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Post by RKC on May 10, 2009 15:16:45 GMT 12
G'day GoldKiwi,
I just want to say a big thank you for taking the time to post the story of the Jewellers Shop. Its been great to read the details of how it all unfolded over those years. And ... as there is more gold waiting for you in the Clutha below the Roxburgh dam, hopefully you have another equally interesting story to tell in a few years.
Regards, Rob (RKC)
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Post by waipori on Aug 6, 2012 10:03:00 GMT 12
One pic here from the past, in the river above Lowburn, note the white NZR bus in the background, and a forum member on the bank may recognise himself as a young fella way back then.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2012 17:34:30 GMT 12
Hi Waipori, Dont suppose you have any more pics?
This was the best dredge I owned. Simple box, punched plate over expanded mesh for 3/4 of the length and a few riffles at the end for the chunks. Boy it got some gold. As you said one of the pontoons was the air tank, you could move a few rocks before you had to come up to refuel. Looks like before we put a heater on it, back of my toes went black from frostbite before we had the luxury of hot water. Oh fun days ;D
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Post by waipori on Aug 14, 2012 21:41:38 GMT 12
I think that is the only photo of your dredge. There could be one of Goldkiwi's further down the river, out in front of the bus. I'll have a look in the next few days.
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Post by oldrimu on Jun 5, 2014 21:07:51 GMT 12
Thank you so much Guys for such an interesting read. I am a little preoccupied with Quartz Reef Point & The Jewellers Shop. I came across your forum a few weeks back and it was like a new world opening. You chaps did what I have dreamed about doing but never had the balls. I had a small dredge and I pottered round a beach below the gravel carpark/gravelpit at the JS in the late 70's. I did OK but I was only a hobbyist with a unnaturally morbid fear of eels. There was no way I was going below the water because I knew I would be eaten. Illogical I know but I still have that fear. How could anyone dredge at night? Monster eels trying to eat your head? It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. It certainly was a magic area and you are part of a brotherhood I would have loved to aspire to. Thank you so much for writing about it. My parents bought a crib on the Lowburn side of the bridge on the right hand side of the road. They got it off Bill Hooper in the mid 60's, and Bill was the father of Lance & Neville Hooper who had shares in the Bell Hooper mine at Scotland point. Bill was my mother's uncle. Our crib was the second of two buildings. The one closest to the road was owned by an old guy called Bob Bell and when he died Percy Bell (Bell Kilgour Mine) moved in. It was later owned by an old guy called Ned McIntyre who was an ex miner from the Nevis. I remember that Ned and his wife found a couple of ounces of gold a few metres above the road at Lions Island. His son in law mentioned it at teh pub that night and the next day when Ned turned up there were a dozen guys working there. I was googling the other day and I came across an old 80's TV series called 'Journeys Across latitude 45 South' with Peter Heyden. Part 3 of the series starts with a magnificent helecopter shot of the Jewellers shop. The chopper cones up from behind a hill and there it is, the jewellers shop as it was before the bastards flooded it. Beautiful and well worth a look even if the photography is a bit grainy now. Thanks guys, I love what you wrote.
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