Doug Stone Gold Expeditions - anyone done these ?

That sounds like a great trip. I have no experience at fossicking, but took my brother-in-law through the Hay. He is a very experienced fossicker. He was picking up Topaz all over the place and soon got us all interested. I would love to do that trip. I reckon go for it.

Willie, you sure have an interesting concept of "fun".
Now I've never looked for that feeelthee yellow stuff, but those who have tell me it's hard yakka.
I have visions of swinging a very large coil whilst dragging a chain behind, chasing off snakes and digging up nails in between yelling Eureka! or some such :))
Seriously, I have a mate who made some money from it and he rekkons that when you actually find the stuff its like picking up $50 notes. But I notice he only did it for a while and isn't too keen to get back into it. So I rekkon his story smells.
Let us know how you get on if you do go swingin your beeper around the bush.

Willie,

I've been a 'bipper" for 20 years off and on, including 4 years as a pro-prospetcor and as a tour guide running my own business.

It can be great fun to go lookng for gold. BUT - It can be a disaster if you find some. Because then, all you wanna do do is go back and find more - again 'n again 'n again, sometimes to the point of despair. It's called gold fever, it's a disease and I've had a big dose of it in years gone by. Thankfully, I've found my share of a lot of gold and that's cured me. I now go out for a laugh,,,,, and I like the bush. More importantly, my wife still has gold fever!

As far as I'm aware, Doug Stone has sold his gold tour businesss to Coiltek of South Australia and they now run the tours. I was apparoached by them last year to be a tour guide for them. I said no - I've had enough of it, and gold is getting too hard to find. But it's still there if you go far enough out. I'm just getting lazy these days. Plus my money's in the bank ;)

Go do it, it'll drive you mad. But if and when you find yer first piece, it'll be one the greatest feeling you'll ever have. Afte that, it becomes an addiction.

It's like digging up free $50 notes - as Floosie sez.

And you certainly see a lot of different country. Particularly if you go to WA or NT. It's real cowboy country amongst them thar hills!!

Good luck,

Bilbo

Willie, sound like your serious. Let me warn you though, once 'bitten by the bug'... well I guess you'll find out!! Seriously though, if you want sound advice from experienced people have a look at this site MSN Gold Detecting and Fossicking Australia you'll find them very helpful and generous with good advice. Bit like exploroz.

Its a bit of a gamble as far as I know. All second hand of course.

In most cases once the group start find a patch they get moved on. The area is then done over by the follow up crew in with the tour operators.

Not much in the field instruction is given, and you are treated as if you know what you are doing.

Alll that said you still get to see what gold bearing country looks like and that is proberly worth it, andthing you find is a bonus.

I do detect but mostly up in Nth Qld. Going to the west this year for a look around.

could be wrong but from the pictures it looks more like gold theft than gold finding