NARRATOR: This time on Aussie Gold Hunters...
We've got a monstrous week ahead of us.
The Poseidon Crew has one week to work their big licence ground
before it's sold.
It's just not starting.
But fuel theft leaves 16 year-old Cayden
to run their million-dollar wash plant on his own.
I've been thrown in the deep end now and I can't afford to mess this up.
Somewhere in this little lagoon... There's a shipwreck.
..there's a shipwreck.
Alan and Salty pause their mainland hunt for gold
to brave uncharted waters in search of sunken treasure...
I found it!
..and make a potentially historic discovery...
That's insane. Yeehoo!
Woo!
Been relentless rain.
We've had a one in one hundred year flood event.
We've lost that much of the season it ain't funny.
..and Brent must call in help from an Aussie Gold Hunters legend...
That should get us there Brent.
..to rescue the flood-damaged Catto's Paddock
as the team runs two leases...
Woohoo!
..in a desperate push to reach season target.
Ha ha! Mwha!
Everywhere you go there's roads blocked at the moment.
Just can't find a way through.
Over the past month,
torrential rain has battered the state of Victoria.
Every road is closed.
We'll be lucky to get back home, I'll tell you what Eth.
Leading to devastating floods
that caused over one point five billion dollars worth of damage,
leaving homes submerged, livelihoods destroyed
and thousands of families stranded.
With Catto's Paddock worst affected.
The Poseidon Crew's only glimmer of hope
has been their big licence lease.
So Caydes, how does it feel driving Dad to work
for the first time, hey? It feels a bit different.
Mate, it's not like driving the dump truck around the paddock.
There's so many things you get to look at.
Your clutch control and your brake control
is going pretty good.
Some of the things that you really got to be wary of is other vehicles.
Yeah. You got to drive for them
not just for yourself. Well Dad, guess what?
Yeah. I think it's your time
to get the gate.
And how the times are changing my boy.
You're doing a good job, mate.
Yeah it's a bit strange that I'm now starting to get the gates.
He might start telling me what to do out here now.
Alright, mate.
Righto.
Alright, don't get carried away with yourself.
Hey Eth. G'day mate.
How's it going mate? Mate, all done.
Good to see you out here Cayden.
Yeah it's good to be out here.
Silly boy, you should be on school holidays, mate,
living it up.
Mate, now that this is finally starting to dry up for us,
mate we've had the year from hell in relation to the weather.
It just hasn't stopped raining.
I should be able to run it now anyway.
I think so, mate. But I've got some news for you mate.
You know how we said we have a limited time here at the licence,
well that time has come.
By the end of this week we're handing the keys over.
What do you mean? Well we knew that there was not
much time here. I understand that.
I just didn't think it was going to be that soon.
We've got to the end of this week to get as much of this dirt through
as we can. OK.
But I need to get Catto's up and running, right?
Yep. It's still flooded out.
We pumped it out three weeks ago but it's full again.
That's going to take a fair bit of work to get that up and running.
Right. So I'm thinking of leaving you here
and Cayden and I are going to go over and get Catto's prepared.
So I've got til the end of this week and you're taking off?
You can do it by yourself.
I can do it by meself mate
but at the end of the day I need all hands here
as much as I need.
How about I stay here with Ethan, help him?
We've got gold here. We know it's consistent gold.
Why don't we have as much hands on deck as we can to get it out?
Well I'll tell you why, right?
We've got nearly seventeen ounces to get to target, OK,
and the only way I see to get that is getting over back over
the Catto's and chancing, lucking a nugget to get us over the line.
The last time we were there, mate we got forty-six ounces
or close to it.
And the week before that we got nothing.
Yeah alright. Fair.
So it comes and it goes, mate.
We've got a limited time.
Let's spend it where we know there's gold.
Over there, it's a pipe dream.
I reckon I should stay here with Ethan.
Alright, alright.
This is your boys' call but this is your ultimate call.
I need to see some gold on the scales, boys.
I completely understand that, Dad.
I need to see eight ounces or better to make it worthwhile
you staying here.
I understand, Dad.
I believe we can make that. Are you sure?
Because this ain't, mate, this ain't school.
OK? This is real life. You know what I mean?
The pressure is on you now my boy. I understand that, Dad.
Let's make it happen. Alright?
It's good to see Cayden you know, stepping up to the plate,
putting a plan into place and taking responsibility for it.
Cayd, go fire up that water pump for me.
Yeah righto. I'll get the plant fired up.
So now it's sort of on him, you know, what happens here.
