This time on Aussie Gold Hunters...
We've got to try anywhere to keep the gold coming in. Absolutely.
..the Poseidon Crew's new mining permits are delayed,
forcing them to hunt Victoria's frigid and isolated High Country.
It's dangerous, it's cold, it's wet.
Look at that. That is good.
But their gamble could lead them to a bumper payday.
There literally might be tons of gold in these creeks yet to be found.
I can't believe it. We've got an excavator.
The Gold Timers use their last of their savings on big machinery...
Yeah, we're in!
Yes! We're in there now. Woo! Look at that!
..and call in extra help to break through
to a century-old mine shaft.
I think we're onto something, boys. Finally. Yes!
Let's go and put some pans! (LAUGHS)
Marcus, Linden and Dale dig deeper to uncover gold-rich ground.
Right there, right there, right there, right there.
(LAUGHTER)
What's going on? But a machinery shutdown could cost them thousands.
Come on!
This isn't good. This ain't good at all.
There's some tough tracks up here, mate. It is rough.
We've gotta try any way to keep the gold coming in. Absolutely.
In Australia's gold-rich state of Victoria,
mine boss Brent Shannon and his brother-in-law Ethan West
have ventured over 200km from their base
into the bitter two degree Celsius temperatures of mountainous Victoria.
This High Country, there is untold wealth.
Every mountaintop could potentially have gold
that hasn't been uncovered yet.
Keep going? Yeah.
It's a massive area of mountains after mountains.
It's dangerous. It's cold. It's wet.
Another river crossing, eh? Few up it, mate, isn't there?
That's exactly the type of places that I wanna go.
I wanna get up and explore areas
where a lot of other people don't get to.
It's serious four-drive country in places up here.
No-one in a little Sedan is gonna trudge down here
and try and find gold, you gotta have an equipped vehicle. I agree.
It's a hard business, this business to find gold.
We're gonna look far and wide to keep our mining future afloat.
Nearly half a ton of nuggets come out of this paddock. Half a ton!
Nearly $40 million worth of gold.
Last week, Brent secured the biggest deal of his mining career.
He gained landowner approval to dig Catto's Paddock,
a 50,000 square metre farmland lease
that hasn't been mined in over a century.
Some of Australia's biggest nuggets were found here,
including the Previous,
worth well over $4 million.
The Holy Grail is to find a 1,000 oz-plus nugget.
It's the pinnacle that I wanna reach.
But to help finance the deal, they sold their $1 million wash plant
and big-licence lease, forcing them to stop work,
and walk away from gold-rich ground.
We've got a new house, a small family that I'd providing for
and trying to live the best I can.
By walking around from gold, throwing me back into the unknown,
it's hard for me to do.
The pair need to find at least $2,000 of gold a week
to cover fuel and wages while they wait for mining approvals
to dig Catto's Paddock.
Ethan works on a percentage so, the more gold that we find,
the more money he makes, so there's a bit of pressure on my shoulders
to keep it happening.
History says the old boys got a couple of nuggets, one over 100 oz
in 2' ground, so I think we should go sniffing around.
If we can get some of those spots where there's detected gold
straight off the bat... Exactly. Could lead to something.
After Victoria's Gold Rush of 1851, high demand for virgin ground
pushed intrepid prospectors to these mountains,
where they unearthed gold up to 1½km above sea level.
I believe there is hundreds and hundreds of ounces
the old boys missed.
Brent and Ethan are using historic mining maps
and modern metal detectors to target remote areas of crown land
that anyone can prospect on with a $25 miner's right licence.
We just need to push deep, get off the beaten track
and really find out what could be up here.
Hey, hey. Oh, look at that.
It's all their old diggings.
This isn't on the map, mate. This isn't on the map. Not on the map?
The location of many of the isolated 19th-century dig sites remains unknown.
They haven't done that much work in here, mate.
The Old Timers, they never get it all. Technology evolves, which allows you to get more
and, with metal detectors, we're in for a massive advantage.
I think you're pretty remote. Boom! The old boys have been there.
There is diggings all the way through here.
It's crazy to think the work that these boys have been through
and how far they really pushed into the Bush.
We're a bit off the beaten track.
But for those boys to get to where they did, it's absolutely crazy.
I don't think anyone's been here recently, that's for certain.
Grab a rain jacket, grab our detectors,
I reckon we give it a go here for a while, Eth'.
It's our best shot, buddy. I've got a little 'un to think about, my missus to think about.
You know, bills, they don't pay themselves,
so hopefully snag a good one or two.
Just enough to get us through.
All right, mate. Let's get detecting.
This is the only option that we have to keep our operation alive.
I've got a mate down the road. He's a pretty good bloke.
