Oh. Oh, no.
Oh! What the hell just happened?
My car's just full on fire. I don't know what the hell's going on. Oh!
I've had this thing for ten years.
Oh, man, brand-new generator, fridge, all my work tools.
I can't do this, man. I really can't. I've just lost everything.
(NARRATOR) This time on Aussie Gold Hunters... Whoo-hoo!
We got some colour! Marcus and Linden upgrade
with a new lease and powerful machinery.
Gone down a fair bit now, going to park up here. Yeah, park it up.
But rock hard ground throws their plans into question. Oh, come on.
I'm scared if I go lower, that I'm going to damage this machine.
The Goldtimers suffer a catastrophe
after thousands of dollars' worth of equipment goes up in flames...
What the hell just happened? That's it, I'm done.
..before a hunt near century-old workings pays off.
Hoo-hoo. That's come out of the same hole, man. How much is this going to turn into?
The Ferals are forced to launch a rescue mission when Rob goes missing.
You got a copy Robbie? The worst time you'd want to be out there.
Causing tempers to flare. We set a plan, all right, we stick to it.
Oh, man, when I found out your car went up in flames,
I didn't think we'd be coming out for another season. I'm out of pocket a fair bit.
I looked back and there's flames, absolutely everything was on fire.
Thousands and thousands of dollars down the drain.
I'm glad you made it out of there alive, mate.
Could have been the batteries. No idea how it started but I've just lost a lot of money.
In the vast and arid goldfields of Western Australia,
best friends and gold prospecting partners,
Rob "Turbo" Linton and Rob Dale
are heading out for a critical new season.
When I got the news from Turbo that his car
and everything went up in flames,
I thought the season's over before it started.
Luckily I convinced him it's worth having another go.
This is where it all happened, bro.
This is where my ute died, right here.
That's a bit of a burn mark, mate. That really, really burnt hot there.
It's melted the tar in the road. Yep.
Two days ago, the fire-ravaged remains of Turbo's ute
and over $10,000 of gold hunting equipment
were trucked to a nearby scrapyard.
Oh, man, lost all my stuff on the back, man, that was...
That's a pretty hard hit to take. I was this close to quitting.
Well, I'm glad you haven't. We belong out here. We've worked really hard.
We've really, really worked our way up to where we are now.
Four years ago we decided to come out and look for gold.
Let me have a look. From the very first trip, we were both hooked.
This was something we wanted to do, and having success...
Oh, bro. Yeah. ..we thought, "Let's buy a lease and see how we go."
Get stuffed, mate. Cracking it. It's bloody hot in here too.
We've had decent finds Oh, my God! (BOTH LAUGH)
Yeah, the old gold game, one nugget could change your life.
Well, what do you reckon?
Leave this behind us, mate, move on? Yeah, man.
Come on, man. I pretty much spent most of my savings
to replace everything to get back out here.
So, fingers crossed the next couple of weeks
that we find some decent gold to help us stay out here.
We've set our target this season at 20 ounces.
We're going to spend the whole season out here, work as hard as we can to recoup what we've lost.
The Goldtimers' remote camp and lease is located in arid scrubland desert,
600 kilometres north east from their home city of Perth.
We'll get in there, find some gold, we'll pay it off.
Wives are on our backs, unless we really bring home the bacon.
Back home, bruz. Yeah. Back for another season.
Yeah. We're out here with the elements.
It's either extremely hot or extremely cold, so tents have had to be moved aside
and we've had to bring in some caravans to make our existence out here more comfortable.
With over $10,000 of equipment destroyed,
the Goldtimers have had the worst start to a season ever.
They have no option but to recover that debt as fast as possible.
I'll get in the loader. Yeah, mate, I'll grab the detector and find some gold.
Hopefully I'm going to find some gold in this first cut.
The pair rely on an eight-ton loader to scrape away 15-centimetre layers
of dirt, before detecting each cut for nuggets.
Rob's starting the detecting. Hopefully he finds a few targets in the ground.
I wanna put money back in the bank.
Being away from the wife and kids, it's hard on my kids.
As long as there's some gold coming home, we're able to make it work.
