27/12/2025
Thinking about panning for gold in Western Australia? Good news: **Yes, you can pan for gold in WA**, and there is nothing legally stopping you. You can try two main ways: gold panning with water or gold panning without water, which is called dry panning.
The biggest problem is the **severe lack of water**. In the Eastern gold fields, there are no major rivers cutting through the area, only dried-up paleo channels (old river channels). This is totally different from places like Victoria or the USA.
Even in the southern parts where rivers exist and might carry historic gold, most of that land is either private or locked up in conservation parks, national parks, or recreation areas. Since prospecting includes panning, you are generally forbidden from searching for gold in those protected zones.
This is why **dry panning** is essential in WA. Old timers over a hundred years ago around places like Kalgoorlie and Southern Cross used this technique. They waited for the soil to be extremely dry. They’d pour the dry soil high from one pan to another, letting the wind blow away the fine, light sand, similar to separating chaff from wheat. The heavier concentrate falls to the bottom pan.
You still need water for the final step to extract the gold from the concentrate. But hauling water is tough because one liter weighs one kilo, so 100 liters is 100 kilos of extra weight. Water gets consumed fast, too.
Because of the huge water struggle, the **popularity of metal detectors for finding gold is through the roof** in WA; it’s currently the best way to find it. You can pan, but prepare to go dry!