Hopefully, he can give us a bit of a hand
and we can stay on track and keep pushing.
2,500km northwest is the two square kilometre Ora Banda lease,
home to the new mining operation of Marcus McGuire,
Linden Brownley and their new business partner Dale Harring.
Yeah, we've had to come to a big, screaming halt.
We've got some issues with the loader we're hiring,
it's not capable of pushing the dirt we're hitting.
Marcus has just taken off up the road, to catch up with a mate.
He told us two to get out there, do a bit of detecting.
Right now, we've got no option, we've just got to find some gold.
It's so disappointing. The point of us coming out here for this season
was to get a lease and to start pushing some pads.
If we can't do that, then what the heck are we doing out here?
Last week, the brothers embarked on their riskiest prospecting venture ever.
So the No.1 objective for this season is pushing pads.
We've hired a mini loader, we're gonna come through,
take off that top soil, get to the good gold right down deep.
They gambled on a new lease and loader,
in partnership with Dale Harring.
It's $200 a day just to hire.
If we don't find any gold, we're $200 in the red.
(LAUGHTER)
Woo! Oh, my God.
But, despite uncovering a run of nuggets,
their mini loader couldn't handle the hard ground.
Oh, come on!
I'm scared, if I'm gonna go any lower,
that I'm gonna damage this machine.
Marcus is hoping his old prospecting mate Dave Askew
can help secure a machine powerful enough
to push through the hard rock layer.
Hey! Hey. How are you, brother?
Yeah, good, man. What's happened? Oh, man.
I need your help. You need my help? What for?
Yeah. We're over here, pushing pads. Mm.
The little machine that we're using just ain't cutting it.
Hard ground, brother. Hard ground, man.
I was wondering what you were doing with the blue machine.
I was wondering if I'd be able to borrow it for a couple of days.
Can you operate one?
Been about 20 years.
Well, as long as you don't break it... You break it, you buy it.
So we'd better have a run through it.
At the end of the day, if I don't feel safe with you going on it,
I've just gotta draw the line. I understand. If I'm happy, yeah.
No worries, I'll follow you. Come on.
Nervous as all buggery. This machine is all new
and totally different from what I used 20 years ago.
I used to work in the mines, operating machines all the time.
I know the machines these days are probably a lot different.
Your lights, wipers, all that sort of thing here.
Your coolant gauge, fuel gauge and your air pressure. Air pressure.
Without air pressure, it don't go.
We haven't got much time to spend the whole day with it,
so hopefully I'm on the game and he's happy with me using it,
and fingers crossed we'll be pushing pads again today.
Treat it like you treat your mother, mate. Yeah.
And she'll look after you. If you thrash it, you flog it,
or be silly, you'll break it. Yeah.
All right, so - Yeah, bro. ..turn her on.
(ENGINE STARTS)
Marcus is a good mate, so I'll let him have it if he can operate it.
We'll get him over here pushing, give him a little go at that and see how he is.
If he breaks it, he's gotta pay for the damage and he knows that.
OK, man, let's get some dirt.
The $35,000 loader can shift two tons of dirt with every bucket.
My mate's machine, pride and joy.
Don't wanna hurt it.
Wouldn't want him to turn around and say, "No, you can't use it."
Got to get on my A game right now.
Oh, come on. Come on.
Feeling all right? You comfortable?
Just getting used to it, bro.
A little bit more dirt. A little bit more dirt.
He's got a lot of years to catch up on.
What do you reckon? You all right?
I'm, um, feeling a bit nervous at the start, but...
You've just gotta work on that level a little bit,
cos you're not digging enough. Nah.
But you'll get used to that. All right, well, I trust you.
OK. It's my livelihood. Yeah, bloody oath.
You look after me, I'll look after you, eh? Appreciate it. Thank you.
All right.
Any machine, even if you're a really good machine operator,
takes you a little while to get used to.
After a couple of hours, he'll be fine.
Woo-hoo!
I can't wait to see Linden's face, man, when he sees us on this.
(LAUGHS)
(HORN HONKS) You hear that?
(HORN HONKING) Looks like machinery, mate.
It's coming this way too. Can you see it?
There it is. I spotted it straight through the trees there.
Don't tell me that's Old Boy! (HORN CONTINUES HONKING)
Hey!
It is! (LAUGHS)
Oh, my God.
Hey! Woo-hoo-hoo!
How the heck did he get that?
Woo-hoo!
Yeah! Hey! Look out! Hey!
What do you reckon about this? Hey! Where did you get this from?
I've got a mate that stays down the road. Got it for a couple of days.
We're back in the game, I tell you both that. Yes.
Let's go and put some pads. (CHUCKLES)
Woo-hoo!
