Everything gold is new again ... but here’s a nugget of advice. As gold prices touch record highs, for a new wave of fortune hunters, it’s never been easier, safer, or more lucrative to start gold prospecting. But old-timers have a warning for newcomers.
Words by Paul Garvey and photography by @tamati_the_yamaji For @the.australian
Occasionally I'm asked to go places and put my political beliefs and sit down with people I don't necessarily agree with and listen to their story, sometimes this is the nature of the job as a freelancer.
I sat with James Allison in a small town called sandstone 6 hours easy off the western coast of western Australia, a place my grandfather had lived in during the 60's on Badimaya Barna, a small town where my mother was asked to be adopted by the local publicans in the 70's. As we had breakfast I asked please no bacon with my eggs after we had just back from a location called London Bridge and James looked at me puzzled and asked is there any particular reason why you don't eat pork? I looked at him and said yes it is not in my belief to consume pork and then at this point he moved on and prepared for me fish fingers and eggs. After we had sat down and continued I could help but notice the 2 stickers behind him with Pauline Hanson one stating "Don't welcome me to my country".
Moving on from breakfast and conversing for the morning I decided to move the conversation from James and his family history in prospecting towards my own family history in the area and to fit the lingo a bit more I always chose to use colonial terms some might not agree with by referring to my grand father as a "Half-Caste" missionary raised "Raised" (Stolen) and my grandmother as a "Full-Blood" and refer to the early whites as "Settlers" "Pioneers" in a desolate and unforgiving land. I still wonder his thoughts that he has an "Aborigine" and Muslim sitting in his living space.
Anyway I tried not to stay too long and get the job done as required because this is the nature of a freelance Photojournalist.
