Being able to recover and return lost items with a sentimental value to their owner gives NSW South Coast metal detectorist Bevan Badcott a thrill.
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The 71-year-old began hunting for treasure 13 years ago, when he retired from Bungonia (near Goulburn) to the picturesque Surf Beach at Batemans Bay.
"I saw something on YouTube about someone detecting on a beach," he said.
"I thought that might be something to have a go at so I bought a detector and headed down to the beach."
At that time people carried more coins in their pockets and Mr Badcott regularly came home with $10 or $15 in one and two dollar coins and 20c pieces.
These days there are not as many coins to discover, but people still carry a lot of valuable items when they walk along the beach.
The semi-retiree, who works part-time at Detect'a Den in Batemans Bay, heads out about three times a week.
He says there are two components to detecting in Australia: historic and monetary.
"In Europe and America there's a lot more historical detecting, looking for old battlefields and old Roman coins and hoards," Mr Badcott said.
"It's different here, particularly down here on the South Coast because we've got the beaches. And we also have gold out in Mogo and the surrounds."
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Mr Badcott, who has experience detecting for both items, finds the hobby truly addictive.
"I was finding nuggets to what they call sub grams, which is less than one gram in size but I was fortunate enough to find one that was nearly 25 grams," he said.
"I'm 71 and it gets me out on average three times a week, and sometimes even more."
Mr Badcott spends four to five hours detecting from one local beach to the next. He says he enjoys the unexpected social encounters that come with detecting.
"People often approach me on the beach," he said.
"They come up and ask me what I'm looking for. Children often come up and ask me and I always say 'treasure' which piques their interest. People also come up and tell me their own stories."
He said it was amazing how many people lose precious items on the beach.
He is constantly asked about his best ever discovery.
"I always say that the best thing that I ever find is lost jewellery for people and I'm able to return it. I think we've all had that awful hollow feeling when we've lost something that's important to us."
Mr Badcott said such items almost always have a story attached to them.
"So when people lose them it's as if that story has finished, but when I find them again it's a new chapter in that story," he said.
"I had a young fella down at Sunshine Bay who lost a Scottish gold signet ring that belonged to his grandfather. He was in waist deep water and, because my machines are waterproof, we were able to find it.
"You can't replace something like that. You can replace the ring, you can get it remade, but you can't replace the story. Once it's lost that's the end of it."
With an 85 per cent success rate, finding those items and returning them to their owner gives Mr Badcott "a real buzz".
"If I can put that coil of my detector over the item, I'll find it, which sounds pretty obvious but the technology these days of modern detectors is so good," he said.
"Particularly for recently lost items because they don't go down too deep.
"During the summer months I do a jewellery rescue for people through my website www.ringrescues.com.au."
He said women in particular are often caught out when they remove their jewellery at the beach.
"They take it off and then put it inside their shoe 'to be safe'. Then when they come out of the water or they're getting ready to go home they shake their shoes out forgetting that they put the jewellery in the shoe," Mr Badcott said.
"In the soft white sand it just disappears."
Mr Badcott's unique ability and dedication for detecting prompted a call from Andrew Bales and the TV show The Weekend Prospector.
"He rang the shop and asked if they could come and film in the area. He generally films gold prospecting but they wanted to do a piece on beach detecting," he said.
"On the northern end of Long Beach we found that there had been a storm and we had an east coast low that had come through, which cut the beach. It basically eroded the back of the beach out so we were able to detect quite a few items like old crusty coins. We had a nice time and he was a great bloke."
Sally Foy
I've been a journalist working for regional communities spanning southern NSW for the past two decades. I am also a mother and advocate for children with a disability and epilepsy.
