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Speaker 1: Pine Creek is gearing up to host the gold Rush

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Speaker 1: Festival this weekend. It's one of the town's biggest events

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Speaker 1: of the year and it's a celebration of the town's

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Speaker 1: mining history and Chinese heritage, culminating with the gold Panning Championships.

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Speaker 1: Now joining us on the line to tell us more

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Speaker 1: is Pine Creek Heritage and Tourism Association Secretary and Treasurer

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Speaker 1: Gail Lawrence. Good morning, Gay, Good morning Gay, Thanks so

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Speaker 1: much for your time this morning. Now talk us through

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Speaker 1: what's planned.

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Speaker 2: Well, the beginning of the festival is actually tomorrow night

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Speaker 2: where we have an art and photographic competition and that's

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Speaker 2: at one of our heritage buildings at the station Master's

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Speaker 2: House in the Railway complex and that goes from six

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Speaker 2: pm to seven point thirty. And then on the Saturday,

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Speaker 2: starting about nine to thirty, we're open for nominations for

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Speaker 2: the gold panning competition. And if people aren't feel confident

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Speaker 2: enough to go in the competition, there's actual we salt

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Speaker 2: some gold with some sorry salt, some sand with gold,

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Speaker 2: and people can do some practice panning, you know, in

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Speaker 2: troughs recover the gold.

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Speaker 1: How could do you usually get a lot of people

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Speaker 1: take part in the Gold Panning Championships.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, we do. We do usually get a lot

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Speaker 2: of people. I mean, you know, we've got adults, skilled,

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Speaker 2: adults novice or you know, yeah, adults novice, and then

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Speaker 2: we've got use and kids. Anyone can pan gold because

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Speaker 2: of specific gravity. I mean, if there's gold in a

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Speaker 2: panning dish and you learn how to do it, you'll

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Speaker 2: get to gold. So but of course you've got to

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Speaker 2: do it quickly. For every piece of gold you lose,

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Speaker 2: we add on five minutes of time, so you might

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Speaker 2: be very fast, which you might not get all your

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Speaker 2: bits of gold.

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Speaker 1: Ye right, yeah, right, So why is the event so special?

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Speaker 2: Beg your pardon?

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Speaker 1: Why would you say the event is such a special event.

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Speaker 2: Oh well, people kind of have a bit of a

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Speaker 2: passion for gold. It excites a lot of people. But

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Speaker 2: for our for our community, you know, it's it's a

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Speaker 2: premiere event that we have to celebrate our history. Pine

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Speaker 2: Creek is touted as a historic town because and the

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Speaker 2: only reason it's there is because they discovered gold in

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Speaker 2: eighteen seventy four when they're building the overland telegraph lines

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Speaker 2: digging the holes, so that precipitated the gold rush.

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Speaker 1: Really yeah, they tell me, like, how to people for

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Speaker 1: gold near Pine Creek often? How likely is it that

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Speaker 1: someone's going to go home with a gold nugget?

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Speaker 2: Well, they might go home with a gold nugget from

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Speaker 2: attending our gold rush festival. Because one of the events

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Speaker 2: we've got is steak. You claim and for five dollars

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Speaker 2: you buy a steak and in this designated area put

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Speaker 2: your steak in the ground and then the coordinate's only known,

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Speaker 2: not even known, It comes off a banknote. The coordinates

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Speaker 2: are then read out at the end of the day

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Speaker 2: and who's ever closest to the coordinates wins the gold nugget.

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Speaker 1: Oh, how cool? How big is this nugget?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's small, but it's well.

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Speaker 1: And we know that even a small nugget of gold

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Speaker 1: is still worth quite a bit, isn't it?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely?

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Speaker 1: I reckon it sounds like it's going to be a

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Speaker 1: fantastic event. How long has it been running for?

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Speaker 2: I think we're up to about year twenty four or

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Speaker 2: twenty five.

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Speaker 1: And how many people do you usually get a tend?

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Speaker 2: Well, people do come and go during the day. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I think I'm not very good at judging numbers.

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Speaker 1: No that's all right, but you get plenty of people.

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Speaker 2: The five hundred people, which is like, you know, our

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Speaker 2: town's only tiny. We haven't got a lot of infrastructure

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Speaker 2: to support a cast of thousands, So that's a comfortable

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Speaker 2: number for us.

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Speaker 1: How vital is the event for the town in terms

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Speaker 1: of that economic.

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Speaker 2: Boost, Well, it originally was started as a way of

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Speaker 2: attracting people to the town to support, you know, businesses

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Speaker 2: that would benefit. And I understand the accommodation is fairly

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Speaker 2: well booked out. That's a good thing. And we also

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Speaker 2: have the Chunwir dances that they come down and do

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Speaker 2: the dragon dancing, you know from Darwin. That's fantastic, that's

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Speaker 2: very colorful and exciting.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it would be. And really you know a huge

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Speaker 1: reminder of our multicultural history, particularly in Pine Creek.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely is yeah.

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Speaker 1: Where can people? Where can they go if they want

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Speaker 1: to find out some more information? If they're listening this

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Speaker 1: morning and they think I want to go, I do.

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Speaker 2: We do have a Facebook page, it's called the Pine

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Speaker 2: Creek Heritage and Tourism Page, and on that page is

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Speaker 2: all of our posters and like timetable of events and

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Speaker 2: so on.

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Speaker 1: Oh, how great it sounds like it's going to be

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Speaker 1: fantastic and I understand unfortunately didn't happen last year, did it.

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Speaker 2: No, we didn't have enough volunteers to run. A kind

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Speaker 2: of ans went out in the town saying, look, if

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Speaker 2: we don't get enough volunteers, we won't be able to

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Speaker 2: have this event in the future. And I think something

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Speaker 2: like nineteen people turned up to the to Save the

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Speaker 2: gold Rush meeting and the committee, the subcommittee of the

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Speaker 2: twos and Association has been absolutely on task and diligent

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Speaker 2: throughout like last August, I think they started having monthly

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Speaker 2: meetings to get everything on track and they've been fantastic.

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Speaker 1: Well, Gay Lawrence, it is wonderful to talk to you

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Speaker 1: this morning. I really appreciate you joining us on the

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Speaker 1: show and telling us more about the fantastic event happening

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Speaker 1: over the next few days.

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Speaker 2: Oh well, thank you for the opportunity to talk about it.

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Speaker 1: No worries at all next year as well, when it's happening,

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Speaker 1: make sure you remind

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Speaker 2: Us Oki Doki, thank you, Good on you, Gay, thank

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Speaker 2: you