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Author Topic: Anyone been to Glenalva ?  (Read 4515 times)

MakkyBrown

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Anyone been to Glenalva ?
« on: March 07, 2022, 11:49:18 PM »
Just looking at some QLD fossicking sites. Just wondering if anyone has been to Glenalva and how did they go. Is there wash left to dig or is it pretty much all gone ?
CheersMB

Rusted

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Re: Anyone been to Glenalva ?
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2022, 03:01:24 PM »
Glen Alva is OK, its not completely worked over. Willows is worked over and everything has been nicely tidied up so you have no idea until you start digging up beer cans that you are reworking old ground. Tomahawk is a huge area, you should be able to find a spot there with a bit of luck.

Bucket

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Re: Anyone been to Glenalva ?
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2022, 04:45:59 PM »
Last time I was out at Glenalva, it was stinking hot, the area I was working was like concrete and I was over it by early afternoon. I did get about 2-3 possible cutters that I haven't touched yet.
Common sense isn't exactly common

MakkyBrown

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Re: Anyone been to Glenalva ?
« Reply #3 on: March 08, 2022, 08:13:01 PM »
Glen Alva is OK, its not completely worked over. Willows is worked over and everything has been nicely tidied up so you have no idea until you start digging up beer cans that you are reworking old ground. Tomahawk is a huge area, you should be able to find a spot there with a bit of luck.
Thanks.
I'll avoid the Willows.
I am leaning toward more time at Tomahawk Crk, should just get phone coverage as well(at least in parts) with my new big high gain antenna. I'm a bit concerned about the heat, thinking of digging morning/late arvo then processing the gravel in the shade in the middle of the day. But I won't go north unless the long range forecast is looking ok.Any tricks to getting water at the Tomahawk Creek waterhole ? Can you drive close to the water, would a 12v pump help?
Cheers


Rusted

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Re: Anyone been to Glenalva ?
« Reply #4 on: March 08, 2022, 09:04:59 PM »
Last time I was at tomahawk the waterhole was reasonably accessible, There was one track that got reasonably close. From where you parked the car you scrambled down the bank 20m or so of not too steep slope to a big tree, which was still a couple of metres above the water. Bucket and rope was the easiest way from there. Of coarse the worst part was lugging the full buckets up to the car.
There is another track on the other (North) side of the gully but it's fairly washed away and difficult to get down to the creek from that side.

We did have a dig in a couple of old holes on that creek side (west) of the hill, it looked promising with a fair layer of wash but completely Sapphire free.

The old Army Survey 1:250K map of Tomahawk actually does a reasonable job of showing the tracks, they are out of date and a few tracks have wandered over the years but it is still decent.

Clarky

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Re: Anyone been to Glenalva ?
« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2022, 10:45:57 PM »
We had a look at Glenalva last july between border shutdowns. Drove past floodwater as far up as Miles but it was dry as a chip on the gemfields. Take a Willoughby, a cutdown 44 gallon drum & some 20 litre water containers. You can top up your water in Sapphire at the local water supply for a couple of dollars. Once you set up at your fossicking site top the 44 up from the water containers & use the Willoughby & your sieves to clean your wash. It wont matter if the creeks & gullies are bone dry you can still fossick without the hassle of chasing water. We had a day at Glenalva for half a dozen small stones. Another day at Graves Hill for some bigger stones but lower clarity. The guy camped next to us was travelling to Tomahawk & taking water from Sapphire. He did ok but there are a lot of lower quality stones between the good ones.

MakkyBrown

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Re: Anyone been to Glenalva ?
« Reply #6 on: March 09, 2022, 02:45:29 PM »
We had a look at Glenalva last july between border shutdowns. Drove past floodwater as far up as Miles but it was dry as a chip on the gemfields. Take a Willoughby, a cutdown 44 gallon drum & some 20 litre water containers. You can top up your water in Sapphire at the local water supply for a couple of dollars. Once you set up at your fossicking site top the 44 up from the water containers & use the Willoughby & your sieves to clean your wash. It wont matter if the creeks & gullies are bone dry you can still fossick without the hassle of chasing water. We had a day at Glenalva for half a dozen small stones. Another day at Graves Hill for some bigger stones but lower clarity. The guy camped next to us was travelling to Tomahawk & taking water from Sapphire. He did ok but there are a lot of lower quality stones between the good ones.
Thanks Clarky, and welcome to the forum  beers
Rusted as I really hate carrying water drums I just ordered a pump ;D . I'll have 30meters of hose and the pump will do 10meters of head. Better to use my energy digging than carrying drums. Figured I'd used a buoy/weight arrangement to keep it submerged but away from the bottom.
CheersMB
« Last Edit: March 09, 2022, 02:47:00 PM by MakkyBrown »

Rusted

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Re: Anyone been to Glenalva ?
« Reply #7 on: March 09, 2022, 05:01:23 PM »
I like the idea of the pump. If the river hasn't changed with the floods it is quite deep below the tree, basically drop down from where the River Red gum is growing straight down into a deep pool, so you should be right.