After Turbo lost his car and all his equipment, I thought that was going to be the end of us.
There's a lot of pressure on me now to prove to him and myself
that it was a good decision to get back out here and keep working and,
you know, this has to pay off.
Western Australia and the extreme wilderness of the Pilbara region.
Over the past decade, this rugged landscape has been gripped
by a gold boom, attracting huge mining companies
from around the world.
But much of its gold-hunting ground is still unexplored.
So smaller mining teams search for gold closer to the surface,
including exploratory prospecting team, the Ferals.
The trio have just secured permission from indigenous owners,
the Ngarluma people, to search for untapped resources on Jarman Island
and the surrounding coastal area.
So I'm out here having a bit of a scout around. It's cost us a lot of money
to come to these islands and have a look.
We need two ounces to make this trip viable.
With just a few days left,
the Ferals are racing to detect parts of the island
they haven't covered yet.
This is our one and only opportunity so the more time we spend detecting,
the better chance we've got of finding that real wow factor.
Levi's new wife, Bridget, has also made a 350-kilometre trip
from her hometown to help out.
How are you going over there, honey? Any luck?
Not yet, a few noises, but no luck yet.
Maybe it's worth us sort of going down the rocks. Sounds good.
It's really handy having Bridge come out
because I got a lot of this ground I haven't even covered yet.
Get two of us on the detectors, we're cutting my time in half.
There's a good chance that we might find some gold down here.
Heavy rain and floods, could have washed any alluvial nuggets down
or even alluvial nuggets from inland, so... Amazing, see what we find. Yep.
Bridge and I got married a couple of months ago.
I'd like to use the gold towards starting a family, you know, getting that little nest egg going.
The harder I work now, the more time I get to spend with her and our future family.
It's still there. With the gold it's always a gamble.
It is fun coming out and helping but there is a financial side too.
What have you got? It's gone green, a copper nail.
We do need to find gold and make a living out of this.
While Levi and Bridget focus on the shoreline,
teammate Ryan is searching the island's high ground.
We set ourselves a target of 40 ounces this season,
we want to put that towards building up Feral Exploration to get some leases and more machinery.
It's an old bullet shell.
There still is an opportunity of finding gold.
Robbie's out scouting for some other locations on the mainland.
There could be gold washed out from all the tributaries and all the rivers.
I'm really hopeful that Robbie will find a nice location that we can find some gold on cos we need it.
Rob left this morning on a scouting mission to find gold ground
on the hard-to-access coastline, where gold may have been deposited
after travelling down inland river systems.
Hopefully he'll find some spots there that we can get into
and find some gold. Last week...
Hey, how good is this, mate? We're heading to the islands.
..the team launched their exploration mission, costing them over $5,000...
We can use this island as our home base and then we can duck in
to the little different tributaries that are running off the mainland.
..uncovering a decent haul by a treacherous creek system. Hoo-hoo!
It's yellow!
But not enough to cover their expedition costs so far.
12.94. Call it 13. We need that two ounces. Yep.
13 grams is really not enough for us, you know. We're in the red.
The tide's running out now. Hope Robbie's all right.
Hey, Robbie, you got a copy, mate?
Got a copy there, Robbie?
This time of the year, the weather could turn quickly and we have 40 knot winds, the swell comes up.
That tide's running out fast. If he's stuck on the mudflats,
we won't see him until tomorrow.
Robbie, you got a copy? Really starting to get worried about him.
Only thing I can think of is his battery's gone flat on his two-way.
Look, Levi, I haven't been able to get radio contact with Rob.
I might jump in the boat and go for a look. See you on the beach.
It's really good that Levi's with Bridge.
They can keep detecting on the island and I can head off and look for Rob.
He's been gone longer than he should have.
If I see him, I'll give you a call on the radio. And likewise, it will be appreciated.
See you when you get back. I'll give you a call. See you soon.
It's just so important out here
that we keep communication channels open.
I did tell him to give us a bit of a check call but it's been too long without hearing from him.
Got a copy, Robbie?
The swell's picking up. The tide's running out.
Really the worst time that you'd want to be out there. Robbie, you got a channel mate?
