Spike's Place

  Prospecting and Mining

    I leased and operated a small Goldmine in my time off, (Wally's Hope) at Mongolata, South Australia. 1991 - 1998. Due to the nature of this work it soon became apparent that I would need a partner, fortunately I new just the man, Helmut, a mate whom I had met on a prospecting trip a few years before. Both Helmut and his wife Gudrun were great mates and this was the start of many enjoyable years together. The shot at right was taken early in the development stage some time in 1991 when we were still sampling various areas trying to decide where our time and money would be best spent.

Things went along quite well in the first years then like so many stories of this kind, the main ore body that we were working just ran into a fault and disappeared. We continued with an exploratory drift cutting across the line of the formation and found numerous small promising looking seams, unfortunately as so often happens none of them showed any sign of gold. After this disappointment we decided to sink the shaft another twenty feet and work along the line of the formation for ten metres or so and then turn across it again. Once again the signs looked good but came to nothing, so finally I decided to give it away while I still had the bum in my pants, it had been hard and sometimes expensive work, I had lost several acres of skin from my knuckles, elbows and knees in the process, but I must admit that I enjoyed it immensely. There are few feelings in the world quite like settling down out in the bush around a roaring fire on a cold winters night with a "Industrial Strength " Bundy and Coke, after a hard day in good company.

    The drill seen in the photo above is an Atlas-Copco BBD 12TW-02, specially adapted for use on a standard 5 foot air leg, such a small drill was necessary because we only had a 60cfm compressor at that time. Once we could afford it we upgraded to BBD 44s and 95s and a larger compressor.

    Both drilling and blasting were problematic, as the ground that we were working in, was badly fractured and faulted, fortunately it provided a reasonable back (that's the "roof" to non-miners) once it was allowed to settle for a week and rarely required timbering. Jammed drills were a very common occurence and a pneumatic drill puller was an absolute necessity.

   I no longer do any underground mining, but still enjoy the chance to get out in the bush prospecting and looking over old mine sites looking for interesting mineral samples.

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Ex DDG - 39    H.M.A.S. Hobart.

I spent three very happy years as a Petty Officer Stoker onboard HMAS Hobart  Sep. 1970 - Dec. 1973.

Since the Hobart was de-commissioned and sunk off Yankalilla in South Australia I have been putting together a CD Photo Album of "Hobart Past and Present" Thus far it comprises of 82 pages of photos and diagrams, including a full sized copy of an exploded view of the ship which shows all of the compartments and their locations. Anyone who has any photos of the vessel, past or present that they would be willing to send to me, please e-mail me here: Email Spike.

I would prefer photos of people and people doing their day to day work or anything that could be vaguely thought of as historical, battle damage, Commissioning, Replenishment at Sea, etc. Photos showing scenes within the ship and personnel are also in very short supply, Yeah,.... I know, I didn't bother to take many either.

I am not all that fussed about groups of unidentifiable people at "Crossing the Line Ceremonies etc". (Yes... we've all got heaps of them). I would prefer any photos to burnt onto a CD if possible however if you do send photos I will take very good care of them and return them as soon as possible. Depending on whether I am home or not this may take several weeks. (Maximum 4 weeks).

In return you will get: (1). My undying Gratitude. (2). A copy of the CD. (3). Credit for your contribution with all inclusions. I know it's not much, but it's the best I can do until I win the Lottery.

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    Animals

     As long as I can remember I have had a great liking for animals, cats, dogs, bantams, ducks, possums, crows, foxes, magpies, horses and camels to name a few, as a child my parents never new what I would turn up with next, although I must admit I have never actually bought home a camel . My contact with camels was to come much later in my life and I would have dearly liked to own one, however I think that this may have stretched my Wife's largesse beyond its normally very elastic limits. The camel seen at right is one of many owned by a friend who lives nearby, he too is a great admirer of these wonderful animals. With the little experience I have, I must state that I feel that camels have been given very bad press in the past and that my experience has found them to be for the most part, gentle, even tempered and predictable. Regardless of what you may have read, they smell no worse than a horse or a dog. The camel at right is just being inquisitive and has approached me so that she may smell me; standing quite still for a minute or so, quietly sniffing and breathing in my face, having satisfied herself that I was friendly proceeded to gently nudge me and try to investigate my pockets where perhaps she might find something to eat, she was much more considerate in her actions than a horse would have been in similar circumstances. A camel is to horse, what cat is to a dog, they are true individualists and can be very determined, I am told that they have an exceptionally long memory and never forget a person who has treated them harshly, and also that an angry camel is not to be trifled with being easily capable of killing a man. I suppose this may be the reason I admire them so much, as I see my my nature as being very similar.

