Original subtitles

How are you going, Bridge? You're looking forward to having the bus out?

Yeah, I'm feeling really excited. We're going to be saving so much time and so much fuel,

all of the speed out there. I hope it all works out sweet. Get through

this last section and we can relax a bit. How you going up there, Kyle?

Yeah, mate. I'm just a couple of k's up ahead of you guys. Track's definitely pretty chopped

up. You're going to need to take it nice and easy.

Cheers, buddy. Yeah, this is definitely the sketchiest part of the road, so I'm a bit

nervous about getting the bus through. Yeah, the worst thing that could possibly

happen is we roll the bus over or we blow a couple of tyres on these really narrow areas.

Tied around that bend on the creek, Levi? Yep.

Alright, Sonny, we're going to wait up here and just make sure Dad gets through that creek,

okay? A little bit nerve-racking.

Hopefully there's no damage. It's like taking your entire home through a two-hour earthquake.

Ah!

Whoa!

Ah! Oh my goodness.

Woo!

Maita!

Well, that was pretty sketchy, actually.

They sh** out everywhere in here.

We're here, Levi. We're Maita. Welcome!

Let's go. Let's get in there.

Here we are. Home sweet home for the next little while.

Oh man, that was crazy. We did it.

What do you reckon the plan for the week is? Well, let's just hope this channel keeps producing,

mate. I reckon we just keep digging and following it down. Like, the gold's telling us it's

going down that way. Let's just dig it up and go for the best.

Let's just follow the gold. Yeah. Sounds like a plan, man.

We can go in the bus. And we're going to set up a fire pit, cook some dinner on the fire.

Set some shade up. See you in a bit.

Alright, let's get into it. Okay, let's go set up inside, Sonny. We're home!

You're in a digger? I'm in a digger.

Sweet. Alright, I'm going to go gear up and get ready to go.

Let's do it.

We picked up four and a half ounces last week. It's a pretty bloody good week considering

the breakdown, so that's why we're staying on this area.

We're going to make sure we keep finding enough gold to pay each other and to pay off the

digger. This digger cost us about $70,000. In gold numbers, that's about 20 ounces, so

no, we're not even halfway to paying off this machine. And we're halfway through the season.

This is the beginning of The Wanderers. This season, Levi and Bridget North have teamed

up with Kyle Wilson. Wow, what a beautiful snake.

Gambling their life savings to stake the Excalibur lease in the harsh Pilbara region of northwest

in Australia. This lease has gold all over it.

After proving up their ground, they've moved their converted school bus home onto the lease,

saving them the gruelling four-hour daily round trip from town.

There's little Target. Rock the ground. She's out. Let's see what we've got. Straight in

the skeet too. Straight in the hand. Bloody shard. There's a little bit of steel that's

come off the bucket. Because the ground that we're working so hard, as the bucket scratches

along, sometimes it can peel little bits of metal off.

Yeah, the ground's getting super hard the deeper we go. It's really compacted. But the

gold's just down deep, so we've just got to keep digging down to it.

Millions of years ago, an ancient river system carried gold from the surrounding area into

the valley. As the water dried up, the riverbed was exposed to the sun, forming a dense, hardened

layer known as cowcreek, trapping the gold-bearing pay dirt.

How's it going? Hard digging, man. Oh, even the batter bucket's getting a bit worn out.

What's the plan? Let's split it in half, and we'll walk the

pad and we'll go down again, mate. Let's rip in.

Bloody oath. Oh, I recognise that noise. Beautiful. There's a little signal down there.

Still in there. Yeah, that's right in the middle. That's

what we want. That's just over a gram. Another 100 bucks in the kitty.

Ah, look at that. Whew. Hard work getting that one out. I reckon probably .2, $25 nugget.

Down a couple of hundreds. It might be close to getting out now.

So hard to dig. There it is. 100 bucks right there.

Alrighty, there she is. Another little bit of gold, but I'm working hard for it.

My pick's getting pretty blunt. Yep, still in there.

I'm going to go grab another pick. I can't keep battling on with this thing. It's cooked.

This just isn't working. Every nugget is taking like five times longer to get out of the ground than it should.

Wait, Levi. What's up, mate?

Look. Well, I got the last pick, mate, so I don't

know what we're going to do. Look at the difference in the two of them,

man. These things are 200 bucks a pop. This patch of ground that we're working in the moment is just too hard for picks,

eh? Look, I've got a bit of a plan. I'm going to head into town. Leave it with me.