We can't even find gold, we're stuffin' around with your car.
Nobody said it was going to be easy, mate. I reckon she's going to go. Go and kick her in the guts.
I'll kick it in the guts. If she won't start, then I'm putting this on you.
Just be good to her. (ENGINE STARTS)
Yes, yes. Aye! What'd I tell ya?
Be mean to her, she's not going to start, we'd be stuffed.
Yeah, get in, man. Haha, come on. We gotta meet Dale. Let's go.
In the legendary Goldfields of Western Australia,
brothers Marcus McGuire and Linden Brownley are heading
to a meeting with prospecting partner Dale Harring to discuss
the season ahead.
Dale gave Marcus a call. Said, "Meet me out in the bush,"
so we're out on the road again.
Happy, mate, to be back out, looking for gold.
It's all good, as long as we find it.
Yeah. Right now, it's not paying for itself.
We've set targets over the last two seasons and we haven't reached it.
So coming into this season, I'm very jaded about committing to it.
I know exactly where you're coming from. But who knows, you know?
It is very important that I find as much gold as I can.
I've got family that are relying on me. My kids, partner.
Maybe the Lord left a piece there for us. Maybe.
You know what I mean, mate?
I work in emergency, a high dependency unit in town in the hospital. That's my day job.
It's kinda hard when you've gotta juggle time to be free to get out and do a bit of detecting.
So, at the end of the day we've gotta find gold to be here.
So, where's Dale? She's out here at Ora Banda? Waiting there for us. OK.
Last season... Bit of cloud today, so don't forget to do your air tune.
..prospecting guru, Dale Harring, helped the brothers uncover
their biggest gold nugget ever, worth close to $20,000. (LAUGHTER)
Oh, 7.12! (LAUGHS)
But the trio still fell short of their 15-ounce season target.
Oh, there she is. Look out.
Hello. How you going?
Looks great, doesn't it? Yeah.
Well what are we doing here Auntie? Well, this is the deal, guys. This is my mate's lease.
He's given me permission to work the ground. I've got machinery coming in.
Thing is, we can keep all the gold.
He just wants to know the GPS coordinates.
So when he comes back out, he'll finish off where we started.
How confident are you, Auntie, that there's gold there?
I'm very confident, mate. My friend, he's picked up some good gold.
I've come up with an agreement with a mate of mine. He's unable to get out here and work the ground.
A few things have come up so he gave me permission to come out.
The two-square kilometre lease is in a renowned gold-producing area,
close to mines that have recovered over 100 million dollars' worth
of gold in recent years.
I reckon it sounds exciting. If you give us a bit of time, let us two have a bit of a quick yarn and...
Yeah, no problem. Come down and see me when you're finished. No worries.
So what do you reckon?
Yeah, I don't know, man. My sense of commitment right now is very 50/50.
I'm not sure, seriously, if this is something that we can handle.
This is a big step up.
You've got big costs involved, fuel, oil, hire of machinery.
I don't know about you, bro, but I know the expenses
that we got to factor in, but yeah, I'd be willing to help her.
I've never seen better ground.
Are you confident enough to put your savings into this? Yeah, mate.
Having our own lease, doing a bit of pushing with some machinery and I'm on the ball with that and...
I'm a bit excited to get into it. Own claim now.
Nobody can come on here. You might have sold me on that.
OK.
I reckon, let's do it, bruz. All right.
In previous seasons we were just wandering around on pending leases
where, you know, every man and his dog can come out there and run amok and we've been picking up scraps.
Hey, Auntie! We in this all together. Oh, thank you.
Woo-hoo! A-Team back again!
Come on, Robbie, where are you mate? You're not answering your radio.
Hope you're not stuck on the mudflats somewhere.
Just off the Pilbara region's coastline, the Ferals are a man down.
Rob has failed to make contact during a scouting mission on the mainland,
with the nearest marine rescue team eight kilometres away.
Just come up to the lighthouse.
Just going to have a detect around here and also keep a lookout for Robbie at the same time.
The way the wind's going, I'll need to go over to the shoreline, over the other side.
