Hi everyone,
We’ve been given permission by Kingfisher to access the small goldfield on Salisbury Hill (thank @Drystone!), so we will be heading there on Saturday 12 October.
There is not really anywhere to camp in the area, so we will have a daytrip only. Meet at 9:00 am.
Access:
Salisbury hill is approximately between Sidmouth and Flowery Gully, south of Beaconsfield. The easiest way to get there is to turn west from the West Tamar Hwy into Flowery Gully Rd, and about 550 m after the turnoff, turn south into Salisbury Hill Rd. The road turns into a 4WD fire break for the last 400 m or so under some powerlines.
The meeting area is marked on the map below with the red arrow, and the main prospective area is the gully and southern slopes of the hill, marked with a blue circle.
If you have a GPS, the coordinates for the meeting area are S-41.24972, E146.84329.
Areas & Gear
There is no running water, so this is metal-detecting only. Much of the area south of the road and along the western fall of the hill is private property and we don’t have permission to access there.
The area under the blue circle has historical alluvial and hard-rock workings, and nuggets have been found in the recent past. The largest nugget from the alluvial area was a 22-ounce piece found in 1880.
This area has high-voltage distribution lines nearby, so VLFs may actually work better, or you may have to tone down your sensitivity depending on how close to the powerlines you are. I have used an SDC and found gold in the area, but I had to tone it down significantly.
Here’s a LIDAR image of the workings on the alluvial area.
The other main area is Eaglehawk Gully, on the northern side of the hill (green circle). There is a line of alluvial workings along the gully draining into Middle Arm Creek (which also as gold and a small amount of ossie). There are sparse prospecting holes through a large part of Salisbury hill.
Safety
If coming along and working either of the two areas, please keep in mind that Salisbury has a large number of very deep, uncapped shafts and prospecting pits. It is not very child-friendly, and we will run a sign-in and sign-out sheet to make sure we can account for everyone at the end of the day.