All right, mate, you do that. All right.

Gotcha. See you, buddy.

Over the last few seasons, we've found gold, but it's been so hit and miss.

Trying to desperately find something that can deliver something on a consistent basis so I can say, right, we know what we're going to get each week.

We're here on my mate Ian's mining license. If he might be able to do a deal to buy his pay dirt that he's got stockpiled,

that hopefully has got enough fine gold in it to deliver the 100% consistency of gold that we really need and particularly Ethan.

We've got to do a test band first to make sure there's actually enough gold in it.

How's it looking, eh? Getting a pop through there. See that?

Well, it's definitely gold there, isn't it? Mate, there is.

Did you get those samples all over the heap? Yeah. Grabbed different spots?

Absolutely, mate. So we can get an average. What do you reckon, mate?

Well, if it's up to me, I reckon we've got to try and make a deal. Yep. Because that's too good, mate.

Hey, Ian. How'd you go, boys? Yeah, pretty good.

Mate, if that deal is still available to us, the 300 tonnes plus transport, five grand deal?

Yeah, I think most definitely on that one, right? Alright, I appreciate it. Honestly. Thank you very much, mate.

Life's over. Absolutely. Let's go make it happen.

We've got trucks coming over. Yep. So that's all done and sorted out. How'd you go with Big Licence?

Yeah, I've been in contact with them, mate. I've got the keys now. Everything should turn on and just fire over.

So that deal's in place? Everything else is sorted there. But we've got 300 tonnes to test. That's our test.

300 tonnes to test. Long term, though, if this all works out, there's hell of a lot more dirt there.

Okay, so there is future opportunity to it. Correct. So I'm just...

We'd need to see out of that 300 tonnes... Yep. ...at least three ounces.

It's a big risk, paying five grand to wash some dirt that we don't know if there's five dollars in it.

But there could be 50 grand in it. I think these are the risks we kind of need to take right now, mate.

Didn't think we'd be back here, mate, or what? Oh, no, mate. It's like my first love. Look at it.

Two years ago, Brent sold the team's 250 hectare Big Licence lease, including its million dollar wash plant,

walking away from a consistent supply of fine gold.

So this is it, eh? This could be our future right here, mate.

All to finance Brent's dream of finding a record-breaking monster nugget at the legendary Caddo's paddock.

There's nearly a half a tonne of nuggets coming out of this paddock. Half a tonne.

But so far, he's failed to deliver.

We're not getting any closer to finding anything. I know, mate. I'm under pressure just as much as you.

Causing tension with right-hand man and brother-in-law, Ethan West.

I know the history. Mate, 795, 700, 600, 500. I don't care. How's it looking?

After last week's disastrous weigh-in... It's not worth the cost, the time, the effort.

They're banking on their $5,000 paydirt purchase to get them back on the consistent goal.

Let's get into it, eh? Alright, mate.

We haven't got this license for very long.

Whatever we can do over the next few days to get all this test done

might just give us that consistency that we can do a deal for long term so we can turn our season around.

Being back here brings back a lot of, yeah, it's a lot of nostalgia.

So it's just one of them things. I'm really just looking forward to actually running the plant again.

Alright, Ethan's coming in now, mate. I think we might be good to go, bud.

Yeah, no worries, mate. I'll fire up the plant now, mate, and get it happening.

Yeah, you can bring it in here and start dumping them here, mate. Basically right in front of the bucket.

Right here, mate.

Now it's just a series of sequences just to get her up and going. Just trying to remember them all.

Keep it coming, Ian. Keep it coming.

Yeah, I'll do you, mate.

No worries. Thanks for sending.

Thanks, mate. Got about another 29 more loads to go, eh?

Yeah, no worries, Brent. I'll put the gun on.

Good on you, buddy.

Beautiful. Start spinning.

Got the big brand going.

Hey, East, we right to go here, or what?

Yeah, you're right to go, mate.

As Brent loads dirt into the hopper, grizzly bars filter out larger rocks,

allowing the finer material to enter into the barrel of the trommel,

which uses a tumbling action and water to release the gold.

First bucket in, East.

Hey, don't jump it in there, mate. Just hold off.

Mate, this is absolutely rubbish.

Bloody hell.