If he's broken down, that's where he'll be.
Would have taken him back to the mainland.
There's not really much else we can do until he shows up
or until the next step is contacting sea rescue if he doesn't show up.
The Ferals have just a few days left to hunt on the island
and are relying on Rob to scout out gold ground back on the mainland.
But the team have lost radio contact, leaving Bridget and Levi
to detect the remainder of the island while Ryan goes in search of Rob.
Got a bit of a signal there, but it's just...
(SIGHS) ..looking like an old ring pull off a tin.
I can't see him, the swell's too big. He's only got a little boat.
If he's broken down and been washed up against the rocks, it'll just smash his boat in pieces.
You got a copy there, Levi?
Yeah, Ryan, any luck yet?
Seen Robbie? Nah, negative mate.
This swell's getting big, so I can't really see much from the ocean.
You know if we don't find him soon Ryan, we might have to let sea rescue know. Absolutely. I'll um...
If he's not back within a couple of hours, I'll give them a call. Yeah, Roger.
An average of five people a year drown in boating accidents
off Western Australia's treacherous coastline.
I'm hoping that Robbie's poked up the creek
and he's just bottomed out up there somewhere, just stuck in the mud.
We just don't know. You know, I'm just guessing at the moment.
Hey, Ryan, I got a visual on Robbie. He's coming in from the east.
It definitely looks like Robbie.
Mate, thanks so much for that. You know, I was getting really stressed.
It's just getting rougher and rougher out here.
I'll try and give him a call, mate. Can't be out here driving around the ocean looking for someone.
You know, trying to find some gold.
Hey, bro, any luck? Usually find a nugget in that first push.
Unfortunately nothing this time round.
The Goldtimers are targeting ground near a century-old mine shaft
where they had success last season.
We're working up to these shafts.
We sort of figured out that the gold's coming from them.
I'm desperate to find some gold. I've lost thousands and thousands of dollars,
from the stuff on my ute that got burnt.
This shaft here, there's no information on it.
The other shafts have been documented and how much was found was written down.
But this is just a blank canvas.
Prospectors sank hundreds of deep mine shafts
to chase gold-bearing quartz veins, during a gold rush in the 1890s.
You know what bro? Clearly this gold was coming from that shaft.
We need to get in there and start working with it.
No worries man. We know the old timers didn't get it all.
Nah, the Goldtimers are going to get it all, mate.
There's no way they dug a shaft for nothing so we'd be mad not to get in there.
You want to do the honours? I'll get down there. Let's have a look.
If Rob can work out what direction the old timers were tunnelling underground,
it could help zero in on more gold.
Jesus Christ, man, that is massive in there. Really?
We need to be keeping to the left of this, all right?
That's where all the action was happening, wasn't it? Yeah.
It's time we get into it. Yeah, man.
It must be six metres wide, a-metre-and-a-half high.
That's just without all the dirt that's been caved in inside there.
The old timers were chasing the main gold veins.
They weren't going to dig the area up looking for a couple of nuggets so we're chasing what they've missed.
I'm going to get all these piles first, spread 'em out.
Haven't detected 'em yet, so hopefully we'll get a few nugs.
Before Rob and Turbo can start scraping and detecting the ground
above the mine shaft, they need to detect the old mine waste
for any gold the old timers might have missed.
This shaft hasn't been worked on for probably 100 years.
Old timers didn't have detectors.
We're going to pick up stuff they couldn't see or they chucked out.
(BEEPING) Yeah, this sounds like a big fat piece of rubbish
but we'll have a look anyway. There it is.
The old timers here were doing a lot of blasting.
We find lots of exploded detonators. Until we've taken off some good layers, it's just riddled in trash.
Gotta keep working until we dig something up, just keep pressing on.
Good news, we found Robbie. We'll see what he's got to say.
The Ferals have spent the past two hours
searching for teammate Rob Beeton
after they lost radio contact while he was scouting
the remote Pilbara coastline for new gold ground.
He was meant to call me every hour.
We've only got 13 grams of gold and we can't afford
to be out there wasting more fuel and time. I'm back, buddy!
What are you so happy about, mate? You were meant to do radio checks.
