This time on Aussie Gold Hunters...
Oi! What do you think you're doing, mate?
..the Gold Timers catch a poacher in the act.
Hey! There's holes, man! He's got gold!
And Rob struggles to find the machinery they desperately need
to have any chance of hitting target.
This is an absolute nightmare. Everyone's using their dry blowers.
In the remote Pilbara, newlyweds Levi and Bridget
are all that's left of the Ferals.
We really need to find some more gold.
Kim's probably gonna move if we're not finding enough.
Bridge! Where are you?
This is not good. I gotta go for a drive.
And Bridget makes a rookie mistake that could end in disaster.
There's just so much that could go wrong.
We've got some of the most dangerous snakes in the world, dehydration...
Just... This is stupid.
With no lease of their own to work, the Poseidon Crew take a huge gamble
on gold ground they've already detected...
We've flogged these patches, a lot of 'em, mate.
So you go back to your old patches with new technology
and you can find new gold.
There you go. Look at that. Look at that chunk!
..in the hope they'll finally land enough gold
to get their season back on track. (LAUGHS)
That's a nice, little chunk, that one. This is why you come back over your old spots.
Long trip to town. Yeah, half a day.
What have we got? 16oz to go.
Yeah. Halfway through the season.
Yeah. We're on a pretty rich spot - Oi!
There's a car!
We've got to record him. Yeah, man. I'm sick of these (BLEEP).
Oi! What do you think you're doing, mate? Oi, buddy!
No, serious. What are you doing? Get off me!
Oi! Get off me! Get his face.
Give it back. There we go. Yeah.
Oi! Get his rego! You got him, bro?
Oi, mate, get off me!
Come on, mate. Oi, settle down.
Hey! There's holes, man! He's got gold!
Settle down, mate. He's got gold.
Come on, mate. Oi! We've got you -
Where's the gold? ..on camera.
We've got your rego. We're gonna give you a chance.
(BLEEP) But we want our gold.
Got it, bro? Thank you.
Give it here. All right, I'm gonna let you up.
Give it here. Settle down. Oi! Get off me!
We're gonna give you a chance.
Yeah. Right.
Get off me.
Do we give him back his detector.
Give it back, it's stealing, otherwise.
Anyway, I'm sick of you (BLEEP).
Get out of here. Find your own ground.
There's plenty of ground out here, mate.
If he knows what's good for him, he'll leave.
One last smile for the camera, mate. You're done.
Off you go. Yeah. Pull your finger.
Get out of here.
(ENGINE STARTS)
What is it? Are we a magnet for these guys or what, man?
There's pending ground everywhere. Why's he gotta come here?
Have a look how much gold he got.
Oh, man. There's 500 bucks worth of gold, at least.
We're lucky we caught him.
There was $500 worth of gold in his hands.
That would've been devastating for us to lose that.
We're battling out here.
You know, that's 500 bucks out of our pockets, our families' pockets.
I'm sick of these blokes coming out here trying to pinch our gold.
It's been happening a lot more cos the gold price is up,
and, yeah, it's just...
Yeah, it's just a pain in the arse.
I hope that's the end of it for now and we can get back to work.
Oh, man. Unbelievable.
Yeah, these poachers, I'm sick of 'em.
They're not just stealing off us, they're stealing off our families.
Even though I would've liked to punch into him,
you can't go punching people in this day and age.
Even though he's a poacher, doing the wrong thing, they can sue you.
Gold thieves, or poachers,
have been a problem ever since the first Gold Rush in the 1800s.
Prospectors would dispense their own brand of justice
as the police weren't equipped to deal with the problem.
There are reports of poachers being tied to trees,
whipped, tarred and feathered.
Today, a conviction for poaching
can carry a fine of up to $150,000.
We got the gold off him, so that's good.
Uh, it's all... It's all good.
Get back in the pusher now.
We really need a dry blower now.
It's a good drop, long ground.
Last week, Rob and Turbo spent all the gold they've found this season
on a magnetic drone survey of their lease.
500 metres to the southwest of where you're currently working,
might be really worth your while. And some early data
was enough to point them to a rich patch of small nuggets.
What an afternoon!
Looking at what's in this jar, we need to get a dry blower in here.
That's gotta be the next thing on our agenda. For sure.
Oh, this is quite pivotal for us now.
We're halfway through the season. We've got 16oz to come up with.
We can't have this season end like last season and the season before.
We've got families back home that are relying on us.
We need to find gold. We need to find a lot of it.
We don't have a lot of time.
Mobile phone networks barely cover a quarter of Australia.
