Gold hunter gets lucky with ‘rare' discovery in Aussie outback
The woman was 'fascinated' by her discovery in the Western Australian outback.
An Aussie woman believes she wouldn't have found a nugget of gold while prospecting if it weren't for her rather unlikely, lucky charm.
Melbourne resident Jordan Briane Seed has enjoyed many hours of prospecting in Victoria but had never before travelled to Western Australia to enjoy her hobby, deciding to travel to near Leonora — situated over 800 kilometres northeast of Perth — with some mates. It was there that she encountered her good fortune.
"We were prospecting and I was literally digging a hole to find gold and this little guy kind of popped out of the hole, it scared the Jeebus out of me," Jordan told Yahoo News Australia "I thought it might have been a rock at first and I put my scoop towards it and then it kind of moved... I was fascinated."
She discovered she had found a pebble mimic dragon — a type of lizard which, as it name suggests, is notoriously mistaken as a stone due to its impressive camouflage abilities.
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How the lizard helped the prospector find gold
After recovering from her initial shock, Jordan was delighted to find the lizard and decided to show her mates what she found, before stumbling upon something she'd been looking for all day.
"I went and took him back to our camp and showed everyone who took a few photos," she said. "I went and put him back where I found him and then I found a big piece of gold underneath."
Jordan said she couldn't believe her luck, deeming the lizard her "good luck charm" after finding the gold nugget. After her first discovery she claims she was "on a roll" after spotting the lizard.
'Rare' to spot harmless lizard in wild
Pebble mimic dragons only live in specific arid areas in the country, making the chances of spotting the lizard in the wild even slimmer given their ability to camouflage into the red dirt.
Wildlife expert and reptile enthusiast Mathew Hampton told Yahoo News he has never spotted one himself.
"They don't occur at all in Queensland and NSW, they're very much a Western Australian lizard," he said. "They are just one of those real rare ones."
The lizard species have a round body which resembles a stone and it helps make them invisible to predators. They remain motionless if seen, with movement often being their only giveaway.
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