Fri, 17th June, 2016 Quinns Lake bush camp, 50km S of Meekatharra, WA (exploring)

7.15am 10.9 degrees and all fogged in. 9am before it had lifted.

We headed off to explore now I had the GPS marks for the puddler and graves that were in the gold books. I have put the mine boundaries in the Hema navigator so we know what’s what.

Up and on top of an ironstone knoll looking down to the lake and the puddler.

Drove down to it. Not sure if they are right calling it a puddler as it is huge. The pile of rocks leading out to it look like someone was making a road out to it but never made it. We think it was more likely a dug out area to retain water that could use for machinery etc.

More pretty flowers.

Walked onto the top of the dirt pile – looking over part of the lake area.

Continued along the edge of the lake area to find two graves – no info about who they are or anything.

Further along we came to lots of open shafts. I put the kettle on and they we heard a plane overhead. Jeff put on the UHF and the pilot was talking to guys in 4WDs driving around rounding up cattle.

He got this lot moving then the 4WDs headed off after them.

The plane came back and zoomed in low over another lot of cattle.

Wandered around checking out all the diggings. We have learnt that the gold is where the quartz meets the ironstone and that the gold is in the ironstone rather than the quartz. Certainly is the case here. Need to watch where you walk as there are holes everywhere. They are only 15 to 20 feet deep.

This one was interesting. Steve is standing on the bridge left behind after all the dirt was pulled out under it.

The boys wandered off with their detectors while I wandered around with my camera. More shafts and cave-like tunnels.

The ironstone area had lots of shallow diggings and the rocks were all stacked up in rows.

They dug down at an angle here and used the trees to keep the other side propped up.

Walked back around to walk down into the big open pit that Steve was standing on the bridge before.

Wandered down through all the quartz blow area – a few shafts have been dug here too.

Some are so neat – looks more like a grave hole!!

I read the info in the two gold books we are using. Gold was discovered in this area by N. Topping in 1891 (the same year gold was discovered in Nannine – the other lake we went to near Meeka). The first lease, Rising Shine, was pegged on 30^th October, 1891. There was extensive dryblowing by the old timers around Diggers Creek. Further west a 62 ounce nugget was found at Nuggetty near Kaladbro Mine – now that would be nice to find.

Went for a walk to find Steve. He had gone over the ironstone area and I found him on a ‘push’ swishing something in his mouth – a nice little nugget with some ironstone on it.

X marks the spot.

He then went a couple of feet off the push and got another signal. A nice flat piece.

I walked with him carrying the pick and the gold but unfortunately we only dug up steel and brass after that. Lots of ironstone rocks give off good signals too and in the book the guy said he had found lots of gold in them, once dollied. We carted the rocks back to the truck so Steve can smash them later.

A lot of shafts have one flat edge, like this one (or built up with bigger rocks) so they could back their drays up to it and load on the ore so they could take it elsewhere to process. Could see down this one.

Followed another track up and over the hill heading towards the other campers. Lots of dry-blowing around here and lots of left over machinery too.

No one was at their camp so we headed back to the van for lunch. The boys headed off again while I stayed at camp. Made some more pasta salad then decided to make an Easter Damper as I had mixed fruit to use up. Got the fire going early to build up the coals for the damper and for the bushcooker as we are having pork chops and roast vegies. A lot windier tonight which got the fire roaring.

The boys came back. They called in and saw the others. Tom (the couple I had met in the laundry) is going to work for the leaseholder, detecting after the ground is pushed with a dozer. Would be interesting to see what they find – I wonder how much he is going to be paid – percentage of what he detects!!

Jeff had one bit of gold and Steve had three more bits. I weighed his flat piece, 0.7 grams and all 5 bits together came to 1.6 grams.

Dave rang to see where we were. Their friend needed a part from Kalgoorlie brought up to Karratha so they just did a big drive up and are heading back again. He said that a chap was digging a hole about 47 km from Karratha and had found 300 ounces of gold – WOW!!

Beautiful clear sky and the colours on the horizon as the sun set were fabulous. Said to Steve that this is just the perfect life – so glad we are doing it. Delicious dinner. The damper was perfect with custard – was just like a hot cross bun. Windy night but with our ‘lovelies warmers’ going we were comfortable.