Icy Creek, Victoria and surrounds

[Gippyspecker]

Thanks, yeah I reckon you would have more access from your side than anywhere. It is extremely rugged terrain! Having time without electricity is the best. Campfire ambience soothes the soul! I’m keen to meet you both when you’re down this way. Just sing out

 

[casper]

I'm a Gippslander and I am loving this message thread - this is the way the forum used to be back in its infancy.....

cheers casper

The definition of luck is when preparation meets opportunity

 

[casper]

Hi Coffee, It's truly bloody hard going in your area, but your efforts will be rewarded if you are diligent.
Attached is a pic of a pan from a recent trip into your area, and for just 2 hours work. You will need to dig deep (up to a metre and maybe more). Don't bother with the top loose gravel and sands, it's overburden, so discard it and keep digging deeper and find the bottom (watercourses generally run on bedrock) and if on the way down you encounter blue-grey clay (decomposed rock) or "hard pack" (older compacted gravels) then you're in with a chance, and this is when you seriously start sluicing or panning. Gold being 19 times heavier than water will ultimately concentrate on the bottom. If you don't already have one, get a yabbie pump, also known as a bait pump, which will be more efficient than a shovel at cleaning the bottom of your hole. Good luck, and remember, you can make your own luck because "luck happens when preparation meets opportunity"
Cheers, Casper

 

[bjarvie]

Hi All,

My partner and I are planning to do a little prospecting around Icy Creek in a couple of weeks time. We are both completely green - I think I tried panning once at Sovereign Hill as a kid, and my partner is probably similar levels of experience, but we are both outdoorsy hands on type people, and follow a lot of gold prospecting and similar YouTubers, so have a bit of knowledge/research behind us, just never put it to practice.

We have access to a creek (Specimen Creek) on family land that we are hoping will turn up something for us, as it has been recorded as producing gold in the 1860's, but at some point part of it was dammed in and a section of it we think was re-routed, so I'm not sure exactly where the original creek bed is or how accessible it will be.

The challenge we have is I have health and mobility issues (part-time wheelchair user) so that is going to create some barriers to where we can go and how much I can do. I think the plan is that my partner does a lot of the leg work while I sit back and scoop what he has collected into the sluice. Lol. We have a couple of small river sluices and will be getting a basic panning kit.

Any tips would be welcome! We know Tanjil River is off limits, and possibly the Latrobe River (we weren't sure from the exclusion list if it was the whole river or just part of it) but we were planning to stick to smaller creeks anyway.

*edited to add, we may end up living part time at this property for a period - if we do and want to spend a bit of time prospecting, is this area any good for detecting, or are we better sticking to panning and sluicing?

Our goal is to find enough gold (preferably on the actual property) to be worth giving to a jeweller or goldsmith to put towards wedding rings (I know we are going to need to supplement with other gold, but if we could find a gram or two to incorporate it would be fantastic, as the property is important to us).

Additionally, if anyone can point us in the right direction for getting gold processed so we can use it for jewellery, that would be fantastic too! We are based in Greensborough.

Thanks!

Sharon

Hi Sharon, I havent been on here in yonks and low and behold i see a post from someone in the same suburb as me (greensborough).

I can put you onto a few local spots if your interested and maybe drop you some cons with gold to practice your panning skills.

Some times i go out North west to a spot near a Dam that i always get on out there we could set you up near the hopper and you do the cleaning while me and your partner push barrows and dig near you so you can see if its for you.

Also happy to lend you my highbanker/trommel before you outlay some coin or have a sluice or two you can borrow.

Beautiful spot Tanjil, personally id say stick to the highbanker, pans etc out that way especially if mobility is a issue as terrain is quiet gnarly... that said could probably make a custom jig with the coil off the wheel chair, scoot around and find targets for your partner to dig. One of my mates makes a lot of custom prospecting gear, once i see your chair i can take some pics and try and nut out some ideas to attach the detector to your chair as the coil will need to be kept away from the steel otherwise will get false signals but nothing that cant be nutted out (good project )

No matter what your always a winner just being out and about. PLus some top people amongst those that head out for a dig. For me it helps with handling stress of life and the winter blues that kicks in every year. Love the bush!

