- Joined
- Sep 8, 2013
- Messages
- 86
- Reaction score
- 82
Hi all,
I just recently joined this forum. I'd like to introduce myself, my name is John B, an old-timer, I'm now 74 years old. I'm glad to see some young blood interested in prospecting. I now live in Melbourne but grew up in Gippsland. I started prospecting in the late 1970s, mainly in West Gippsland. My brother and I would leave on a Friday afternoon after work and return on Sunday. I love the great outdoors. I first heard about the area around Willow Grove in West Gippsland from my father when he use to cut timber there in the 1950s and 1960s. I managed to get some history and some maps from the then Mines Department (no longer called the Mines Department). I found the area very interesting. There is a mixture of alluvial, reef and deep lead mining in this area. My brother and I took the old Garret Groundhog detector (old technology!) one weekend and went through the tunnels under the ancient riverbed but no success was forthcoming. We met up with a guy who was dredging there at the time on the Tanjil river, we had never seen a dredge before, he told us he imported it from the U.S. We were surprised to see he had gold in the sluice and plenty of it, salt and pepper to finger-nail size. This is where my story in gold prospecting begins.
Thanks
John
I just recently joined this forum. I'd like to introduce myself, my name is John B, an old-timer, I'm now 74 years old. I'm glad to see some young blood interested in prospecting. I now live in Melbourne but grew up in Gippsland. I started prospecting in the late 1970s, mainly in West Gippsland. My brother and I would leave on a Friday afternoon after work and return on Sunday. I love the great outdoors. I first heard about the area around Willow Grove in West Gippsland from my father when he use to cut timber there in the 1950s and 1960s. I managed to get some history and some maps from the then Mines Department (no longer called the Mines Department). I found the area very interesting. There is a mixture of alluvial, reef and deep lead mining in this area. My brother and I took the old Garret Groundhog detector (old technology!) one weekend and went through the tunnels under the ancient riverbed but no success was forthcoming. We met up with a guy who was dredging there at the time on the Tanjil river, we had never seen a dredge before, he told us he imported it from the U.S. We were surprised to see he had gold in the sluice and plenty of it, salt and pepper to finger-nail size. This is where my story in gold prospecting begins.
Thanks
John
