Striking gold
21 Apr 2018
Searching for a pot of gold has never been this fun.
I asked George, the proprietor of the Miners Den in Cairns, where my wife and I should venture in search of our first gold.
"Go to Georgetown – Flat Creek Station!” he said. So into our 4WD and off-road camper trailer and off to Flat Creek Station in the Gulf of Carpentaria we went.
Down by the station
Flat Creek Station is about an hour’s drive south of Georgetown. It is a 30,000 acre cattle station, usually only open to public access during the dry season. Licenced fossickers or prospectors have been welcomed for years, and have enjoyed success at finding numerous gold nuggets. It was reported that in 2010 a prospector found a 16-ounce (1-pound) gold nugget there.
We arrived at Flat Creek Station to a very warm reception. Our Queensland Fossicking Licence was soon duly endorsed with the required authorisation. After inspection of the colourful Gouldian Finches at the homestead, and consulting the complimentary mud-map of the property, we found a terrific camp site on the top of the hill at the designated shady campgrounds area.
By mid-afternoon I’d unleashed my metal detector – a Minelab SDC2300. After nearly 500 hours of use in the southern goldfields of Queensland, my metal detector had not unearthed any gold.
Just hundreds of lead bullets.
Gold!
Within 60 minutes of fossicking at Flat Creek Station, and right near our camp, the 2300 found our first gold nugget. We continued to forage and about 20 metres further on, we found another nugget in an eroded gully.
The next day brought more.
As I was detecting in a steep gully, I heard a now-familiar sound. The pick removed a few inches of topsoil. Then I used my scoop to isolate another nugget. Another swing over the small depression resulted in another beep. I repeated the process with my pick and scoop. More gold! The 2300 delivered yet again and again!
Extension please
After four days of good fortune, we extended our stay for another four days. The good facilities (wood-fired ‘donkey’ hot water fed showers and toilets) at the Flat Creek Station campgrounds pro- vided comfort at the end of each hard day of prospecting.
Our collection grew over the following days, including one small nugget below some cattle dung.
So we decided to extend again by another three days.
On these final days, we hammered our gold patch. And every day we found more gold nuggets.
Our final tally – 34 pieces of gold. We managed to find gold on every day of our total eight days of fossicking at Flat Creek Station. I’d call that a successful fossick, wouldn’t you?
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