But right now I've got to find someone to give me a hand
over at Catto's because after this week,
we've got to have a place to keep digging
and there ain't much time left in the season.
The pressure's definitely on at the moment.
I've promised Dad that we'll be able to get all this dirt through.
I hope I made the right decision.
Alright Eth, that's uh, pump turned on now.
Alright so we've got this plant up and going right now.
Everything seems to be running pretty smooth.
We've got a monstrous week ahead of us.
We're trying to push through just over five hundred tonnes
for the day.
Brent's put us under the pressure and Cayden backed me
a hundred per cent so we really need to produce
and make it worthwhile
other wise it will be a complete waste of time.
Go jump in that loader, mate. We'll get that happening.
Righto. We need to be as efficient as possible.
We've got a lot of dirt to get through.
The sooner we start the better.
Now we got the plant started, get in the loader,
get the dirt in the plant.
Hey Ethan, the uh,
the loader's not turning on.
I'm turning the keys a couple of times
and it's just not starting.
Generally when these thing's don't start,
it's normally a fuelling issue or something electrical.
Um it's not the turbo timer.
We got bugger all fuel in this, mate.
When I left this last time mate this was basically near on full.
Three quarters full.
It's right down there now.
I can't see any leaks down here.
There's no, there's no diesel floating around in here.
Basically what it's looking like, Cayden,
is that we've had fuel theft.
That's the only thing I can put it down to, mate.
You're kidding.
You know Dad's just left and cannot believe it.
We haven't even started yet and we're already behind.
I love the coast but I'm just so sceptical, mate.
You know, we don't really have all that much time.
We've got three ounces to find to hit our target
and you wanna go out on a limb based on what someone has said.
Of course I do.
You know, if we're walking away with a million bucks
worth of treasure it's gonna be uh, it's gonna be worth it.
Mate, come on. Treasure hunting?
What makes you think there's something out here?
Well a mate of mine was out here fishing
and he spotted this anchor in this lagoon
that you can only get to once or twice a year
and he said the size of the anchor just, it shouldn't,
it should not be there,
just physically can't be there
unless a big ship ran aground during a storm
or something like that.
And are we talking like a new anchor or old anchor?
Nah, well he said it's, it's been there for a long time,
probably a hundred odd years
so that puts into the late eighteen hundreds.
I reckon we'd just be absolutely mad to not give this a go.
I hear you mate. I hear you.
I just might need a little more convincing.
Well funnily enough, I've um,
I've actually done some research behind the scenes.
I've got this shipwreck expert coming out to meet us.
His name is Mike Scott and this guy's the real deal.
He's found some crazy shipwrecks before, lots of treasure
and um if he reckons it's worth it then we're going to go out there
and fingers crossed we can jump in the history books.
The best case scenario for this week
would obviously be to find chests full of treasure
and the worst case is we find a bunch of broken dreams
and we gotta go back out to the goldfields and you know,
dread this, the heat that's coming.
You are joking!
This season, Alan and Salty's hunt for gold
has taken them to some of the most remote and inhospitable locations
in Western Australia.
No way!
Using underwater detectors and dive gear,
they've been able to target gold on untouched ground.
You beauty! I got it!
But now a narrow weather window has presented the duo
with a unique opportunity too rare to pass up.
To hunt over nine kilometres off the coast for sunken treasure.
G'day Mike. How are you?
Yeah good, yourself? Salty. Nice to meet you mate.
Nice to meet you guys too.
Oh well thanks for coming out here. Really appreciate it.
A mate of mine spotted what he thinks was an anchor
out in this lagoon that you can only get to maybe once or twice a year.
You cannot get anything big enough to drop this anchor in there
because it's protected by a reef and a sand bar.
Yeah, yeah.
And he goes well there's an anchor here.
Where's the rest of the ship?
That's why I've asked you to come up.
We don't even know if it is an anchor.
Yeah. So I don't even know if it's worth
going out there. I'm sure it's worth going out.
The Dutch East India company was the biggest company
in the world.
They had about five thousand trips out here.
It was a big trade route to the Spice Islands
and they made fortunes out of it.
You know they'd get like whatever they paid for,
they got about a thousand times returns on their investment
when they got back to Europe.
They could easily crash along this sort of coast or get wrecked.
All these low reefs out here,
you can imagine coming here at night,
you don't see them.
So there's any chance there's stuff up there.
Between 1611 and 1890,
the Dutch East India Company transported billions of dollars
worth of gold and silver
along the rugged twelve thousand-kilometre coastline
of Western Australia.
Many meeting their fate as they struggled to navigate
the hidden reefs and dangerous swells.
