Drake, Tooloom, Tabulam Region NSW information and questions

OK. You don't live far away. I have been posting in a few parts of the forum topics trying to see if there is any interest in a few folks meeting up somewhere to start up an unofficial (initially anyway) prospecting club. As there is a gem club in Lismore, I was hoping to focus more on gold with occasional trips for sapphire, topaz etc. if you search my posts you will see what I have been chatting about.

While Drake is reasonably close, I have found little gold in several trips. I am yet to try Warwick (Thanes Creek, Durikai, etc.) but will do so over the next few months. I am also planning to go to Tibooburra, late August, probably with Skyhawker, another member. Ewingar forest might be worth a go also. I will let you know if I am going anywhere and you are welcome to tag along.

Possum Ck1,
A tip. Once you post 10 times you get upgraded to member and can then send and receive private messages. I will watch out for you being a member than can send you some info.

Thanks mate, I will try to get my post count up a bit. I'd be up for a trip to Ewingar or any of those upper Clarence places.

cheers,

Justin

Justin, it will be a few months before I can go to Ewingar. I know another person who might also go.

OK Peter, give us a shout nearer the time. If I can get over that way in the meantime I'll put something on here about it

Mud map, from book called, Forgotten Country, by Isabel wilkinson.

I'm just reading that book at the moment. Still mostly in the 'research' phase

cant see any sapphire areas marked???

No sapphires that I know of in this area. Need to be west of the Great Divide generally.

No Sapphires but there are Smokey, Amethyst and clear quartz crystals and a bit if fine gold up at Ewingar state forest... But a hard slog to get there Gilly...

LW...

I am a new member however I have visited Timbarra River near Drake, down hill from Demons Creek. If nothing else, the drive along the river is magnificent. I have considered exploring the areas and possible depressions below the mined areas (in the vicinity of Hong Kong point) but I have no idea of the terrain above the river. If anyony would be interested in a visit to the area, I would appreciate the company.
P.S. I have no idea how to contact anyone!

Hi Sandscon, I get gold from different places around the Drake area regularly. To get to this point I drove a lot of tracks and sampled a lot of creeks. This was from Ewingar SF yesterday. Good luck out there. Try McLeod s creek where it joins Long Gully creek, always something there.

Hi all, just joined the group, first time posting, as I've been wishing to get into gold mining, following the steps of my grandfather.
I noticed this chat on McLeods Creek, Long Gully and Fools gully. This is an area I grew up in, spending every weekend down there with my grandfather when he was alive. There is a lot of gold to be had down there, hence when I travel home, I'm wanting to go to those areas my grandfather took me too.
If you've read Forgotten Country, particularly McLeods Creek/Timbarra, my grandfather was pictured in the book.
I spent many a weekend in Bill Koch's hut at McLeods Creek

Sandscon said:

I am a new member however I have visited Timbarra River near Drake, down hill from Demons Creek. If nothing else, the drive along the river is magnificent. I have considered exploring the areas and possible depressions below the mined areas (in the vicinity of Hong Kong point) but I have no idea of the terrain above the river. If anyony would be interested in a visit to the area, I would appreciate the company.
P.S. I have no idea how to contact anyone!

Click to expand...

Hey Sandscon, I'm local to you and new to prospecting. Had a look around the Timbarra area last week and have a few ideas. Mail me if you like a XXXXXXXXX and we can talk.

Mod edit contact details removed per forum rules. Members can contact each other via the EMAIL and PM buttons to the left, beneath their name.

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PK2372 said:

Hi all, just joined the group, first time posting, as I've been wishing to get into gold mining, following the steps of my grandfather.
I noticed this chat on McLeods Creek, Long Gully and Fools gully. This is an area I grew up in, spending every weekend down there with my grandfather when he was alive. There is a lot of gold to be had down there, hence when I travel home, I'm wanting to go to those areas my grandfather took me too.
If you've read Forgotten Country, particularly McLeods Creek/Timbarra, my grandfather was pictured in the book.
I spent many a weekend in Bill Koch's hut at McLeods Creek

Click to expand...

Hey PK2372 I'm just reading that book. Beautiful country out there. Good luck with the gold. Might run into you in one of those remote creeks.

Has anyone dug shafts around tooloom area and had any luck.
Inspection of the area I seen some old shafts and workings but nothing to recent.
Are y'all mainly using detector in this area or is it not well visited for gold?
Some areas look to have good material.

Hi Jays,

Thank you for introducing yourself. Maybe if you tell everyone a bit more about yourself they might even answer your question. Me, I wouldn't even know where Tooloom is unless I googled it. Have fun on the forum.

Cheers

Doug

I spent weeks camped there and did a lot of sampling, gold monster screamed on the heavily mineralised ground

I may have a month of work near tabulam but never prospected the rivers around there , do members here have any recommendations on which rivers produce reasonable colour to a pan ?

The site is near the Timbarra River , Clarence , and Pretty Gully Creek.

Anyone got pointers for these or better ones in that area ?

My work site is on private property so there may be accessible spots untouched by marauding family groups.

Heading out Drake area again in the next week for a bit of a scratch around. Tried a new spot the other day, did okay, keen to head back to explore some more. Not going to name the spot, it's not a secret but is only a very small creek a few metres wide, up in the rainforest. There were even old timers workings in the bush. Alluvial workings; dug out areas, piles of rounded river rocks, fine tailings downslope. Tried panning a few samples from different levels of the wash layer they were working (a 1.5m high face that someone had recently cleaned out) for nothing at all. Didn't see any bedrock anywhere at all. Maybe it was deeper, and the bottom has been covered. The gold was in the creek, very patchy, either very good or zero. Only using a pan and a plastic scoop, nice and easy