Sutton stream matarae to rocklands…
From the matarae rail bridge that crosses the Sutton stream on the hill is the Sutton matarae sluicings water races from Sutton stream brought water from a dam that flooded out up stream around 4km from the bridge on SH 87.
Little is known how much gold was found and the dam was never repaired.
A flume still crosses the stream to this day.
The lower 500 m of Sutton stream close to the old sluicings has remains of ancient riverbed with glacial till in most the crevices I came across in this section.
Large iron stones spinnal and a few other minerals in the area.
in this section where myself and a family friend found a 10 .28 g nugget was 50m up from the rail bridge in knee deep water
The crevices were of a deep red and black nature easy to break apart.
The minerals in these crevices were really noticeable.
Some of these crevices had a (weld like)
Layer at the very bottom a heavy mineral that was hard to break.
The nugget is stained with black and dark red from the crevice it came from.
Iron staining can be seen in the canyon walls in a few areas the shyst is fractured and alot more dark in colour and dence.
Above the old sluicings tail chute ran tailings down into the stream.
Above the tail chute the gold is smaller and spread out finely in places with a change in the geology.
by the SH 87 bridge is a cottage across from this in the stream 500m up from the bridge fine gold can be found in places good numbers in around the willows above this area heading towards the old dam is a long stretch of willows with mostly shale and slate and small gold found in places just below the old dam wall.
Not a lot was found in this area acsess was declined due to respecting the farmers wishes of not effecting the mussel beds and eels.
Queens chain was acsess in this area.
Rockland’s station is a long drive down to the stream bed with step grass fields and about 4 gates to go through .
From Burgan stream along the face of the rock and pillar was thick bush and step cliffs with waterfalls and deep pools unlike down the bottom but very little specks found untill the stream pulls away from the rock and pillar red hard pack can be found with pyrite found all over… the gold is chunky with sharp edges similar to the pyrite in the area.
The rocks are large and the gravel bars are deep most the gold was of a size to pick up
Specks found with the pan were few and far between but it’s there.
Sutton stream 2018 2024