O'Brien's Ck Topaz field

[Jimnyjerry]

Mangomick will be passing through about 14 May, might stop in and say hi if weather is dry.  If I do stop over look out for a gunmetal Pajero shortie 

[mangomick]

O.K You won't be able to miss me. I'll be the one with sweat on my brow and a stooped aching back.    and probably near  a white duel cab Ford Courier with Maroon camper. More than likely be camped up at featherbed or camped under the trees a bit before the turn off to Mt Hoy. Always hard to say where the camp site will be until you get out there because quite often you'll get out there and a club will be there and all the good campsites are taken.

[Lefty]

Hope you and Mrs Mick have more luck at Tommahawk than I and the other club members had at Glenalva Mick But you might be there a bit longer than us - you can move a bit of dirt in three or four days with a jackhammer and trommel but you really don't move much wash by hand in that time.

STILL WAITING for this claim to finalize!!! End of this year Greg Charlton from the QSMA tells me he hopes to have it wrapped up by. Patience is a virtue but I'm running out of virtue!

[Jimnyjerry]

O.K You won't be able to miss me. I'll be the one with sweat on my brow and a stooped aching back.    and probably near  a white duel cab Ford Courier with Maroon camper. More than likely be camped up at featherbed or camped under the trees a bit before the turn off to Mt Hoy. Always hard to say where the camp site will be until you get out there because quite often you'll get out there and a club will be there and all the good campsites are taken.

Picking a camp spot is fun. Other hazards are severely washed out tracks, fallen trees and school holidays. 

[mangomick]

How's it going Lefty. I thought they had streamlined that process since the early days of ILUA.....Apparently not .
They must reckon anyone patient enough to scratch away all day looking for a bit of coloured rock must be patient enough to wait a few years waiting for a Government Boffin to scribble their name on a bit of paper .
First time we went out to Glenalva the wash was really shallow. You could turn over a fair bit of ground with a pick and shovel but the quality was lousy. We didn't really know what we were doing then either so we probably left all the good ones stuck in the clay:-)

[Lefty]

Yeah, I don't know if I'm ready to go back out there as a fossicker again when I can only dig for a few days - you need to be pretty damn lucky!

Of course, one of the biggest components of luck is persistence - dad found virtually nothing the first three trips to his claim at Russian gully. He was on the verge of throwing it in when on the fourth trip they struck a second wsh at around 8 feet - that turned out to be far more productive and produced some nice stone over the years. But, he did have those machines and was able to process a fair bit of wash in a 5 day stint.

[Jimnyjerry]

Lefty hope the mobs arguing over the land rights at your claim call off their vultures and let you work your claim properly with machinery.  It has been too long.

[Lefty]

Lefty hope the mobs arguing over the land rights at your claim call off their vultures and let you work your claim properly with machinery.  It has been too long.

It's just amazing mate. That the process to gain the right to use some very small powered machines that still require hand work, to dig a few small holes in such a small patch of dirt in a declared gem mining area could be so unbeliveably onerous.

If it's wrapped up by the end of this year as hoped, it'll still be Easter next year before it's possible to make a start, by which time the whole process will have taken something getting toward three years. Once I get the go ahead, you wont see me for dust, every ounce of dirt that I can put through I will be putting through!!!

[Bucket]

Good luck with all that Left, I thought that would have been sorted by now.  By the way, will you be in fields for Gemfest this year?  I'm coming up and would love to catch up with some of the members from the area.

[Lefty]

Gday Bucket - yeah, I'm hoping to be at the Gemfest this year, might see you there

[mangomick]

Jimnyjerry
My wife rang the Mt Surprise Post Office today and they told her that O'briens Creek campground is still open. It closed for a few months as it always did during the wet but it is  open for business and waiting to see our happy smiling faces........... Well it is open for business anyway.

[Jimnyjerry]

Oops I meant to repost a post from one of our members that was there recently.  Yes Maureen is still running Elizabeth Ck campsite.