Dirt fishing find

[17hornet 188]

LOL "Outside the box looking in!"

Hi Mackem, well yeah, the major gold-fields are either 3days  or 10hrs away solid drive, then you need to do the research and have an idea where to hunt.

There is gold as close as 4km from our house in the metro area, but it is not viable for an income, other gold-fields that can and in the past had 'gold rushes'

are about 2hrs away but little is found now, enough for hobbyists.

There is more to find in Opal in the north of our State, but the 13yr old girl is hanging out to swing in the Golden Triangle of Victoria and has done some panning with me in a town called Ballarat, the tourists can pan for REAL gold and pop it into a small bottle for free.

http://www.sovereignhill.com.au/visit/what-s-on/

At Sovereign Hill my daughter held a gold ingot after it was poured, value $270,000, she was VERY happy and instant gold fever. LOL   They actually mine the tourist gold from under the tourist town, crush the rock and keep the big bits but put about $3000 a week into the 'panning' creek for us to find. Chatted to the owner that has jewellery shop on the site, he's a hunter and shooter too. He also does the ingot pour, that's how miss got to hold the ingot after it was cooled.

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=golden+triangle+vic&gws_rd=cr,ssl&dcr=0&ei=BNn6WendHcTH0ASw44GYCQ

We had a neighbour that went to Western Australia every year for gold and she showed us a palm sized nugget that she found 30sec after turning her detector on as she stood next to her 4WD, she had taken two steps out on the side of the road.

Over here there are Graders that scrape the dirt roads in the bush, seems that logic was the Grader pushed the nugget with the dirt to the side of the road, and as she turned on her detector it just swung over that nugget ! How bloody lucky was that !! Beautiful to see and touch.

Many come away with little or nothing but a dry dirty holiday.

 

[17hornet 188]

I guess we have drier soils than you do ?

This is a Community Hall carpark, only one building, no paving and dates from late 1800's, it has had 3 extensions over the years and is still used for local dances and get togethers.    It is situated about 2 hours from Adelaide between two towns 45 km apart on the River Murray.

My daughter found some early predecimal coins and a WWII Military Badge at this spot in the picture all in a 1m diameter, we guessed that someone pulled a jacket out of a car and dropped all his coins and service badge, he would have had a poor night as the money found would have paid for a good evening for sure.

Strangely she found it the day after ANZAC Day, on the 26th of April at sunset as the sun was just going down below the horizon, and she told me later she had kissed it when she realised what it was, as it was her first solid part of history she ever found - spooky stuff but true.

She researched it and between us we found the owner that we think lost it not long after he got it, between 1946 and 1948, unfortunately he is deceased and his brother also, they are both in a cemetery in war graves only 3 meters apart, they passed away in the same year, in the same town they were born in.

We have found a lot of history of this mans family, it is a massive job that has not been completed as yet, we were told by the  Medal and Badge manufacturer in Sydney that it could not be traced to the individual, we managed to do that as the records are there, but not directly searchable in the Australian Military archives. The manufacturer is very well known and has a passion for the industry and respect for Service personnel, he spent 2 hours with me on the phone while we researched from each end on the Internet and archives, but came up with nothing, although all that work led me to the actual identification. My daughter was shaking as she flicked over a page image and looked for the badge number, finding his name she cried happy tears.

Our objective is to return the Badge to a living descendant of this man, and to provide a story of the finding and return, to the RSL Returned Services League of Australia, maybe be able to have a small TV documentary of the finding and return that can be air-ed so that we can share the process and have other badges returned across the country. Now it takes me about 3minutes to identify who received one of these badges, even from WWI archives. I have a great story about a soldier in WWI and his loss of his badge - later if asked.

To our base knowledge this man was no special hero with outstanding Service, but I try to teach my kids respect, and anyone who has Served should have respect for the commitment to their country and community, as sad and tragic as I personally feel war is, we need to respect those that Served and offered up their lives to Duty.

My daughter earlier this year, on the spot, her second visit to the site.

 

[17hornet 188]

My appologies Chaff, I did not mean to commandeer your thread, is there a particular section or area where I can start new topics on Detecting ?

I'm just new here again after 10yrs away.

Cheers

[Chaff 3,414]

2 hours ago, 17hornet said:

My appologies Chaff, I did not mean to commandeer your thread, is there a particular section or area where I can start new topics on Detecting ?

I'm just new here again after 10yrs away.

Cheers

No worries I have enjoyed reading your posts 17hornet, fascinating stuff for me anyway.

Keep on posting mate 

I found these this afternoon 

Nice old Penney in good condition

Button from about the same date as the penny

62nd regiment Wiltshire foot I guess the soldier was back home after fighting the Zulu's in the Boer war when he lost it.

I would rather be hunting rabbits this time of year to be honest, but a bit of detector work keeps me busy until the undergrowth dies back.