Well, I've been out exploring, mate. My battery went flat on the radio.
As soon as you realised, why didn't you come back?
I was trying to look for some gold, mate.
I've just wasted time out there, I'm worried sick about you.
I thought you could be dead, mate. You know, we make an agreement, we set a plan,
and we stick to it. Keep going off, mate.
We didn't know what was going on. The tide's running out, the swell was huge.
We need to find gold, at least two ounces to cover costs.
But, mate, I'm out getting bounced around in the waves, nearly got flipped over, out looking for you.
Serious, bro, I'm trying to look after our interests, OK?
For a moment, I got stuck on the mud. I had to get out and push the boat.
I stuffed up, yes, all right, because we've got a 40-ounce target, right, to get this year.
We're going to need the places to go. Yeah. Look what I found, mate, one little piece of gold.
Ooh, man, that's... This is where we're gonna go, OK, as soon as we get off of here.
I'm only just trying my best, OK?
The main thing with team Feral, you know, we work our differences out
and we come together and we find gold.
Glad you made it back, Robbie. We were pretty worried.
There was one good thing coming out of where I was.
I found one little piece of gold, mate. Oh, yeah?
In a spot that we can go. We'll go there and back on the high tide.
Super keen. Good plan, Robbie. What do you reckon? Let's go, Ferals!
Come on, Ferals. That sounds like a good plan.
How you going there, guys, with the machinery?
Yeah, just coming along steady.
In the central Goldfields of Western Australia,
Marcus, Linden and Dale are about to tackle
their riskiest, most expensive gold venture yet.
This season we've hired a mini loader. Those costs are 200 bucks a day to hire.
So getting on the gold is very, very important.
They've gone equal partners on a two-square kilometre lease
just outside the old gold town of Ora Banda.
Ora Banda is on Wongutha country, our traditional land and it was once a bustling place,
north of Kalgoorlie, roughly about 2,000 people, a rich mining history.
We're hoping a lot of that gold is still left behind.
See this area, mate, this is where my mate's been pushing
so this is where he reckons we work.
My mate sort of started out here following those old paleochannels.
That's where the deep gold can be.
Millions of years ago, water coursed through this area,
carrying gold that became trapped at the bottom of riverbeds.
When the water dried up, these old river systems
were covered by layers of dirt, encasing the gold below.
First day. So this is it.
The number one objective for this season is pushing pads.
We've hired a mini loader and we're going to take off that topsoil
and then get lower each level, getting to the good gold that's right down deep.
So, you know, we might be going like this deep at times.
Just skimming the top off. Then you can detect it. Let's go.
All right. Let's get stuck into it.
Years ago I worked in the mine, did a few years,
mining iron ore and diamonds and gold as well.
It doesn't matter what size machinery that you operated back in the day. It's always fun,
brings back those memories. It's been nearly 20 years
since Marcus operated heavy machinery for mining companies
in the north of Western Australia.
Real good being back on this machine.
Hopefully we can start seeing some colour soon.
Making ends meet has been pretty stressful.
If you want to get your detector... All good? ..we should be ready to go. OK.
Extra money we do find, it allows us to have things
set up for emergencies, in case things may happen.
I'm going to go for a yonder further down.
OK. And then we've got somewhere else to push if need be.
There's a lot riding on this trip this time, you know, with all the costs we've outlaid.
So hopefully today's the day where we'll find something.
(BEEPING) Ooh, that's all right.
Could be rubbish. Could be a nuggie.
(BEEPING) Hoo-hoo, how's that? Second scoop.
(BEEPING)
(LAUGHS) Voila. Look at that.
Little nugget. One gram maybe. That's good.
The one gram nugget, worth close to $80,
is their first find of the season.
How you guys going up there? Have you found any gold yet?
Because I have! (LAUGHS) Really?
I'm going to keep following it down, I'll catch up with you later.
That's a good plan. We'll see you after.
Whoo-hoo! Man, we are in this all the way.
This is it boys, this is the spot. Seriously,
we've got two hours so we've got to hit the ground running.
The Ferals have relocated to the mainland after Rob found
promising ground on a coastal creek system.
