The Best Way to learn about Gold Detecting

When first taking an interest in gold detecting, I purchased a cheap metal detector, a few books on where to go gold detecting and I was on my merry way to find riches. To my dismay after 3 days using the gold detector I had found nothing. This was a fools game or so I thought.

After trying to learn more about gold detecting on the internet I came across a website promoting gold prospecting tours. It was time to find out whether there really still was gold left to be found in the ground. I gave them a call and booked in a one day tour.

The timing couldn't have been worse. The tour started in Bendigo the day after 31 bush fires in Victoria sadly took over 100 lives. The temperature was over 40 degrees and the smell of smoke was till in the air.

I arrived at the tour operators house and sat down at his the table in the kitchen for the theory session. The first topic of the theory session was coils. "What, a lesson on coils. A coil is a coil", I thought to myself. Then he started talking about double d and monocoil coils. It was all looking double dutch and I was being baffled with mine detector jargon that seemed to almost be a different language. The theory continued and I learned about different types of reefs, how gold was formed and where to find gold. At the end I had a much better understanding of what gold detecting was all about.

After a quick morning tea we headed out to his property at Neilborough. On the way we stopped and where shown old gold workings and what to look for gold detecting. They were simple things that I hadn't really understood like looking on the ground for quartz and iron stone. Also that gold has a tendancy to be where box iron bark trees grow. He then showed us a few different places to look for gold that he had found in the area in the past. One was a camp site that I laughed about when he showed me thinking that the area would have had hundreds of gold detectors go over it in the past. I tried the spot the next time I went down to Victoria and found three little nuggets in an hour before it started raining but that is another story.

We arrived at the property around lunch time and went out with the tour operator with the gpx4500 explaining what to do. He taught us what to listen for, how to ground balance and finer aspects of the machine. After only 1o minutes he heard a signal explaining that it could either be a piece of lead or a little nugget. To my amazement he pulled a little nugget out of the ground. It seemed so easy I thought he must of placed it there. He didn't though because even an amateur like myself has found gold nuggets on the property.


After a lunch of scotch fillet steak we headed of on our own gold detecting for the elusive nugget. Everything sounded like a signal and I was digging like a madman. The tour operator kept a close eye on me and came over to help quite a few times. Finally towards the end of the day with the tour operators help (although I don't like to admit it) I found a one gram nugget.

So after all the books and studying I had done finally a nugget was in my hand. By far the best way to learn about gold detecting is learn from a professional who is willing to put the time and effort to teach you. I had learned more in one day than I could have in a year by myself.