(LAUGHS)
With this loader, we are back in the game,
but there is that worry, that concern, if something goes wrong,
we're gonna have to pay some big bucks.
2 00:11:12.000 -- 00:11:14.600 align:middle line:90% position:50% Not far to go now, mate. Roger that.
Can't believe it. We've got an excavator.
$1,000, mate, to have this for a few days.
Who knows what we'll turn that into.
I hope it's gonna pay off.
On the outskirts of the historic mining town of Kookynie,
Gold Timers Rob Dale and Turbo Linton
are gambling big on the hire of a 5½ ton mini excavator.
I've invested a lot of my savings into coming back out this season.
Finding gold is the only option I have.
What happened with my Ute, I pretty much spent most of my savings
to replace everything.
Turbo had a catastrophic start to the season
when his Ute and mining equipment caught fire,
leaving him thousands of dollars in debt.
I've lost everything.
I've just lost, like, $6,000, $7,000, back of my Ute.
We're using gold we've already found to fund this.
If we don't find any gold,
we've blown some of our tally for the season.
It really does have to pay off.
It's like a big cathedral in there.
Last week, the pair uncovered a run of nuggets
close to an old mineshaft
they discovered on their 3.2 square km lease.
Oh, man! Starting to get really hard here.
But their eight ton loader wasn't designed to break through
the hard terrain and prevented them from pushing deeper.
I was thinking about getting something in here
to rip this ground up.
(INDISTINCT VOICE OVER RADIO)
Yeah, mate. With the excavator,
it's a lot easier to dig into the rock.
With the loader, you're gonna wreck your machine. The excavator's the way to go.
We definitely are ripping ground with this. Yeah, you'd better.
We could have a $100,000, $200,000 pay day
below the surface that the Old Timers have missed.
Gold was discovered here in the late-1890s, triggering a Gold Rush
that attracted thousands of hungry prospectors
who pulled almost $1 billion worth of gold from the ground.
But, just 30 years later, falling gold prices
made mining too costly,
leaving Kookynie a Gold Rush ghost town.
The Old Timers, they were only chasing the real big stuff.
Back in the day, it wasn't worth chasing little stuff,
they don't have the tech and big machinery.
Thanks, mate. Yeah, cheers, man.
Really hoping it's gonna cut through this dirt
and we're gonna make Red here operate it,
so hopefully this is gonna pay off.
G'day, boys. How you been, mate?
Good, buddy. How are you, Robbo? Yeah, good, mate.
We hired an excavator and have only got a couple of days.
We thought we'd give you a ring cos you've had the experience.
I'm more than happy to give you a hand.
I've got a couple of days off. What sort of deal do you want?
Do you wanna - Look, boys, I know you had a rough run with your Ute.
I don't want your gold. Cook us and feed us, put on a couple of beers.
We'll have a yarn. You never know,
you may need us one day. I tell you what, if we hit a half kilo...
(LAUGHS) ..I'll have a little bit.
(LAUGHTER) Come and have a look. Yeah, mate. Give us a look.
I've got a lot of mining experience, operating machinery.
Spent 20-odd years in mining,
so, more than happy to come and give the boys a hand.
This is the shaft, Big Red. Yeah.
We found some gold in here and we'd like to get our way into the tunnel over there.
Sort of - You wanna open it right up? Yeah. Yeah.
A series of ancient mine shafts
are believed to be linked
by an underground cavern or tunnels.
Their plan is to use the excavator
to expose the concealed system
before using their modern technology
to find gold that may have been missed.
What do you reckon? Dig up some gold, eh?
Yeah, mate, let's make some dust.
We don't have to only pay off what we've invested
in hiring this excavator, we need to make some profit.
I'm gonna start digging. Hopefully we can find a bit of gold, eh.
Fingers crossed it's gonna pay off for us.
I can't afford to come here with no savings if we're not finding any gold.
It's a completely different world up here
and I know why they call it God's country,
it is beautiful countryside.
But it's cold and it's wet.
In this type of trade, you've got no idea sometimes what you're stepping on.
2,500km southeast, in the Victorian High Country,
the Poseidon Crew are battling treacherous, frigid conditions,
desperate to find gold while they wait for their new mining permits to be approved.
Right now, we've got no ground to dig, so I'm feeling the pressure
until we get the approval through to Catto's,
to make sure we've got gold still on the scales.
That's the reason I want to head up into areas
where other people don't get to.
The pair are using their modern detectors
to target a remote area once worked by prospectors
over 150 years ago.
These old boys have been following the gold,
the gold down the creeks and what we're doing now,
we're trying to find pieces the old boys have missed or thrown out
of the old river course.