Look at that.

This is clay. This should just be basically running through me fingers, not clay balls.

You dump half a load in, look how much is stuck up on those grizzly bars.

We're going to have to scoop this up, rerun it,

and how much gold do we lose in the process from transferring from here to here to here again?

Especially on a test. We want to try and keep it as accurate as we can.

Got 300 tonne of dirt or mud coming.

Look at this. Not ideal.

Hey, it's got a blockage, eh?

It's not dropping down that material. It's too wet.

We're going to unblock that hopper.

Oh, mate, I hope this idea pays off.

This is such a big risk, heading out here.

Oh, look, mate, we've still got 47 ounces to find.

I just think we have to take a risk.

We've got to throw everything at it and try these new spots,

otherwise we're never going to get that target.

Yeah, I know. We're nearly at the halfway point.

We've got to get that target.

We've got to get that target.

We've got to get that target.

We've got to get that target.

Yeah, I know. We're nearly at the halfway point of the season.

But this spot, you know, gets a good ride up in the history books,

and you can see on satellite imagery that there's been some work go on there as well.

You said it was on that historical map as a Chinese camp,

so I'm just worried it's all going to be done.

Yeah, I know what you're saying, mate. They were very good at what they did.

But they didn't have detectors. They didn't have cars.

They didn't have satellite imagery.

We've got all these advantages.

Surely we can track down some gold they missed.

Well, I suppose we've just got to find a way in then.

What's going on?

Yeah, we're not driving down there, mate.

Oh, no.

Where's the road gone?

That's completely washed out.

We're pretty well on foot from here.

Let's just get the map out and have a look, try and find some sort of shortcut.

I think I've got a better idea than the maps.

What?

Oh, the drone!

Let's send up the drone.

That's a great idea!

Well, we can see what the country looks like.

We can see the quickest way in.

This is exactly what we got it for.

All right.

All righty, eh?

Stand back a bit. I'm standing back.

Yeah, I would. I'm still learning.

It's going to save us a lot of legwork.

All righty, now we can go wherever we want, mate.

So there's the road.

And look, if we follow that ridge line, though, that will take us exactly down to the point where we want to be.

It looks pretty open and clear.

What's that over there?

Yeah.

That's workings or something.

Yeah, certainly looks like old-timers' workings to me.

Well, let's aim for that spot then.

At least we know where we're going now.

We did it! We crossed the Palmer!

After finally crossing the Palmer River, Jackie and Andy returned to the gold-rich area they worked last season.

Yes! Look at that!

That's a nice chunk.

Only to be chased out by an out-of-control bushfire.

Let's go, mate. Let's get the hell out of here.

Now, with half their season gone and only 20 ounces towards their 65-ounce target,

they're betting on a historic mine site to put them back on track.

This is some pretty interesting ground here.

This looks fantastic. This is an ancient riverbed for sure.

Well, I'll keep walking down to that next gully if you want to drop into this one.

Sounds good. Get some gold in your jar, mate.

I'll try.

Good luck.

So, I'm just trying to find these old-timers workings that we saw on the drone.

Look at this. These rock formations aren't natural.

I think we're standing on an old-timers camp.

See how it's like this rectangle shape?

I actually think that could be a grave.

This is facing straight down into that gully,

which would have been where the water ran through.

And one thing we know about the Chinese was that it was quite a ritual when someone had passed.

They would bury them on the top of a hill like this, facing, overlooking the water.

During the 1800s, with the promise of vast amounts of gold,

over 40,000 Chinese immigrants made the four-month journey by sea to Australia.

They then travelled for weeks by foot just to reach the Palmer River.

Some found a fortune in gold, but many returned to China penniless or perished under the harsh Australian sun.

So, I'm going to head into this gully and start detecting around these edges,

see what I can pick up.

Oh, look at this. There's diggings everywhere.

This is great. I hope they're less than gold behind, though.

There you get a lot of false signals in here, a lot of hot rocks or just noisy ground.

I actually haven't got a normal signal yet. I haven't picked up a bit of junk.

I definitely haven't picked up a bit of gold, and the jar's still empty.

I'm starting to get a bit worried as to what's going on.

When you see this many old-timers working, there should just be junk everywhere.

There should be bits of rusty tin and old boot tacks and shotgun pellets and all types of junk sitting around.

