Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	18° 18' 15'' South , 127° 51' 13'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-18.30428,127.85354
GeoHash:	G#: qudzv7u1g
Locality type:	Gully
Köppen climate type:	BSh : Hot semi-arid (steppe) climate

An alluvial gold area along the north trending Nuggetty Gully, which starts just north of the Faugh-a-Ballagh mine, and continues north for 5 kilometres to the Elvirie River, auriferous the entire way. 20 kilometres east of Halls Creek, and 4 kilometres north of the Duncan Road. Its name is suggestive of past gold discoveries.

Little is noted on Mindat for prospector activities. Many old prospectors do not inhabit the internet, and even less are interested in the public knowing about their activities at the locations.

Niven Dallas established an air charter and vechile hire business in Kununurra, shortly after the Ord River Scheme was established. This had begun with a research station opened in the 1940's, then the Ord River Diversion Dam constructed in 1963, with thirty farms growing cotton with the irrigated water shortly after. The crops provided a ready food source for the local insect population, with the crops failing. Progress continued however, with the opening of the Argyle Dam in 1972, forming Australia's largest lake by volume. Today a variety of tropical crops are grown across a 117 square kilometre area, with plans in the near future to expand to 440 square kilometres.

The scheme, set in the wilds of the Kimberley drew adventurers, colourful characters, and those willing to gamble on establishing new businesses. Several came from America.

Dallas in his book makes mention of several of these through the 1970's and 1980's, some relating to the Halls Creek Goldfield.

Stuart Skoglund was an American with a lease at Nuggetty Gully during the late 1980's. He had pioneered fixed wing crop dusting, and mustering with helicopters in the area. Over a period of about seven months, he was flying the prospecting party with his Bell helicopter from Kununurra to their prospecting camp at Nuggetty Gully. Dallas hints they may have found many nuggets, but as is the nature of these things, everything was kept secret.

Another American Max Lamoreaux, with bulldozers, and Jack Wrightman with trucks made-up the rest of the prospecting party. During the prospecting period at the lease, all three came unstuck nearly costing their lives, reflecting in different ways the dangers of this rugged environment. Skoglund lost his right arm in a traffic accident between Halls Creek and Kununurra. Lamoreaux was retrieving his Stetson, which had been blown off his head, while mustering. A bull lunged at him, the horn piecing his left eye, and into his brain. He survived just, but the effects were lasting for life. Wrightman was changing a tyre on a digger. Too much air had been pumped into the tyre, and it exploded, the noise heard all over Halls Creek. He was flung several metres backwards and suffered severe injuries.

Mineral List

1 valid mineral.

Regional Geology

This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found.

Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org

Statherian 1600 - 1800 Ma ID: 3184840

Paleoproterozoic intrusive rocks Age: Statherian (1600 - 1800 Ma) Comments: Halls Creek Orogen Lithology: Intrusive igneous rocks Reference: Chorlton, L.B. Generalized geology of the world: bedrock domains and major faults in GIS format: a small-scale world geology map with an extended geological attribute database. doi: 10.4095/223767. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5529. [154]

Orosirian 1800 - 2050 Ma ID: 767961

Koongie Park Formation Age: Orosirian (1800 - 2050 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Koongie Park Formation Description: Metamorphosed felsic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks, metasedimentary rocks, metabasalt, and hornfels; locally migmatitic; minor chert, banded iron-formation, and carbonate; locally intimately veined by granitic rocks and gabbro Comments: igneous felsic volcanic; metasedimentary; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Igneous felsic volcanic; metasedimentary Reference: Raymond, O.L., Liu, S., Gallagher, R., Zhang, W., Highet, L.M. Surface Geology of Australia 1:1 million scale dataset 2012 edition. Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia). [5]

Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

References