Millions of years ago, massive shifts in tectonic plates
created fault lines in the Earth's crust.
Quartz veins rich in gold were forced to the surface,
creating gold reefs.
Over time, the reef erodes,
depositing nuggets in ancient river systems
and adjacent soils.
There's not many people get up in here.
There's a chance that nobody has been here with detectors.
Can't see a detector hole at all anywhere.
I always go to where the Old Timers have found gold,
because they had to find gold to survive.
With metal detectors, we're in for a massive advantage on what they had.
We've all got bills to pay, Red's got bills, I've got bills
and, uh, right now, it is the best shot we've got.
(DETECTOR BUZZING)
Little target here. There's a good chance there's gonna be a bit of gold.
You've got all the rubble there. The old boys have been getting to the old river bed.
They're gonna throw out material to get close to the bottom.
And, with that, there's a chance they're throwing out gold,
because, where the river pebbles were towards the bottom of the creek,
that's where the gold was too.
Just trying for a bit of gold.
I've got it out.
(BUZZING) I've got...
I feel weight.
It's gold. Ha! It's gold.
Look at that.
That's my first bit of gold up in the High Country.
That's a flat, long piece.
Just been smashed and flattened by all these rocks acting like hammers over millions of years.
Woo-hoo!
Gold!
The 2g nugget is worth $160,
but they'll need to find 13 more just to cover weekly expenses
while they wait for the licence approvals.
One for the jar.
I love doing it but, unfortunately, we need gold to keep our business alive.
We just need to keep going until we get these licences through.
I'm loving this. Makes it so much easier than a mini loader.
It's almost like it's effortless.
At their Ora Banda lease,
Marcus, Linden and Dale are using a borrowed eight-ton loader
to scrape off layers of hard top soil
after their mini loader struggled to do the job.
This puts us back in the game.
This loader's gonna go deeper and it's gonna be able to clear
a much bigger area in a shorter amount of time.
Hey, Old Boy, how are you doing there, mate?
This is just like cutting through butter.
(BOTH LAUGH)
The team has been granted to push and detect the ground.
This involves removing 10cm layers of dirt each push,
allowing the team's metal detectors to penetrate deeper and deeper
with every pass.
The deeper that gold is, the better the chance of striking a big one.
You're doing a good job, Old Boy, let me know when you're ready.
I wanna start finding some gold, man.
All right, mate, I'm just gonna be parking it up,
so, soon as I've done, come in.
He's borrowed it in good faith,
so we wanna be able to return this in the condition that we got it.
My mate's machine, pride and joy.
Don't wanna damage it. That could be quite expensive.
I wanna keep the machine in one piece.
Come on, gold, where are you? The pressure to find gold, it's huge.
Machines cost daily and we can only push so much with the money we've got,
so we need to find gold 24/7 while we've got that machine out here.
If we don't find anything, we think we've gone two steps forward,
but we've just taken five back.
(BUZZING)
Got a good signal here.
(BUZZING CONTINUES) Marcus, can you come over here?
There's something there.
Ooh, that sounds all right. It's right in the middle there.
It's a bit deep. I'm starting to dig now.
We need some gold, man.
Try that.
(BUZZING DROWNS SPEECH)
(BUZZING CONTINUES)
Oh! It's in there. Something here, Dale.
Oh, go away! Where?
That little one. Wahey!
(LAUGHTER)
Look at that! Probably 2g or 3g, eh?
The nugget could be worth up to $240
and indicates there's more in the same section of ground.
But they'll need at least six more to cover their weekly costs.
That's it, man. Thanks, Old Boy.
Well done, mate. What do you reckon?
I reckon he should get back in his horse again,
take it for another walk around the paddock.
The plan is working, the machine is working. It's all gravy.
Back into it. Rightio.
(CLICKING)
What's going on here?
Everything seems to be...normal.
I can see the power coming through here onboard,
but it's not starting at all.
What's going on?
(CLICKING)
(GRUNTS)
I've got that voice inside my head...
..saying, "You know the rules, you break it, you're paying."
Hey, Marcus, what's going on?
She's not starting at the moment.
What do you mean, it's not starting? I don't know, man.
I'm trying to find out and I'm just checking to see
that I haven't broken anything.
I know he lent it out in good faith and I told him I'd look after it.
This isn't good.
This ain't good at all.
Bit of slow going at the moment, can't do too much.
We're literally taking... centimetres off of the top.
We've been chasing this tunnel that comes out of the shaft.
But it's got a wall of really hard rock.
Come on, baby.
Unfortunately, we haven't hit the level we've been aiming for yet.
Without any gold either yet, it's getting a bit frustrating.