During his lifetime veteran shipwreck expert Mike Scott
has been instrumental in the discovery
of two of these major shipwrecks:
the Gilt Dragon and the infamous Batavia.
It's believed that over 750 shipwrecks
still remain undiscovered
and if Alan and Salty can locate just one,
it could hold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of lost treasure.
It's you know, a big detour from what we're actually here to do
uh but from what you've said,
it sounds like there's still millions in treasure and gold
out there. There definitely is. Yeah.
And like there's unknown wrecks there somewhere.
If that anchor is in a very difficult spot,
that's what intrigues me.
It could probably only get there if a boat went over the reef
or crashed through it or did something.
Exactly. Yeah. On the Batavia up there,
they found that because a fisherman saw an anchor you know
and that honed them right into where that was.
I know it's restricted to when you can get there
because it looks like it's a pretty nasty spot.
Every now and again you'll get a lull where it's,
you know, magic and you can, you know, dive there easily.
There's missing ones out there.
Mike's just said, "go for it".
I would, definitely. Now you've got me, Mike, you might,
yeah you've got me here.
Get out there. Have a look. I'm so excited.
I've always wanted to do this.
Thanks very much, mate. Good luck, Al.
Thanks for that.
We'll be back in a few days hopefully,
otherwise send help. Ha, ha, ha.
Beauty. Thanks for that, Mike. We'll be in touch.
See you guys.
We're back over here at Catto's.
This place we haven't been able to work.
It's just been relentless rain.
We've had one in one hundred near flood event.
We've lost that much of the season it ain't funny.
It's hard to believe that under that water level
it's ten foot to the bottom,
we've got a lot of work ahead of us and uh the pressure is on me
like never before.
But hopefully me and me mate can get this sorted out and ready
and hopefully we can get some yeah, things happening.
Brent's mate is a mining legend
who has discovered some of the biggest nuggets
in Aussie Gold Hunters history.
Gold to me is just part of life, runs through your blood.
It's in your veins.
Been all sorts of hold ups for people,
particularly with the amount of rainfall that we've been getting.
So uh to get the call from Brent,
it just made me day.
Just being able to get out there and help mates.
It takes your mind off of all the other problems
and all the worries you have in the world.
We're all here for a purpose and we never know how long for,
so enjoy the moment while you can.
My help's arrived.
How are you going Brent?
How are you going there Nevvy?
I tell you what, it was good to get a call.
Mate I was reluctant to call you, you know
with all the stuff you're going through.
I had no one else to turn to. Well mate.
How are you, more importantly? Oh well all the drama,
I want to still try to bloody be able to work on me land
and court stuff is happening.
More importantly mate, how's your health?
Me health's crap mate.
I'm undergoing treatment and whatever but uh yeah,
so terminal cancer. I know.
They give me about another eighteen months.
I'm, I'm planning another five years
and if I get that then I'll go another five.
You've been through such a hell of a lot and to...
..have the problems you've got and for you to be out here mate,
I just, uh.
Mate, I'm telling ya the call, I, gold's our life, Brent.
I know that. And we're passionate about it.
I know that. Anyway we need to get...
Get to work? We need to get this sorted, mate,
because I don't know how much time I'll have left so let's get it done.
That's a chunk mate.
That. Is. A. Chunk.
Jesus Christ!
Mate, that is what we're here for Buddy.
Four years ago Aussie Gold Veterans Neville Perry
and mining partner Mick Clark
made a promising start
on their historic German Gully lease.
Seventy-nine point nine.
It's a two. It's a two thousand dollar nugget.
But after investing nearly one point five million dollars
to work the ground,
their success came to an abrupt end
when Heritage Victoria accused the pair
of mining in a protected area.
When you've got a twenty five, thirty-year dream
sitting here,
you're going to fight tooth and nail to keep it alive.
Facing twelve months in jail
and a one hundred thousand dollar fine,
Neville chose to defend himself in court.
This wasn't just a fight for me
and it's not just a fight for prospectors' rights,
it's a fight for landowners.
And you know and the rights that landowners should have to work
and go to work on their own land.
Unfortunately this doesn't allow me to go back to work on my land.
That's another fight that I've gotta have
so it's certainly not the end of where I'm at.
Right now it's an emotional moment for everyone, particularly Nev,
but he's been proven not guilty
and right now he's gotta fight to actually get back to mine,
and hopefully he wins that fight before he loses his fight for life.
While my project's held up
and the hunt for those bigger nuggets
that's sort of been put on hold,
I can't think of anything better than helping a mate,
hopefully finding that larger nugget right here
on Catto's paddock.
