Good day members,
perhaps I can describe our goldfields and our township here in central Victoria. Like many townships which spring up in the USA and in Canada, our town here (Rushworth) blew into life as a result of gold nuggets being found by diggers en route from Melbourne to Bendigo (then known as Sandhurst diggings).
A parallel township sprung into life about seven km south of our town at Whroo - which also produced large amounts of gold, particularly through the Balaklava Mine - which is still there as a bloody great open cut but although still loaded with unmined gold through its quartz deposits - is considered unsafe to mine in these days. Personally I believe this will change - particularly as now the gold price is about $1300.00 per oz. The last time I attempted to work its slopes I was warned off - but that was ten years ago and things have probably changed.
Nowadays the detectorist can find small nuggets up to 4 or 5 gms, and occasionally larger, on a fairly regular basis. The largest nugget (that we know about - and what idiot brags about his good find?) found in this area was named the 'golden spud' (potato) at 38 oz and spurred a mini gold rush to our town, long before I arrived here.
In the meantime, fellas, this area remains a top place to prospect for gold, provided you put in the hard yards. There are possibly better and more profitable tracts of ground in Australia (particularly in West Australia) which produce bigger and better nuggets, but these are areas which require major preparations with regard to camping and transporting fuel over very large distances.
My own finds have been modest - and most of the nuggets I've unearthed (starting with a Garrett Groundhog) have ended up on necklaces which the several females of my family treasure. So am I making a fortune out of my Victorian prospecting adventures?
Sorry to say no. But I get a kick out of tramping into the bush with a detector and the necessary kit, and my wife accompanies me into the bush where she reads whilst I poke around. it's where we want to be.
All the best, people
Forester
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