12
Years Experience
15
People Worked With
50
Customers Worked With

A little bit about me

My background is slightly unusual to now be training people in the art of gold detecting. As my true profession has been an airline pilot as a Training Captain fly internationally around the world. Having the aviation background has given me the opportunity to be a professional trainer and to travel and detected in place may people wish too.

But I’ve always been a country boy, raised in Melbourne on our small farm at Taradale  which is actually in the Victorian golden triangle. While growing up in this area I would ride my horse, drive my trail bike through the Black Forest for hours on end so I knew those back forest roads and old hidden mines and Diggings like the back of my hand. When I reach the age if 18 I remember always thinking; I bet there’s gold still around here but back then gold detectors were a rarity.

I have been based in Hong Kong as an pilot for the last 25 years and around 10 year ago I discovered gold detecting. I start like most by purchasing a cheap detector and during holidays would detect around our farm which resulted in some minor success. Wanting to improve in this hobby I attended a course with Graham Ashton from Dunnoly where I learnt very quickly that it’s important to have good equipment and know how to use it properly (Graham is a true gold magnet he runs some of our training but is more involved in special events like Tag Along gold hunting tours). I soon purchased a Minelab GPX 5000 and  had a wonderful time Discovery new areas and particularly reminding  all of my old spots which I new around our farm.

After this I wanted to detect around Hong Kong as there are many old war locations and stories about aircraft crashing at mount Barker with 15, million US worth of gold coins. But unfortunately when I turned the GPX 5000 on in Hong Kong the EMI (electromagnetic interference ) was so high due to the airports radar systems which surrounding the Hong Kong area, it was impossible to use.

This is how I met and became good friends with Nenad Lonic who was at that time the Minelab Senior Technical office based in the head office in Adelaide
After long discussions and trying everything possible I gave up trying to use the GPX in Hong Kong so I continued with a Whites GMT gold master (VHF) detector.
As soon as the CTX 3030 was released I was one of the first to purchase it, this detector is fantastic for Coins and Relics which I would use on most weekend at the beach’s and around the war areas. Finding lots of coins and items was easy, as there where very few people Detecting.
Fortunately this is where I meet Simon Cox he was also a keen detectorist and we spend many hours detecting beaches together in Hong Kong (he was using the Garrett’s ATX Pro and later the Minelab X-Terra..) Simon is now in the UK and we plan to set up a Uk relic Detector adventure trips as he has Two Private properties to go Relic detecting on. Ancient Roman relics are worth a fortune but this is still in the planning!
Obviously with this hobby you spend time chatting with people on forums and learning as much as you can this is where I met a young man call Benjamin Nutz a German student studying to be a Doctor who lived in Taichung Taiwan.

He would detect every weekend around the area and was find some amazing relic and coins. So he invited me to come over and detect which we did. This is where we found some incredible Ming Dynasty Ancient Coins, a once in a life time find.

Between all of this local detecting we would be going back and forth to Victoria and detect when ever we had time ( Dunnoly Maryborough Wedderburn Bendigo Castlemaine Fryers Town, Belltopper and on Private Land) with as many of my friends as possible. Nenad being based in Adelaide would run extra education programmes and trips to Avoca in Victoria which we would attend meeting great people and learn more and more our Adelaide associates Richard Pearson and John Crosser who we meet on one of Nenad’s detecting adventures trips we would go detecting at Mt Crawford Jupiter Creek and Tiboorburra NSW detecting especially after the release of the new GPZ 7000 and the SDC 2300 Richard Pearson runs the Tibooburra good hunting trips.
So after many years of great exploring lots a fantastic trip with amazing people I’m retiring from flying to live back in Australia for a more relaxed life. So to enjoy my hobby and share what we have learnt together over so many years. This is why I decided to set up a training opportunity web site but not just for me but for my associates who have been such a big part of my life. I wonted to bring the opportunity for others to learn from all of us; of course time and the amount of people that can involve for these training days and trip are limited but if we can share our knowledge and have fun while we do it then its definitely worth while.

Gold detecting is a experience hobby, the more time to spend out there detecting the more you learn but what really makes the difference is having the opportunity to associate yourself and detect with the best people and I very proud to say that my associates and I are the best people.

I look forward to hearing from you and see you on one of our next events days.

If you have a special request please ask as I’m sure we can arrange it .
Happy hunting.
Regard Marcus

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