Good luck mate.

[17hornet 188]

What great finds, my daughter will love that post.

Heres one for you -

Her Grandfathers backyard turned up a 577 Snider projectile, the South Australian Police were the only ones to have that firearm as it was new at the time, we could ID the projectile as it had no rifling marks but bore size, type, length and mass place it in that zone - date around 1867'ish. The Police only had that firearm for 6 years before going to the rifled upgrade.

The land was all bush at that time, no block divisions, the area was only just named Campbelltown for a Mr Campbell hailing from the UK just after that time, a social climber, but seemingly nice man, he died from a glass cut to his hand that got infected, also died poor.

Two house blocks away down the street, there was a fire and the house was cleared. She found a military button, a tailors button, a coin with a bullet hole, and some bits - the tailors button was branded and from a man that started a business in Adelaide and was prominent in society, the uniform button apparently comes from a dress set of pants and the only uniform is in the National Museum Canberra, the coin with hole is unidentified as yet.

The tailor had a picnic at around that year period for all his staff, family and it seems some higher friends 'near Glynde' which is where these finds were made. There was even a reasonable sized newspaper article about it describing the day and praising Mr J K Fickling. In those days it was not surprising to have shooting comps for entertainment, we wonder if that is where the coin with the hole came from ?

As to the 577 Snider projectile we wonder if it was target practice, animal hunt on the side, chasing a criminal or even maybe an Aboriginal, as at that time in the colony there was still about 350-400 Aboriginals permanently residing in what is now the Botanic Parks of Adelaide.

I have found an 1894? Queen Victoria coin in the inner city parklands in front of two German tourists, they were astounded, my daughter was ticked off! LOL           She has since bettered that Penny find, well and truly.

577 Snider projectile

 

Coin with hole

Edited November 3, 2017 by 17hornet

[DIDO.1 20,804]

Lizzy 1st hammered

[DIDO.1 20,804]

1570

[Chaff 3,414]

13 minutes ago, DIDO.1 said:

1570

That's a great find mate that will take some beating, have you found much of the same age.

I have a lead token somewhere reckon that's the oldest thing I have found but sadly it has no date on it.

Any idea of the value of the Lizzy 1st hammy.

Cheers

[Haiddheliwr 1,911]

Nice one Chaff! Think I will be wiping the dust ooff mine very soon ?

[Chaff 3,414]

42 minutes ago, Haiddheliwr said:

Nice one Chaff! Think I will be wiping the dust ooff mine very soon ?

Its quite addictive when you get into it and have a few decent finds.

I have an old 1720 os map of my local area and have laid it over google maps then look for buildings that no longer exist, seems to be working for me.

Most finds seem to come from what I think are the garden areas.

Seems all you get is iron if your directly on top of building.

I laughed at my self today seemed like I had a moving target when kneeling down kept getting a good signal next to me I shuffled back still got the signal then it dawned on me that the detector was picking up the metal in my knee.

 

[Haiddheliwr 1,911]

3 minutes ago, Chaff said:

Its quite addictive when you get into it and have a few decent finds.

I have an old 1720 os map of my local area and have laid it over google maps then look for buildings that no longer exist, seems to be working for me.

Most finds seem to come from what I think are the garden areas.

Seems all you get is iron if your directly on top of building.

I laughed at my self today seemed like I had a moving target when kneeling down kept getting a good signal next to me I shuffled back still got the signal then it dawned on me that the detector was picking up the metal in my knee. Been doing it off and on for years! It is really additive hobby and can be lucrative. One thing I found out when detecting don 't wear steel toecaps lol ??

 

 

[Chaff 3,414]

2 minutes ago, Haiddheliwr said:

 

Found that one out last week about not wearing steelies lol

Have you had many old finds mate

[Haiddheliwr 1,911]

1 minute ago, Chaff said:

Found that one out last week about not wearing steelies lol

Have you had many old finds mate

Joined a club in Swansea over a year agoand they come down West Wales regularly! What they find is totally amazing but unfortunately I am not so lucky! My main passion is hunting but still enjoy a day with the detector! 

[Chaff 3,414]

1 minute ago, Haiddheliwr said:

Joined a club in Swansea over a year agoand they come down West Wales regularly! What they find is totally amazing but unfortunately I am not so lucky! My main passion is hunting but still enjoy a day with the detector! 

Same here would rather be working dog on a few rabbits but its either overgrown or diseased sadly.

So at the moment its a way of getting outside and passing some time, until we get a few decent frosts.

Good luck mate.

[mackem 23,677]

20 minutes ago, Chaff said:

Found that one out last week about not wearing steelies lol

Have you had many old finds mate

You ever find any roman where you are mate?I was in ripley last week and passed what looks like the ruins of an old church or manor house a mile from the high street,quite a bit of history around in surrey.