Elite
Menu
Growing up in the golden triangle I have always had a keen interest in gold prospecting. Following on in my grandfather’s footsteps, who had sunk many shafts in the bush, I inherited his old Whites coin master as a kid and indulged in quite a bit of panning. After committing many hours to researching the goldfields in our area and lending my dad’s GPX 4500 I decided to save up to buy a GPX 5000. After finding my first piece of gold (0.20 grams) – I was well and truly suffering from the dreaded gold fever!
Due to the weather heating up in the Pilbara my friend and I decided to head out for a night detect on the last full moon. It was forecasted to be overcast (only 34 degree) the next day so we stocked up on extra food and water just in case.
I had travelled to Windeyer NSW to go on a gold detecting tour run by NSW Gold Tours on a private property that had Spicer’s Creek and Married Man’s Creek running through them. I had left home, Maryborough Vic, at 4:30am to start the 10 hr drive. Due to the massive amount of rain overnight and flooded roads it took nearly 3 hours just to get to Bendigo and I was on the verge of chucking it in and going home. Thankfully I made it through and after nearly 15 hours in the car I made it to Windeyer. I was picked up at 7:30am, along with 2 other prospectors Dave and Chris, and off we went to the property.
My Husband has enjoyed the idea of gold detecting for most of his life which probably comes hand in hand with his love for the outdoors, fishing and camping lifestyle. Now in his ’60s he made the decision to bite the bullet and buy a GPX 4500 after a few camping trips with our son and witnessing the excitement of unearthing pieces of gold from the ground. Fascinating really – can’t be that hard our son makes it look pretty foolproof and easy!
It was the Australia Day long weekend 2016, with a forecast of a beautiful 37 degrees but not hot enough for hubby and I to not go out detecting and for me to have a wander with my GPX 4500 and my Coiltek 14 Inch Mono Elite coil. I guard this combo with my life, reason being, because since I got this combo happening gold seemed to just be where ever I swung that coil. I do the bipping and hubby does the Aussie thing of having a few coldies while I dig some of the yellow stuff.
My better half (Jo) and I had many a long discussion about buying a good detector and taking it slightly more seriously than just a hobby. It is a substantial investment, but living in Darwin, it’s only an hour and a bit of travel to known goldfields, so we agreed to take the plunge.
Saturday morning rolled along and the better half suggested “how about we drop the kids at the grandparents and head up to Maryborough for a detecting session and spend the night out the bush for Valentines Day”……. How could I refuse that offer!
In resurrecting a childhood interest in detecting, I engrossed myself through months and months of internet research and conversation with many a knowledgeable person in efforts to find a suitable detector. I quickly realized metal detecting had come a long way since my interest had first peaked some 35 years prior. I was now looking at some serious detecting hardware, notably commanding some serious outlay of coin!