That should get us there, Brent.
I've known Nev now for nearly twenty years.
You know we met just through the gold industry.
You know, we've got a shared passion and that's the hunt for big nuggets
and while Ethan and Cayden are running the big licence
until the end of that,
you know we'll get this prepared and ready to go.
Get it fired up and get it pumping.
Fair bit of water in there mate. Yeah.
It's a four-inch pump. What's it pumping?
Yeah about 80,000 litres an hour, it should do.
We've got a few days to pump her out
but we'll go and get these machines sorted out.
Yep.
Start cleaning up this area. Got a fair bit to do.
Do you want to go and maybe jump in the dump truck?
Mate, more than happy.
Right now we've got all this sludge that's starting to dry out
so we're going to clear all this up,
get this site prepared,
get the hole pumped out
and um maybe we can get some good gold next week
that can get us over target.
What's the chances you reckon finding a thousand ounce nugget
here, given the history here?
Mate, I reckon there's a chance of even something bigger.
Ha, ha, ha,
he's got gold in the veins like me.
We are in it for the hunt of finding massive nuggets
that built this country of Australia.
The nuggets that brought hundreds of thousands of people
from around the world
and we are following in the footsteps of the old timers
and Nev's got that in his blood and so do I.
We'll go see Vern. I reckon so.
Here we are mate, treasure hunters.
Yeah, something different.
Mate, it's going to be nice in the lagoon,
I guarantee it.
G'day boys. Hey Vern.
Long time no see. Yeah. It's been a little while.
How are you Al? Yeah good, good. Yeah.
Salty, mate. Nice to meet you. Pleasure to meet ya Salty.
So you want to try and find this old anchor I've seen hey?
Definitely. You've sparked some fire in me.
Well you know, it's out there. I'd seen it years ago.
Yep.
And a bit of luck and we can find it again.
Fingers crossed there's some treasure attached to it.
Yeah, so chuck your gear on board and we'll push off and have a go.
Alright, sounds good.
Follow me to the gold.
Vern Strange is a forty-year veteran of the gold game
and has extracted millions of dollars worth of gold
from dozens of mining operations throughout Western Australia.
So 240 ounces.
That'll help the bank account a bit.
You've followed me to the gold, now follow me to the pub.
Let's go.
Today Vern is taking underwater specialists
Alan and Salty nine kilometres offshore
to a secret location
where they hope to uncover a shipwreck
that could hold millions in sunken treasure.
It's dangerous water where we're going.
To get right into where I saw this anchor years ago
it's really hard to get to.
You need exceptionally calm weather.
I've been trying to get back in there for years
and haven't been able to do it.
Yeah well this is the only chance to really come out here and do it,
right? Yeah you don't get many windows
where you get this really calm weather...
Yeah OK. ..um but it changes really quickly
so it'll be a point where we have to pack up and run.
If it blows up
and if the swell comes up too much,
it closes up all the passages into this area
and we're in trouble so, when I say we got to go,
we got to go. Yep.
Otherwise we're swimming home the long way.
The old anchor was in that,
between the two islands there that's where we need to be looking.
I can't get you around into the lagoon.
Yep.
It's too rough. We've got a big swell on
and we'll get swamped if we try and come in at the back.
Unfortunately I'm gonna have to drop you on this side,
which means you'll have to cart a bit of gear up the beach.
I'd rather not be the next shipwreck mate, so.
Yeah, one shipwreck is enough.
Got to get this boat moored securely
because we're in amongst rocky ground.
There's no room for error here.
If an anchor lets go,
we get washed up on the rocks straight away,
like that seal over there.
If there's wildlife like that out here,
not many humans come out here at all,
because where there's seals like this there's uh,
there's definitely some good sized sharks
and we're in great white country up here
so there's some very big sharks around.
Boasting over one hundred species of sharks,
Western Australia's reefs are prime feeding grounds for bull,
tiger and great white sharks,
some of which can grow up to five metres in length.
Got this little window of opportunity,
a couple of reasonable days of weather
and I want to get in there and solve this mystery.
Got the right guys, got the right equipment
and we've got the right weather just to have a quick look.
I'll have to stay with the boat while you blokes jump in the water
and find this treasure.
We're on. Let's go mate. Let's do it.
See you a bit later Vern.
Rip into it.
This is it mate. It is. This is the lagoon.
Somewhere in this little lagoon... There's a shipwreck.
..there's a shipwreck
and we need to find it.
This is absolutely a rubbish scenario.
