With an early start at 6am, the intrepid travellers (my long-suffering mentor driving and my sleepy geologist friend navigating) departed the infamous town of Trundle, finishing up our exploration trek of Fifield and Syerston. It was with a heavy heart that we said goodbye (again!) to Middy the pub dog and the gorgeous publican (soon to be Masters student in Education – go you!) Danielle, and drove into the wild blue yonder…….well……we drove south! After about 20 minutes of travelling we came across a roadside outcrop (have I mentioned how much I LOVE roadside cuttings – they are just AWESOME! But I digress……) of a very interesting nature. This outcrop was a Silurian coral reef full of fossilised remains of Silurian corals, around 408-438 million years old……yes….I said MILLION! With our trusty rock hammer we happily began smashing rocks left, right and centre to find masses of coral remains fossilised in the limestone. A few samples were gathered (Ah……mine may have been so big it was a little difficult to fit behind the front passenger seat which was my allocated area for rocks – read “Bec, you can’t have anything bigger than what can fit behind the seat so don’t […]

[gmap-embed id=”82″]     Day four began in glorious weather – with a “proof of life” selfie taken and posted to Facebook so my Dear Old Dad knew I was alive and well! I was most excited about today as my Long-Suffering Mentor had gained permission from the boss to take us out for breakfast to a very special place! And so began a small (by outback standards!) drive to Parkes, NSW.       You see lots of odd things in country Australia but nothing as odd as an Elvis on a Ute……holding a chainsaw…… We travelled for about three quarters of an hour through a few country towns but mainly wide open spaces with endless paddocks of golden wheat until out of the middle of no where, a HUGE radio telescope appeared. It seriously looked like something from a Mars landscape, totally opposite of it’s surroundings and epic in it’s formidable size and appearance. I was mesmerised! The next hour was spent devouring devine Eggs Benedict and running around the many information booths and signs that are set up at the Parkes Dish! Me, being OCD when it comes to having to read every bloody sign (!!!!), looked like […]

[gmap-embed id=”22″]The day began at 7.30am once again, after rising to another sensational sunrise through my window at the Trundle Pub. Immediately, we set off towards Fifield again, this time heading toward “Area 1” – our designated tenement. The terrain was very different to our sampling areas of yesterday – a lot more trees and bush-like vegetation. There were lots of Big Grey Kangaroos and we even saw a Swamp Wallaby complete with joey in her pouch.   Stopping for a sample, we bush bashed maybe 250 metres into heavy scrub and dense vegetation only to turn around and see a huge Grey roo watching us – he would have only been about 10 metres away. He was HUGE! (Almost as tall as AB!) Thick, stocky build – I can understand the damage these guys can do to crops. But I felt surprisingly special seeing this guy up close and personal. As he thundered off the ground shook with each bounce!     Today’s exploration was with gold and tin in mind, so we were on the search for pink granites. A change in rock indicates a change in what minerals the area holds and different minerals are found in […]

[gmap-embed id=”22″]Day Two started at 5am waking to the most magnificent sunrise in the beautiful country town of Trundle. The colours of the sky were almost unreal from my balcony window in the Trundle pub. Built in 1909 the pub accommodates a myriad of revellers including excitable rooky geologists and backpackers passing through looking for some work in outback New South Wales. The shared-style accommodation was originally built for the itinerant workers from the nearby busy railway line which was a way to bring produce to rural NSW. After breakfast and packing the car with the mainstays required for a day of geology (ie. water, toilet paper and chocolate!), we set off towards Fifield. Watching the roadside change from pale red to dark red dust, there were many stops along the way to test the rock and regolith which became more and more magnetic as we drove. Much fun was had with a pen magnet picking up small iron filings (I think I could have stayed in that one place for hours just watching the small flecks of iron-rich rock moving towards my pen magnet!). With a quick stop at a magnecite quarry – OHMYGAWD! It was totally awesome!! – […]

[gmap-embed id=”37″]   It was with much excitement (and a tummy full of butterflies) that I began my first ever mining exploration trek! My Long-Suffering Mentor (a.k.a. Dr. Sanja) had the great idea (although I’m sure she regretted it as soon as the ear-piercing squeal of delight reached her ears and she was forced to watch several minutes of eye-burning victory dancing on my behalf!) of asking me to accompany her as a field-hand on her upcoming exploration trek to outback New South Wales. In hindsight, she probably regretted her asking me pretty much as soon as I shouted “YES YES YES!” in her face and immediately began pouring over Google Earth maps and Geological Surveys, but to her credit she never reneged, and so began our outback trek on a sunny Monday morning at the bright, crack of dawn!     Again, in hindsight, I feel perhaps my overly chipper nature at 6am leading into a 10 hour car trip may have not made the best of impressions, but to their credit, my Long Suffering Mentor and my newly formed friend, and work colleague (how GOOD does that sound!? Hey! Hey?!) Althea, put up with my incessant questions, gesticulations […]