     Surprisingly I managed to domesticate nearly all of my wild animals, with perhaps the exception of the possum, which waited until I had got it home before deciding that it didn't like being a pet and clawed it's way out of my grasp and after jumping from my head onto the tank stand made it's way back from whence it came. I ended up covered in small painfull festering cuts and scratches for my trouble, I was about seven years old at the time and it put me off bringing home possums for many years.

     When I was growing up our family always seemed to have one or two cats, and a yard full of Bantams and Khaki Campbell ducks. This was never enough for me and I was forever "Rescuing" animals whether it be taking sparrows away from the cat or digging out fox dens only to take the unwilling rescued animals home to be fed and looked after until they either escaped or decided that they had found their "gravy train". I discovered early in life, that crows made excellent pets and once captured and fed for a few days were smart enough to realise that this was the easy life and even if set free would always hang about in the hope of an easy meal. I kept one for several years that would sit on the handle bars of my bike as I rode about the town, when he became sick of this game he would just fly off home to await my arrival and a small piece of mince meat or a couple of worms which I kept under a wet bag in the garden. He met his maker after my Father came home to find that he had pecked open most of the eggs that one of our ducks was trying to hatch, I wasn't told of his fate until many years later.

     Foxes make interesting pets provided that they are reared from a very early age, even so they never totally lose their wild nature and if they are not securely housed will cause all manner of problems with the neighbours poultry. I guess it woud be fair to say that they are never fully domesticated, and are liable to revert to their wild state at any time. I have had two foxes that I would regard as real pets, both were females I tried to make pets of several males but they disappeared as soon as mating season arrived never to be seen again. The females would also often disappear at mating time, only to return a few days later, generally stinking like a polecat and covered in fleas, thankfully they had no real objections to being given a warm bath with Malawash which soon got rid of the fleas and smell. It was during one of these nightly trips that my last and most domesticated pet was caught in the spotlight of a local professional shooter, who because of the way in which she was sitting could not see her collar and she was duly shot. Several days later while talking to one of his friends the shooter mentioned shooting a fox that was found to be wearing a red dog collar and was informed that she was my pet, he came to my house that night and explained the circumstances. I thanked him for thinking to let me know what had happened and decided that in view of the difficulties of keeping these pretty and intelligent animals, I wouldn't have any more as pets until I had the time to look after them better.

     Unlike camels, foxes do have a strong odour as they have scent glands, and if frightened or marking their territory they exude a strong foul smelling "musk" which is almost impossible to remove or disguise, for this reason it is not wise to allow foxes inside your home. They will always attempt to re-scent any spot which has been previously marked even if by accident. They also have a strong musky body scent which is likewise impossible to disguise. They are not for everyone. Foxes determine their status in the pack by attempting to nip other foxes on the bridge of the nose, they never lose this habit so it can be a painful experience to try to look a fox in the eye if it is within nipping distance of your nose, it is even more stupid and painful to try to pull away as a foxes teeth are as sharp as needles and even a playful nip can break the skin in a place as tender as your nose. Foxes are true omnivores and will eat anything, "Jessie" my favourite loved table scraps and wolfed down everything from potatoes and peas to fried onions.

     In the early eighties I took on a young horse that was going to be sent to the meat works. It didn't matter to me that I'd had very little to do with them previously, but being quite convinced that I could master this animal, I just adopted it and housed it in the spare house block behind our house. In due time and after many "gutsers" I got to the stage where I could ride well enough to accompany one of my mates to nearby cattle property where the country was rough and steep enough to require mustering on horseback. It may not have made me "The Man from Snowy River" but I certainly learnt a lot about horses over the following twenty years, much of my education can be credited to that mate. "Ned" O'Brien, a semi retired rodeo rider who breaks and shoes horses for a living, I found that he has a great knowledge of horses and moreso the people who ride them, I also learnt to value his opinions highly. His most memorable quote for me was along the lines of "There is a world of difference between a good rider, and a good horseman", implying that riders should always aspire to be horsemen.

     "Mucking about" with horses gave me a great deal of pleasure and allowed me to meet a lot of new friends, it is only the lack of space to keep one that stops me from owning one today.