders on the creek bed. As I climbed out of the opposite bank I met almost impenetrable undergrowth and saw no option but to launch into it. I recoiled in shock when felt a burning sting on my arm. I had climbed into a giant stinging plant but I was relieved that the sting wasn't snakebite. As I climbed the slope, the ground cleared into magnificent forest to my surprise there were extensive diggings over several acres. But as I came closer I noticed very fresh detector holes everywhere. It looked like a prospecting club had raided the place. I decided that as I had the best gold detector possible that combined with the supersensitive 14” mono coil I still had a chance. Within 20 minutes I heard a faint but distinct signal amongst some boulders, which were close to some diggings. Someone had left detector holes all around the place and hadn't filled many of them in, so I did. But they had missed this signal. I was encouraged to find a fingernail sized nugget and decide to grid the spot carefully, but after a few hours I decided the place had had too much of a hammering so I walked back to the creek edge where I had to brave the jungle once more. We didn't find much gold on this trip but had a fantastic time. I was already planning my next trip but this time it would be to another gold field. Who knows? Maybe next time I would fill my gold jar. Jack |
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