To even call around to find a dry blower for hire,
Rob has to drive one hour closer to town to get a signal.
Yeah, just getting some piles of dirt ready.
We've decided one of us will stay here and push up dirt, you know.
There's no point two of us going, it's just a waste of time.
Hi, mate. I was just wondering if you'd give us a call back.
I'm just trying to get hold of a dry blower.
The pair have no cash reserves
after paying for their recent drone survey,
leaving them no option but to try and hire a machine.
Oh, this is an absolute nightmare.
Everyone around here, everyone's using their dry blowers.
We're in perfect dry blowing weather.
Um, cold's up.
I've got one more number to try. The last bloke didn't answer.
I'll give this number a go. If we can't get this dry blower,
we're gonna be in a world of trouble. (RINGING TONE)
Yeah, that's it, Bridge. You keep running those lines,
you're doing a good job. I'm starting to get the hang of it.
Just keep cutting for another half an hour or so.
You gotta keep going down a touch more. Yeah. All right.
This is actually the first time I've driven the digger,
which is really good to learn.
And to actually be able to help Levi do this,
it's more hands on deck.
Over 1,000km northwest,
in the rugged Pilbara region of western Australia,
are newlyweds Levi and Bridget North.
Bridget's quite the detectorist
and she's taken quite well to the digger.
Now that Robbie's gone, Bridget's gonna fill his shoes a little bit.
Yeah, Bridget's smashing it at the moment. Doing a really good job.
I'm very lucky to have her by my side. It's very exciting.
Isn't it, Oakie? (BARKING)
Oaka's our dog, she's a dingo-cross-kelpie,
full of energy, and she brings a lot of joy to Bridge and I.
This season, the Ferals made a deal with mining magnate Kim North
to work a couple of his leases.
He asked us to come out here. Everything should be good, mate,
or we could be somewhere else.
But a series of machine failures...
Maybe, next time, we'll have a machine that goes!
..and mounting frustrations... You can only take so much.
I'm gonna get out of Prospect. This is just not working out.
..caused Rob Beeton to quit the team's two-year partnership.
I'm bloody shocked. Absolutely the last thing I expected, mate.
Every man has his breaking point.
Hey, people. Got a bit of bad news.
I've gotta shoot off to Perth.
My daughter's heading off overseas. The thing I'm gonna say is be safe,
and, youse two, pick it up.
With Ryan still saying goodbye to his daughter down south,
Levi and Bridget have to push on alone.
We really need to make today count and find some more gold.
Kim's probably gonna move if we're not finding enough
for it to be worth it for him.
The pressure's definitely on to find the gold on this bit of land.
This is our income and our lifestyle right now.
We wanna start a family so finding gold's getting us back on track,
you know, financially, and that is really important.
(BEEPING) All right.
(BEEPING)
All right, where are you?
There it is! It's a little nugget.
You know, every little bit of gold counts out here.
It's a lot of hard work walking around. A lot of digging.
We've got a long way to go to reach our target.
A 40 oz target is pretty big.
We're gonna need to find some bigger pieces
to really get towards this target.
And, if that doesn't happen, then it's not looking good.
Yeah, that'll do, Bridge.
Maybe park her up out of the way and switch her off.
Cool. Sounds good. Beautiful. I got another target here too.
(BEEPING) Hey, if this is gold, it's a good piece.
So it's about there.
(BEEPING) You got it.
You hear that, hey? Kinda hear it.
In the hand. In my hand? Yeah.
(BEEPING)
Scoop.
There it is.
Nice piece. Beautiful. Look how shiny they are. That is.
The small nugget is worth around $80.
I'm just detecting these lines that I've pushed in the digger.
Hopefully we're gonna be on to something.
(BEEPING) Whoa. A bit of a signal there.
(BEEPING)
I'm losing the signal a bit. I'm wondering if it's either
a thin piece of gold that I'm flipping from one side to the other.
When it gets really narrow, it's really hard to pick up.
See if I can find it in the scoop.
Hopefully, I'll be able to pick it up.
(BEEPING)
All right. In the scoop.
(BEEPING)
Hopefully it's a piece of gold, not a shard.
There it is.
Beautiful.
Little gold nugget. So... A little bit thin.
I must have been flipping it up on the side
for it to be going a little bit quieter and a little bit louder.
But that's a good, little nugget.
The 2g nugget adds another $160 to the tally,
but they'll need 30 more like it
to cover their weekly 2oz goal.
There's Uncle Kim.
The first person we've seen in a while.
