Goldfields Exhibition Day
At Bullumwaal Victoria 

  The East Gippsland branch of the  PMAV recently held a “Come & try prospecting” and Allied crafts display day at the historic Bullumwaal Hall, in the heart of one of Gippslands most historically diverse & productive goldfields.  

Panners at Boggy Crk

 The Bullumwaal goldfield is located on the upper reaches of Boggy Creek approximately 40 minutes drive from Bairnsdale. The "come & try day" held on the Sunday of the Labour day long weekend  was well attended despite the inclement weather. 

East gippsland Branch Report

What a fantastic day we had, well really a great weekend. The gods may not have been kind to us with the wind, rain and the night time hail, but the volume of people attending was unbelievable. An estimated 400 to 500 people made the journey. It just proves there are lots of people in this part of the state who are prepared to travel windy, corrugated or wet roads to a venue irrespective of the weather. We even had some of the public turn up the day before and fronting well before start time on Sunday. One wonders how many we would have got to attend should it have been a nice day.
We had support from some West Gippsland members whose assistance throughout the day was invaluable. Our camp was harmonious indeed and not even a dog quarrel was evident, even though we had quite a few dogs in the various camps. The whole camp and those members present on the day remained on a high well into the next day due to the success of the event. One of our exhibitors was so impressed that he became a member and wants to be part of any events such as this in the future. 
We gained a number of new memberships on the day with many more application forms taken away.

Talking to the people some came from QLD, Melbourne, NSW, Pakenham, Mildura and Leongatha and everywhere locally.  Community Radios as far as Drouin advertised the event on our behalf. Maurie Williams was interviewed by local ABC Radio to advertise the event.  The community radio stations were great in advertising our event even as far as Frankston and in the Dandenongs.

The food van had to get additional supplies from Bairnsdale (40 mins each way) due to demand, they were very pleased to be part of our day and enjoyed the activity and are keen to attend any further events we have.

Don Brereton’s coil testing unit attracted much interest. The queue and the number of coils presented for testing exceeded expectations.

Coil tester at work

A Harmonious Trio

The PMAV Van rec’d some long awaited TLC including tyres. VIC Silos has offered to build and donate a separate trailer to house our operating stamper display and a small stationery engine. This unit will be totally independent to the van.

A huge thank you to all our members who put in and assisted over this weekend, it was good to see so many staying for the weekend and the setting up and putting away of everything.  For those that camped for a few days afterwards, I am sure that gold was on the agenda with the bush telegraph and his mates assisting in locating and removing some of that fine yellow stuff.