If there's one piece, hopefully there could be more.
Got to strap those detectors on and get out, hit that ground.
The trio are making the last-ditch mission
after Levi's wife Bridget returned home.
Bridget gave us a hand. It was nice to have her out here.
Now we've decided to have another crack on the mainland, see if we can find more gold.
Phew! Let's get out there. We've got a bit of a walk.
It's the team's last chance to prospect before their permission
from the land's traditional owners, expires.
You see them hills over there? Yep.
That's basically where we're going to be. Get some nuggies, boys! Phew.
This is roughly where I was the other day.
They've headed off in a different direction.
I've come straight back to where I found that bit of gold.
Gold is pretty much everything. I haven't got a nine-to-five job.
If I don't find gold, I can't live. Pretty sure there's something here.
Just get rid of all these sticks and stuff first. Come on, baby.
(BEEPING)
Yeah, that's getting louder now. And it sounds like gold!
Yeah, boys! There's more here!
Check that little baby out!
Oh, wicked. I'm just so glad that this has reproduced another one.
The two-gram nugget is worth almost $160.
Hey, boys, I found another one!
Phew. Well done, Robbie. Keep picking up those nuggies.
(BEEPING) Got a little signal.
Just clear the area.
Scrape it up. It doesn't sound too bad.
Sounds all right.
Give it a quick magnet.
Magnet's just to pick up any rubbish.
Steel sticks to magnets so... (BEEPING) Still there.
You beauty.
(BEEPING) All right, it's in the scoop.
Oh, I think I just heard it. Come on, nuggies.
There it is!
Nice piece of gold. Look at that.
Nice piece of gold, probably about a gram.
So we haven't got long left before this tide runs out, so I'll celebrate later.
Gold ain't going to find itself out here. That's our job.
First time we're actually doing something like this.
We've stepped up our game, got some machines involved. It's gold time, baby. Ready, mate?
I'm going to park up here. Yeah, park it up.
For the first time ever, brothers Marcus and Linden are stepping up
their operation, using a 1.2-ton mini loader
to scrape back the top layer of ground
on their two-square kilometre Ora Banda lease.
Come on, go dig me a hole.
Now that Marcus and I have brought machinery into this prospecting game
that is $200 a day just to hire,
if we don't find any gold, we're essentially $200 in the red.
We've taken on a bigger commitment this year.
You know, before it was just detecting.
This time, you know, there's bigger expenses involved, you know,
and it's out of our pocket until we find gold.
Hey, old boy! Yo, bro, any luck? Nah, man.
Oh, well, go down lower. Drop another fade on it, give him a haircut. No time to waste.
I'll give you a yell when she's ready. All good, man.
The season depends on going down each level to find that deep gold
and if we can't get to it, it's a slap in the face.
Last year, all I came up with was just a three-ouncer
and every little bit counts but right now,
I'm not going to survive if I'm not out here finding gold.
(BEEPING) Got a signal here.
It could be deep, I don't know. Whatever it is, could be deep.
Could be rust but you've got to dig everything as they say.
(BEEPING) OK.
God willing we've got some gold. (BEEPING) All right.
Now we're talking. Come on, gold.
(BEEPING)
Yes! (LAUGHS) Hey.
We got some colour. Whoo!
He's a little one but, er, it's gold.
Might be two to three grams. First gold for the season for me,
so things are looking up.
Given my performance over the last few seasons, I'm quite proud of this. I know it's not much,
but it's a good indication that we're on gold ground.
We just gotta keep on keeping on.
What we're actually looking for is that rounded bedrock
through the old river system.
That gold's heavy and it's going to sit with that bedrock.
At the moment the loader's struggled with some of that calcrete.
If we don't find something today,
we might have to pull up and start assessing somewhere else.
This calcrete here is like nature's concrete.
When you hit big chunks, it'll stop you dead.
But hopefully we're not going to come across any of the really, really big pieces.
Hate to think what we'd have to do if we do.
It's hard work digging up the old timers' trash.
(SIGHS) Oh, man.
130 kilometres north east...
Oh, there we go, big chunk of wire.