Kim has come out to his lease
to check if the team are finally on the gold.
Hi, Kim. How you going, mate? Good.
Good to see you. Levi.
I really need to make sure I'm producing the gold out here.
You know, Kim's my uncle, he's family
but, at the same time, he is a businessman and I respect that,
so he could move us on at any time.
Yeah, what's going on? Got some nice nuggets to show you.
Show you what we've got.
Since you've been out here? Yeah.
Got little bits there with rock and all.
Yeah. Yes.
I'll have a look at that a bit more closely when you come back. Yeah.
I'll get back to it.
Little bit surprised with the small stuff, it's here somewhere.
They've just gotta put the time in to look for it.
If I'm not finding gold, then I'm not worth being out here
and I should probably go back to my nine-to-five job.
2 00:11:45.040 -- 00:11:46.640 align:middle line:68% position:50% So what are we doing now, mate?
We're gonna keep going back to old patches where we've found good gold.
We've got new technology.
We've flogged these patches, a lot of 'em, mate. Yeah.
Been flogged with older technology.
So you go back to your old patches with new technology
and you can find new gold.
In the eastern state of Victoria, the Poseidon Crew,
Brent Shannon and Ethan West are taking a risk,
revisiting once-rich gold ground they've already worked.
You might have ten old patches. You might go back to seven of 'em
and find nothing or (BLEEP)
than the last three, or three of 'em out of the ten.
You'll go back there, there'll be gold jumping out the ground.
Recently, Brent made the biggest decision of his career...
You know the guys that said they're interested in the big licence? Yeah.
They've just came back and made us an offer.
I never thought I'd probably say this, Eth, but I'll accept the deal.
We won't be here digging here next week.
..he sold his lucrative big-licence lease
to buy into the legendary Catto's Paddock.
I had to sell one dream to try and chase another.
That's some of the richest nugget-producing ground anywhere on the planet.
We ain't got much choice until we get these Catto's licences approved.
Got to get back in the Bush and hopefully find some gold.
Brings back memories, this spot. Oh, well, good memories.
Hopefully no-one's raided the patch since we've been here last.
I know, mate. I know. I'm hoping.
I'm getting my head round the detector now, mate.
I'm getting a few signals that are a bit iffy, sounding different.
What it is, is because this coil is a Double-D coil and a mono in one.
Yeah. So you got Double-D there. Yeah. And there.
So, there's the two Double-D's. Yeah. And then your mono. Yeah.
This new design is almost like using two small Double-D coils
to hunt surface nuggets,
combined with a bigger mono coil for deeper nuggets.
So this is gonna be detecting sensitivity.
And it's gonna be detecting depth
and working better on highly-mineralised ground. Yeah.
That's the reason why, if we're hitting these patches,
we still might be able to pull more gold out.
This is completely different technology.
Looks like no-one's been here, mate.
I haven't told anyone. All right.
So the aim of the game is you go over the old patches with that one.
Yeah. I'll jump on the bike and hopefully
try and find us a new patch. Yeah. Hopefully. Hopefully.
Well, you don't look, you're not gonna find.
Sounds good, mate. All right.
Ethan's patch produced
an incredible 43oz of gold in one week.
(LAUGHS) It's what I call a good day.
But the Poseidon Crew are banking on the new technology,
unearthing even more. That's a ripper!
Let's put it as a collective.
That's nearly 100 grand.
We're a business, we're in business to find gold
and the reality is, to keep in business,
we need to find gold consistently.
Right now, we need to get some gold back in the kitty
so I'm hoping we can go back to a number of old patches that I've had
and land some more gold.
The pair need at least $2,000 of gold each week
just to cover fuel and wages
while they go out Bush prospecting.
This is exactly the sort of spot that I've been looking for.
Sort of hard to get to.
Coarse scattering. There's some old timers' workings here.
The easiest way to get most gold in is mining
but, when we can't mine, we've gotta get out prospecting.
Prospecting is so hit-and-miss,
you can go weeks before finding any sort of payable gold.
So, basically, what I wanna do now,
spend, ten, 15 minutes here, maybe 20 minutes tops.
If I don't find a bit of gold, I'll move on to the next spot.
We're hunting a patch here. This is not about detecting thoroughly.
It's about detecting quickly,
trying to find one single bit of gold.
Then you slow down and do it properly.
But, right now, I just wanna cover as much ground as possible
as quickly as possible to give me an idea if there's anything here.
It's one of the main reasons why I hate detecting out in the Bush.
Especially with these patches that we've been over.
Just going so slow, trying to keep the coil down.
