Hi fellas,
Some of you will already know this but I quit my job as a construction foreman at the end of 2023 to chase the gold full time. Put the house on air B&B, bought a caravan big enough for the wife and two small kids, a colorado to tow it (thanks to a mortgage extension). The we hit the road on the 27th of December. Spent the first month or so easing into the new gig based at murchison and working on a claim in own a share in. We had mixed results there getting from a few grams up to 23g per day with some small nuggets to 1.3g in size.
The my dredging partner had to take off and do something else for a while and I was mucking around by myself getting a few grams here and there but not really hauling in the gold, still making wages though.
Around this time a good mate of mine gave me a ring and said he was on his way to Murchison to check out an opportunity on a claim in the area owned by someone else. I said, sure why not.
We were in the water at the new place the next day which was the first day of February. The river was still up a bit so we dredged on a shallow bedrock shelf on the edge of the river and got about 9g. The next day we moved the dredge across to the other side of river and started a new hole. About an oz for that day.
After that we started getting consistently great results and I’m rather impressed that there is still gold like this around in this day and age. Needless to say I am glad I took the plunge and quit my job.
I’d like to reveal more details down to track, of course not without express consent from the claim owner.
If any of you guys are thinking of doing what I’ve done I suggest you give it a go. Life is is too short to have regrets about missed opportunities. But be prepared to go to bed worn out each day!
Life’s too short so I love that you’re encouraging people to follow their dreams. If things don’t work out there’s always the option to go back to what you were doing before. Truly inspirational. And bloody inspirational on the gold front too!!
I look forward to reading more future stories if you end up sharing more. Good on ya mate
Great stuff. An inspiration to us all that. the gold and the big move.
I think we met way back at the start of the paydirt forum? Can’t for the life of me remember where we headed though? up the shotover maybe? memory is fading from too many adventures haha. remember a trip up into stony creek and seeing the destroyed swing bridge but that might’ve been with Gavin.
Your photos inspired and i got out in the weekend and found a couple specks.
haha. that’s right. do you still have your gold bug? still got mine. perfect for the quiet areas like 12 mile. i haven’t really done much detecting in recent times as got more into dredging and sniping. always mean to detect in shoulder season before it gets too cold but i always end up in the water until it freezes up into winter. we’ll have to catch up again when if you get down these ways.
