Well you might find something interesting in one of my many adventures. I was a detecting fanatic for about 25 years, (mid seventies to 2000). On one of our trips up to Marbell Bar WA, we were camped in the caravan park. And after a very rainy sloppy night and after the creek outside the parks front gate went down we drove out of town and down the first road south. Maybe 5 Kms south we turned right onto a track along side of a creek. The creek only had a couple of inches of water in the bottom. About 1 or 2 Kms along the creek we noticed a young bloke maybe 20 to 25 on his knees and fidelling on the bank of the creek which was probably about 5 ft deep in total. I stopped and went over for a chat and a look. Because of the heavy rain the night before the creek banks had maybe an 1/8th to 1/4 inch of dirt eroded away. He had a little bottle (A Bex bottle type) and a pair of tweezers and was finding freshly exposed tiny bits of gold like match head and smaller. His Bex bottle was half full (maybe 11/2 to 2 ozs) and I thought a pair of tweesers and a bex bottle is a bit cheaper than a $6,000 metal Detector.
OK folks, go get your tweezers and go find a creek somewhere after a good nights rain.
A lot of the locals in the Pilbara are out after heavy rain doing similar things to this guy - it was a common sight if you lived up there to see or hear about people without any fancy, expensive gear, making $1000K's during the wet season. Panning the old fashioned way is also in vogue after heavy rain as well when banks are eroded or a dry creek becomes a river and changes its course cutting through old river courses.
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Cheers Bruce
The amazing things you see when nomading Australia