 

[Coffee]

I just wanted to jump on quickly to apologise to anyone I haven't replied to. A combination of a crazy couple of weeks and me getting sick.

We made it out to the property last night and my partner went for a drive today to check some of the recent logging areas, only to suddenly find his Land Cruiser had no rear break pad on one side and as a result had lost almost all his break fluid. His son picked up break fluid and what Repco said were the correct break pads and bought them out to us, only to find Repco was wrong, so now my partner is on his way back with my poxy little Yaris, and tomorrow morning's job is going and getting the correct pads.

I did suggest that based on Aussie Gold Hunters, this kind of complicated breakdown means we must be about to hit the motherland. Lol

So hopefully tomorrow arvo we should be able to have a hunt around, so long as it isn't too wet.

 

[Coffee]

So we got one speck of what we are about 30% sure is gold. But that was out of one shovel. We had to wait for it to stop raining, then it took about 20 minutes of bush bashing to get to that part of the creek, and by the time we got there we were almost out of light.

Tomorrow we are going to try somewhere with hopefully easier access.

This is the super-zoomed in photo. The sand and gravel in the area is a yellow colour, though, so working out what is what is proving a bit of a challenge.

 

[casper]

So we got one speck of what we are about 30% sure is gold. But that was out of one shovel. We had to wait for it to stop raining, then it took about 20 minutes of bush bashing to get to that part of the creek, and by the time we got there we were almost out of light.

Tomorrow we are going to try somewhere with hopefully easier access.

This is the super-zoomed in photo. The sand and gravel in the area is a yellow colour, though, so working out what is what is proving a bit of a challenge.

View attachment 9629

Well done...
However, all that glitters is not gold and it could be that you have a piece of pyrite there - both the Tangil River and Icy Creek are full of it. Pyrite is a mineral that sparkles but only when viewed at certain angles in good light. Gold however is bright golden yellow and unchanging whichever way you view it. Compared to actual gold, pyrite will crumble when poked with a metal point, whereas gold will gouge or indent like soft lead. I hope this helps you work out what you found.

 

[Hawkear]

Mica has a lustre that can resemble gold but generally varies according to the angle you view it presenting a glinting type aspect. The lustre of gold on the other hand will nor vary and presents as an even gold metallic lustre from whatever angle viewed.
Mica will also wash around in a gold pan as it is a very light material. Gold is not easily moved by swishing water around in a pan as it is 6 times heavier.
If it is heavy like gold, and it looks like gold, it is probably a duck, I mean gold.
Hard to make out how big the bit is but maybe pick it up with some tweezers and drop it onto a plastic surface from a foot or so and if it makes a solid sounding whack maybe a bit louder than expected, that is the sound we all love to hear.

 

[bumdags]

That's a good start. If you need easier access try Hawthorne Creek. It has been worked over but there is still gold there. Just a thought. Good luck

 

[Coffee]

Huge success today! 2 of the tiniest specks. Lol. But actually confident these are gold.

We didn't have much time today so my partner went and collected a couple of buckets off the bottom of the creek to bring back to the cabin. This was the product of maybe 1 - 2 cups worth of the finest fines (put through a kitchen sieve). Not bad for a couple of complete newbies!

 

[casper]

That's a good start. If you need easier access try Hawthorne Creek. It has been worked over but there is still gold there. Just a thought. Good luck

Huge success today! 2 of the tiniest specks. Lol. But actually confident these are gold.

We didn't have much time today so my partner went and collected a couple of buckets off the bottom of the creek to bring back to the cabin. This was the product of maybe 1 - 2 cups worth of the finest fines (put through a kitchen sieve). Not bad for a couple of complete newbies!

View attachment 9647
View attachment 9648

Yup - that's GOLD......... and you definitely need to find a few more like those pieces
I see that the hand that's holding the vial is not a stranger to work, so I'm sure that you both, supporting each other, will achieve your goal.

nil desperandum

casper

 

[Hawkear]

Keep working that area until you get to the very bottom of the hole where you think you can’t go any deeper. Then scrape the stuff off the top of the bedrock. That’s where the stuff the old timers missed would now be and you don’t want to miss it either.

