Some of you may have noticed that Philski’s old Tasmanian Prospecting Forum stopped working a little while ago. The Prospectors and Miners Association of Tasmania have set up a new forum, called Prospecting Tasmania.

The area of the West Coast Range from about Lake Margaret down to Macquarie Harbour was home to a series of gold rushes starting in the 1880s: the Queenstown goldfield. Still today the Queenstown area is one of the best alluvial prospecting locations in Tasmania and nuggets continue to be found.

The recent close call of a prospector who got lost in Tasmania’s west coast is a good wake-up call to sit down and think about your safety plans when you go out in the bush. A lot of safety planning is just common sense, but there are a few things you can do to minimise your risk, especially if you go out on your own. Here’s a list of the main things I do when preparing for a trip, as well as during the trip.