Golden moment for veteran prospector after 4.5kg nugget sells for $300,000
A Central Victorian man has told Sunrise of his Eureka moment of striking a 4.5kilogram gold nugget worth a whopping $300,000.
Syd Pearson spent 37 years searching for gold, until he finally hit the big time in on December 6.
The 68-year-old Flagstaff garbage man recalled how he paced across a little patch of earth when the humming of his metal detector changed.
"I was thinking it was a rabbit trap, or maybe a can or something," Mr Pearson said.
He said the humming became louder as he began to chip into the soil. And as he brushed away the dirt and discovered the massive rock, Mr Pearson began to shake.
He joked on Sunrise this morning that he was shaking so much when he struck gold, he didn’t need to stir the cup of tea he made right after.
“When I hooked the pick axe behind it and it rolled out, I was onto it like a tip rat. I never let it go, I just sat there and shook.
"I [still] feel a little wobbly about it," he said.
The prospector named the nugget The Lady Catherine, in honour of his wife.
It is believed to be among Victoria's largest recorded gold discoveries in the past decade.
Mr Pearson said he kept the find a bit of a secret "for security reasons" until it was sold recently to an American buyer for $300,000.
Asked what he planned to so with the revenue, he told Sunrise "The mortgage is coming right down and [I'm] renovating the bathroom. Good uses for it!"
