https://www.murraylandsgemandmineralclub.com/metal-detecting
This is my assumed to be UNBIASED report of the Sunday event that I and the kids attended.
Reading it I am sure that some will agree and others disagree with my thoughts, but it is from the perspective of Newbie's
to this sort of event.
Hopefully if there are some of that Clubs members here reading, maybe something can be taken on-board and
small improvements made to make it even better - for Newbies.
First I will say that we were welcomed and treated well by EVERYONE at the event, and all through the day
all the competitors seemed to be respecting each other and easy to chat with, so it made for a nice social environment.
The kids looked around and checked out the mineral and rock displays, drooling over some very nice crystals,
they chatted with traders and staff, other adults and kids.
The organisers called everyone up to be ready at the Garrett Display Tent by 10.10am and did some very brief chat before
sending us over the road to line up for hunt session.A brief "pick up every thing you find"
Adults had a very wide long area to hunt in, and the kids area was about 700sqm.
There were two sessions morning and afternoon.
The kids and I headed out with the others and the first session was started, it was a fast start and we were all working hard
to find targets and pickup as much as we could, they scatter lots of metal for sure and everything is on the surface,
with some older previous years targets buried.
End of the first session we went back to the oval and Judges came around to count the finds.
I feel I had the most unique find of the entire day - a horse dung ball with a target inside of it, luckily not fresh.
As the Judge came by to count stuff and record it - I opened it in front of him and only found a piece of wire.
Kids finds were counted like ours.
Second session at 1.00pm was much the same and we all seemed to be a bit slower off of the mark this time and certainly at the end of it.
Items were Judged and we packed up to await the announcements and prize winners.
Here is where I may sound 'judgemental', but I think a person can have an opinion and share it.
Of course kids were given prizes first, and it was pretty clear from the kids gathered, all knew each other, as most if not all were from the
Scout Troop and the MC was their Scout Leader - LOL. The others I think may have been kids of Club members.
I assume they had experience and an understanding of the event and types of targets to hunt down, including large quantity of junk
if nothing else - this was not their first rodeo, and they seriously cleaned up, even some minor cheating (kids trying to be clever - LOL)
Any child that missed out did get a 'plastic gold pan' as a runner up prize - good thinking :Y:
And during the prize draws a woman, Miss PINK from Victoria was sitting next to and assisting my kids to voice their finds and get them noticed - a BIG thank you Miss PINK. :heart:
- my kids as new comers had no idea what to expect or how to go about it, particularly miss 8yrs, and although I was told they would have
some Adult assistance, miss 8yrs was left to her own devices - Kato has her own skills so it wasnt a problem for her.
Had I known this would be - I would not have participated in the Adult section and assisted my child.
A little poor I think, I was watching her struggle, and she put up a brave face, but I saw no help go to her.
It would have been nice if ALL the kids were told from the start what was out there and how to win prizes by finding it, even lots of junk !
It would have been nice if the young ones had more assistance and helped them to find even the junk, or sort them if they were struggling.
Kato had found some coins that were only counted as junk -
an early 1/2 penny 1927 (probably salted as it was reasonable clean), a dirty Canadian 2c and a rough silver 1800's three pence in deeper ground.
The Adults prizes were given out, with a wide range of people, quite exciting to see, some great prizes too from both Garrett and Minelabs.
A guy found a Florin 1923 and received a prize for it.
Kato's threepence 1865 was counted as junk - she got zip ???? That one I dont understand, as it was clearly not a salted item, as it
was 7" underground, and in rough condition.
Palmer was Established in the 1860's, Kato found a coin from the founding years of the town itself.
:clap:
The Raffles drawn
And then some minor give aways going to you as your number was drawn out, some numbers called out twice, because of them doing morning and afternoon sessions.
Our luck, kids and I all missed out there too :/ but some kind Adult girls that attended with a lovely ESS dog, passed theirs onto my girls,
very caring of them to do that. Shows the quality of the crowd.
In all I thought the event was well run and very social, you cant please us all, there are winners and losers.
We did enjoy our time there, and met some very nice people, a pleasant atmosphere for all.
AND they did have Garrett detectors for hire at $10 for the day too.
I only think more could be done for the people that come along for the very first time to help orientate them,
the young ones especially need that help, and in the field more so.
We arrived 1-1/2 hrs before game time, and were among the last to leave.
A big day out.
When passing through Gumeracha we saw the setup for the Medieval Fair, frankly if both events occur on the same day next year,
we will be at the Medieval Fair Gumeracha instead of Palmer.
