The inaugural Cooyal Gold Rush Festival, held on the Saturday of the Easter Weekend, enjoyed a successful debut with hundreds making their way to the village for the event – and the region’s gold history exciting a special guest.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
There were token hunting and gold panning competitions, along with demonstrations in sluicing and industry stalls.
As well as the first Australian demo of the ‘Gold Monster 1000’ detector, which uncovered a nugget.
One of the organisers, Vaughn Murphy, said around 250 to 300 people went to the event, the majority of whom were region visitors.
And “it was the friendliest atmosphere of any event I’ve ever attended”.
Another part were lectures and Q&A sessions from NAPFA (NSW and ACT Prospectors and Fossickers Association) about areas such as legal requirements.
Organisers were chuffed by the attendance of special guest Doug Stone; the Australian prospector and researcher, as well as an author and publisher of numerous publications on geology, gold prospecting, and maps.
Mr Stone spent several days checking out the region following the event.
He is particularly interested in the Gulgong and Home Rule areas, in preparation for inclusion in his next Gold Maps.
“I didn't include Gulgong in the Atlas because of the lack of public land, but we're doing one now much more for the historical point of view,” he said.
And added that there is scope to do even more educational and interactive exhibits of the area’s Gold Rush history.
“There's not much public land around Gulgong, but there is at Home Rule which is fortunate,” he said.
“We've got all of the old photography of the town and it's brilliant, it's like the wild west in the main street which isn't there any more.
“It would be very easy to interpret where the old street layout used to be with the old photos.
“And with the effort they're making with the new museum if some work was done on Home Rule – with Hill End as a model and using photographs to layout the old town site – it'd be fabulous.”
All proceeds from the Cooyal Gold Rush Festival went to groups in Cooyal including the Hall Trust.
