Lesley it is of course an open forum, you may, at your leisure read anything that your little heart desires, however I dont hold out much hope for this one as there have been no replies, but if you wish to start a ring pull collection I'm your man!!!!  

that makes sense I guess, but I think a fair bit of luck is at play as well isnt it? I went to coober pedy a few years back because a few mates of mine had a small claim up there they set the tent up in the same spot year after year, then one year they got despondent and sold the claim for $1,000, turns out just under the spot where the tent was sitting all those years was a lump of opal worth about $3,500,  so I think luck has something to do with it

-- Edited by dave06 at 15:59, 2008-07-29

I highly recommend going to the northern Queensland town of Forsayth.  The caravan park owners there are really nice and very helpful in terms of suggesting spots to look.  Although we didn't find gold ourselves, another couple also staying there found a large gold nugget - but they'd been searching for quite a while and had a very sophisticated metal dectector (not sure what brand, though).  If you do miss out on striking gold, Agate Creek is nearby and quite a few of the dry creekbeds are littered with interesting agates.  You could free camp at Agate Creek  if you prefer.
Also in that region are O'Brien's Creek and Mount Surprise, both of which are good bases to look for topaz.   There's some nice free camping at O'Brien's Creek - we met quite a few interesting characters there.

I reckon we passed there when we went across from Cairns to Karumba and stayed on the beach for a week, thats by the georgetown turn off isnt it, didnt think there would be topaz or any of that sort of thing, didnt think to look  oh well next time!! cant get back to the beach anymore though, havent got the four wheel drive now. just about given up on the gold, o'briens creek, hmmmmm!!!!! on the must do list, growing evermore!!

-- Edited by dave06 at 14:42, 2008-08-01