Warrego Fossicking Area, Tennant Creek, Barkly Region, Northern Territory, Australia

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	19° 19' 44'' South , 133° 51' 53'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-19.32910,133.86483
Köppen climate type:	BSh : Hot semi-arid (steppe) climate

All of the following names relate to sites within an area maybe one square kilometre, which is part of an official fossicking reserve for metal detecting:
Moonlight Rockhole; The Alluvials; Alluvial Find; Alluvial Luck; Central No. 1; Central No. 2; Central No. 3; Central No. 4; Neptune; Teresa; Setting Sun; Last Hope; Bull Pup; Mad Mick's; Mad Mick's Camp.

So much information was found on this location, we will be battling to fit it onto Mindat. This is not the same location as the Warrego mine, which is about 15 kilometres to the south south-west. To reach the fossicking reserve travel along the road to the Warrego mine. About one kilometre before the mine, turn north at the sign-post, which heads north 15 kilometres along a dirt road. The site contains a shack, water tank, windmills, and the Alice Springs-Darwin railway now borders it to the north. Public camping is allowed, but there are no facilities or water. Considering the paucity of public gold fossicking sites in Australia, you are unlikely to have the place to yourself during the winter months. The Warrego Fossicking Area is the official title given by the Northern Territory Department of Mines and Energy.

The general impression is gold nuggets found are very small, but continue to be uncovered across the decades including recently. Some sources state the gold is iron stained. The area is a jumble of low hills, with dry creek flats. A permit is needed from the department to go metal detecting.

The goldfield was found around 1935 by 'Professor' H.S. Waldron. Apart from some research work done at the Sydney University, there was nothing to justify the Professor title according to the source. Neither was how Waldron financed his numerous expeditions into central Australia discovered. Waldron's life ambition was to discover a new goldfield. Each night he would hold a séance with his dead wife, who instructed him on where to go next, usually bringing him nothing but bad luck.

Dressed like an old time explorer, Waldron would be seen in military garb, and gleaming leggings, at the head of his camel train. Waldron left Tennant Creek with 28 camels, and some horses, with local prospectors Mick Miklesen, Doug Cooper, and Martin, and several local aborigines. They discovered 'colour' across a wide area, around what would subsequently be reported as Moonlight Rockhole. However, the dead wife instructed Waldron to continue west. Eighty kilometres from the Granites, he set up camp, only to have it completely destroyed by a mysterious fire. Miklesen being frustrated left to go back to Moonlight Rockhole. Meanwhile Waldron headed for Titree, only to be killed when he fell off a horse.

Micklesen was joined by Bert Lane and early in 1937 came into Tennant Creek with 4 and 5 ounce nuggets, but apparently much more gold undeclared. A rush ensued in March 1937, however prospectors found the area pegged by six men, and with no alluvial field declared at this time, led to conflicts and violence.

Harry Smith appears to have been the most successful, who with his 14 year old daughter Vera, found 130 ounces of gold in four days. Harry was a solid German, but does not go by a German name. He was accused of moving pegs to access the best ground. A mining warden court was convened, with a beer case as table, kerosene tin as seat, in a tent under a gum tree. The police removed all the revolvers from the prospectors beforehand. The mining warden found insufficient evidence the pegs had been moved. March 1938, the area was declared an alluvial field, lessening some of the tension between the prospectors and lease holders.

Early names found relating to leases pegged were Richard Fallon, Alex Miller, Harry Smith, Harold Brennan, A.B. Scott/A. Lane/H. Goody October 1937; Harry Smith, James A. May, Jean I. Neild, Alex Miller in November 1937; Alex Miller, in addition Joseph Mystek as the Teresa lease GML 410E, T.F. McMahon/Michael McNamara January 1938. Thomas F. McMahon as the Setting Sun lease 10 acres, approximately 1.5 miles south of Moonlight Rockhole.

