Glenn Conroy has found plenty of pieces of gold over 40 years of metal detecting. These days he’s giving some of it away. gold bpreiss
Glenn Conroy estimates he’s found more than 200 ounces of gold in 40 years of metal detecting, but these days he is just as likely to give away what he finds as exchange it for cash.
“I try to get out once a week. I leave the mobile phone in the car. Until I get back, I’m my own man.” Victoria’s goldfields still hold much that has not been discovered. Recreational fossicking for gold is permitted in state parks with a miner’s right, which costs about $25 for 10 years. Fossickers are limited to using hand tools, including metal detectors and pans. They are not allowed on private property without the permission of the owner.
Mr Conroy took up fossicking in the early 1980s just as metal detectors were becoming popular in Australia.into the forest to demonstrate his chosen pastime.“Do you hear that signal? It’s either lead or gold,” he said, dropping to his knees and carefully clawing at the earth with his pick.There, in a clump of moist dirt, lay a flat, teardrop of gold about a quarter the size of a fingernail. There was a rush of exhilaration as the gold revealed itself, beaming in the earth.
“People at home with money to spend and time on their hands were looking for something to do,” club president Paul Hart said.Mr Hart also runs a small business, using his metal detector to help customers recover lost objects – often rings lost in gardens or at the beach. The many hours Mr Conroy has spent in the forest has helped him cope with the grief of losing his wife, Tracey, to breast cancer in 2004 when she was just 42.
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