Rich gold paystreak right in the middle of Lithgow NSW?

So I recently pinched a nerve in my back, I have done it a couple of times over the years. Most of the time its a day or two of rest and a bit of wincing and old man grunts combined with a few panafen to get moving in the mornings, then it just clears up. I don't know what I did this time round but it left me flat on my back in relentless pain. I have had gout from too many prawns and mudcrabs or tomato based sauces, not so much beer as I mostly switched to ciders here and there a decade ago. I always said that gout must be the worst pain apart from getting set on fire, I even got shot in the leg with a .22lr when I was a young fella and at best it felt like a paper wasp got me at the time. This pinched nerve, however, set the new bar for me.

So as it happens my gypsy minded wife decided it was time to up and move before winter hits home and we had got a bit tired of the place we were renting, she found a nice place to not far from where we were, nice place big backyard, plenty of storage and most importantly wood fire, so her mind was set.
I stated my case that she had not picked a very good time for the move but she insisted everything would be fine, she had it covered, she had her mum, dad and her stepdad all on the roster for the move. I popped my painkillers, watched my Netflix and helped out best I could here and there. I felt bad that there was not much I could do but everyone said it was ok go rest my back.

The move went ok, it was a bit rushed and it didn't do my back any favours, but we got it done. About a week after the move my back finally let up and I was able to get around ok. I decided to put all my prospecting gear together sort things out and picked a spot under the house in our basement like storage room.
I packed my highbankers, river sluices and pumps away and put up some hooks and shelves for all the sundries. Was stacking some buckets away when it suddenly hit me......the empty white bakery buckets I was packing away were labeled in marker pen. Dates, GPS coords, hours and approx number of buckets run.

They were my cons buckets I had put away to run through the blue bowl over winter .

I scrambled and ran to my wife for her to shrug as to have no idea what happend and then a few seconds later tell me oh yeah, her stepdad tipped the gravel out of those buckets into the front garden and then hosed it all into the woodchip, no use carting heavy buckets of "worthless" gravel to our new house!

My heart sank :brokenh:

You didn't mention the previous address Chris, would you mind letting me know :lol: :lol:

ps. sorry about your loss 8.(

I had it in my mind to go back there, take the woodchip off the top of the garden then take the top few inches of soil, then replace it with a half load of topsoil but its a bloody lot of work and I'm sure the landlord would not be impressed. Nothing a few weeks out in the field can't replace! Was just looking forward to processing those fines on days like this where it's sleeting and about 7C out.

Ouch mate , thats got to hurt
I know what its like to have cronic pain not a good situation.
At the end of the day we can replace some cons but we cant turn back time and regain the vigor of younger days.
All the best mate ?

That's the worst, what a blow, all that hard work.
Yes i'de be trying to get it back, maybe offer some good top soil in exchange, from your wife's step dads garden maybe.

Now that is what i call bad luck all round.

Aussie Chris!.. all my family came from Lithgow!..My grandad was Herbert Goodwin.. the old place is still there in Davy St....I'm related to Glynn and Wayne Clarke. The 'Langlands Cup' was a feature of the Junior Soccer competition there for many years...it could still be..it was initiated by my late GreatGrandfather George who was the Schoolmaster at Hartley Vale way back in 1916! Always a place in my heart for the place.

I live in Lithgow to Chris and I also start stocking up on cons for the colder months here. Glad no one threw mine iut on the lawn. I still head out and do a little prospecting, label and mark where each bucket comes from and return to the area when it warms up.

If someone who lives there in future ever gets interested in panning, and take a shovel full to practice, perhaps with a few bits of lead chucked in, they could be in for a surprise!

Thanks for all the well wishes guys, yeah my back is back to normal now ready to get back on the shovel and bar. I was a bit fired up at the time but I can shrug it off, the end result is not always why we do this anyway, I got to see the colours, I knew they were there, would have just been a bit nicer to see them clean in a vial or 2
Hopefully we will get a few nice days over winter before the real season is back in swing and I'll do my best to replace what's lost.
I don't mind the cold I lived in Canada for a while and did some prospecting and small scale mining there, so I know what cold is (-48C my coldest day there), days like today though where it can't decide to drizzle, sleet or sago rain are the ones that keep me indoors wanting to go to the shed and pan some cons out, cold one thing, wet and cold something else!

Welcome to the forums Roo, maybe we should meet up for a coffee sometime, lament Lithgow's winter months and plan a day's prospecting

Shoot me a message Chris and I'd be happy to have a cuppa and a chat anytime.

Very much reminds me of when Chris (my brand new missus) and I were packing up in Bathurst and moving to the Central Coast.
As a solo prospector I had accumulated quite an amount of mineral samples including about a kg. of best light blue sapphire from Porters Retreat.

These were safely stored, mixed with mud, in a coffee jar on a kitchen shelf with a "wandering jew" growing in it.

The packing and moving was a quite hurried affair and when we arrived at our new place in Empire Bay I suddenly thought.....now where is the wandering jew?
On enquiring of Chris....yes, its wrapped up in some wet newspaper ready to put into a vase.

Oh, but what about the coffee jar it was in...... couldn't see any point keeping it so chucked the "gravelly mud" out and put the jar in the bin.

What was that Ned Kelly comment again? 8.(
Mike