World gold panning championship: Ballarat's Matt Kelava represents Australia

[Tascio]

World gold panning championship: Ballarat’s Matt Kelava represents Australia

https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/country-living/world-gold-panning-championship-ballarats-matt-kelava-represents-australia/news-story/9edced05c0d41faccec7548b7535a077

By SARAH HUDSON, The Weekly Times
August 10, 2017 12:00am

WITH any luck, right about now Ballarat's Matt Kelava will be striking gold.

But it won't be in his usual haunts of central Victoria that he'll be prospecting.

Instead, the 73-year-old is representing Australia — the only person to do so — at the 41st World Gold Panning Championships in Scotland, which run from August 8 to 12 in the town of Moffat.

It is the seventh time Matt is representing Australia in the little known sport that pits pan against pan.

"The skill is in the speed," says Matt, a three-time Australian champion.

"The pan I'll be using is a fibreglass one and I've modified it with a Stanley knife, deepening it by 1.5mm and I think it will give me a good chance at winning."

Matt says the championship starts with an opening parade of about 20 countries, where he will proudly march with the Australian flag.

More than 400 panners will then get down to the "pan-off", each given a 10kg bucket of sand containing between five and 12 flecks of gold, the number known only to the judges.

Competitors have to pan, capture the gold in a bottle of water and then wash the pan out.

"The world record time is 58 seconds and I can do it in 75 seconds," says Matt, who has numerous trophies to prove his panning prowess.

"If the judges find one extra piece of gold, you're disqualified because it's cheating. In the past some competitors have added their own gold."

Matt says while most competitors will opt for the fastest pan in the world, made in Sweden, he prefers his Slovakian fibreglass dish.

Matt, a tailor by trade, even invented and patented his own pan in 2001, called the Black Hole, sold around Australia, Japan and with a failed attempt to sell in the US.

"My pan is only suitable for using in creeks, not world championships. I called it Black Hole because there's a vortex that takes the gold into the middle.

"I'm a designer of women's and men's clothing. The materials may be different, but it's about creativity."

To get to the world championship in Scotland, Matt first had to compete at this year's annual Australian championship in Blackwood, central Victoria, in February.

Matt says he is one of several prospectors lobbying the City of Ballarat to move the event to Sovereign Hill.

"If the event moved there it would be big for Ballarat. People come from all over the world go to these gold panning championships and we're hoping the city council jumps on it."

Victorian Gold Panning Association president Marcus Binks runs the annual national competition which, he says, first ran at Sovereign Hill in 1993 and now attracts up to 100 competitors from across Australia and New Zealand.

"It makes sense to bring it back to Sovereign Hill to showcase the sport, given its gold mining history," says Marcus, who has attended four world championships.

"The sport has changed so much, even in the last decade.

"New pans are three times faster than the traditional dish thanks to technology and design.

"The traditional dish is deep with steep sides but new ones are flat and shallow, no deeper than 1.5cm, which allows the gold to sink and the gravel to quickly wash off."

It was back in 1981 — when Matt first moved to Ballarat — that he adopted fossicking as his hobby.

Matt was born in Bosnia and move to Australia in 1967 as a 23-year-old to flee the communist regimen, initially working as a tailor in Tasmania.

"When I first moved to Victoria I stayed in a caravan park in Creswick and there was a creek there and I just began sluicing."

It probably helped cement his passion that he almost immediately found an 8gm nugget, which he still keeps today.

Eventually he found enough specks to fund the first month's rent on a Ballarat shop, Matt The Tailor, which he still operates.

He quickly moved from panning to using a metal detector when he found a 2.5 ounce nugget and these days spends most weekends metal detecting around Victoria and on holidays travelling throughout Australia.

The father of three and grandfather of two says his wife Judith doesn't share his passion, although she is proud of his finds, which he estimates so far total about 1kg.

It was in nearby Maryborough in 1999 that Matt first became associated with the sport of gold panning, winning a trophy and prize money in his first attempt.

In 2001 the first Australian world championship was held in Maryborough, where Matt won a team event.

Over the years he has represented Australia six times, including in Japan, South Africa, Poland and Italy.

He largely pays his own way — with a little help from sponsorship — and in Scotland will be staying in a sleeping bag in a tent to reduce costs.

Then again, he says, that's what he loves about the sport.

"For me, I love going out in the bush, sleeping under the stars, being part of nature, part of the earth and refreshing the mind.

"Finding gold is just a good excuse to get out there."