Australian Gold Rush 1850's

[ColinD]

I think the Army used the goldfields... they look like France during WW1 in places, I'll take some pics and post later today... to conduct troop training during WW2, lots of bullet casings dated '41 and '42 of American origin.
C

[Danmark]

20 parts water to 1part molasses ( litres will do ) in a bucket ( with a lid coz it pongs! ) put it down the back yard and let it go off for a week or so.
Then put your parts in - make sure they are completely submerged and a week or two later they will come out covered with gunk. Hose that off and they'll be clean as a whistle. QUICKLY dry them off and coat with wax or flat clear lacquer to stop the red rust that seems to form immediately now that all the old heavy rust is gone.

DON"T do this to brass, copper or alloy ONLY rusty steel and really only stuff that you don't mind taking back to clean metal. If you want to retain the patina, this isn't the answer. Good luck, Dan

[ColinD]

[ColinD]

The whole area is filled with these holes, one after the other, good place to play war games, not so good for walking about in the dark

[ColinD]

Easy to get lost here too, but I know it well and my dog is like a canine GPS.

[jase770]

Nice finds. I live in the goldfields of Australia in central Victoria and have found alot of military stuff. Here's just a few.

[ColinD]

Brilliant finds!! Would love to find those things Jase... Congrats

[Wagriff]

What are the histories to the 2 Irish buckles? How and why did they end up there? And one of them was made in Gold, you said?

[ColinD]

I don't know the history's of the buckles any more than that the golden one pictured came from the Victorian goldfields and was dated to the 1800's, mine was found just outside Ballarat amid 1800's coins, mine certainly isn't made of gold, wish it was I would imagine they were worn by Irish prospectors given the clover.
C