JUPITER CREEK GOLD FIELDS FOSSICKING: Euchunga in the Adelaide Hills

You see them everywhere, eternal optimists convinced that a major find is just a sweep away. And when you wander through the Jupiter Creek Gold Fields near Echunga you realise the Adelaide Hills are alive to the sound of fossicking.

"Don't tell me there's something down there?"

"There's something down there"

"Is there?"

"Yer"

"Well Lisa, I thought we'd start having a look here. As you see it's an old shaft here with the mullick heap here. The old timers would have dug that hole and thrown the dirt in this pile here. They didn't have the advantage of metal detectors back in those days so any gold that was in the shovel, unless they saw it, went out onto the heap".

For a fossicker like Andrew Ennis, one man's rubbish may be another man's fortune as we pick over mine workings dating back to the 1860s when the Jupiter Creek field experienced its own mini gold rush, but just as the early diggers here had to contend with a daily diet of expectation and frustration, so too for us.

"What is it? A tin can! Oh darn"

"A piece of rusty tin probably a flattened tin can from the old mining days. A couple of old miners probably camped on this site here, and flattened their old tin can out. It may have been a tobacco tin or something like that".

You're allowed to fossick here, as long as you fill in your workings. In a gentle way, the gold rush never ended with fossickers like Andrew trying their luck amid the stringy barks and wattles or panning at Battery Creek.

"All the heavier material goes to the bottom. Gold being very heavy as we discussed before, it sinks to the bottom".

The Beatrice Mining Company was formed in 1868 and it's cornish-style round stone chimney remains a significant relic of the golden days. No doubt the diggers who were doing it tough by the creek, envied the power of the great battery - a crusher which was powered by a large steam engine. But for many of the miners who worked here, the golden days were rare. Only a third found enough to make wages, and so the first rush was shortlived.

But they were back again in the Depression, picking over the Jupiter Creek fields just as we are, but back then the technology involved picks and dynamite, with the Depression miners leaving a remarkable legacy, the New Phoenix Shaft, a tunnel cut horizontally into the side of the hill towards the old Phoenix Mine.

"This was dug in 1930 during the great depression when for poor people, there wasn't much work around and very little money and so they were up here looking for gold. So they would have been chasing a mineral seam along here somewhere, just following it through trying to get as much gold as they could".

"Do you know if they found anything in here?"

"Well this area produced some of the best gold in Adelaide and the South Australian gold fields, something like eight thousand ounces, found out of this field".

"Is there some left?"

"Yer there's some left, people are finding material all the time".

Andrew's Grange Road shop, the Miners Den, is living proof that there is gold in them thar hills. This is his little stash from fossicking trips both here and interstate.

"And what's the biggest piece you've ever found?"

"Oh, just this little small piece here, which came from Western Australia".

"It's big isn't it?"

"It's seven and a half ounces"

"So, how much is something like that worth?"

"That one in gold value is about $3,500.00, but as a specimen it's worth about $6,000.00".

Many who come into the store find themselves swept away by gold fever and are soon taking part in Andrew's regular courses and tours of the gold fields, others are here to scour nearby beaches in search of more common lost treasure, while others are here to redeem themselves in the eyes of a partner.

"One chap rang up and said - had a fight with the missus last night, spat the dummy and threw the wedding ring over the back fence, I need a metal detector to go find it".

Whether it's to save a marriage or uncover a small fortune, the metal detectors at the Miners Den come in a range of sizes and are available for hire. Andrew has regular courses. For details contact 8340-3633 or for more information email info@postcards.sa.com.au