"Claiming" Australia

"Gold prospectors, Marco Nero explains, have always been 'a secretive, tight-lipped lot', wary of whom they speak to, careful of what they say, guarded about where they go. But these days they're ultra-protective.

For with world prices sky-rocketing - from $US600 an ounce to almost $1600 in five years - the stakes are high. The rush is on. And the talk is not just of getting rich quick, but of skulduggery, claim-jumping, even suburban 'bushwhacking'.

That may sound like paranoia; like something out of a Wild West movie, or the Herald's coverage of the rip-roaring, 1851 NSW gold rush. Mr Nero, though, insists such possibilities must be taken seriously."

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Image Credits: Peter Rae / Sydney Morning Herald