..Rob and Turbo have hit an old rubbish dump
after targeting ground next to a century-old mine shaft.
Spread this out and Rob will get in here and detect this little bit.
Hopefully something comes of it.
It's gotta pay off sooner or later, surely. So I spent all my savings..
I had to recoup everything on the back of my ute that got burnt.
I've lost thousands and thousands of dollars' worth of stuff. All stuff I need to be out here.
Let's see what it's starting to look like.
Sometimes you think, "What are we doing out here?"
We've got bills and mortgages so we gotta make it happen out here,
and we've just gotta work our butts off.
(BEEPING)
Hey, I got a target.
You need the pick? Ah, hang on. On the surface?
I think it's on the surface. Yeah, nah, I got him. Oh, I can see it.
It's a little specie. Look at that, a little bit of gold. (LAUGHS)
First bit of gold, bruz. Finally.
Well, looks like we know what we're doing. Yeah. Man, finally. Yeah.
The $50 specie is a gold nugget encased in rock.
What do you reckon, we get back into it? Yeah. Awesome, man. First bit of gold. I'll leave you the pick.
(LAUGHS) Finally found our first bit of gold for the season.
It's a good sign. Finally into the hard ground now where the old timers
haven't been so fingers crossed, we find decent gold.
(BEEPING) Ooh.
I've got a really good target here. Yeah, bro. No more rubbish here.
We'll check the pile.
(BEEPING) Oh yeah, you've got it out. Come on.
Please, please, please, please. It's in me hand.
I heard a dunk. (LAUGHS) Come on. Is it gold?
Oh, it's gold. (LAUGHS)
Oh, man. Finally.
What do you reckon it weighs, bruz? Oh, around half a gram. Yeah, OK.
The half-gram nugget is worth just $40,
but it could mean they're getting closer
to gold-rich ground buried below.
They're the ones we want. Donk. (LAUGHS)
Mate, never get sick of that noise, bro. (BEEPING)
Oh, there's another target, man. The same hole. I didn't check the hole again.
All right, look out. Yeah, get in there mate.
Come on, get it out. Oh, it's out. It's out, bro.
Oh, I heard it. There it is.
(LAUGHS) It's come out of the same hole, man.
We're doing it, bro.
Go on, check that hole again, bro. (BEEPING)
(LAUGHS) There's another target, man. Are you serious?
Oh, my God, man, we found a pocket. Look out, bro. Watch out.
I'm getting the pick in there.
Oh, we've never found a pocket before, man. How much is this going to turn into? (BOTH LAUGH)
2 00:35:42.200 -- 00:35:47.800 align:middle line:90% position:50% This little machine, these big boulders that are coming out are not good for it. Oh, come on!
On the outskirts of the old mining town of Ora Banda,
brothers Marcus and Linden, alongside mining partner Dale,
are using machinery for the first time ever to boost their gold tally.
There you go, that's how hard it gets.
If I go any deeper, I'm going to hurt the machine. I don't want to break it.
So we're going to regroup now and see what we can come up with. These are getting bigger and bigger.
I'm scared if I go any lower that I'll damage this machine. I understand.
We haven't found anything on here, so how about we move on down where I found that nugget?
That sounds like a great idea to me. We've got nothing to lose.
It's really important that we find something to cover the fuel
and the hire of the machinery, cos otherwise we're going to run at a loss.
All right, let's get into it. Time is money. That's it. Let's go people.
This ground is such a pleasure to push.
I don't have to worry too much about the machine because you can actually cut through this like butter.
So far things aren't really going our way, kinda late in the day.
I mean, we really need to start to find some gold.
I'm just going to start detecting this pad now
while he keeps going over there because we're running out of daylight now.
(BEEPING) Got a little noise.
Marcus, Marcus! Can you come and take a scoop out for me? Yeah.
(BEEPING) Oi, oi, turn it off. Hey, Linden, come over here.
(BEEPING) (LAUGHS) Hey, don't muck around with that.
Push it all back towards you, love. Please Lord, let this be gold.
Here, mate. Let me check it.
That's not his boots? You're too close, mate. Get out of there, old boy, hurry up.