Then to chuck in the mix this is a new machine
and just trying to keep it slow and steady.
It's frustrating.
There's always pressure about not finding gold.
I've got two kids, one coming on the way.
When you're relying on Bush gold to try and make a living,
it is hard work.
Part of me definitely says we would've been better on the big licence.
We gave up consistency and we gave up 16 years
of potential gold coming.
You could never guarantee it, but it was better than what we're doing now.
It takes a lot of concentration
and this is what doing it professionally looks like.
If you're not detecting it right, you're not getting it all.
You often wonder did we make the right decision?
I'm sure when we get on Catto's and we get gold rolling in again
it'll be fine but, until that happens,
this is the point we're at.
(BEEPING) OK, hear that, that's a nice little signal.
That's a really faint signal.
We've been over this ground so many times now
that all the rubbish has gone and basically all that will be left
is gold that hasn't been reached.
(BEEPING) There you go. I'll be shocked if it ain't gold.
(BEEPING)
There it is. (BEEPING)
That's gold. That is gold from my own patch.
An area that I flogged hard and there's still gold to be found.
That is unreal. That is a good piece. That is a ripper piece.
As much as I hate to admit Brent might be right,
maybe we're not wasting our time after all being out here.
I suppose it's what Brent's learned over time, it's what he's trying to teach me now.
When you think it's all gone, it's never fully gone.
So I'm just going into town for a couple of hours.
I've got some supplies. Bridget's stayed out.
Yeah, just heading back out.
You know, the summers up here are really long and hot.
So we wanna make the most of this good weather,
get on some really good ground and keep chasing the nuggets.
Just about 36oz left to reach our target.
It's a long way to go, and a lot of hard work.
Bridge must be having a little rest.
I don't blame her, it's been a bit of a horrible, hot day.
Honey, I'm home. What's this?
(GRUNTS)
"Oaka's run off, chased a roo. Gone to find her. Call me on the radio."
Bridge! Where are you?
Oi-oi!
(WHISTLING) They could be anywhere.
I gotta get my radio.
There it is.
Bridge, you got a copy?
Bridge? Bridge, you got a copy?
Bridge?
Ah! I'm gonna go for a drive.
You know, this lease is absolutely massive. They could be anywhere.
Bridgey, Bridgey, are you on channel?
Bridge?
I absolutely have no idea where they are.
I could be on the wrong side of the lease.
They could've wandered off onto another lease.
I could be looking in totally the wrong spot.
The range of the two-way radio should cover the 200-hectare lease,
as long as Bridget hasn't gone much further than the boundary.
Bridgey! Bridgey! Have you got a copy?
Are you on channel?
(WHISTLING)
(INDISTINCT SHOUT)
Bridge, are you on channel?
(GROANS)
I can't get hold of them.
I'm starting to get a bit worried about the situation at the moment.
I haven't seen Bridge yet. The dog's missing.
Yeah, this is not good. 'Babe, are you there?'
Bridge! Bridge! Are you on channel?
I'm down at the creek near the big tree.
I think, uh, northwest of the bus.
I'm on my way.
I'm coming. The track's crap, but I'm coming.
'All right. I can see your car.'
Where are you? Oh, there you are.
You OK?
Come here. Oh, wow.
It's all right. We'll find her. She's a smart dog.
Yeah, I know, but she's been gone so long. Get in the car.
Let's go.
(WHISTLING) Oaka!
It's just not like her, not to come back.
She's actually got into a fight with the roo.
You know, they can gut dogs. You hear quite a few stories about it.
Otherwise there's that many snakes and baits out here,
it's just not good at all.
Oaka! Come on!
Where are you? I'll drive to the end of this track
cos she might have run down this way.
Poor babes.
(BARKING)
Babe, I can hear her.
(BARKING)
Oaka! Oaka!
(BARKING) What are you doing?
Oh, you're all tangled up!
Oh, Oak!
It's all right, girl.
You OK? Oakie!
Oakie. Oh, hello!
Oh, yeah. Is she OK?
She's great.
How the hell did she manage this?
Dogs can become attracted to the strong scent from venomous snakes
and the cold-blooded reptiles are more active in the higher temperatures of the Pilbara.
Good girl, Oakie. Ah-ah, stay! Stay on the lead. Good girl. Let's go.
That was a stressful couple of hours.
It was a big relief to actually find her and to see she was OK.
2 00:21:25.200 -- 00:21:28.080 align:middle line:90% position:50% While Rob's trying to get us a deal with a dry blower,
I'm digging down to the hard ground where we can't dig any more,
just piling it all up for the dry blower.
