December 9th, 2024There’s gold in them thar hills…
Over the past decade there has been an average of 8000 Miner’s Right licences sold in Victoria each year.
This licence, obtained from Resources Victoria costs $28 and allows you to remove and keep minerals discovered on Crown Land or private (with permission).
Many of those licence holders are going out looking for gold armed with sophisticated metal detectors worth up to $9000, picking over old diggings such as those across the Hepburn Shire.
It is a highly popular pastime no doubt but local detectorist Glenn Conroy remembers the days when he was one of only a handful of prospectors in the Wombat Forest combing over mining sites virtually untouched since they were abandoned a century before.
“I used to go digging around old houses and huts looking for bottles,” says Glenn, “and when the metal detectors started to be advertised in some of the bottle magazines I got interested and bought one.
“I started detecting in the remains of stone huts from the gold rush era between Musk Vale and Eganstown.”
Glenn was keen on chasing gold and was already familiar with dishing and using sluice boxes, common methods of alluvial (surface) prospectors in the 1800s.
He began talking to a few local blokes who were starting to do gold detecting who said the best way to cut your teeth was to go into those areas that had already been worked.
“So I went again and within minutes the very first bit of gold I found was 2 3/4 ounces (85g). That got me going. I got my picture in papers and since then I had a variety of detectors over the years and I’d say since then I’ve probably found about 220 ounces (6.2 kilos).”
Glenn has worked his whole life as a harness racing trainer and driver, starting with his parents Bob and Pat and continuing today in partnership with his sister Anne-Maree.
In his early 20s detecting was a casual thing, something to do on a Saturday afternoon after work. But a few short years later he was married with two daughters and gradually his hobby became a means to support his growing family.
“We were not particularly well off and so my wife Tracy would often say to me, there is ‘x’ amount of bills on the fridge, go and see what you can do.
“I used to like the fact that not only was I enjoying myself when I was detecting out in the bush but I was helping the family along. We were paying off our house as well as braces for my youngest daughter’s teeth when she was a teenager. It was a great way to earn money and have fun at the same time.”
In the late 1970s when Glenn began his gold fossicking career, the many mining sites around the area
had hardly been touched since being abandoned a century before. Besides gold, he has dug up all sorts of historical relics from English and Chinese coins, trade tokens (issued by local stores) to opium tins, digging tools, buttons and belt buckles.
While he gave some to friends and family, he still has quite a collection of objects that stand as a testament to his time spent in the bush; a combination of perseverance, luck and knowledge.
“I’ve seen a lot of blokes start and chuck it in and it would have been easy for me to do the same at the start. I wasn’t an instant success by any means and when I look back now I realise how little I knew about where the gold was and where it was likely to be found.
“But through trial and error, research and a keen interest in what other blokes were telling me you realise how it works. It’s like a magic trick.”
About five years ago his daughter Lyndal started an Instagram page for him. She would take photos of things Glenn found and post them.
Then he teamed up with fellow detectorist Anthony Meryvale filming their prospecting adventures on a phone. This became a popular YouTube channel and today Victorian Gold Hunters has garnered more than a million views and 7000 subscribers.
“I like to think that Saturday afternoon is still my time. If I’m not racing on a Saturday night I go detecting. I leave the mobile phone in the car, go out into the bush and I’m my own man.”
Words & main image: Tony Sawrey. Inset: Supplied
