Just in time to ward-off the winter blues, Ron Gregory has kindly offered to host us for a field trip at his Back Creek gold lease on Saturday the 8th of June 2019. The trip is free for members, and if you’re interested in joining up, you can do so on the day.

Back Creek contains shallow historical workings and is a good location for detecting gold nuggets, and a few nuggets and specimens have been found in the last few months, up to close to an ounce. PMAT has been there twice, and both times quite a few people have detected gold. There is also a large pond for panning, or in case you want to bring your highbanker.

Andrew Homan has offered to bring his digger and dig up wash for panning and highbanking as a fundraiser, for $15 per scoop (about 1/3 cubic meter). If you’re interested, ask on the day.

The main meeting place will be the historic shacks on Ringswandls Road (off Back Creek Rd).

The area has a lot of historical mining works, including open-cuts, pits, trenches and shafts. If you’ll be joining us. Please be aware of where you step and understand that you enter at your own risk.

Getting there

Most of you probably know how to get to the lease. For those of you who don’t, the lease is on Back Creek Road, which starts behind the Pipers River shop (on Bridport Road). We will meet at the area of 1930s shacks on Ringsgwandls Rd.

Camping

Ron has invited members who want to to camp at the lease on Friday and Saturday nights. A couple of things to keep in mind:

• There is no potable water on site, please bring your own
• We will have a portaloo available

Rules

As we’ll be working inside a current mining lease, there are some conditions to attending, please read these carefully:

• All attendees will need to fill in a sign-in sheet on arrival, and sign out at the end of the trip.
• Any gold found is to be shown to Ron. There are two main reasons for this: he does not have to pay royalties on gold that he does not produce himself, and the main thing he gets for his hospitality is to find out where gold may be shedding in the lease. If you find some gold, please do the right thing and show Ron.
• The area contains abundant mining heritage. Please be respectful of this and of any lease property.
• Any areas of current workings are off-limits.

Report writers wanted!

The website is starting to look a little dated with the last news item written a couple of years ago. We’re looking for volunteers to write a short trip report after each field trip. If you’re interested in volunteering, please let us know at the field trip.

See you all there!