Hi, I live in the Greymouth general area, not too far from the sea. I have a large section of 2400 odd sq meters, plus an area of road reserve. mostly this is my front yard, about half an acre which I mow with a ride on mower.
This part of my section has quite a history, going back to pre European times. It is near where two greenstone rivers enter the sea, near an estuary area - where Maori would have gathered food, and they were known to have lived, and worked greenstone close by, and I have found small greenstone pieces under my house, when I re-piled it.
During the gold rush days my section was part of a black sand operation - quite a large one, that lasted many years. The boxes for saving the gold were said to have been located, at least for part of it's operational time, on my front yard. There is an old water race that goes directly to it from up the valley, supporting this statement.
A good sized house once stood in my front yard, I have seen a photo dating from about the 1930's when the house already looks old and dilapidated. There is no visible trace of it now, and I have been told that it burnt down in the 40's 50's.
Part of the front yard was used as a dump, I'm not sure for what time period, but there is stuff coming to the surface here and there. Old car parts and ancient pram wheels, along with a lot of glass, including some definitely 1800's glass, comes to the surface after heavy rain.
After the gold operation ceased, a timber mill was built nearby, and my house was built for worker accommodation about 1930 ish. The guy who lived here then repaired their old tram trolley-carts, and there are parts of these in the ground as well. The sawmill has been gone for thirty years or so and the only trace of it is a huge pile of native timber sawdust a few hundred meters away.
Dredge workers lived in the general area, as there was a gold dredge operating 3 kilometres up the road. A flax-mill was working a few hundred yards away too, up until the 1960's.
I have a friend who is a bottle collector, a well known one nationally who has won prizes for his collections. He spent an afternoon probing and digging here, but only found bottles form the 1900's mostly the 50's. Again though he found broken glass from the 1800's bottles and felt there would be more to find, and he wants to try again.
I have been too scared to detect it really, as there is sooooo much metal here. I have lots of experience gold detecting, and none at all looking for coins or relics. Of course I have found plenty of relics by accident while on the gold fields hear and in Australia.
I have a Gold Bug Pro with 2 coils, and have had a little look in the back yard, finding foil and nails etc, but there are still signals aplenty of all different numbers on the screen to dig, meanwhile the front yard is untouched territory. any sensible advise would be appreciated on how to proceed? I'm busy with other things too, like working - and can't spend a lot of time on this.
Not up on using the discrimination mode or what the numbers mean. NUGGY
Edited by user Friday, 29 March 2013 1:25:44 PM(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified
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