Someone's knocked the fuel out of the loader,
Brent's gone away to Catto's,
Cayden fought to stay here right now
and we can't even fire up.
That'll be the local coppa,
I let know about this fuel theft.
How are you going? Good.
Thanks for coming out. Good. Dennis.
Appreciate it. Ethan.
I've received a report you've had some uh diesel knocked off.
Yes we have, mate. How many litres are we looking at?
Oh look, we're talking probably two, three hundred litres
so you're probably looking at 650 worth.
It's about that.
Yeah there's been a little bit of theft going on through the area.
OK. We'll have a look at this machine.
That's the plate just there.
Yeah I'll just take a photograph of it.
Yep, no worries.
Alright, mate. I'll uh, I'll send you that report.
Yep. And um if you've got any further
questions or whatever, just give us a bell.
Perfect. Alright mate.
Appreciate it. Good to see you.
Thank you very much. See ya.
Not much he can do.
He's given us a few handy little hints
that we can try in the future
and he's going to step up his patrols a little bit more
and we'll put a few more cameras out.
But right now, I need to get this fuel system bled.
Basically because there's bugger all fuel in here,
all the fuel has just ran back into the tank
and there's air in the system.
This right here... Uh huh.
..is just like a fuel pump.
It's just a manual one.
What I'm basically going to have to do, Cayden,
is just pump through the air.
If you have any air in this system at all it won't run.
When fuel is syphoned from a tank,
gravity pulls diesel left in the fuel line
away from the engine, creating an air pocket.
Ethan must manually re-pressurise the system
allowing the fuel to get back to the engine.
I can't stop thinking that if Dad comes back
and he sees we've done nothing
he is going to be that disappointed in me.
Look Cayden, mate, breakdowns, especially on these plants mate,
you can never choose when they're gonna happen
so it's always at the worst times
and to be honest, I know you're stepping up into it
and you're looking like you love it and all that,
but just be aware that it is high risk, high reward.
Yeah.
In this tank they've been nice enough to leave us with some fuel.
They didn't take it all
but we have to still go into town to go get some fuel.
Without it we'll get maybe one, two hours run time max.
What I'm thinking is, mate, you know this plant now well enough.
OK.
That I'm going to go into town by meself.
You stay here. You run this operation.
How do you feel about that?
Well I reckon we've got to get some dirt through it.
I reckon if you can do that for me,
that would be a massive help mate but your safety,
you have to be careful, yeah? Yeah, no.
If you get any major issue mate, you just shut her down
and leave it. Will do.
Alright. Jump up in there mate and we'll get this fired up and...
Alright, beautiful. ..hopefully she'll kick over.
Alright.
It's a bloody big move for him to run the plant while I'm gone.
It's a bit daunting for me to leave him here to run it
but I reckon he's got the ability to do so. So.
All good to fire it up, Ethan?
Yeah mate, fire her up.
Oh ho ho ho!
We're on limited time now with how much fuel we've got.
We had very little left in there.
I'm going to duck back into town
but the quicker I can get there and get back is going to be the key
right now. Cayden will be right here.
I've been thrown in the deep end now
and it's just a matter of seeing if I sink or if I swim.
I can't afford to mess this up.
We're very limited for time today.
We know that wind is going to swing and once it does swing
it's going to chop up the way to get back out
so we need to make sure we're out on time and safely
otherwise yeah, we're going to be marooned out here.
Nine kilometres off the coast
Alan, Salty and mentor Vern Strange
have spent the morning racing a narrow weather window
to search for a potential treasure-laden shipwreck
they believe could have collided with this reef centuries ago.
We've got the underwater detector just to basically pick up
any kind of metal that could have come off an old boat
but yeah, I haven't picked up any signals yet so hopefully soon
and I mean Alan on the Hookah, he can stay down for much longer
than I can.
Fingers crossed he comes up with the goods soon.
As Salty free dives the tight spaces of the reef,
Alan relies on his Hookah Diver
to search up to ten metres below the surface.
The dive unit uses a battery-powered compressor to deliver air
to a breathing regulator,
enabling Alan to remain underwater for hours at a time.
Location's awesome.
The hookah diver is working an absolute dream
but we're not finding anything.
We're running out of time.
Need to get back in there before the,
before the weather changes and kicks us out for good.
So I better get back into it.
I'm feeling the heat a little bit.
We're so close to getting our season target, almost twelve ounces.
Three to go so hopefully this can pay off.
We could find millions of dollars worth of gold out here.
