Research reaps rewards in a Queensland ghost town

By Chris D

The author’s finds at the site

I’ve been detecting for coins and relics for almost 10 years now, and while my enthusiasm for the hobby has waxed and waned over the years, the underlying passion for unearthing the next bit of treasure has never left me. Initially my detecting was centred on local areas around Brisbane which is where I live. No park or reserve was safe from my trusty Teknetics Omega 8000 and, as with most of us, the hobby soon became an addiction. At some stage I upgraded to a Minelab Explorer II which I nicknamed the ‘Silver Slayer’ and now run with a Minelab Equinox 800 which is proving to be the most versatile and ergonomically friendly machine I’ve ever used. Somewhere along the way, finding predecimal coins in local parks became less of a challenge and the history behind the finds started to take on more importance.

The online history hub, Trove, became my new best friend and I started to assemble a range of handy research tools. Suddenly the detective work involved in finding a site became more important than what I actually found. The Eureka moment of unearthing a coin or relic that ‘proved’ a site after months of painstaking research, became my new addiction.

Here in Queensland we’re not as lucky as you buggers down south as the State was only officially formed in 1859, so the age of our sites don’t compare with the really early Australian settlements. Once the restrictions of the penal colony were lifted, a large number of towns sprang up around the old coach routes and then later along the railway lines that linked the expanse that is Queensland. Some of these places survived and grew into the towns we know today, but many, many others, for a variety of reasons, thrived and then died out and were lost to the bush. My driving passion evolved into searching for these lonely, long-forgotten locations and to hopefully uncover some of the secrets of their past.

Some 2,300,000 1914 KGV florins were minted and in Very Good condition they fetch around $16

The 1914 King George V florin as it came to light. At the time it was lost, the drums of World War I were beating

Town B was one of these locations. My research indicated it was a bush settlement in the 1890s with a church, a pub and some shops but it only really thrived from the turn of the century into the 1930s. There was nothing very special about the town itself but what stood out was that they had a very enthusiastic cricket team that played ‘away’ games all around the local area and hosted ‘home’ games at their very own recreation reserve. Trove was full of articles about the town hall that adjoined the reserve, which also had tennis courts and an active tennis club. Piecing together a multitude of information gave me a pretty good general idea of the location and Google Earth did the rest.

The author’s best find was this 1915 penny of which only 930,000 were minted. More than 100 years later, they are fairly scarce. As it marks the year Australians went ashore at Gallipoli, it has historical significance

Eventually it was time to get boots on the ground and when I arrived on site, it was very gratifying to see the remnants of the old tennis court enclosure still standing. I was keen to find the site of the hall, figuring the majority of coins and relics would be in this area. An interesting article in Trove indicated that at one time there was a prize for any batsman who could hit a six over the hall. I knew where the cricket pitch was, so, thinking logically, I looked for any flat ground within a well struck ‘six’ of the wicket and came up with an area near the tennis courts, which, on reflection, made perfect sense.

It didn’t take long to get set up and start swinging. I’m sure everyone can relate to the excitement of detecting a new site, and I actually stopped and took a few moments to enjoy the anticipation of what was hopefully to come. The first coin out of the ground was a beautiful 1903 King Edward VII penny which retained that lovely deep green patina that most of the early British coins seem to have. I was pretty happy to find a coin that reflected the earliest use of the site and now had great expectations for a successful day detecting. For the next few hours I just wandered about as I was planning to return the following week with a mate for a more thorough gridding of the site.

A nice old 1917M (Melbourne Mint) shilling saw the light of day for the first time in a long time, quickly followed by an equally impressive 1920M version. An old brooch, a few pennies and a more modern 1953 Florin came up with the usual rubbish found in these types of sites. Just as I was about to call if quits for the morning, a beautiful high tone stopped me in my tracks. The soil here was very sandy and the coins were coming out in great condition, so I had high hopes this was going to be something special, and I wasn’t disappointed – a lovely 1914 King George V florin that looked like it must have been pretty new when it was dropped. I had only just been reading on the Australian Metal Detecting & Relic Hunting (AMDRH) forum that several members had recently found one and I was hoping their luck might have rubbed off on me. It’s amazing how often, when you visualise something, it actually comes to pass!

The author managed to find an old image of the local cricket team

While I was researching the town I came across an old black and white photograph of the local cricket team. Sitting back looking at the beautiful coin that had just come to light, I wondered if the coin had been lost when one of those ghosts from the past flipped it to see who batted first? Impossible to tell of course, but it’s nice to imagine all the same. These tangible links between the past and the present are what makes the long hours or research worthwhile, and it really is a surreal feeling to handle a coin or relic that was last touched more than a hundred years ago. Hot, sweaty and mildly dehydrated from the heat, I got back in the car feeling well pleased with the morning. I returned the following week with my mate Gary to give the site a more thorough going over. One of the great benefits of this hobby is meeting like-minded people and sharing the excitement of the hunt. Gary and I had met through contact on the AMDRH forum and this was our first combined effort, and one that was eagerly anticipated. It was a typically hot and humid Queensland day and we soon had sweat dripping from our brows. The undergrowth was very thick in a lot of places and prevented any dedicated gridding, however the finds started showing up on a regular basis and kept us both busy for several hours.

It’s been a long time since the last game of tennis was played on these courts but remnants like these are the things you need to keep an eye out for as they are markers of where people gathered

Along with a nice shilling and other bits and pieces, Gary also found the brass top from a 1930s cricket stump which, to my mind, was the find of the day as it tied in directly with the past use of the site. My best for the day was a 1915H (Heaton Mint) penny in pretty good condition – not a rare coin but a harder one to get. As previously mentioned, the soil here was a very sandy type of loam and very kind to the coins with most pennies coming out retaining that lovely green patina. Sitting back enjoying a cold drink and some delicious homemade biscuits Gary’s wife had thoughtfully provided, we couldn’t help but reflect on the tenacity and endurance of the early pioneers who carved out a life in what was once a very isolated location. There really is a deep sense of satisfaction in rescuing these little bits of history from the earth.