Coiltek GoldCentre

Maryborough sits in the heart of Victoria's central goldfields, and this detector retailer — trading since 2002 and one of the country's largest Minelab dealers — runs small instructor-led prospecting days combining a morning of ground-reading theory with an afternoon actually swinging a detector across gold-bearing country under supervision. Groups are capped at six, all equipment is supplied for anyone who doesn't own a detector, and participants work under the operator's own tour licence rather than needing to source a miner's right — one less barrier to a first attempt at the hobby. Training days run twice a week; bookings are by phone only and fill quickly given the small group size. It's a working shopfront as much as a tour operator — prospectors passing through drop in to swap stories and show off finds — which gives the guided day a level of local knowledge a one-off tour operator wouldn't have. For a region built on gold and still carrying the architecture to prove it, spending a day actually working the ground is a different way to understand what Maryborough is.