The Prospecting Sub-Culture

Unexpectedly, the major cultural thrust I’ve gotten out of traveling Western Australia is “Gold.” It’s history is gold; the major reason of new immigrants early in its history is the search for gold. Towns were born, and many died as people came and went in search of gold. According to one person I spoke to, when the Gold Rush in California waned, many rushed over to Western Australia to continue their search.

And to this day, the gold fever remains. As I went further in Western Australia, I learned about an interesting sub-culture: the “prospector culture.” As there exists a motorcyclist sub-culture, a bikepacking subculture or an off-road subculture, there’s a prospecting sub-culture. While I thought gold mining had been taken over by large mining companies today, I was mistaken. There still is a small enclave of people who still hunt for gold on the surface.

I first ran into this in Menzies when I met a man named Cole, who said he was retired and just spent his life “metal-scanning.” Then I ran into another older gentlemen in a bar there who said he was spending his time “prospecting.” I thought nothing of it at the time. Just a few men spending their retirement years scanning the ground, I thought.

Then I arrived in Leonora and saw a posting for prospecting classes. Prospecting must be bigger than I thought. In the caravan park in Leonora, I ran into a number of people who hang around in the caravan park, spending their years “prospecting.” These were not just retired men; they were men and women of all ages, from twenties on up. The caravan park had a number of people hanging out who were simply there to prospect. As I listened from afar, I overheard that, in the same way that hobbyists would take about their wares, they were talking about what kind of metal scanner they would use– what brand, the functions of particular metal scanners, etc. It’s an in-group. Some metal scanners would run over $20,000, and some of them seemed willing to pay for it.

It’s not that they get rich off this. None of them looked rich. One even mentioned that they come prospecting a few months out of the year, while the other months they are “back home” earning money in a job.

But there is also a dark side. They don’t talk about where they found the gold ores. The “prospectors” also didn’t seem overly friendly– not that I approached them or anything. It’s just an air I sensed. They’re secretive about gold ore locations they may have uncovered, which only makes sense. This I learned from a French man I met at the caravan park(who was not part of the group) who came to learn about prospecting. He had taken classes and talked with various people. To him, the prospector group is a closed group. Maybe it’s one outsiders opinion. To him, “access to alluvial ground after completion of the course” (in the poster above) was a false promise. Sort of like the for-profit colleges here in the U.S. promising you jobs after graduation.

In any case, I must say I was getting tired of all the “gold” in the air in Western Australia. That’s why I was relieved to be able to go to Lake Ballard, described in my next post.