Christmas is over, and I needed a detecting fix! I had half a day on Tuesday to head out as it was a public holiday. I had wanted to get back to the dam since the end of last summer. A friend had told me it was empty again so i decided to go down and check out the other bank which i didn’t get to last time.
It’s a nice downhill KM walk from the car to the dam, the bush here is idyllic. You can just imagine all the kids and families which have walked up and down here to the dam since the early 1900s when the dam was established.
Although only about 25 degrees, the humidity was killer. The empty dam was a sun trap too. Luckily i had my camel pack which kept me hydrated through the day, i did forget top pack food though, but i think i’d eaten enough over the festive break already.
First find of the day was a Half Penny. It was just under the surface on the rocky bank of the dam. A good sign for things to come. The area is used for motorbike riding and 4×4 so there is a lot of modern trash, mainly can slaw, so it was a little noisy.
The other thing which kept me busy throughout the afternoon was these tiny little bullets. I’m impressed the Minelab Xterra 505 was picking them up. Loud and Clear! I don’t mind finding these bigger ones, which look kinda cool, but these little lead things take ages to pick out of the sand, even with the “Garrett Carrot”.
The next interesting piece and soon to be annoyance was a membership token/fob for the local workmens club all for the year 1982/83. I soon found another couple just down from the first. Then a stash of about 6 just to the edge of a large rock. In the course of the afternoon i think i totted up about 30 of the buggers, all around the dam. In fact my last signal as i left was one, it was like they were mocking me! I’m not sure why there were so many. Perhaps a group of guys left the club at the same time, maybe they graduated an apprenticeship, maybe a mate died and as a sign of respect they threw them in the dam. Maybe they were stolen and just ditched.
I also picked up a couple of modern coins, which is always good. I think this will likely be my last hunt of the year and takes my total of spendables to close to $200.
Overall a great afternoon out in beautiful surroundings. I’ll be digging in to the history and story of the membership fobs and will update you all when i know more.
Happy Hunting in 2017!
Davo