Hopefully there's someone out there who's not using it at the moment.
Hopefully we get a good deal on it too.
On their Kookynie lease,
the Gold Timers are desperate to find a dry blower
to process their mounting piles of potentially rich paydirt.
Hey, man, what's the go?
Mate, um, I haven't got a dry blower, no.
Plans have changed a little bit.
I think I'll pop out. I've got something to show you.
I hope it's some good news.
Well, we don't have a dry blower right now,
but what we do have is a photo of, in a week - Yeah.
..where you're gonna have - Is there one available? There is.
Oh!
30 ton an hour, bro. (LAUGHS)
Look at the size of that. Oh, wicked, man.
Man, we are gonna blow some dirt. Awesome.
The Gold Timers still need to negotiate a deal
to hire the $40,000 dry blower.
Usually, a percentage of the gold they find.
That's good news. That's turned out to be a pretty good thing.
So - I mean, we got some good dirt to go through. We do, man.
All right. I'll keep pushing. I'll get a detector on, eh?
I've gotta detect these piles we've been pushing up for a dry blower.
So there's a couple of layers here that haven't been detected.
It's a shame we didn't get the dry blower now.
We still pick up gold when there's gold in these piles,
so gonna keep detecting and pushing.
Hopefully we'll get a good payday.
There's gonna be gold in the piles.
That's the point of a dry blower. (BEEPING) Whoa!
Oh, there's a good signal here.
(BEEPING)
Whoa-ho-ho! That sounds like quite a nice target, to be honest.
(BEEPING)
Yeah, look, this is something a poacher would've picked up.
You'll always go over someone's piles.
And this sounds like it's a good nugget. I'd hate to have lost this.
Ah! There it is.
Ah! Look at that!
That's gotta be about 3g.
(BEEPING) You know, that's nearly a $200 nugget.
We cannot afford to be throwing $200 nuggets away to poachers,
so, um, yeah.
I'd better go through the rest and see if I have any more luck.
Mate, you wouldn't believe it. I just picked a three-grammer up.
You've only just started on the piles too.
Yeah. I'll make my way through this, man.
Yeah. Who knows what else I'm gonna find?
I've spent half an hour here.
Ten minutes longer than I said I was going to.
I don't think there's gold here. I ain't finding nothing.
Onto the next spot, cos this is our business, finding gold.
It ain't a hobby, so we've gotta do everything we can
to keep gold rolling in.
Being out in the Bush prospecting,
it's actually hard to make a living.
The gold is out there, I know it is,
but it ain't gonna jump in your pockets.
You've gotta get out there, use all your experience
and all the perseverance you've got to land yourself good Bush gold.
At least if you're on a bike, you can scout quickly,
find some ground that looks good and this will give us a chance
to actually find more gold, or find another good patch.
In central Victoria, the Poseidon Crew are back in the Bush,
while they wait for mining approvals.
I've got the target here.
Could be anything at this stage. Give it a bit of a scrape.
It's out.
(BEEPING)
Oh, have a look at that.
It's gold!
It is tiny.
Absolutely tiny.
But, more importantly, it's gold.
Now it's time to detect this area properly.
(BEEPING)
I'll just check this.
Oh, it's good. That was sitting on the surface, that one.
That's two bits here. Now I'm starting to get excited.
I've got a target here again.
It's... I think it's a target. I'm not too sure. It's...
(WARPING) It's a weird-sounding signal.
It's not what I'm used to at all.
Especially from these machines. It's throwing something different.
Just gonna get all this out of the way, get the top off,
so I can get that coil down nice and close.
It's almost like a ground noise,
but it's got a wobble to it, it's repeatable.
I'm gonna dig it cos I'm not too sure exactly.
I know we've cleaned a lot of the junk out,
so anything now, basically,
I'm just digging.
(WARPING)
This is definitely a target now. (BEEPING)
Again, I'm gonna call it. This is gold. We've flogged this area.
That is why new technology's starting to pay off.
Now it's just trying to see how far away it is.
That's one thing I haven't learned with these machines.
Digging deep holes.
But, when it comes to gold,
generally, the deeper it is, the bigger it gets.
It's out. (BLEEPING)
If I can find it.
(BLEEPING)
There you go.
(LAUGHS) Look at that.
Look at that chunk.
This has got to be a couple of ounces here.
That's blown my mind. That ain't just a bit, this is a bloody chunk.
The oversized coil has uncovered a deep lying nugget worth $5,000.
To think that we've been over this time and time again,
this is what I've missed and I've picked it up with new technology.