The fact that I haven't found a single thing yet is starting to make me a little bit worried

that somebody's already been in here and detected this gully out.

I've got a copy there, Levi.

Hey, buddy, you're back.

I'm back, mate. I've got something here that might solve our problems.

Hey, mate. Hey! What's happening?

Say hello to my little friend.

What is that?

What is this?

This is a petrol jackhammer.

What? I've never even seen a petrol jackhammer before.

Little two-stroke, man.

How much does this cost us?

Two and a half picks, man. 500 bucks.

No way. It's pretty light, too.

Super light. Let's wind it down the pad and see if we can kick it in the guts, eh?

All right, mate. Sounds good.

Hey, there we go. Beautiful little jackhammer.

Hey, there we go. Beautiful little target there.

We're going to put a bit of a circle around it like that.

I'll come back with the jackhammer after,

break this ground up for Levi,

and then he can go through and get the target out.

Our little target.

Come on.

Blowing it up here.

Looks like we've got a bit of digging to do.

Certainly does.

Oh, yeah, like a hot nitro burner.

Look at that. Look how soft that is now.

That took me 20 minutes to dig that deep in this ground,

so, no, I'm really stoked.

Get a little bit deeper.

Not too far.

I'm going to get a little bit deeper.

I'm going to get a little bit deeper.

I'm going to get a little bit deeper.

I'm going to get a little bit deeper.

Get a little bit deeper.

Not too far away.

Let's have a listen.

Oh, sing it to me, baby!

Let's go.

Oh, there it is. Look at that beauty.

That is nice. That's a good couple of grams right there.

That's 200 bucks in the pocket.

Took me 30 seconds to dig it up,

so that's a pretty good hourly rate right there.

Bit of a different story to yesterday, right?

Yep.

Sounds good.

We'll just rip it straight out of the ground.

Not muck around here.

Getting late in the day.

Yep, she's out.

There it is.

Nice little one.

This thing's booming.

I definitely reckon I'm onto a multigram here.

Oh, it's in the hand.

Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho.

That thing's got to be going close to 10 grams.

$1,000 right there.

Congrats, mate.

We've been on today.

Been our day, buddy.

Hey, buddy.

Oh.

Hey, buddy.

Hey, honey.

There's no better feeling than coming back to a readily campfire

after a day's work.

Dinner's on the stove.

Thanks, hon.

And camping out tonight, Kyle.

Yeah, I got my swag.

I'll make sure I keep the scorpions at bay.

How did you go today?

We went really well.

We had a cracker of a day.

Amazing.

I mean, how beautiful is this?

Cheers to the Wanderers.

What an asset.

All we've got to do is walk down that little red driveway here

and we're straight back on the gold.

The ground's really quiet.

Hardly a signal to be found at this point in time.

The climate makes me a little bit worried.

We've gambled a fair bit coming in here.

You know, based it all on this history

and the Chinese diggings

and the old township.

All right.

Finally a signal.

All right.

Hope this is gold.

Look at that chicken there.

It is a piece of gold.

It's probably a gram or so there, too.

It's $100 worth.

So that's not a bad piece of gold,

but it's one of the first signals I've got in this whole area.

It just doesn't make any sense

that there's no targets in the ground.

We'll just keep going for now.

Just hope this area's got some more gold in it.

At least we know there's some here.

And about 100 more pieces, that's all I've...

That's a really weird signal.

It's like a double signal.

We do know the old timers

dug these gullies right down to the bedrock,

but it doesn't mean they got it all,

as we've found a lot of times.

Hang on. Did you hear that?

So there's two targets.

That's why it sounded weird.

All right, I'll get this one first

because it's out of the hole.

I'm going to try and get it.

I'm going to try and get it.

I'm going to try and get it.

I'm going to try and get it.

There we go.

All right.

Whatever it is, I've got it in the scoop now.

I think I just

felt a piece of gold.

I did.

There is gold here, thank God.

Oh, brilliant.

Cool, that piece is probably

over a gram as well, so

maybe $150 worth of gold.

Now, let's see what this one is.

Sounds like it's coming from right up

against that bedrock there.

You're literally just chipping

away at anything

that's caught in the crevices in the bedrock.

Oh, it's out.

All right.

First scoop that time. Here we go.

Not seeing anything.

Oh.

There we go.

Awesome.

That one's even bigger than the other one.

That's great. At least two grams in that.