At their remote Kookynie lease,
Gold Timers Rob and Turbo have risked $1,000
on hiring an excavator for the week.
Just thinking to myself, is this gamble actually gonna pay off?
Just hoping something's gonna give.
They've called in their mate Big Red to help expose
the tunnel system dug by miners over 100 years ago.
But this small 5½ ton machine
is struggling with the job.
It's chewing diesel. Costs us money.
Every day we don't find gold with it, where you're thinking,
"Oh! Have we gone bust again?"
There's a lot of pressure. I've had to spend my reserve money for this season.
Yeah, we need to find gold and got to find it quick.
(CLATTERING) Oh!
Did that just go in a hole? Yay! We're on it!
We've got it!
Yoooo! Yes!
(LAUGHTER) Oh, boys!
I've been waiting to feel that give, eh!
Awesome. We're in there now, mate. Woo! Look at that.
We're in there now. We finally opened up into the shaft now,
now we can get down there, and have a good look. Woo!
Who knows what we're gonna find?
I reckon better you than me. Yeah.
You might get stuck. (LAUGHS)
Just be careful, mate, please. Yeah.
Let's hope there's no bloody snakes down here hibernating.
During cooler months, snakes can find their way into old mine shafts
where they can lay in a semi-dormant state
until warmer temperatures arrive.
Oh, what the hell is this thing?
An old shovel, man. (LAUGHS)
That'll be good for the relic tray, man.
I'll pass it up. I'll just... Yeah. Oh. Got it?
Yeah, right.
There's a few other things down here, eh.
What have you got, mate?
It's a pan! What?
You ready? Yeah, yeah.
(GRUNTS)
Look at that. All the holes punched in.
They were using that for a sieve. Definitely.
Oh, my God. What the hell...?
Something's shining at me, boys.
Something shiny? It's a little medicine bottle.
Oh, yeah?
There's something in there. Have a look. Oh, be stuffed, mate!
What have you got? Oh, you're joking!
There's a couple of bits of gold in here.
There's three or four little pieces of gold in there.
There's probably nearly 2g there. Yeah.
Bonus, bro.
Clearly, they were finding gold down here.
It was a really cool little find.
It was only a couple of pieces. I wish they'd filled it for us.
I reckon we spread it out. Yeah, mate. Take it all.
We'll see what we find, eh?
We need a good payday and we need to get our money back
for hiring the excavator so fingers crossed there's a couple of ounces.
(BUZZING)
There's another target here.
In the remote High Country state of Victoria,
Brent and Ethan's plans to retrace Old Timers' mine workings
has paid off with a run of nuggets. (BUZZING CONTINUES)
Another target here.
The decision to sell the big licence has put a lot of pressure on my shoulders.
I've gotta make sure we've still got gold coming outta the ground.
Doesn't matter where it is.
It's another bit of gold.
Had a few pieces now out of this little spot.
The pair need at least $2,000 of gold a week
after Brent recently sold their big mining licence and mining plant
to secure new gold ground.
Actually, that's not a bad little bit, that one.
Could be 6g in that one.
It's starting to add up.
Winter's coming in, in the High Country.
I know I've got limited time, so I wanna prospect some of the creeks
and hopefully get some ounces on the scales.
Over millions of years, weathering and gravity forces heavy gold downwards,
where it's washed into rivers and creek systems.
There could be a great amount of gold
in those creeks and it's flowing through for kilometres.
That's why we wanna search 'em and try and retrieve
as much gold as we can with the limited time we have up here.
How you going there, Eth? I'm doing really well.
You beauty! How'd you go, mate? Yeah, good, mate.
Got a few bits. Have a look at that.
Yeah, right. That's not too bad. Yeah.
That's all right, Eth.
I reckon we head off, mate - Yeah.
..and try and find some gold in some creeks.
I reckon that'd be good, mate. All right. Let's go.
Next spot.
This is actually looking pretty good here, Eth. Yeah.
Right on that bend, mate. We'll go and look at it. Yeah.
Grab a pan. All right. I'll grab a shovel.
I love getting into these creeks.
This is where it all started for me, basically, when I was ten, 11.
We were in the creeks, panning, basically how they did back in the day.
You can see that quite clear.
The water's gushing right around there pretty fast
and it slows down on these inside edges.
The inside banks - So, where it slows down,
that's where the gold will drop out. Yeah. Got a pan here, eh.
So, to get back up here in the High Country,
and do that again, it's exciting.
It is enjoyable for me, but we've gotta be trying to find a buck.
Look at that. There's a few good colours.
That's actually quite nice.
All right, Ethan. It's good.
I think we might do all right here, mate.
If we go back, we'll bob this out.
We'll get enough to do a good run. Yeah.
And then we'll have a good look to see what we've got.