It's needle in a haystack times ten thousand
and the weather's really not gonna look that flash in the next few days
so if we are going to make it happen
we gotta move pretty quick.
Hey Al, come here.
Yew! You got something?
Yeah, I think it's an old nail. Come here.
I got a signal and I started digging out the sand
and it was just nursed there in the rock.
There's never been any kind of homestead
or anything on this island so this has come from an old boat,
an old ship and it's ended up here.
What have you got? Mate, how's this.
Wow. You don't see nails like that around
anymore mate. That's old.
What is that doing here?
Man, I've never seen anything like that.
That's awesome.
I was having my doubts but now I understand.
This really gets me excited about what else is out here
in this secluded little bay with no one else around.
Yeah we've got to tell Vern.
He'll be wrapped to see this.
Hey Vern, mate, you got a copy?
Yeah.
You wouldn't believe it mate, we've uh, We've found something.
Found like an old nail I think,
from the uh, or we're hoping it's from this shipwreck.
Really?
I'm on borrowed time at the moment.
I've only got a limited amount of uh fuel remaining.
Ethan's now gone off to go get more fuel.
He's put his trust in me to stay out here by myself
and run this on my own.
Beautiful, it's feeding well.
We've got to be getting through roughly about five hundred tonnes
a day
so our number one priority at the moment
is to keep this plant running.
The Poseidon Crew have just one week left
to work their Big Licence ground before it's sold
but with Ethan forced on a fuel supply run
to Bendigo,
Cayden has spent the past two hours
running their million-dollar wash plant alone.
After every single bucket I have got to jump out,
gotta stop.
Then go check the plant on foot.
It's a lot of responsibility on my shoulders at the moment.
So basically I'm just going to check that uh this hopper here
is feeding into the plant, make sure it's not blocked up.
I've operated the plant before and I've run the loader before
but never have I put the two together and done both.
That looks good.
So, you know, it's a real test of my abilities
and sort of an opportunity to show how far I've come
and what I'm capable of doing.
This is the problem about running a plant by yourself.
You've got to check everything manually.
You lose a lot of time.
Part of me just wants to make my Dad proud
but I'm also proving myself to Ethan.
I have to keep pushing through, putting dirt into the hopper.
Ever since I was a little boy
I've been dreaming about doing this exact thing
and this is honestly my sort of dream job
and to be able to do it will mean the whole world to me.
Alright, beautiful.
Looks like Ethan's coming back now.
My fuel's getting low so it seems like this is perfect timing.
Got the fuel? I do mate, I do.
How did you go Buddy? Yeah, good.
Firing along smoothly, yeah.
Beautiful mate. Do you want to uh fire that up, Bud?
Just over three thousand dollars to fill up that container mate.
We're talking about liquid gold right there.
So you've done really, really well. I'm really impressed.
Thank you. It's not a small thing
to take on a plant like this,
especially with the experience you got.
So you got thrown in the deep end, so good stuff mate.
Well there's a first time for everything, yeah.
Alright that's done. Shut it down mate.
Alright. Beautiful.
And we'll get back into this, Bud.
Now we got Ethan back we can run the plant at full capacity
and ready to get some dirt through it.
He's doing well.
He's pushing himself.
He's growing up into quite a you know, smart young man.
You're doing well Cayden.
Thanks Eth.
Hopefully we can get the results we need to make it worthwhile
for Brent to have us out here.
Yeah it'll be interesting to see how Brent's going out there,
if he's getting through everything he needs to.
I just cannot wait to see my Dad's face
and see him be proud of what I've done
and what I've accomplished and how far I've come.
This is our last opportunity probably for a long time
because from here on there's lots of wind, lots of swell
so um you found a nail
so that's some evidence that there's something there.
Yeah well a nail's not going to pay the bills
so we definitely need to find a lot more today.
Yeah well, a bit of luck you get in there
and find a bit of gold.
A nice gold bar would get us where we want really quick.
In Western Australia,
Alan and Salty are hoping to capitalise
on a narrow weather window that has allowed them
to access a dive site
where they've uncovered promising signs of a lost shipwreck
potentially holding millions of dollars in gold and silver.
If we don't find anything out here
then it's going to set us back definitely
and put the pressure on for the next few weeks ahead.
So yeah, the pressure's on today
and it will reveal whether this was worthwhile or not.
This is it mate. Last day.
Last day, a couple of hours. We'd better make this work.
We've searched this half of the lagoon,
let's hit the other side.
Just search high and low, mate.
The wind's already here so time's a ticking.
Yep, let's see what we can find.
So I'm feeling the heat a little bit.
