Aussie Detectorist GoldTours and Training

Sofala's goldfields have been worked since the 1850s rush, and this outfit runs tag-along detecting tours across private farmland near the old town, with an instructor known locally as Clegy walking small groups through where and how to search rather than just handing over a machine and pointing at dirt. Two-day tours start early, with short drives between likely ground across the property through the day, and training in reading terrain and reading a detector's signal is included in the ticket price rather than charged separately. It's aimed as much at people who've never swung a detector as at hobbyists looking for new ground, with an emphasis on technique over guaranteed finds — this is genuinely worked-over historic country, and the appeal is as much the method and the landscape as the gold itself. Tour dates are released periodically and tend to fill quickly. Sofala itself, a small sandstone-and-corrugated-iron town on the Turon River near Bathurst, is worth the drive regardless of what turns up in the pan.