What we've found so far is really good gold.
But we're not doing this on a weekend as a hobby.
We have to find gold for a living.
It's a hard thing to do.
It's not one thing, it's another.
At their Ora Banda lease,
Marcus, Linden and Dale's mining operation has stalled.
What's going on, Old Boy? Not kicking over, man.
At all? Not at all, mate.
The eight ton loader they borrowed from a mate has shut down.
I'm just trying to check to see if nothing's been snapped.
Right now, we're losing time. We know we're on gold ground
and, with this loader out of action,
it's not looking good for us at all.
Kick it in the guts again. Just hold on a sec.
I'll try it again in a minute. If there's no fluid leaking,
just get up there and do it. For goodness' sake, mate.
It's frustrating as it bloody is already.
(CLICK) Yeah, you see, there's plenty of battery.
Still not starting.
What the heck is going on?
Come on!
I feel a bit gutted at the moment.
If something's broke, it could be very expensive.
I mean, you didn't run it too hard, did you?
Just detect, all right? Go and find some gold!
This ain't good.
This ain't good at all.
I've got family that are relying on me.
Got a new grandson that's coming on the way,
so it's very important for me to find as much gold as I can.
If that machine isn't operating,
then we're gonna be stuck in the red.
We didn't do too well over the last couple of seasons.
We were prospecting just with our detectors,
and I don't know if it was really worth it.
I run my own business. I'm an agricultural tool operator.
There's a lot of costs involved.
And if I'm out Bush, trying to find gold and not actually getting any,
that's gotta take its toll on the business, the business is gonna suffer.
If we can't push pads, then what the heck are we doing out here?
(BLEEPING)
Wooo-hoo! There's a speci.
Can just see on the tip here.
A speci, or specimen,
is fragments of gold encased in rock.
In this case, quartz.
If Marcus can get that machine up and running,
we should be pushing down here.
Hey, Marcus. Yeah, mate?
You got that machine up and running yet? Hopefully soon.
Just trying something.
Well, you'd better hurry up, cos I just found a speci down the creek.
Ooh. Nice size?
Yeah. I don't know how much gold's in it yet,
but this is where we should be pushing next, mate.
I'll try and get it done. I want to hear that motor going, mate.
One thing I did find, so this little yellow cord here,
that's connected, is a safety mechanism.
So, as you've got these gears that are here,
they go up and down, that's your forward and reverse.
Look like they're level now,
which means it's in neutral.
If this yellow cord comes loose - I've just tightened it back up -
the machine won't start.
That's like a safety mechanism.
So, you don't just drive off automatically, if somebody's standing in front of you.
Because it's been so low to the ground,
there could've been some sticks that came up and bumped it,
knocked it over to the side.
That's the only thing I haven't tested just yet.
So I'm hoping, fingers crossed, that she's gonna kick over.
(GROANS) Right.
(EXHALES SHARPLY) Please, please work. Please, please.
(ENGINE STARTS) Ha-ha-ha-ha!
(CONTINUES LAUGHING)
Hey, do you hear that?
Yeah, I hear it, Old Boy. Woo-hoo!
We're back in business. Yeah, we're up and running again, man.
Nothing gonna stop me.
Get over here, where I found that speci, eh?
We'll start fishing there. Yeah. Making my way there right now.
Got it going! Yes! Woo!
We'll start getting down to business,
getting dirty, start flogging some dust.
We worked late into the night last night.
We've found everything from Old Timer shovels
and mugs, pans...
Righto, mate, here we go.
We're under the pump here. We've only got the machine a few days.
We need to make the most of it while we have it.
At the Gold Timers' Kookynie lease,
Rob and Turbo are working long hours
to dig into an old tunnel system
with a 5½ ton excavator operated by their mate Big Red.
This cost us a bit over 1,000 bucks
plus our diesel,
so we need to make some profit out of this.
So I'm just getting in here every five minutes,
detecting, obviously Red's coming in, taking off a layer at a time.
Hopefully this pays off. We're bloody working hard for our money.
(BUZZING)
Oh.
(BUZZING) Listen to that! Gee, that sounds all right, mate.
(BUZZING CONTINUES) That sounds good, mate.
Oh! Finally. Yes!
Finally! Come on.
(BUZZING) Ooh!
(BUZZING CONTINUES)
I like that sound, man. It sounds lovely.
In my hand.
Here we go.
Gee, that's all right.
That's probably a gram.
The nugget could be worth $80,
but it barely makes a dent in the cost of hiring the excavator.
Get another couple of hundred of them, we'll be laughing. Yeah.
(BUZZING)
There's another target. Yeah.
Sounds good. That little split right there.