MakkyBrown

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Re: Anyone been to Glenalva ?
« Reply #8 on: March 09, 2022, 05:59:36 PM »
I like the idea of the pump. If the river hasn't changed with the floods it is quite deep below the tree, basically drop down from where the River Red gum is growing straight down into a deep pool, so you should be right.
I figure I either connect it to my battery with the vehicle idling then I get a good 2v I can sacrifice in voltage drop keeping the wire size in the practical range. Or carry the battery part way down the slope and have shorter wires. I think the pump comes with 5metres of wire and clamps. Pump draws 4.5A peak, which it will probably be doing pushing a decent head height.

Clarky

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Re: Anyone been to Glenalva ?
« Reply #9 on: March 14, 2022, 09:55:30 AM »
Hi Makky,
               I bumped into a guy from the The Willows at Minerama on saturday. He said the Queensland gemfields had missed all the rain again & it was still dry as a chip. While he hadnt been to Tomahawk recently he did suggest you might have trouble finding water. He was enjoying having 20 minute showers at Glen Innes rather than 20 litre showers at The Willows.

MakkyBrown

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Re: Anyone been to Glenalva ?
« Reply #10 on: March 16, 2022, 08:33:15 AM »
Hi Makky,
               I bumped into a guy from the The Willows at Minerama on saturday. He said the Queensland gemfields had missed all the rain again & it was still dry as a chip. While he hadnt been to Tomahawk recently he did suggest you might have trouble finding water. He was enjoying having 20 minute showers at Glen Innes rather than 20 litre showers at The Willows.
Thanks Clarky, what was Minerama like did you do any of the field trips ?

MrSydney

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Re: Anyone been to Glenalva ?
« Reply #11 on: March 16, 2022, 10:19:10 AM »
Hi Makky,

I was at Minerama.  First trip for 'experienced' operators was to a property called Boolabinda that has had fossickers and mining on it previously.  That said there were apparently 3 good stones found, including one really good one about 9.5 carats that was eye clear.  There is a picture on the Glen Innes fossicking club facebook page.

The second trip was to private property on Oban which even the trip leader thought should be pretty good BUT 50mm of rain about 2 days before and the track in became a mess.  Apparently the farmer went out to check it out and got bogged and took 8 hours to get his car back.  Needless to say they had to cancel that trip and they took us to a last minute back up site that wasn't great unfortunately.

Still - awesome to get up in the mountains and in the streams and scratching around.

Clarky

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Re: Anyone been to Glenalva ?
« Reply #12 on: March 16, 2022, 09:20:06 PM »
Hi Makky,
              Minerama was interesting as we havent been to anything like that before. We didnt try to book any field trips as we had a couple of sites we wanted to check & only found out Minerama was on through the week from a regional paper. The fossicking sites were just like Mr Sydney said, wet. We had a look at Kookabookra, the river was canoeable with water & sand laying out over the flats & road edges washed out everywhere. We had a look at another site to the north & my better half found a nice clear blue chip in a wash pile when the sun poked through the cloud. We have a bag of wash to run through this coming weekend. Planning on a few days up there in late April after the school holidays if we can get a campsite.   

MakkyBrown

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Re: Anyone been to Glenalva ?
« Reply #13 on: March 17, 2022, 05:00:33 PM »
Hi Makky,
              Minerama was interesting as we havent been to anything like that before. We didnt try to book any field trips as we had a couple of sites we wanted to check & only found out Minerama was on through the week from a regional paper. The fossicking sites were just like Mr Sydney said, wet. We had a look at Kookabookra, the river was canoeable with water & sand laying out over the flats & road edges washed out everywhere. We had a look at another site to the north & my better half found a nice clear blue chip in a wash pile when the sun poked through the cloud. We have a bag of wash to run through this coming weekend. Planning on a few days up there in late April after the school holidays if we can get a campsite.   
Hopefully the rain has given Kookabookra(I'll have to look where that is) a good turn over and filled up some traps for you. I just change my boat booking, now leaving mid May, weather should be a bit cooled QLD gem field by then, also gives me a bit more time to get organized which is taking me longer than expected.

 

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