Um I brought Salty out here.
He didn't really want to come.
So obviously we're a team
so I am feeling a bit of pressure for this to pay off.
Yesterday we found that nail
and today we're gonna find that shipwreck.
Underwater visibility is great.
Plenty to see but neither of us seem to be picking up any signals
so if we are going to hit our target this season,
we really can't be wasting time like this.
How are you going mate?
I'm going good but no good in the finding anything department.
Yeah well we're going to have to get out of here shortly.
Vern's not going to hang around all day
and I don't want to swim back to the mainland.
Yeah.
Unfortunately you know, maybe this shipwreck thing
might be a bit of a bust.
When do we make the call to head back into the goldfields,
mate and start finding some real gold?
Hey Nev, we're definitely good to go here, mate.
We got gravel through here. You got your detector with you, Bud?
Never leave home without it, Brent.
I thought you would say that. Alright mate,
do you want to suit up and get down the hole
and maybe find us some gold, Nev.
Alright, no worries mate. I'm on me way.
Well having Nev here has really sped things up.
We've got the water pumped out, we've got the site all ready to go.
Now we've actually bottomed the hole
and we're hopeful we're gonna get a bit of gold.
That'd be just the bonus.
Well this should be pretty good. This is what I'm born to do.
Get out there and start looking for those bigger nuggets.
That's what we love.
Hey Nevvy. Hey mate.
What I'm actually thinking mate
is that we're going to work exactly like you used to work
so I've got to get you down in the pit
and you're going to wander back and forth
as I strip four or five inches off.
That's, that's terrific.
We're on the gold layer right now so you can get anything at any time
mate, as you know. Well, hopefully it will be big.
Something as big as your head, Brent.
It's gotta be over bloody two thousand ounces.
My head's pretty big.
So as Nev detects it, I'll come in and take another layer off
and then just repeat that
and hopefully we'll find a big nugget.
We can see some of this ground already by the colour,
hasn't been paddocked over
so that's a good sign that there might be some untouched ground here.
Any sort of noise has the potential
of being a good bit of gold.
(BEEPING)
Got a target there, mate.
Right now Nev looks like he's got a target down here.
Bloody wet down there, innet?
It is, mate.
Sounds a bit better.
I'm getting excited.
She's out mate.
I can see it sitting here.
Right here.
Is it gold? Yeah it's gold. Yeah.
You beauty. You grab it.
You can see how nice and clean it is.
Yeah, nice bit. About seven or eight grams.
That'll put three, four hundred bucks of fuel in the machine there,
mate. It's a start.
At least we've got something happening mate.
I can't thank you enough man. All good mate.
You've honestly sped me up probably three or four days, mate.
It's been my pleasure.
I've got to probably head off because I've got...
You know I've got... Court stuff.
I've got court stuff to sort out. Yep.
But you need to come with me because I've got something for ya.
I can't believe you've got something for me.
As you know I've got a historian, John Campbell.
Yep.
He's put through some documents together.
They're for you to look at. Wow.
They're great history of this place.
I hope there's something in there that can lead you to that big find.
Any information is good information. Nev, thank you so much.
You and the boys, you take care and find that big one.
Alright I'll keep in touch, eh?
No worries mate.
Thanks so much. The nuggets are there.
Keep the faith. I will keep the faith. Thanks Bud.
When you reflect on the things that Nev is going through,
it's a good time to reflect on life in general,
because your life can be ended far too soon...
..and that does actually get to you...
..because the man's been through a hell of a lot...
..and um it's rather upsetting
that some people can be dealt hands like that in life
but the way he carries himself is really inspirational.
It is for me.
And to be able to still come out and help prepare a mine site
when he knows he's only may have got twelve months to two years maximum.
I'm just praying there's a miracle that keeps him on the planet
a lot longer
because uh people like Nev
shouldn't be lost to the world so soon.
Discovering things. I think we're born for that.
I think we like the thrill of that chase
and those sorts of things also give people hope
and when people have hope they have inspiration
and they have aspirations
and that's what it should inspire all people in all walks of life.
Just the thrill of that hunt and being successful at what you do.
We've almost finished detecting this uh, this lagoon.
Unfortunately no treasure.
Um all we've found is this nail.
If we don't find anything more we're going home empty handed.
It's starting to give me some doubts
whether we're even gonna find this shipwreck.
Alan and I have been working really hard.
We have been scanning this lagoon, every single reef hole,
every nook and cranny we can find
and all we've come up with so far is this nail.
The clock is ticking.
I found it! I found the anchor. Oh no way.