The feeling we all had was positive about the Rockarama, but not enough to make it a 'must do' event in our opinion,
we enjoyed the day. :clap: :clap:
This is my assumed to be UNBIASED report of the Sunday event that I and the kids attended.
Reading it I am sure that some will agree and others disagree with my thoughts, but it is from the perspective of Newbie's
to this sort of event.
Hopefully if there are some of that Clubs members here reading, maybe something can be taken on-board and
small improvements made to make it even better - for Newbies.
First I will say that we were welcomed and treated well by EVERYONE at the event, and all through the day
all the competitors seemed to be respecting each other and easy to chat with, so it made for a nice social environment.
The kids looked around and checked out the mineral and rock displays, drooling over some very nice crystals,
they chatted with traders and staff, other adults and kids.
The organisers called everyone up to be ready at the Garrett Display Tent by 10.10am and did some very brief chat before
sending us over the road to line up for hunt session.A brief "pick up every thing you find"
Adults had a very wide long area to hunt in, and the kids area was about 700sqm.
There were two sessions morning and afternoon.
The kids and I headed out with the others and the first session was started, it was a fast start and we were all working hard
to find targets and pickup as much as we could, they scatter lots of metal for sure and everything is on the surface,
with some older previous years targets buried.
End of the first session we went back to the oval and Judges came around to count the finds.
I feel I had the most unique find of the entire day - a horse dung ball with a target inside of it, luckily not fresh.
As the Judge came by to count stuff and record it - I opened it in front of him and only found a piece of wire.
Kids finds were counted like ours.
Second session at 1.00pm was much the same and we all seemed to be a bit slower off of the mark this time and certainly at the end of it.
Items were Judged and we packed up to await the announcements and prize winners.
Here is where I may sound 'judgemental', but I think a person can have an opinion and share it.
Of course kids were given prizes first, and it was pretty clear from the kids gathered, all knew each other, as most if not all were from the
Scout Troop and the MC was their Scout Leader - LOL. The others I think may have been kids of Club members.
I assume they had experience and an understanding of the event and types of targets to hunt down, including large quantity of junk
if nothing else - this was not their first rodeo, and they seriously cleaned up, even some minor cheating (kids trying to be clever - LOL)
Any child that missed out did get a 'plastic gold pan' as a runner up prize - good thinking :Y:
And during the prize draws a woman, Miss PINK from Victoria was sitting next to and assisting my kids to voice their finds and get them noticed - a BIG thank you Miss PINK. :heart:
- my kids as new comers had no idea what to expect or how to go about it, particularly miss 8yrs, and although I was told they would have
some Adult assistance, miss 8yrs was left to her own devices - Kato has her own skills so it wasnt a problem for her.
Had I known this would be - I would not have participated in the Adult section and assisted my child.
A little poor I think, I was watching her struggle, and she put up a brave face, but I saw no help go to her.
It would have been nice if ALL the kids were told from the start what was out there and how to win prizes by finding it, even lots of junk !
It would have been nice if the young ones had more assistance and helped them to find even the junk, or sort them if they were struggling.
Kato had found some coins that were only counted as junk -
an early 1/2 penny 1927 (probably salted as it was reasonable clean), a dirty Canadian 2c and a rough silver 1800's three pence in deeper ground.
The Adults prizes were given out, with a wide range of people, quite exciting to see, some great prizes too from both Garrett and Minelabs.
A guy found a Florin 1923 and received a prize for it.
Kato's threepence 1865 was counted as junk - she got zip ???? That one I dont understand, as it was clearly not a salted item, as it
was 7" underground, and in rough condition.
Palmer was Established in the 1860's, Kato found a coin from the founding years of the town itself.
:clap: The Raffles drawn
And then some minor give aways going to you as your number was drawn out, some numbers called out twice, because of them doing morning and afternoon sessions.
Our luck, kids and I all missed out there too :/ but some kind Adult girls that attended with a lovely ESS dog, passed theirs onto my girls,
very caring of them to do that. Shows the quality of the crowd.
In all I thought the event was well run and very social, you cant please us all, there are winners and losers.
We did enjoy our time there, and met some very nice people, a pleasant atmosphere for all.
AND they did have Garrett detectors for hire at $10 for the day too.
I only think more could be done for the people that come along for the very first time to help orientate them,
the young ones especially need that help, and in the field more so.
We arrived 1-1/2 hrs before game time, and were among the last to leave.
A big day out.
When passing through Gumeracha we saw the setup for the Medieval Fair, frankly if both events occur on the same day next year,
we will be at the Medieval Fair Gumeracha instead of Palmer.
The feeling we all had was positive about the Rockarama, but not enough to make it a 'must do' event in our opinion,
we enjoyed the day. :clap: :clap:
