Upper Bingara, NSW – crystals and gold

As we headed off from the Warrumbungles, we continued our astronomical theme by stopping at the CSIRO Solar Observatory on the outskirts of Narrabri. It is a radio telescope array, with 5 big dishes at the main site, 4 of them on a 3km long rail track which allowed them to be moved as needed to look at different parts of space. We all learnt about how they ‘see’ things in the night sky, and how the data are converted to images. Although the kids were impressed by the dishes, they were not so interested in the videos explaining how it all worked, their attention being focused more on the 3D puzzles they could play with at the visitor centre! On the way out they grabbed a bunch of kids activity sheets including crosswords, colouring in and word finders which kept them amused for the rest of the drive that day. A little further along the way we stopped in Mt Kaputar National Park at an amazing rock formation called Sawn Rocks. They are an example of an ‘organ pipe’ cliff formation, so called because the hexagonal shafts of basalt that run vertically along the cliff face create the look of organ pipes. They were stunning with the sun shining on them, highlighting both the colours of the rock as well as the various layers and shapes of the formation. The kids had heaps of fun playing in the dry creek bed below, smashing rocks, climbing and exploring, but we eventually had to tear them away to continue on to our next stop for the night. After another hour or so we arrived at the Three Creeks Tourist Gold Mine. It was a small privately owned gold mine run by a lovely couple who had been there for more than 30 years. We camped out the back with our own fire and firewood, and after setting up we all wandered down to take a look at their mini museum. It was full of all sorts of minerals, crystals, and heaps of artefacts from the gold rush era of the 1800s that they had unearthed over their time on the site. Paul, the owner showed us heaps of interesting things from old watches to parts of carts, tools and even kids’ bikes. Oli and Em then met the two dogs and had a play with them before we all headed back to camp. There was a steep hill next to the camp and the kids got to work building contraptions using firewood, rope and leaves, while I got a fire going and cooked a BBQ over it. After dinner we got the kids to bed and Kat and I enjoyed some peace and quiet chatting around the fire for a while before calling it a night.

The next morning the kids were really keen to find some gold, but while waiting for us to be ready, they amused themselves by building a bit more of their contraptions. We finally headed over to the crystal fossicking area where we got to work digging up dirt after Paul showed us what we were looking for. We carted down buckets of dirt to the sinks below where we sieved and cleaned it out, looking for crystals. It was great fun and very satisfying as we found lots of crystals which kept the kids interested. After finishing our bucket load of dirt, with a good collection of crystals found, Paul came over to drain all the dirt out as there was supposed to be gold in the dirt as well. He took the muddy water over to another sink and we all watched in awe as he showed off his gold panning skills to work the dirt and remove all the rocks and mud, eventually leaving nothing but gold dust which he carefully put into a small vial for us. The kids were thrilled to see some real gold that was ours (unfortunately not enough to retire on). We headed back to camp for some lunch before wandering down to the creek bed below where we all tried our hand at gold panning. It was harder than Paul made it look when he showed us how to do it, but the strategy was to pan enough to remove most of the rocks and dirt, with only a small amount of sand left at the end where the gold would theoretically be. We were supposed to be able to swill that last bit around the pan to see the sparkle of the gold, but generally we failed miserably at that, not sure if we just couldn’t see it or if there was just no gold in the pan any more. Either way, we tipped the last bit into a ‘poverty pan’ each time, and once we’d had amassed enough, we gave that to Paul who then panned that concentrated dirt until all that was left were a few flecks of gold. We were all very impressed that there was anything in there at all and he divided the flecks up between a couple of vials so the kids could each have some gold to keep. They were thrilled. Satisfied that we found both crystals and gold, we returned to camp to relax around the fire before dinner and then bed.

Although it was forecast to rain the next morning, we fortunately arose to cloudy but dry skies, which made packing up much more pleasant. While I packed up the trailer, the kids did their journals before they each bought a ‘lolly bag’ of various minerals from Paul’s extensive collection. With about 15 different minerals to choose from, they really did look like they were in a lolly shop trying to decide which ones they wanted. With everyone happy, we hopped in the car and headed off towards the Wollomombi National Park where we planned to spend a couple of days.