Salty!
Oi!
Come and have a look at this.
Have you got something?
Have a look just down in here. You're never gonna guess.
Yes, you legend. How good is that?
Oh I just stumbled upon it,
the detector went off and I thought, "What is that?"
and there's a length of chain just next to it as well.
It's huge. Yeah. It's ridiculous.
I had my doubts with Vern's story but it's pulled through.
Mate, I'm going to get some photos of that and the tape measure.
Yep, awesome. Sounds good.
How's the bit of metal sticking out the top there?
Did you see it? Yeah.
How epic's that? And the chain. Yeah.
Ha, ha, ha, mate! How good!
What a find! What a find!
We'll have to get out of here now. Yep.
Vern's probably been trying to get hold of us.
Nails, anchor, photos. Let's go show the expert eh.
Let's do it. Let's go.
Yew! Stoked.
How are you going mate? How are you going there Eth?
Yeah good buddy. Good. Getting through some dirt I see.
We are, mate. We are. Cayden's going alright.
He's done well so. Well unfortunately mate,
this is the time mate.
We've got to shut her down. We're done.
Alright mate. Hey Caydes you got a copy mate?
Yeah I sure do.
That's it. Pull the pin, Bud.
I reckon we go for a weigh in and see how much we got out of here.
Alright. Done. This is a bitter sweet moment, mate,
but when another page closes another chapter starts.
Right now, pretty much end of an era.
Done and dusted. Last time I'll turn this plant off.
No more processing dirt.
Times are changing.
Alright boys, are we right for the weigh in?
We are done mate.
So it looks like you boys have done alright.
We did really well, mate but uh how did you go over there?
We're ready to go at Catto's. We got a little bit of gold.
Not much but we got one little piece but we started a hole.
Right. Yeah well we got something.
Cayden, your big idea was to stay here to get more gold on the scales.
So I said originally I want to see eight ounces.
Put it on the scales.
Are you ready? Oh well I don't know. Are you ready?
This is on your head my boy. No faith mate.
Alright. Seven, eight, nine point nine four.
Oh relief. Well actually, I actually did think
there was going to be five ounces there but to better that,
you must have got more tonnes through it than I thought.
I think he needs to eat his words on this one, doesn't he?
You've done well mate.
That's not too bad so let's throw this little nugget on.
Yep, your lifesaver. Let's go.
That comes to a total boys of ten point two zero, mate.
That's not bad.
Look we're walking away with what? Twenty-six grands worth of gold.
Twenty six grands worth of gold but...
Seven ounces short still.
We can hit Cattos' run next week, right?
Give a big push towards the end and you just, at any moment
a monster could come out the ground and change everything.
Look I believe you mate but it's all on time.
We've got a limited time mate and we've got to get seven ounces
so uh we need to find something bigger than that little piece there.
Mate a hundred ounces is a hundred ounces
and I'm going to push heaven and earth to get there.
Alright, good job Cayden. You proved yourself, mate.
You actually might make a miner.
You might have to.
But you're not leaving school to become one just yet.
You always say that Dad. You always say that.
I know that. It's important, OK? Then you can be a miner later.
I couldn't really sleep last night
because I was just thinking about what might be laying out there.
I think you know, I'm convinced there's more to this.
Yep. And I reckon Mike will be too.
Hey mate.
Hey guys.
Well have we got something for you?
Have you? What have you been up to?
Come in here, Mike.
I'll walk you through it.
Right. This is basically an aerial view
of the lagoon.
Uh here's the, the reef on the west end.
Yep. That's where the anchor is.
Have a look. Far out! What have we got here?
That's an anchor.
That's not off a little boat. No.
That type of thing, I reckon it's probably over a hundred years.
That's awesome. That's in my opinion.
It's pretty old. We also found a nail
while were out there. Oh yeah.
They don't make these now. It's definitely come off a boat.
This is awesome to hear. Oh I'm getting excited.
This is how it all starts, you know,
from a little lead like that.
You know you could have something quite significant here.
There's nothing to say that it can't be a Dutch ship at this stage,
you know. And no one else has seen it.
There could be treasure, easily. Millions of dollars.
No problems about it.
Yep. I'd get out there
as quick as you can and get stuck into that.
I reckon it's quite exciting.
Hearing this and showing you the photos
and seeing your reaction,
you haven't stopped looking at the screen, I, I'm pumped.
Now it's just waiting for that weather window
and getting back out there.
Yeah get back out there and see what we can scour up.
I'm hanging on for it. And let's hope there's a prize
at the end of it. That would be nice.
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