 

[Gippyspecker]

Congratulations!! I’m glad you & your partner persevered despite the limited access. Those coupes & the thick scrub are a bugger. Were they out of your creek or a different one?

 

[Coffee]

Congratulations!! I’m glad you & your partner persevered despite the limited access. Those coupes & the thick scrub are a bugger. Were they out of your creek or a different one?

These were out of our creek.

Sorry for not getting in touch while we were there - we didn't really get to spend much time on the prospecting - my partners car lost its breaks the first day (like, ejected one of the rear break pads and lost all the break fluid - thankfully he was driving slowly so didn't hit anything), so we lost a couple of days to getting that sorted, and my health issues flared up, so I wasn't able to get to the creek. It was one of those trips where anything that could go wrong went wrong. My partner did manage a second trip to the creek when he went back with his son to collect my car, this time with a bait pump, so he was able to collect some better dirt with that (until it lost a wing-nut and stopped working )

We still have some dirt to process when we have time, but we will hopefully be back around Queens Birthday weekend, as my partner has some work to do there, so now we have a better idea of what we are doing we are hoping to have a bit more success!

In the mean time, a photo of what we have collected so far!



Thanks everyone for all the help and advice!

 

[Gippyspecker]

These were out of our creek.

Sorry for not getting in touch while we were there - we didn't really get to spend much time on the prospecting - my partners car lost its breaks the first day (like, ejected one of the rear break pads and lost all the break fluid - thankfully he was driving slowly so didn't hit anything), so we lost a couple of days to getting that sorted, and my health issues flared up, so I wasn't able to get to the creek. It was one of those trips where anything that could go wrong went wrong. My partner did manage a second trip to the creek when he went back with his son to collect my car, this time with a bait pump, so he was able to collect some better dirt with that (until it lost a wing-nut and stopped working )

We still have some dirt to process when we have time, but we will hopefully be back around Queens Birthday weekend, as my partner has some work to do there, so now we have a better idea of what we are doing we are hoping to have a bit more success!

In the mean time, a photo of what we have collected so far!

View attachment 9715

Thanks everyone for all the help and advice!

No worries, you don’t need to apologise for anything. Luck works in mysterious ways. I’m glad that your partner never had an accident, as no amount of gold is worth somebody’s life. It is good to see that you are both one step closer to your goal on the wedding rings! Btw, keep your eye out for a bit of blue surveyor’s tape while you’re looking around up there. I have marked the start of Doyle’s for you, just for interests sake & something to chat about. Keep up the good work & you’ll have enough for those rings in no time

 

[Drafty]

I have not been on here for quite a while and thought I would poke my mug in. I'm glad to read that there are ppl here local to my area in Neerim South. I regularly go to Hawthorn Creek and collect the yellow stuff on each occasion. Mostly fine specks but it all adds up and keeps the interest going.

 

[Hawkear]

I have not been on here for quite a while and thought I would poke my mug in. I'm glad to read that there are ppl here local to my area in Neerim South. I regularly go to Hawthorn Creek and collect the yellow stuff on each occasion. Mostly fine specks but it all adds up and keeps the interest going.

Hi Drafty, How are the blackberries?

 

[bumdags]

Hi Drafty, How are the blackberries?

Ahhh blackberries the bain of my existence lol. I watch prospectors further north and dream of having clear bush to explore

 

[bicter]

I have not been on here for quite a while and thought I would poke my mug in. I'm glad to read that there are ppl here local to my area in Neerim South. I regularly go to Hawthorn Creek and collect the yellow stuff on each occasion. Mostly fine specks but it all adds up and keeps the interest going.

Hey Drafty,
Many years back, in the days of my youth, we lived at Jindivick. my dad was a teacher there We were regular visitors to Neerim Sth

 

[Drafty]

Hi Drafty, How are the blackberries?

The blackberries are not too bad along the creek. But I suppose it depends on where along the creek one goes.

Hey Drafty,
Many years back, in the days of my youth, we lived at Jindivick. my dad was a teacher there We were regular visitors to Neerim Sth

JIndivik is a nice town. The cricket ground has a spectacular view from one end.