General News
2 November, 2023
Lucky find for prospector near Inglewood
Prospector Graham Dodd will be the first to tell you he was in the right place at the right time earlier this week, when an unsuccessful search for relics led to the discovery of a 4.2 ounce gold nugget worth as much as $18,000 near Inglewood...
Prospector Graham Dodd will be the first to tell you he was in the right place at the right time earlier this week, when an unsuccessful search for relics led to the discovery of a 4.2 ounce gold nugget worth as much as $18,000 near Inglewood.
A Melbourne-based prospector, Mr Dodd had been staying with a friend in Tarnagulla for only a few days before quite literally stumbling upon the golden find, proving the elusive nuggets are still in the area.
Recalling the tale of the nugget’s discovery, Mr Dodd said he was “dumbstruck” by the sheer luck and chances that led him to unearth it.
“I was actually looking for relics, I wasn’t even looking for gold and I’d been in an area that was full of rubbish and tin and to be honest, was starting to get a bit sick of it,” he said.
“I was making a bee line for the car to leave but forgot to grab the stool I sit on so turned around to go and get it.
“I was walking straight towards that stool with the detector running along the ground, I wasn’t swinging it or anything, and when the signal went off I thought it sounded nice.
“I checked it out and whacko, the nugget was only four inches down. If it was any shallower I would have tripped over it. I was dumbstruck.”
To make the moment even sweeter, Mr Dodd wasn’t using the detector he uses for gold but rather his relic detector for finding coins, belt buckles and buttons.
“I was in shock, I thought it was a lump of lead when I picked it up because it felt heavy, it was covered in clay and I thought it was too big to be gold,” he said.
“I wouldn’t have even considered detecting for gold in that area because there were diggings everywhere, it was obvious people had been through.
“I was staying with a friend who lives in Tarnagulla when I found it, he was actually the one who guided me to the area I found the nugget in so I’ve bought him lots of beer obviously.”
The gold the nugget contains has been valued at around $12,700, however the value of the gold in nugget form, which is much more collectible and desireable, could see it fetch a price of up to $18,000.
While he does prospect for gold, Mr Dodd’s passion lies with relic hunting and items of historic values like old coins, medals, tokens and buckles.
He said finding the nugget in the same month as his 60th birthday was the best present he could have hoped for.
“I get excited digging up a penny and some of them are hardly worth two cents but to me it’s history — you look at the date on a coin for example and it’ll say it’s from 1930 and you wonder, ‘what were people doing here in the 1930s and how or why was this dropped’, it’s amazing,” he said.
“Even if I don’t find anything I still love it, it’s just good to get out and exercise.
“I’m semi-retired and concentrate on buying and selling antiques and relics and I am a bit of a battler, I’m not a rich person so to find something like this is almost life changing.
“I don’t plan on selling it in a hurry, I’ll hang onto it for a while and the price of gold is going up so it’s almost like a retirement fund for me, it’s lovely.”
