Holidays

G,day all, December was my last post so i will update yas all on what and where i went over xmas and January.
I headed down to Perth around the 22nd of DEC and had a look around there for a day and Perth is twice the size it was back in 88 when i last was there, then i headed down to Busselton which was way to busy with holiday makers so i continued sth to Margaret River and that was worse so i drove all the way down to Walpole, the next 2 weeks i spent fishing along the sth coast from Walpole to Albany catching mainly Herring and Trevally. Along this stretch there are some great places to camp right on the beaches with a few good inlets to fish for Bream,

1 kilo Trevaly caught off rocks near Albany

The flora down the sth of WA is a lot different than the goldfields, Black Boys or for the politically correct grass trees seem to be everywhere and Banksias which are one of my favourite trees are all over the place too.



One of the beaches where you camp right on it, how good to smell fresh sea breezes instead of dry outback dust.

Kangaroo Paw



Wine Palm?





As the fishing wasn't the best and Salmon season was still a few months away i decided to head back to Perth and travel nth towards Geraldton. I had heard that they catch good tailor around this time of year nth of Perth so i was looking forward to that. On the way i spent about 4 days in Perth as i had to sell some gold and buy some new tyres for my quad bike and then get them shipped to Laverton.

about 3 ounces that i sold in Perth

 While in Perth i found out that one of dads cousins Chris Allen lives in Wanaroo just a few ks nth so i spent another 2 days there and met his wife and some of their grand kids, geeze the Allens are all the same. After a few days with them i slowly headed towards Geralton and the wind was blowin real bad so fishing was out of the question. Geraldton seemes a good city but because i couldnt go fishing anywhere i decided to head inland towards Sandstone and make my way back to Laverton.



a freindly fellow

big eagles everywhere





rough seas near Geraldton 

Mulga parrots

 Leaving  Geraldton and passing through Sandstone, Leinster, Leonora i arrived back in Laverton with 5 thousands extra ks on the clock refreshed and ready for another year prospecting for gold in the dry outback of WA. After a week of being back one of the fellas that lives here on the lease decidedd to head back east to see his family and asked if i could look after his dog, its a female blue healer only about 12 to 18 months old named Elvis, dont know who he named it after. The weather has been very hot with most days well into the mid to high 40s with the hottest day reaching 48.7 degrees in the shade. I have been detecting early mornings and found a patch which resulted in about half an ounce which im happy with but nothing the last week or so. At the moment its cold and raining and muddy only 20 degrees, a big drop from the mid 40s. cheers Stu



Elvis and a Bungarra

Mexican standoff, in the middle is a roo carcass

This is a pic of the area where camp is

A blind snake i found one night in the kitchen of the shed

half ounce

GREAT FIND TODAY

 Hi all, above pic is of all the gold i've found in November and December, about 3 ounces, as im heading down to Perth in a week or so i will sell most of it and get a better price for it there than in Kalgoolie. Today i headed out on the quad and after a few hours had nothing to show for my efforts and was about to give it away for the day when i swung the detector in amongst some bushes and it screamed, i looked down thinking that it would be rubbish and i saw a nice glint of yellow. I got down closer and couldnt believe my eyes when i saw how big it was. I love finding sunbakers [ gold sitting on the surface ] and this was even better because its the biggest solid nugget i've found weighing 20.4 grams beating my previous best by 1 gram. This nugget is definatly jewlery quality and should fetch a nice price over a $1,000 once cleaned up, it will look great hanging from a necklace, cheers Stu

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EMU EGGS & GOLD

G,day all, not alot happening at the moment as the days are getting hotter and thunderstorms every 3rd or 4th night. Was out detecting and i came across 3 Emu eggs and one was cracked but they were white which means they have been sitting there in the sun for at least 6 months and have been bleached by the sun, I've been getting a few nuggets most days but nothing special but today i found another sunbaker speccimen, i think it has about a gram or 2 of gold in it, not alot but it always  blows me away when i find them sitting there on the surface just waiting to be picked up. Thats what the old timers did, they just walked around picking up hundreds of ounces lying on the surface lucky buggers,
cheers Stu.



specie sunbaker

SNAKES AND LIZARDS

Banded Brown Snake

Getting ready for some night detecting [july]

G,day all,  its bloody hot most days and im detecting mornings only as the electicity in the air gets worce in the afternoon and it effects the detector so not much gold to report, because its hot the lizards and snakes are out and yesterday i came across this Banded brown snake, at first i thought it was a whip snake but later identified it as a brown, it has a black head with 2 small orange bands plus a few black bands furthar down its body, lucky it was only about 14" long so will have to keep an eye out for the bigger ones, cheers Stu

G,day everyone, today i woke up to a bright blue sky and the radio said its going to be 30 degrees so after breakfast headed back to where i got the 12 grammer yesterday and late morning i beat yesterdays nugget with another ripper, this one even bigger, 19.6 grams and a nicer looking nugget as well, later in the afternoon steve and i went to the new water hole and got 20 odd yabbies from a pot we put in yesterday arvo, had them for dinner tonight and they were great, cheers Stu

yabies for dinner

Biggest Nugget so far

12.4 grams

the water fall between the 2 new lakes

G,day all, well at last we have some good rain over here and i didnt think i would go detecting this morning but there was a break in the rain so i headed off on the quad to where ive been getting a few good nuggets, i put a bigger coil on the detector to try and find some deeper bigger nuggets and after only half an hour i dug this very nice 12.4 gramer which was 12" deep, its the biggest solid nugget that ive found. yesterday i went to check out an old opencut mine and its getting water from another opencut pumped into it and its filling up fairly quickly and is gunna be a great place to go swiming when its hot, its also full of yabbies or maron and they are big buggers so ill put a pic of them on here when i get some. cheers Stu


the top lake

the new bottom lake

BUNGARRAS AND GOLD

G,day everyone, the quad bike is fantastic and im gettin around the gold feilds so much quicker than before and alot furthar to more remote places, the first day i got the quad i went for a long ride and about 8 ks from camp i got a punture, i have a small pump and a repair kit so i was back moving again in 5 minutes, the pic right is of a bungarra or goanna as we from the east call them and they get pretty dam big around here, this was as close as i was gettin to this one as they have massive claws and im told they like to climb up you trying to escape so i left this one on the track and drove around him, [ haha big chicken ] Saterday was a good day on the gold as you can see in the pic below, i found 14 nuggets weighing 13.3 grams with the bigger one weighing 5.8 grams and at around $50 a gram thats not a bads days work, the other pic below is of a smaller lizard and they seem to be everywhere, still havnt seen any snakes yet but im in no hurry there, the botom pic is of some nuggets i dug up on thursday with total weight just under 4 grams, i got these 4 from a different area and you can see they are darker as they have ironstone on the outside and i will put them in some hydrochloric acid for a few days and that cleans em up pretty good. As you know i was asked to go on a quad bike prospecting trip and since then they have asked me if i would like a job working as their cook on all their trips and ive said yes [dont laugh ] but we have to wait to see if they get full bookings for their tours to justify an extra hand. cheers Stu.