Inspired by the British BBC television series , Detectorists , about eccentric members of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club , keen to find buried Saxon treasure , a group of enthusiasts has started in Darwin . Before they even had a metal detector , a lead member made a visual inspection of the city's foreshore , including the old wartime dump at Nightcliff .
Something glistened in the sun in one foray and attracted attention , leading to the first find of interest, not worth a king's ransom, unfortunately : two WWll beer bottles, one made in Adelaide, the other, Sydney .
To keep company with these dead marines , a selection of old bottles from a collection , in dusty storage under a bed , was sent from Townsville .
Keen to assist , this blog has offered tips on possible interesting sites in the Territory, including ones where Chinese miners were active and Doctors Gully in Darwin where there was a large Chinese garden which supplied the town in the l880s . One of our souvenirs is the stopper from a Chinese jar, dug up in the Pine Creek area. Somewhere there is a military button from the old Southport settlement across the harbour from Darwin .
Armed with detectors, the Darwin group is now keen as mustard . A recent field photograph ( above ) shows one of the Detectorists , wearing a Richmond AFL cap, hamming it up, testing a coin found on Mindil Beach , not far from the casino ,hoping to strike it rich . It was not gold , but he may require an expensive gold filling . Actually, it was a green 10 cent piece,obviously no a Spanish dubloon , followed later by five cents.
Up early one day , the team , like the British comedy show, bumped into Simon and Garfunkel , other annoying detectorists on their intended patch.
