Aussie Gold Hunters

Aussie Gold Hunters is an Australian factual television show which follows crews of gold prospectors in Australia. The series is produced by Electric Pictures and began on the Discovery Channel on 15 September 2016. The series has been a ratings success and gone on to air in 125 countries including the United Kingdom.

Aussie Gold Hunters
Aussie Gold Hunters title card
Genre	Factual
Narrated by	Matt Dickson
Country of origin	Australia
Original language	English
No. of series	8
No. of episodes	127
Production
Executive producers	Andrew Ogilvie Andrea Quesnelle
Producer	Electric Pictures
Production location	Australia
Running time	60 minutes
Original release
Network	Discovery Channel
Release	15 September 2016 (2016-09-15) – present

In August 2022 the series was renewed for an eighth and ninth season, with season eight to premiere in 2023. Season seven concluded on 13 October 2022.

Premise

The series follows gold miners in various locations of Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland as they strive to reach their individually set season target (measured in troy ounces of gold). They use a variety of mining techniques including use of metal detectors of surface or excavated soil for gold nuggets; and sluicing, dry blowing or heap leaching for gold particles.

Production

The first season of eight episodes produced by Electric Pictures premiered on 15 September 2016.^[1] In March 2017 the series was renewed for a 10 episode second season,^[2] which premiered on 6 July 2017.^[3] In March 2018 the series was renewed for a 13 episode third season,^[4] which premiered on 31 May 2018.^[5] In September 2018 the series was renewed for a 13 episode fourth season,^[6] which premiered on 2 May 2019.^[7] In October 2019 the series was renewed for 40 episodes across two seasons.^[8] The 20 episode fifth season premiered on 30 April 2020.^[9] Following the conclusion of the fifth season, three specials featuring highlights from the five seasons premiered on 17 September 2020.^[10] The sixth season initially premiered in the United Kingdom on Discovery+ on 22 February 2021 before premiering in Australia on Discovery Channel on 29 April 2021.^[11][12][13] In April 2021 it was announced the series had been renewed for a seventh and eighth season.^[13] The seventh season premiered on 2 June 2022.^[14] In August 2022, Warner Bros Discovery UK announced the series was renewed for an additional two series, with the eighth and ninth seasons to premiere in 2023 and 2024 respectively. The eighth season will see the return of six teams and the addition of two new teams.^[15]

Cast

Name	Nickname	Seasons
		1[1]	2[3]	3[5]	4[7]	5[9]	6[12]	7[16]	8
Christine and Greg Clark	The Gold Gypsies	Main					Does not appear
Vernon Strange	The Dirt Dogs	Main				Does not appear
Lindsay Ironside		Main	Does not appear
Leon Marsh		Main			Does not appear
Jake Larsen		Does not appear		Main
Marko Smith		Does not appear		Main	Does not appear
Kal Henderson, Leigh Henderson, Steve Bult		Does not appear			Main
Henri Chassaing and Kellie Carter	—	Main		Does not appear
Rick Fishers	—	Does not appear	Main		Does not appear
Ted and Lecky Mahoney	—	Does not appear	Main	Main		Does not appear
Tyler Mahoney		Does not appear
Alex Stead and Eric Richards	The Scrappers	Does not appear		Main		Does not appear
Neville Perry and Mick Clark	Victoria Diggers	Does not appear			Main		Does not appear
Marcus McGuire	—	Does not appear				Main			Does not appear
Linden Brownley		Does not appear				Main			Does not appear
Dale Harring		Does not appear					Main		Does not appear
Rob Dale and Rob ‘Turbo’ Linton	The Gold Timers	Does not appear				Main			Does not appear
Shane Calegari, Russell Nash and Kate Dundas [S8]	—	Does not appear				Main
Paul Mackie, Jake Armstrong, John and Mike	The Dust Devils	Does not appear				Main			Does not appear
Brent Shannon and Ethan West	The Poseidon Crew	Does not appear			Guest	Main
Jacqui Buzetti and Andrew Leahy	—	Does not appear					Main
Rob Beeton, Ryan Peters, Bridget, Levi North and Zane Mettner [S8]	The Ferals	Does not appear					Main
Brad McGhie and Chris Smith	Gold Retrievers	Does not appear						Main
Paul Mackie, Alex Stead and Melanie Wood	Gold Devils	Does not appear							Main
Vince Malacria, Bibbi Gerali and Murray Cox	—	Does not appear							Main
Alan Williams and Caleb 'Salty' Davenport	—	Does not appear							Main

Not all the miners featured on the show are Australian. Lindsay Ironside was imported from Canada by Vernon Strange.^[17] Henri Chassaing came from Switzerland.^[18]

Episodes

Series overview

Season	Episodes		Originally released
			First released	Last released
1	8		15 September 2016 (2016-09-15)	3 November 2016 (2016-11-03)
2	10		6 July 2017 (2017-07-06)	7 September 2017 (2017-09-07)
3	13		31 May 2018 (2018-05-31)	23 August 2018 (2018-08-23)
4	13		2 May 2019 (2019-05-02)	25 July 2019 (2019-07-25)
5	20		30 April 2020 (2020-04-30)	10 September 2020 (2020-09-10)
Specials	3		17 September 2020 (2020-09-17)	1 October 2020 (2020-10-01)
6	20		29 April 2021 (2021-04-29)	23 September 2021 (2021-09-23)
7	20		2 June 2022 (2022-06-02)	13 October 2022 (2022-10-13)