Brent will be pretty happy to see this.
(BEEPING) I've got another target here.
This is a good target, this one.
(BEEPING)
Yeah, got it.
I feel weight.
There it is. Look at that.
That's a good piece. It's about an ounce, I'd say, close to it.
Now we're starting to get quite a few bits through here.
This is the biggest bit by far.
Really, I want the big coil over this area,
now the bigger pieces of gold are starting to turn up.
This could end up another 20, 30, 40, 50 or 100 oz patch here.
Who knows?
Oh, I got another target.
You got another one? (LAUGHS) You beauty.
(BLEEPING)
Oh, we're on some rich ground here, I tell you.
Got another one, bro?
It's all coming up gold, bro. A little half-a-grammer.
This is what the dry blower would just eat up.
(BLEEPING) Oh, there's a... That's a little target.
I tell you what, you never got sick of digging gold up.
(BLEEPING) Oh, that sounded better.
Oh, there it is. Another nice, little blonde bit of gold.
That's beautiful. Yeah, it's been... (BEEPING)
Oh! There's another one.
(BEEPING) Here we go.
That's why it's so loud, it's a nice chunk, that.
I've probably pulled out 600 bucks out of this little run here.
Come to see the gold, have you, mate?
Yeah? Show me the gold.
Have a little looksy. (RATTLING)
I love that sound. Look at that!
Oh, yeah. Gold Timers are on the gold, mate.
Beaut. I'm gonna get my detector. Yeah, mate.
I'm sick of hogging all the glory. (LAUGHS)
Back on the detector.
Hopefully I can pick up some nuggets. (BEEPING)
Another target, bro. I think we're onto a winner.
Yeah, Turbo's back on.
(BEEPING) I dropped that bit.
(LAUGHS) Every two to three minutes, we're picking up nuggets.
These small nuggets are each worth between $50 and $200.
(BEEPING) That sounds like a...
That sounds like a good target.
(BEEPING) There it is.
Look at that. They're all pretty good-sized nuggets.
We've had some small ones but we're getting some really nice pieces.
Obviously, there's no certainty... (BEEPING)
Another one! Another one? Yeah.
(BEEPING) Oh, bring on this dry blower.
How good's this ground been, bro? Man, it's good.
(BEEPING) It's been a long three years.
We've worked so hard to get to this point.
We're finally here, finding really good gold.
We're not pulling notes out the ground,
we're pulling $100 bills, this is good.
Oh, the wind's coming in now.
There's definitely a storm coming in.
When there's a bit of lightning in the air,
yeah, um, yeah, the detector goes off, as you can see. (WARPING)
You know, it's...
It makes a prospector go nuts.
Detectors work by transmitting and receiving magnetic fields.
Spikes.
Electromagnetic interference from thunderstorms
usually triggers the machine's sensitive electronics.
Yeah, look to the west of us, beautiful, clear skies.
To the east, it's starting to build.
The wind's started picking up. Gotten that little bit colder.
You can feel it in the air. We're about to get some rain.
I think that's gonna be us for the day.
This storm may not hit us. We've seen them roll round us,
but I'm not taking the risk. I think we've had a good crack.
(BEEPING) Oh!
Listen to that.
Ho-ho-ho!
That sounds like a good nugget.
You might wanna come over for this one.
Listen to the size of that.
(LAUGHS)
(BEEPING) Oh, listen to it.
That sounds like a nice bit of gold. I hope so.
Oh! (LAUGHS)
Oh, check it out, man!
(BEEPING) Oh, man!
That's gotta be 5g, 6g, do you reckon?
Got about 500 bucks there.
(LAUGHS) What a good little bonus for the end, eh, man?
Yeah, boy! That's what we're here for, man.
That's a cracker, man. Oh, what a way to end the day.
Yeah. (LAUGHS)
2 00:31:35.960 -- 00:31:37.640 align:middle line:90% position:50% Levi's back on the digger.
I'm back on the detector.
Everything's back to a bit of normality.
Hopefully we can make up that lost bit of time today.
Time to really hammer it,
move some dirt, get onto some more nuggets.
Don't need any more problems.
Levi and Bridget are fighting to make up lost time,
after wasting half a day searching for their day Oaka
in the Pilbara's extreme wilderness.
Got a little target here. It's a pretty good sound.
(BEEPING) Bridge has got a target.
Hey. There we go.
Ah! It's not a bad piece, actually.
Good piece of gold? Yeah. Nice, little piece.
Really good finding these little pieces.
That one's nearly a gram.