Oh, yeah, there it is. Got him? Yeah.
Might be a zero point six, mate.
I think we're onto something, boys.
Now that you've found this little bit here, I might spread it out.
Have a go with two detectors on the go and see what happens. Sweet.
OK. I'm gonna stay down here and detect.
Hopefully we pick up more gold.
Hopefully the boys pick up some gold up there.
Got Robbie to spread out some of that dirt that came out the hole.
We'll see what we can find.
(BUZZING) Ooh! Jeez, that sounds all right.
Gets your heart racing, gets your mind racing.
You never know what you're gonna pull out.
(BUZZING) No way! (LAUGHS)
Look at that!
That's a nice piece.
I reckon it's gotta be 3g.
The third nugget adds another $240 to their tally.
That was literally my first walk on the push.
Look at that. We've got nuggets coming out left, right and centre.
We're gonna keep spreading out what we've excavated out
and we can't wait to see what the weigh-out's gonna produce.
2 00:33:38.720 -- 00:33:41.760 align:middle line:90% position:50% All right, Eth? All set up, mate? Yeah, it's all good to go.
Now we've established there's gold in these hills,
the creeks is where we're focusing attention.
The Poseidon Crew have been forced into the wet, freezing conditions
of High Country, Victoria,
while they wait for permits to dig their new Catto's Paddock lease.
Right now, we're in limbo.
I'm feeling the pressure until we get approvals through to Catto's
to make sure we've got gold still on the scales.
The pair are working the creek bed,
sieving out large rocks, and running the fine concentrate
through their small, mobile wash plant.
Take it to the plant, mate. Yeah, right.
I'll just keep stripping ground here, all right?
We've got no ground to dig, we might as well keep doing this.
It's not my choice of things to be doing,
but cost per ton is right down there, so we can really try
and make some money out of the smaller gold that's in these creeks.
I'm just bringing up the buckets of concentrate.
We've sieved out all the bigger rocks, stones and all that.
We're putting it all into this bucket
ready to run through what we call the little plant.
The mobile wash plant, or high banker,
works by feeding concentrate into the hopper
as water is pumped from the river and washes it over a series of riffles
that catch the heavier gold particles while the lighter dirt is washed away.
If you get, you know, 5g or 10g a day out of this stuff,
with the amount it costs you to get in here, that's profitable ground.
It is. It's not costing us much to be here. Exactly.
I've always known fine gold's where the money's at for me.
I've been running a plant and that's where I've always made the most money.
With the operation on hold right now,
feeling the pressure on me a lot more, just to provide for my family
to make sure that no-one goes without.
Get this last little bit out.
Shut her down, mate. We'll have a look if we've got any gold.
I love my job but you need to find gold to make a living.
(LAUGHS) Look at that!
There's some chunky little... Ooh, look at that.
We'll put her in the pan, and pan her off, eh?
I've gotta keep gold coming on those scales
so I don't lose Ethan.
I don't wanna lose Ethan because, mate, he's my right-hand man.
The bloke I trust the most. There's a bit of pressure on my shoulders
right now to keep it happening.
Actually, that looks pretty good, mate. Looks good. Look at that.
I'm surprised. Look at that!
It's been a bit of work. Easily, a ton of dirt we processed.
But that's gold. We're cold, we're wet, but that is gold.
I reckon there's more than 4g, 5g there, mate.
The $370 haul could see them recover almost $2,500 a day.
There literally might be tons of gold in these creeks yet to be found, mate.
There could be, we don't know. I'm pretty...
I'm pretty happy with that. We'll take this back to camp.
We'll clean it up properly, maybe put it on the scales. Done.
I'm a happy man, Eth. We're finding gold.
We've already wasted enough time. That's it. Keep going.
Glad this machine is up and running again.
Quite happy it didn't cost any money.
At their Ora Band lease,
Marcus, Linden and Dale are back using their borrowed loader
after a faulty safety wire brought their operation to a standstill.
Getting on the gold is very, very important.
We need to find as much as we can, quickly as possible,
because we've gotta pay for the fuel, every single day.
Pad's nearly done. Might be time to give it a bit of a detect.
Over the past hour, Marcus has scraped off another 10cm layer of dirt
and exposed a fresh pad.
This allows their metal detectors to find any nuggets
buried deep below the surface.
This machine takes us two steps forward,
but if we don't find any gold out here, that leaves us in the red.
Hopefully it's gonna yield us some gold.
(BUZZING)
All the scratching that we've done, something's gotta pay off, man.
Keep going, Old Boy. I will, mate.
Don't give up, man.
(BUZZING) Hello?
(BUZZING)
Ah! You got something there, mate.
That's a strong sound, man.
Marcus has got a real good signal here.
