I am back

[fredmason]

Hi boys and girls;

i am returned (mostly) from a month in Oz...

Not rich in gold...just a 1/2 oz or so...about 30 bits

been just about everywhere ( or so it seems) in the NT, Halls Creek, WA; NSW and Victoria

met many fine folks

learned that no one in Oz knows what a Coolibah Tree is...

My tour with Mark Hyde, of Gold Prospecting in Australia, was great...he runs a first class operation. Mark stepped up when the airline decided that I would not be needing my luggage, they didn't ship it from LA...more about that later...If anyone is interested in His tours just e-mail me. I have no monetary interest in Marks Business...you will get my opinion and facts as I saw them....

And now a little .....

AussieHumour

The Jackaroo

A Queensland jackaroo is overseeing his herd in remote territory when suddenly a brand-new BMW advances out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a designer suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, 'If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?'

The jackaroo looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, 'Sure, why not?'

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resoluti on photo. The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany.

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel Spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response. Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, 'You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.'

'That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,' says the Jackaroo.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then the Jackaroo says to the young man, 'Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?'

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, 'Okay, why not?'

'You work for the Australian Government', says the Jackaroo.

'Wow! That's correct,' says the yuppie, 'but how did you guess that?'

'No guessing required.' answered the jackaroo. 'You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used all kinds of expensive equipment that clearly somebody else paid for, You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about cows .. This is a herd of sheep. Now give me back my dog.'

they have the same issues down in OZ...

Fred

[El Dorado]

:hahaha::hahaha:

[richs]

Fred sounds like you had a great time.

Rich

[hal]

darn that's a good one :yuk-yuk:

[Bunk]

Hey Fred, I know you took some pictures... Glad you had a good time.

Bunk

[John B.]

Hi Fred and All

Welcome home Fred I wish I knew you were going :unsure: ?? My pointy finger works pretty good downunder too :hmmmmm: !! I could have got you onto nuggets or in an Aussie jail :whaaaa: !!

Happy Huntin John B.

[fredmason]

I don't know if it worked but here are three, Bunk............didn't work...sorry

thanks Mr B...too late now.

fred

[Nugget Shooter]

Hi Fred....

I am also back from the depths... Glad you had a good trip (s)

[GARY SMITH]

GOOD TO SEE YA BACK!!! Been awhile my friend!!!

[Goldfinger]

Fred-

Welcome back!!! That must have been the trip of a lifetime. Should have stayed there given the direction of this country.

Steve

[Johnno]

G'Day Fred

darn, you're getting around. If the dice had have rolled my way, I might have been over there at the same time, but I'm a shitty gambler.

Glad you're back. Just so you don't get too homesick with the good country... a little reminder

Cheers mate

Johnno & Kat

[fredmason]

Hey Johnno;

that is a great and too right song...did I get that phrase correct?

I walked out of my tent near Hill End, NSW and there was a bif grey roo...I grabbed my camera and approached Mr Roo...I got too close for his comfort and the darn thing growled at me!!! I did,

t know they did that, so I cacked off a little.

I will attempt another photo but all others have failed....I was trying to load pic's that were too big...it worked

fred

[Johnno]

G'Day Fred

Good to see you're back and you had a wonderful time. It brings back memories. And of course, your starting to get used to the lingo. Maybe you should save yourself the expense of flying back and forward and retire in Oz.

I can't believe no aussie understood a coolabah tree. But for those that are not well versed, it's real simple. It's just a gum tree with a large canopy. Adds alot of extra shade. Roos love them, which brings me to my next point.

A good encounter with a roo. I remember way back when the dinosaurs were trying to get established... I was on the border between NSW and Queensland on one of those beer enduced hunts, we're after rabbits and wild pig and we scored pretty good. But in the midst of all of it on one occasion, I noticed a roo taking shade in the heat of the day and I think this was a good opportunity to get a photograph. He was preening himself. I suppose he was getting ready to go out and party for the evening, maybe pick up some hot doe.

Anyway, I climb out of the Ute to get a picture and it stands up, I mean not all the way, it's still sitting on it's haunches. But even so, I'm staring directly at it's front paws. I'd hate to even guess how big it was. But I gained my respect and have never turned back.

I noticed your standing inside of a tree, that must be a boab. That puts you in Western Australia. Aren't they cool? Especially the old ones.

The other picture.. now that brought back memories. I could be wrong, but darn that looked like the gold fields in Bendigo. I hammered those suckers with a detector you don't even want to know about. But it kept me entertained and I made a little money.

Cheers

Johnno

[fredmason]

Actually that placer is near Hill End, NSW...the lone Victoria nugget I found was from the area called the whipstick near bendigo...Bryan showed me several spots where there was lots of gold...however,he didn't take me to where I could find lots of gold...but it could have happened...

a picture of the whip stick area and my little treasures....the left are wild nuggets I found one here one there...the center is bendigo gold, the right came from a patch my friend Ray found and shared with me...

fred

[Johnno]

G'Day Fred

Sounds like you had a great time, I envy you. I would have sworn that was Victoria. Anyway keep posting your pics, I'm already home sick. You don't have to worry about the big gold you found, you can keep that a secret

Cheers

Johnno