We probably need to find about 3oz this week.
Levi and Bridget will need to find over 90 nuggets like this
to reach 3oz.
We've got quite a bit to go.
It's really important to check these wind rows,
which are made by the edge of the digger
as it's scraping along. (BEEPING)
There we go. I've got a little target down here.
There it is. It's quite a nice, little round chunk, this one.
If we keep picking these up, that's really gonna help us a lot.
I've got three targets in the ground over here, Bridge.
Woo-hoo Non-stop.
(BEEPING) There it is, little nugget.
Every little bit of gold counts at the moment.
(BEEPING) Bit of a signal there. Hopefully...
(BEEPING)
There it is. Beautiful.
It's tiring work, cos you don't get a break.
(BEEPING) This one doesn't sound too bad at all.
(BEEPING) All right.
(BEEPING)
There it is. Nice chunk.
It's really good going. We're making money at the moment.
(BEEPING) That's a really good sound.
(BEEPING)
Amazing. That's a really, nice, loud signal.
(BEEPING) Ha-ha-ha!
Oh, my goodness. That's so loud.
It's blaring in my ears.
(BEEPING)
In the scoop.
(BEEPING)
(BEEPING) This sounds so good.
(BEEPING)
Ah! That is a chunk!
Oh, my goodness. That is a good piece of gold.
Gotta be over 5g.
Look at that chunk of gold, honey.
Really? Give us a look.
(LAUGHS) Well done, Bridge.
That's so exciting. Well done. Yay!
Yeah! We're on the nuggies.
Every target I've found today
has all been gold.
It's that hammered this area that there is zero shrapnel around.
Especially around this little area.
There we go. It's out now. (BEEPING)
There it is. That's gold.
That is gold.
That is a ripper little piece. It's not deep under the surface.
I would've thought I'd get that with the other detector.
I don't know how the technology does it,
but this is why you come back over your old spots.
It's probably a couple of grams, but that's gold.
Hi, Eth. How you going, mate?
Guess what I've got?
I've got some gold, mate.
I think we're onto another patch, bud. Look at that.
Hey, that's good. Hey! (LAUGHS)
So you've got nothing here?
Nothing here, but just there, where we got that good gold.
What did you get? It's in the jar. Oh, mate! Oh, look at that.
That's the one, mate. That's a ripper.
Have you got much more to go?
Have you done this section? I'm just filling in some time.
I came back to get that. I want that detector.
I wanna go away with the big coil. All right?
The new coil has uncovered nearly 3oz gold
on ground Ethan first detected over 12 months ago.
Brent's banking on this new technology
to pick up nuggets his older coil couldn't find.
I've just jumped across onto Brent's patch now,
He's starting to find a bit of gold here.
So he's brought me over with this detector.
It's gonna punch a little deeper in the ground.
Hopefully going over ground he's already gone over,
see if we can get anything that he's missed.
(BEEPING)
Another target.
Eth, another target, mate.
Beautiful. Getting a few.
Nothing up here yet.
(BEEPING)
Yeah. Here's another bit, Eth.
Found another maybe gram and a half, this one.
That's not bad, is it? Not bad, no, mate.
You know what I found strange?
What? We can actually work really close together.
Are these different technology from each other?
They must be slightly different because
normally you couldn't get this close without them interfering.
No, you can't normally.
We're learning something every day.
(BEEPING) It's the first target I've had.
Hey, Brett! I've got a target here, mate.
You've detected all here, haven't you? Absolutely.
It's only soft, mate. You wanna listen with your machine?
Yeah, I'll have a listen, mate.
Absolutely nothing.
Your machine can't pick it up. Absolutely nothing.
I can believe it. That's why you're getting me to go over it.
(BEEPING) Actually, that sounds all right, Ethan.
This might be a good bit, mate.
Might get a nice big chunk here, Ethan. Mate, we might.
(BEEPING) It's still in there.
(BEEPING) Still in there.
That's good news. This is gonna be gold, Ethan.
Doesn't matter how big it's gonna be, my boy.
You've gotta love this, hey?
Watch as you dig. Oh, I don't care about that.
(CHUCKLES) I'll dig to China for gold.
(THUNDER RUMBLES) I can't believe this weather, Ethan.
It was beautiful this morning.
(BEEPING) It's out. Got it out.
(BEEPING)
You got it. Got it all right.
You got it. (BEEPING)
Look at that, Eth! That's not bad, is it? That's a nice chunk that one.
Hey, that's a good piece. Have to be nearly an ounce-and-a-half.
That's nice. You can hang onto that piece, bud.