(BEEPING)
Nah.
(BEEPING) (LAUGHS)
Stop mucking around. Scoop it in ya hand. Scoop it in ya hand.
Oh, look at this. Pull it out. Where? Grab it, grab it. Grab it.
(LAUGHS)
(LAUGHS) Whoo! Oh, my God!
Wha-hey! (LAUGHS)
(LAUGHS)
Oh, boy.
That's gonna come up nice. Oh, boy.
(ALL LAUGH)
That is beautiful. How big do you think that is? An ounce and a bit maybe.
At over $2,500, the nugget
is the team's most successful start to a season ever.
The start of good things to come, people.
Don't come any better than this. Come to those who wait.
If it wasn't for you pushing, we wouldn't have found it.
This is perfect. This is the best spot we could possibly ever have for a weigh-in, I'll tell you that.
The Ferals' two-week expedition exploring
the Pilbara region's wild coastal areas, has come to an end,
and they're about to discover if their expensive gamble,
targeting unworked ground, has paid off. Hello, yellow.
That's yellow. Fair dinkum, mate, that's yellow.
Oooh.
11.38 grams.
Cos we've got 40 ounces to get.
Gold's where you find it, lads, and we ain't finding any out here.
The meagre haul means the Ferals' season tally
still sits at under an ounce of gold.
Their island mission has left them $3,000 in debt.
We know where the gold is and it's back on the mainland
so we should probably start thinking about heading back there.
Yeah. Pack it up, head back to the mainland. Regroup.
Assess our options and yeah, go from there. Yeah.
We just gotta keep high spirited and um... Find some gold.
Find some gold, put in the hard yards.
Let's get out of here. That's it.
Oh, Ferals. Head to the mainland. Beautiful. Let's go to the mainland.
Phew!
Well, mate. Pretty excited. First weigh-in of the season.
Bit of weight there. Might have done a little bit better than we thought. Yeah.
The first week of the Goldtimers' season is over
and they desperately need to recoup the cost
of losing Turbo's prospecting equipment and truck
in a roadside fire.
Come on, baby. Well, moment of truth. Here we go.
Point one...four...five,
point 638, man. That's just under 20 grams.
This is the best start to a season we've had. Yeah, man.
The $1,600 haul is the season start they desperately needed
to pay their living and fuel costs and start recovering Turbo's losses.
We're getting somewhere man. We are. Yeah. That ground down there's fantastic, man.
This shaft could be an absolute game changer.
So hopefully we'll make some really good money out of this.
Sweet, let's go. Let's go.
What a week. Been a big week. D-day, D-day.
So...give me your gold. (LAUGHS)
It's been a hard week.
Well, there's the little ones. Yeah.
130 kilometres south west in the central Goldfields,
Marcus, Linden and Dale are also hungry for a strong start
to their new season, after hiring in a mini loader
to recover gold on a friend's lease.
Because of different circumstances this year, we're looking at 20 ounces for this season.
The stakes are much higher, the risks have increased,
but the rewards are going to be greater
so we've decided to set it at 20 ounces.
Ooh, 0.21 grams
and the second one, 1.26.
Okey dokey. Where's that lovely big one? (LAUGHS)
Oh, man, look at that. Like the sunshine on a waterfall
in springtime. (LAUGHS)
What do you reckon? I reckon an ounce. I reckon an ounce.
Yeah, I reckon just over maybe. Yeah? Just over? Yeah. Righto.
Here it goes.
1.42. (ALL CHEER)
(ALL LAUGH)
Whoo! Unreal.
The $3,500 haul is their strongest start to a season ever.
After that for the first week, I think we're doing pretty well. Yeah.
The best start we've had.
I mean, this season it just goes to show that pushing pads has really paid off. Yeah. Certainly is.
Especially with the first week. That's basically covered our costs
and given us money up front. That's right.
If we can come up with that every week, we'll be laughing. I got a good feeling about this season.
I think that just like last season, we are the team. We're the A-Team.
We're the A-Team. Come on now. Bring it on in now. (LAUGHTER)
Whoo! Just got to keep doing it. Yes.
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