So another couple of hundred dollars.

That's brilliant.

No way.

Andy, you got a copy?

Hey, mate. Yeah, I gotcha.

You gotta get up here.

What's going on? Are you all right?

You just gotta see this, mate.

Where are ya?

I'm not far. Keep walking.

Yo.

Yeah, I'll see ya.

Look at this.

You've gotta be kidding me.

What the hell is this?

Those big clumps getting them blocked up down there,

that's the problem.

We're gonna have to open it up.

I reckon we'll lift that chute up, mate.

Lift it right up.

Look at this.

They get caught up behind that door,

they bind up, they hit on each other,

and they just don't break down, they don't pull through.

Now the dirt can start flowing out a bit freely,

but we can't have too much material going through,

otherwise it'll start to lose gold

and it won't wash it through the trommel.

Too much going in,

not enough wash time,

gold going out the end.

That's it, coming back in again, mate.

We still haven't washed the first load yet.

We haven't got the time to be stuffing around.

We want to be able to keep feeding dirt in this plant.

We've got 300 ton to put through in a limited time.

I'm hoping to see how it goes.

In a limited time.

I'm hoping to see out of that 300 ton,

three ounces at an absolute minimum.

If we do, we can do a future deal

on all of Ian's dirt,

because if we can have something

that can bring in consistent gold,

that's really what I'm trying to achieve right now.

Ethan can only go on so long

on just hopes and dreams.

He's got to see some consistent gold,

because he works on a percentage.

So I feel this season is make or break for us.

I need to deliver a season target.

Everything seems to be running real smooth with the plant,

apart from this material being the main issue.

Sorry, mate, just got to take this.

There you go, mate.

Everything's going good, buddy.

No real major hiccups at all, mate, so it's all turning.

So you... Yeah, right, OK.

Full time.

I just need to nut out a few things, mate.

I'm definitely interested.

Give me the time I need, mate,

and I'll get back to you as soon as I possibly can.

Thanks, mate. Bye.

So that was the new owners of this licence.

They're, um...

They've offered me a job

to be basically plant manager out here.

Now I've really got to decide what I want to do,

whether I want to stick it out with Brent going forward.

It's my brother-in-law.

He's married to my sister,

so I've got a difficult decision to make.

What the hell is this?

I've never come across anything like this.

It's like an old site where they used to live

while they were mining here.

This isn't good, mate.

There's modern timber in there

and there's concrete and all the tin.

I think this is from the 1980s.

When they came back and re-mined

all the original workings. Yep.

Hey, this is pottery.

It looks like old pottery too.

Perhaps these guys built

their camp on top of an old-timer's camp.

So they could mine their old diggings.

It makes sense to me.

Check out their oven.

This is where they would have cooked their dinner

or were they melting gold in here, you reckon?

No, it's just an oven.

That's not a furnace, I don't think.

There's some more old pottery over in there too.

Another piece of it.

Hang on.

Andy, this is a whole pot.

That's an old Chinese water jug, mate.

There's another one, Andy.

Are you serious? Yes, I'm serious.

So they just fill it up and

there's a little spout for pouring the water out of.

They look like little teapots.

Yeah. Are these worth anything?

Two or three hundred dollars. What?

Yeah. Goldfield's pottery is really collectible.

Alright, let's stash them here.

And then we'll come back on the way out

when we leave today.

Right, hey, sounds good.

Mate, this area was worked so thoroughly

for at least a hundred years

from what I can see just being here.

Seems like they scoured the area pretty well.

The 1980s crews might have taken all the pay to it.

Yeah.

So I think these are our best finds.

So far.

Alright, hey, good luck.

Alright.

Back in the 1800s, Gold Rush,

the old timers worked this country

with picks and shovels.

Really basic.

But then in the 1980s,

there was another Gold Rush.

A lot of contractors came in with heavy machinery

and they extracted all the pay to it

from all the old mining sites.

It was pretty much a smash and grab.

Now we're just hoping that these guys

didn't get all the gold out of the gullies

and they've left some for us.

That's a screamer.

Okay.

Could be a nugget, could be a boot tack.

Let's hope it's a nugget.

Oh, she loud.

Come on.

I want to be gold.

Oh, that's gold.

Yes!

Whoo! That's a nice one.

At least four grams or so.

That's a decent piece.

So four, five hundred bucks just there

out of that hole.

