{"id":37977,"date":"2026-02-19T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/themooraboolnews\/?p=37977"},"modified":"2026-02-19T10:48:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T23:48:26","slug":"prospectors-to-gather-in-blackwood-for-national-panning-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/themooraboolnews\/news\/prospectors-to-gather-in-blackwood-for-national-panning-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Prospectors to gather in Blackwood for national panning title"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SOMEONE will literally strike gold in Blackwood tomorrow when the Australian Gold Panning Championships take place at the recreation reserve.<\/p>\n<p>Hosted there by the Victorian Goldpanning Association for at least the last 10 years, the event attracts regular competitors from around Australia and even overseas.<\/p>\n<p>Association president Marcus Binks said gold prospecting remained popular, even though many now used sophisticated detectors to do it.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 408px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2026\/02\/Panning01_03054.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"408\" height=\"726\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heat competitors look for pieces of gold.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And the annual championships always attracted many repeat competitors, he said.<\/p>\n<p>The overall champion is determined from an aggregate of results in two categories: the open category, where skilled prospectors can use their own pans, and the Eureka category where everyone uses a traditional tin dish pan.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 392px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2026\/02\/Panning02_05733.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"392\" height=\"697\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heat competitors look for pieces of gold.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Binks said the current titleholder, James Keays of Ballarat, would be back to defend his title, along with a 60-strong list of regular competitors.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We also have several people from New Zealand who come over to attend because they see it as a high standard,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 408px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2026\/02\/Panning03_09776.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"408\" height=\"725\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heat competitors do not know how many pieces of gold are in their buckets.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He said other competitors would come from Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales.<\/p>\n<p>The competition is based on heats in which 20 panners are provided with a bucket of gravel that has been seeded with a set number of pieces of gold.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2026\/02\/PanningEurekaCategor_12342.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"337\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Eureka category features competition in which entrants use traditional pans.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Between five and 10 pieces of gold are in each bucket in the heats and between eight and 12 pieces in finals, although competitors do not know exactly how many.<\/p>\n<p>The time taken for the panner to pan the bucket and gravel and recover the gold is recorded.<\/p>\n<p>Panners with the fastest times advance to a final.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2026\/02\/StakeYourClaim_15559.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"334\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stake Your Claim is a novelty event that usually sells out quickly, according to Mr Binks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A three-minute penalty is added to each competitor&#8217;s time for each piece of gold missed.<\/p>\n<p>Entries will be taken on the day up until 10am, with competitors separated into heats.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Binks said the 2025 event attracted about 95 entrants in categories including under-12, under-16, novice, skilled, Eureka and teams of three.<\/p>\n<p>Activities will include a free panning bay for spectators to try their hand at the skill, along with a display of prospecting equipment and the popular novelty Stake Your Claim event.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Binks said Stake Your Claim would take place twice during the day and involves people buying one of 64 &#8216;claims&#8217; and being issued pegs to mark out their territory.<\/p>\n<p>When the event begins, claim owners peg out their area in a 20-metre by 20-metre square and a grid reference of 1 to 20 and A to T is prepared.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2026\/02\/TeamsWinners_21345.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"339\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teams category winners last year were The Younger Better Ballan Bushrangers, Team Rob Page, and Team Ballan Bushrangers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Like Bingo, balls are drawn \u2013 for example B6 \u2013 and ropes are extended from B to B and from 6 to 6.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If those ropes cross over your lease you are a winner,&#8221; Mr Binks said, adding that $1000 of gold nuggets will go to the first and second-placed lucky claim holders.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That sells out very fast, because the ones who know it buy the claims up early,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Heats will start at about 11am and the finals at about 2.30pm.<\/p>\n<p>There will be no cost for spectators to attend and people who have never panned for gold before are welcome to enter the competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SOMEONE will literally strike gold in Blackwood tomorrow when the Australian Gold Panning Championships take place at the recreation reserve. Hosted there by the Victorian Goldpanning Association for at least the last 10 years, the event attracts regular competitors from around Australia and even overseas. Association president Marcus Binks said gold prospecting remained popular, even [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/themooraboolnews\/news\/prospectors-to-gather-in-blackwood-for-national-panning-title\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":37986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-37977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Prospectors to gather in Blackwood for national panning title - The Moorabool News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Australian Gold Panning Championships return to Blackwood, with top prospectors competing for national glory and gold nuggets.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/themooraboolnews\/news\/prospectors-to-gather-in-blackwood-for-national-panning-title\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prospectors to gather in Blackwood for national panning title - The Moorabool News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Australian Gold Panning Championships return to Blackwood, with top prospectors competing for national glory and gold nuggets.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/themooraboolnews\/news\/prospectors-to-gather-in-blackwood-for-national-panning-title\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Moorabool News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-18T17:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-18T23:48:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2026\/02\/Untitled-design-62.jpg?_t=1771458507\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darren McLean\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darren McLean\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/themooraboolnews\\\/news\\\/prospectors-to-gather-in-blackwood-for-national-panning-title\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/themooraboolnews\\\/news\\\/prospectors-to-gather-in-blackwood-for-national-panning-title\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darren McLean\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/themooraboolnews\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1bcfc3c748613d0b0c79f665c5cbbd8c\"},\"headline\":\"Prospectors to gather in Blackwood for national panning title\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-18T17:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-18T23:48:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/themooraboolnews\\\/news\\\/prospectors-to-gather-in-blackwood-for-national-panning-title\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":626,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/themooraboolnews\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/themooraboolnews\\\/news\\\/prospectors-to-gather-in-blackwood-for-national-panning-title\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/28\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/Untitled-design-62.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/themooraboolnews\\\/news\\\/prospectors-to-gather-in-blackwood-for-national-panning-title\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/themooraboolnews\\\/news\\\/prospectors-to-gather-in-blackwood-for-national-panning-title\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/themooraboolnews\\\/news\\\/prospectors-to-gather-in-blackwood-for-national-panning-title\\\/\",\"name\":\"Prospectors to gather in Blackwood for national panning title - 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