Spotting a gold glint among dirt in the remote Australian scrub is a feeling that's hard to describe for Eddie Goltz.
"It's something else, it puts a smile on your face … it's just a different feeling altogether when you see that bit of gold," he said.
The Gladstone retiree is visiting Mount Morgan, in central Queensland, for a week — on the hunt for gold with his metal detector.
The historic town was once a rich gold-mining centre, but now it's not so easy for enthusiastic fossickers to find the precious metal.
Caravan park owner Dave Brant operates one of the only fossicking sites in Mount Morgan and is calling on local and state governments to establish public fossicking areas in a bid to boost tourism to the town.
"[Prospectors] sign a waiver, a ledger with us, and pay a fee depending on how many people there are and for how long … we give them a key and away they go," Mr Brant said.
"Being the town it is, with a history of gold, there's gold everywhere, [but] it's not simple to find."
Both the local council and state government are considering potential sites to establish fossicking areas, but there's no timeline for a concrete decision.
Push for fossicking areas
Fellow local business owner Eric Stevenson set up a tenement adjacent to Mr Brant's, also a year ago, and both properties have had about 400 fossickers between them in the past 12 months.
Mr Stevenson said he was also fed up with stalled discussions over setting up a Fossicking General Permission Area, or GPA.
A GPA is where landholders have given general permission for fossicking to occur, while designated fossicking lands are established by the state government in cooperation with local government and landholders.
"There should be land for free available for people to use, instead of being locked up," Mr Stevenson said.
Queensland currently has 11 fossicking areas, nine designated fossicking lands and 21 general permission areas for fossicking totalling more than 20,000 hectares – none of which are in Mount Morgan.
The set-up has proved successful in places like the Gemfields, where the local council estimates visitors spend about $22 million in the region annually.
Mr Brant and Mr Stevenson would prefer to have GPAs than their current privately-run set up — and have been lobbying authorities for several years.
"The amount of effort we put in, we're not really making anything anyway," Mr Brant said.
"I'd prefer to see people come in here have a free gate to a GPA, it's as simple as that … it would bring a lot more people into the town.
"They are proven in places like Clermont … all they have to do is back us up here."
Where to next?
More than a year ago the Rockhampton Regional Council said it had written to the Department of Resources to try to create GPAs in three locations in Mount Morgan.
In a statement, council body Advance Rockhampton said of the three suggested GPA sites, one at Horse Creek Reserve had been deemed too hazardous due to underground contamination.
It said a second site at Leydens Hill was looking "promising" but further discussions with homeowners were needed, and a consideration for civil works to create parking for ease of access.
A third site, inside the Gelobera State Forrest, was being investigated by the state government, and council said though it was "advocating for it to be declared a GPA", it was not involved in those discussions.
The Department of Resources said it was working with the council to identify new fossicking areas.
"In addition to the potential sites near Mount Morgan, a broad proposal for new fossicking areas is currently open for public consultation as part of a suite of small mining proposals released earlier this month," a spokesperson said.
Mr Stevenson said the delays were frustrating.
"They've gone around in circles and done nothing," he said.
"It's not rocket science."
For tourists like Mr Goltz, a GPA would guarantee a return future visit to the town.
"I think that'd be great for the community, but it seems to take a long time to do these things," he said.