All right, another one to the kitty.

We could end up doing pretty well here.

Hey, Brent, you got a minute, mate?

Yeah, bud.

Yeah, just pull up here, mate. Let's go have a chat here.

Bloody hell, what's wrong, man?

Everything all right, mate?

Mate. What's wrong?

I've had a call from the new owners

of the licence here.

In a nutshell, mate, they've offered me a job.

Right.

I'll be basically managing this whole operation.

Job security behind it.

I don't have to rely

on a gold percentage.

Yeah, right.

Mate, if this dirt

goes really well, it could be

three or four years of dirt down there

at Ian's, right, that can give us

that consistency back.

Because we don't know what's in it. It could have 30

ounces come out of this stuff, or it could

only have a couple of grams.

I don't know, but just give us that chance.

What do you think?

Three ounces, mate. Three ounces on the scales?

That's the deal. And you're still, hey, and you're still

sticking with us? Yep. If not, I'm gone.

All right. Done.

Hey, it'll work out. We'll get three ounces.

Bloody hell.

So they're trying to poach me, boy.

This could be the most important

three ounces that I've ever had to try and find.

That's for certain.

I don't want to see Ethan go.

And I'm going to fight tooth and nail

to get all this dirt through and

all the gold on the scales, because

he's more than a worker for me.

He's my brother-in-law. He's my mate.

He's someone that I trust.

And I really don't want to lose him.

This is about me and my future.

Me and my family's future and how we go forward

from here on in.

We've set a target. If it's not there,

I'm off.

Well, it's getting to the pointy end of the week now.

Probably the last cut.

And then we'll probably think about doing a way up.

We're all pretty tired.

You know, hands are sore, backs are sore.

We've worked really hard this week.

Let's do it last pad, mate.

And then we're due for a big old way up, eh?

Oh, that sounds awesome.

I'm going to go for it.

I'm going to go for it.

I'm going to go for it.

I'm going to go for it.

Oh, that sounds awesome.

Ready?

I'm ready, mate.

You dig them, old detective.

I love this thing.

So good.

Man, give me goosebumps.

This one's going to be so good. I can feel it.

Oh.

Getting hard again.

All righty.

That's a good sign.

Just bust around and go.

I'll just punch around the outsides and be careful.

It's going to be a good one.

I'll pull that out.

There you go.

Nothing on the edge yet. Another 200, bro.

Ripping the line, man.

Oh, she's going nuts.

I reckon I might forget the pointer, eh?

Yeah, we don't want to damage this one, eh?

This thing will work.

Let's see if we can locate this sucker.

The last thing that we want to do

is ruin a beautiful nugget with a jackhammer or a pick.

It just decreases the value.

We want to keep this thing looking naturally beautiful.

Oh, getting a signal.

Close.

Oh, dude.

No way.

Woo-hoo.

Look at that.

Man, what a chunk.

That's an ounce nugget right there.

What a slug.

That's at least three and a half grand.

Just gives you faith in us being out here, doesn't it, man?

It does.

When something like that comes out of the ground.

Yeah, man. This is just going to bump us up for the end of the week.

I guess we just don't want to know what we've got

until we get up there and get it on the scales.

Let's do it, eh?

What do we?

I absolutely love these water pots.

They're a great find, that's for sure.

Never seen anything like it before.

Yeah, a little collector's item for us.

The gold in that area, it was there,

but it's just small.

There's not much weight here, mate.

Yeah.

Well, we're sitting on about 17 ounces plus

whatever comes out of that jar.

Ready?

I'm ready.

At least get over an ounce, hey?

Oh.

Dead on two ounces on the nose.

Two ounces!

That's not so bad.

Yep, that's seven grams worth.

So that puts us not too far under 20 ounces now,

but we're at the halfway mark.

45 to go.

And it's only going to get hotter and harder from here.

I feel like I let us down a bit, to be honest.

I mean, you know, I picked that spot

and thought it was going to be the one for the year.

What we do is 100% a gamble.

Will it pay or won't it pay?

I mean, the only way to find out is going in there and doing it.

Yeah.

If we use all that technology we've got as well,

the drone, the good detectors,

just our know-how at the Palmer, too.

Like, we're pretty experienced here now.

We'll make a plan and get ready.

And we'll do it all again.

Hit the maps, find the next spot.

Get the gold.