(SIGHS) So hopefully there's some gold.
Today just might be your lucky day. (GRUNTS)
Come on, Old Boy.
(BUZZING)
Ooh, man. Give me a pick.
That's it.
Rightio.
(BUZZING) She's out. Oh-ho! She's out.
No. (BUZZING)
Hey!
(BUZZING) Right there, right there, right there, right there!
Oh!
(LAUGHTER)
Oh, look at that thing, man.
Wooo! Oh! That's a beauty.
That! No wonder she was screaming.
The nugget could be worth $1200.
Looks like this pushing pads is paying off. What do you reckon?
That's it, man. Let's go, people.
Overall, it's been a pretty good day for us
and we've still got a lot more to cover on this pad.
Let's have a weigh-up. I think it's been a pretty good week.
The Gold Timers and Big Red
have spent the week excavating an old mine shaft system
on their Kookynie lease.
We've definitely found a bit of gold, boys.
Oh, look at that, mate! That's what we're here for, boys.
All right. Come on.
0.1.
0.2.
Three. That's a big pile.
Oh, look at that!
(LAUGHS)
2.02, mate.
Oh, mate! What a week there!
That is bloody great. That is bloody good, mate.
At just over $5,000,
the haul easily covers their excavator hire costs
and fuel for the week.
The gamble we took spending that money on the excavator has off.
(LAUGHS) Man, thanks heaps for your help.
No worries, boys. Happy to help.
We need to take this fella to the pub. Mate, I've earned a couple.
Man, I reckon. (LAUGHS) Nearest pub, mate, on us.
It's good. It's given us a good cash injection,
um, we've covered all our costs, we've made a little bit of money.
It's probably the best start to a season we've had. Let's go.
Off to the pub. Let's go. Woo!
Come on, bring it in.
Marcus, Linden and Dale have come to the end of a long, challenging week.
What a week, people.
Certainly is, man, having that new loader.
Been able to push a lot quicker.
Yeah, but, uh, let's see if it's all paid off, eh?
That's it. Don't forget those.
Yeah, those two specis. Ooh.
Those two specis, I reckon there's roughly 5g,
or about 400 bucks' worth. This one especially.
That's got some good ones in there. Sounds good. What else have we got?
We got this.
(RATTLING)
Ooh, rattle, rattle, rattle.
Rightio, guys.
That sounds awesome.
Ooh! Oh!
29.6.
Oh-oh! Don't forget these.
Oh, yeah. There's about 5g in that.
That takes us over. That takes you over an ounce, guys. Yeah.
(LAUGHS) Yeah, that's really good.
Come here. Come on.
(LAUGHTER) Well done, everyone. Well done. We've done well.
The trio have bagged just over $2,700,
covering fuel and expenses, while delivering a healthy profit.
The loader has definitely done awesome this week,
but at some stage, Dave's gonna want his loader back.
So time is off the essence. Yeah.
So, we need to be out here pushing pads. Exactly.
Making sure that we're covering as much ground as we can.
Who knows what lies underneath what we're standing on right now?
That's true. Whoa-ho! Right, back into it.
Rightio.
I think we've done pretty good so far, Eth.
The first time up in the High Country.
We've had a good look. I know it's been a bit cold, wet and miserable at times,
but you know what? This is just like the Old Boys used to do it.
It is, mate. I reckon we've done all right. I reckon we've done well.
So... How did we go? Let's see what we've got, mate.
That comes to 0.33, Eth.
That's not too bad.
I know we did hard yards to get it,
but you know what? That's not too bad going.
All right, mate, this is the nuggets we got.
Have a look. That comes now to a total of 1.18oz.
That's... Not bad.
That's good going, mate. I'm happy with that.
At just under $3,000,
the pay day has covered their weekly costs,
and given them a small profit.
So what have you got in store for us next? Well, look, mate,
hopefully we can get approvals through for Catto's - Yeah.
..sooner rather than later.
But we keep prospecting like this,
one of these prospecting days,
we just might find, you know, a real good lot of gold. Right.
Seeing that we've worked the creeks now - Yeah.
..we know there's gold in the creeks.
I really wanna push up and get into places where other people fear to go, mate.
I reckon we get up into some of this High Country through here,
it looks pretty steep, it looks pretty...
It looks maybe pretty hard to get to.
So you wanna push harder, deeper.
Well, we wanna get to areas where other people don't go.
Right. That's my plan.
All right, mate. We'll do the best we can.
I've really started to put all eggs into one basket at Catto's,
chasing big nuggets, it's a dream of mine.
I wanna do it, but the pressure's on my shoulder.
Cos at the end of the day,
I've gotta keep the gold coming on the scales.
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