OK, mate. Well done, buddy.
You said you don't like prospecting. I don't.
You find good gold. I would rather be at Catto's.
I would rather be digging monster nuggets at Catto's,
but right now - Exactly. ..right now, these will do us.
We'll do it for now.
Lucky we caught that poacher in the act. Ain't that some crazy stuff.
We'll have to set some surveillance up and stuff.
I think that might be a pretty good idea. After a tough week,
that started with a poacher stealing gold on their lease,
the Gold Timers need at least half an ounce just to cover costs.
I had to be a bit hesitant not to...
Push justice. Yeah, yes. Further - You know, mate.
You can't do that, cos that can get you do for assault.
As much as I wanted to keep his detector, we let him - Yeah.
Anyway, we got the gold and we caught one.
He'd done a bit of hard work for us. Yeah, mate.
It all works out in the end. It's all contributed to this.
It's that time of day, I think. I think so.
Do you wanna do the honours, calling it out, mate? Yeah.
One. Two.
Three. Wait.
..1.33.
(LAUGHS) Man!
We just - We're doing it, man.
We've had good weigh-ups every weigh-up, man.
Thanks, bro. We've worked bloody hard for this. We have. We have.
Halfway through their season,
the duo has just a quarter of their target,
but it's still the best start they've ever had.
We're over 5oz now.
This is the most we've had at this point in any season
and we've got some big things about to happen.
A bit of catch-up to do but - We've got some momentum.
I reckon that too. (LAUGHS) Good week. Mm.
We've got good weigh-ins every single week.
Calling home, it's a pleasure speaking to the wife and the kids.
They know Dad's making some money, so it's a good feeling.
It might be a turning point for us.
Fingers crossed the next couple of weeks
the dry blower brings us some real good gold. Bring on next week. Mm.
Hey! Ryan-o!
Hey!
Hello Oakie. There's Ryan.
Woo! Ryan-o. Hey, Ferals.
How we going? Welcome back to the Pilbara, buddy.
Good to see you. Likewise.
Over 1,000kms northwest,
Ryan has returned from visiting his daughter in Perth
just in time for the week's weigh-in.
Mate, it was really good to go down and see the kids. Yeah.
It's so good to get back up here. How's you been going?
We're smashing it, yeah. Cleaning up at the moment.
So good. And there's a little bit of gold there for you, mate.
You know, it's all going into the kitty.
Youse don't have to do that. Nah, we do have to do that.
You'd do it for us. I would, but I've been off down south.
You know, youse have been up here grafting, working hard.
Part of the team. We might go on a holiday then you can come out here for a couple of weeks.
Beautiful, find lots of shard for you when get back. (LAUGHTER)
All right, let's put this on the scales.
(LAUGHS)
Two-and-a-half ounces.
Well done. That's crazy. Yeah. How good is that?
The Ferals' 70% cut
adds another 1.75oz to their tally.
The biggest weekly find for the team this season.
New member of the Ferals, bringing on the nuggies.
This is fun. Such an adventure. Everything's looking good.
We're finding a lot of gold. It's all happening.
That's incredible. They could've kept that gold.
That wouldn't have worried me but, out of the goodness of their heart,
they're gonna me a spit of it and, you know, it's amazing.
They're beautiful people. Yeah, it's been a really great week.
It's good to have Ryan back
and, yeah, we're just looking forward to the next week ahead.
On the other side of the continent,
the Poseidon Crew have been prospecting ground
they found nuggets on a year ago,
while they wait for mining permits to come through.
Let's see what we've got, mate. I think we did all right.
You beat me everywhere. Continually producing Ethan's patch.
They're trying to cover the $2,000 a week expenses
they need for Ethan's base wage, fuel, and permit costs.
For someone who doesn't like prospecting, you do really well.
I still don't like it. I don't wanna do that as my forever job.
Brent loves it, enjoys it, that's his passion,
but mining's where it's at for me, that's where I wanna be.
Come on, throw it on the scales, mate.
What have we got, mate? I can't see.
0.28. All right. Put your big one on, mate.
That brings it to 2.65, Eth.
That's pretty good. And the smalls off the bike patch, mate,
comes to 3.57.
So that's 4.48.
Yeah, that's a good piece. And then the bit you got.
This comes to 5.80.
That's a not bad weigh-in, mate.
The $14,500 haul
is their first good result since selling the big licence,
covering their costs for up to seven weeks of Bush prospecting.
Well, that's pretty bloody damn good, mate. I'm happy with that.
All right. All right, let's go, eh?
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