Right, I'm going to wash my jar first.

I want to be able to have water out of my water jug.

At least you can keep cool with some nice cold water now.

I'm going to be the old-timers, didn't I?

Hey, buddy. Howdy, guys.

Hey, Kyle. How are we?

Far out. I'm knackered.

Yeah, man, I mean, that hard ground was killing me

and it was costing us time.

That jackhammer just changed everything for us.

Like, we were just motoring through.

I was having a blast on that thing yesterday.

You were out of control, mate.

Couldn't get the thing out of your hands.

Now, we're going to need a fair bit on the scales

to be getting close to this 120-ounce target.

We are nearly halfway through our season,

and our total is 9.4 ounces.

We've got a fair bit of gold to get there.

Mm, yeah, we haven't hit five ounces yet for a week's work,

so I think this week we'll get it, so...

I'm nervous to see what numbers come up on those scales, eh?

Yeah. All right, team, ready?

I'm seeing you!

Hey, Sonny, we're weighing it up.

Weighing the gold.

Do you want to come and see? Ready?

I want to get up. Are you ready?

Here we go.

Ooh, 9.1 ounces.

And the biggies? We've got a couple of biggies.

What? One.

Two.

11.5 ounces! 11.5!

What?

Just over 40 grams worth.

That's epic.

That brings us up to just over 21 ounces.

That's over 70 grand.

We've just paid our digger off. No way.

Everything's all up from here,

and we're actually making some profit.

Amazing.

OK, Sonny, ready to pack it up?

I'm going to sell this.

OK.

All right.

Well, I think Sonny wants to go digging.

I can't see.

Where's Dad going?

What are we doing, Sonny? Dig.

Dig? Going to dig?

All right, mate, well, let's pack it up.

All right, I'll pack this up, and let's get into it.

Well, here's to an epic week, guys.

I'm ready. You ready?

Not really, mate.

All right.

Bloody nervous, to be honest.

There's a lot riding on this, Wayne.

Well, I'll tell you what, mate.

The future is in this jar right now, mate.

That's the hard part about it, mate.

It's a gut-wrenching feeling,

knowing that's going to determine our future.

Three ounces, right?

I might get there.

So you might still be stuck with me, mate.

Let's just get it on there, all right?

Let's see what happens.

An ounce and a half, mate.

2.6.

It's going. That's not bad.

2....

What is it, Ethan?

2.82, mate.

That's close. That's bloody close.

2.82 ounces,

that's nearly 10 grand's worth of gold.

At least we've got our money back.

But we haven't hit target,

so what's it going to be, mate?

It's a tough call, mate, but I think that's it.

Yeah, it's just...

It's absolutely heartbreaking, mate,

but I think that's the way it's going to have to go.

This is the end of the road.

I've got an opportunity that I have to jump on,

and you're my family, 100%,

but I've got to worry about my little family.

Yeah, I understand, mate.

You've got all the skill set, perfect for here.

You know, when you first come to me,

you could barely...

You could barely move a dozer back and forth.

Now, mate, you can operate everything and anything.

To be honest, mate, that's what makes it so much harder,

is because I've now got those skill sets

because of you,

and now I've been offered that, yeah.

Mate, it's your turn to fly, yeah?

And I... Look, I am...

It's your turn. It's your turn.

Just spread your wings, right,

and go on to maybe better and bigger things, you know?

My dream over at Caddo's is still very much still alive.

That's my dream of Chase Big Nose.

That's my dream.

You've got to start looking after your dreams,

and this is it?

I think so.

Come here.

Thank you, mate. Thanks.

Hey, we've done all right, hey?

We've still only five minutes from each other, mate.

I might call you for an adventure if I need you.

All right? I'll be there, mate.

I'm gonna get going, before I start bloody balling up.

Thanks, buddy.

Talk to you later, Heath.

It's by far one of the hardest things I've had to do,

you know?

It's one journey over,

but another one that's gonna, you know, start for me.

It's time, you know?

It's just ironic that where I started

is where I'm gonna end up.

While Ethan's future looks pretty certain now,

well, I just don't know where I'm gonna go from here.

Gold is just more than a job for me.

It's a passion.

And for me,

that passion keeps growing

stronger and stronger.

Mining is not over for me, yes.

It's changed in a big way.

But it's still gonna be there

and I'm still gonna chase that dream of mine.