General News
21 May, 2024
Shane shares week of golden secrets
SHANE Smith triggered a new gold rush to Wedderburn last week. The New South Wales detectorist set up camp at the town’s caravan park for 10 days, sharing his secrets and taking modern day miners into bushland around the district. They found...
SHANE Smith triggered a new gold rush to Wedderburn last week.
The New South Wales detectorist set up camp at the town’s caravan park for 10 days, sharing his secrets and taking modern day miners into bushland around the district.
They found plenty of old nails and bullets and then on the final day there was gold with the discovery of a 15.38 gram nugget.
Shane has been coming to Victoria since the 1990s and made Wedderburn one of his annual stops three years ago.
“A lot of detectorists don’t like giving away their secrets,” he said.
“There’s nothing to be scared about in giving out information .... there’s so much countryside around here and there’s gold to be found.”
Shane said he once spent much of his time searching for gold around Orange and Bathurst.
“The area was fairly accessible until the government started closing areas,” he said.
Shane says most gold found in the Loddon most had an 18-carat purity compared with New South Wales where it was nine carat and also contained a lot of copper.
His best nugget found in Victoria? “That was 13 ounces at Tarnagulla about five years ago.”
Shane’s daily sessions had dozens of gold enthusiasts camping at Wedderburn to gain tips to detecting gold in the rich bushland around the town.
“We’ve had a lot of fun this week and for one of the campers to find a nice nugget ... that was a great way to finish the latest visit here,” he said.