In 1947, J. Shaw, and T. Trusgnak as Gold Prospecting Area No. 100E. Early 1952, Robert McLeish applies for the Bull Pup lease, 10 acres, GML 359E. November 1952, Duncan McMillan applies for the Neptune lease, 10 acres GML 368E, on the northern boundary of R. McLeich's Bull Pup. Central Scheelite NL applied for 4 leases in 1954 it names Central No. 1-4, possibly some over prior named leases. Also in 1954, Bill Graves from Monaco Ave Surfers Paradise Queensland of a lease he calls 'Alluvial Find', 20 acres, directly south-west of Bull Pup. Again in 1954, Raymond Dunn, of Jessamere Ave Windsor Victoria, a lease he calls 'Alluvial Luck' GML 453E, directly south-west of Bull Pup.

Modern exploration focusses on two named mines in the fossicking area: Last Hope and 500 metres to the east Bull Pup. (Early lease information names them at the opposite locations!). The Department of Mines and Energy may have filled the shafts in, or covered them over for safety reasons.

Country rock is sandstone with thin quartz veins, brown to grey siltstone, greenish greywacke with numerous mica flecks, occasional shale horizons, and kaolin in shears. The Warrego granite outcrops to the east. Gold is associated with weathered crumbly ironstone and quartz stringers.

Bull Pup is located on a small fault close to an anticline crest. The mine has only produced 20 tonnes of ore for 5.5 ounces of gold in one source, and in another in 1947 produced 148 ounces of gold from one parcel that year. Mining continued to at least 1954, with a 3 head stamp battery on the site called the Riverside Battery. There is no accurate record of production during these years. During this period the mine was owned by Hans Hackmann, who was mining by the ancient hammer and tap method. The source states there is a small open cut, and several shafts. The core of the ironstone reef is solid quartz 10 cms thick, with gold distribution very erratic, and over a narrow width. The source goes into much description of the workings (Ivanac 1954). Primary and secondary gold is noted, the latter dendritic. Primary gold is associated with pyrite veinlets, hematite, and quartz, or is disseminated in quartz. Hematite occurs as blobs or clots in vuggy quartz, with some mudstone fragments. The reef is said to narrow at depth. In 1984 the Bull Pup and Last Hope leases were sold by R.J. Monkton.

Last Hope the lessee in 1965 was M. Stolges. To 1966, the mine had only produced 20.7 tonnes of ore for 5 ounces of gold. Modern exploration has only found significant gold values in the Last Hope reef. Explored with Bull Pup in the mid 1980's by Cuprex Ltd. They determined Last Hope contained 2000 tonnes of ore grading at 4-9 g/t. The reef is about one metre wide, dipping north-east, over a 45 metre length, down to 16 metres from the surface. Surrounding both mines is quartz float, up to one metre thick from the surface, in which gold nuggets have been found, weathered from the reefs.

Now to Mad Mick, if the rest of this is not enough. The story goes (or local folklore), Mad Mick was of eastern European descent. He had poor English, so sounded agitated when he spoke, probably trying to make people understand him, so was named Mad Mick. His penchant for shooting at people may have also been a factor.

In the 1980's Mad Mick (real name unknown) was working for Peko Wallsend, when he decided to take out a lease at Moonlight Rockhole. He worked alone for ten years, and discouraged visitors, by firing shots in their direction when approached. The body of a man was found near his camp, then Mad Mick dis-appeared leaving his 4WD and shack untouched. A six day police search failed to find him, and remains missing to this day. The location has generated some silly ghost stories.
The approximate co-ordiantes for this area are bounded by the following:
19° 18' 55"S 133° 53' 04"E
19° 20' 55"S 133° 53' 05"E
19° 20' 55"S 133° 51' 05"E
19° 18' 55"S 133° 51' 05"E

Mineral List

5 valid minerals.

Rock Types Recorded

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 - Orosirian 1600 - 2050 Ma ID: 805851

felsic intrusives 72645 Age: Paleoproterozoic (1600 - 2050 Ma) Description: Undifferentiated felsic intrusives, some gneissic Comments: igneous felsic intrusive; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Igneous felsic intrusive 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

External Links