Season 1 (2016)

Aussie Gold Hunters season one episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Original release date	Australia viewers
1	1	"3 Men and Gold"	15 September 2016 (2016-09-15)	52,000[19]
2	2	"Mech Disasters and a High-Stakes Gamble"	22 September 2016 (2016-09-22)	50,000[20]
3	3	"Uprooting and Salt-Lake Gold"	29 September 2016 (2016-09-29)	N/A
4	4	"Big Storm and Big Finds"	6 October 2016 (2016-10-06)	46,000[21]
5	5	"All or Nothing and Gold Rich Patch"	13 October 2016 (2016-10-13)	46,000[22]
6	6	"Targets and Unwanted Guests"	20 October 2016 (2016-10-20)	54,000[23]
7	7	"Breakdowns and Complications"	27 October 2016 (2016-10-27)	N/A
8	8	"Digging Deep, Risking Life and Limb"	3 November 2016 (2016-11-03)	37,000[24]

Season 2 (2017)

Aussie Gold Hunters season two episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Original release date	Australia viewers
9	1	"New Dawn Rises"	6 July 2017 (2017-07-06)	47,000[25]
10	2	"Heartbreak and Ambition"	13 July 2017 (2017-07-13)	47,000[26]
11	3	"Resurrection"	20 July 2017 (2017-07-20)	60,000[27]
12	4	"Speccie Gold"	27 July 2017 (2017-07-27)	70,000[28]
13	5	"Legends and Lore"	3 August 2017 (2017-08-03)	64,000[29]
14	6	"Riches in the Dry Well"	10 August 2017 (2017-08-10)	78,000[30]
15	7	"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"	17 August 2017 (2017-08-17)	75,000[31]
16	8	"Isolation of the Bush"	24 August 2017 (2017-08-24)	71,000[32]
17	9	"Bush Mateship"	31 August 2017 (2017-08-31)	69,000[33]
18	10	"Extra Wands on the Ground"	7 September 2017 (2017-09-07)	64,000[34]

Season 3 (2018)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Original release date	Australia viewers
19	1	"Episode 1"	31 May 2018 (2018-05-31)	71,000[35]
20	2	"Episode 2"	7 June 2018 (2018-06-07)	61,000[36]
21	3	"Episode 3"	14 June 2018 (2018-06-14)	67,000[37]
22	4	"Episode 4"	21 June 2018 (2018-06-21)	75,000[38]
23	5	"Episode 5"	28 June 2018 (2018-06-28)	78,000[39]
24	6	"Episode 6"	5 July 2018 (2018-07-05)	67,000[40]
25	7	"Episode 7"	12 July 2018 (2018-07-12)	83,000[41]
26	8	"Episode 8"	19 July 2018 (2018-07-19)	75,000[42]
27	9	"Episode 9"	26 July 2018 (2018-07-26)	75,000[43]
28	10	"Episode 10"	2 August 2018 (2018-08-02)	81,000[44]
29	11	"Episode 11"	9 August 2018 (2018-08-09)	67,000[45]
30	12	"Episode 12"	16 August 2018 (2018-08-16)	67,000[46]
31	13	"Episode 13"	23 August 2018 (2018-08-23)	82,000[47]

Season 4 (2019)

Aussie Gold Hunters season five episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Original release date	Australia viewers
32	1	"Episode 1"	2 May 2019 (2019-05-02)	64,000[48]
33	2	"Episode 2"	9 May 2019 (2019-05-09)	69,000[49]
34	3	"Episode 3"	16 May 2019 (2019-05-16)	91,000[50]
35	4	"Episode 4"	23 May 2019 (2019-05-23)	69,000[51]
36	5	"Episode 5"	30 May 2019 (2019-05-30)	72,000[52]
37	6	"Episode 6"	6 June 2019 (2019-06-06)	83,000[53]
38	7	"Episode 7"	13 June 2019 (2019-06-13)	75,000[54]
39	8	"Episode 8"	20 June 2019 (2019-06-20)	82,000[55]
40	9	"Episode 9"	27 June 2019 (2019-06-27)	66,000[56]
41	10	"Episode 10"	4 July 2019 (2019-07-04)	68,000[57]
42	11	"Episode 11"	11 July 2019 (2019-07-11)	92,000[58]
43	12	"Episode 12"	18 July 2019 (2019-07-18)	86,000[59]
44	13	"Episode 13"	25 July 2019 (2019-07-25)	113,000[60]

Season 5 (2020)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Original release date	Australia viewers
45	1	"Episode 1"	30 April 2020 (2020-04-30)	106,000[61]
46	2	"Episode 2"	7 May 2020 (2020-05-07)	100,000[62]
47	3	"Episode 3"	14 May 2020 (2020-05-14)	105,000[63]
48	4	"Episode 4"	21 May 2020 (2020-05-21)	104,000[64]
49	5	"Episode 5"	28 May 2020 (2020-05-28)	88,000[65]
50	6	"Episode 6"	4 June 2020 (2020-06-04)	84,000[66]
51	7	"Episode 7"	11 June 2020 (2020-06-11)	70,000[67]
52	8	"Episode 8"	18 June 2020 (2020-06-18)	99,000[68]
53	9	"Episode 9"	25 June 2020 (2020-06-25)	86,000[69]
54	10	"Episode 10"	2 July 2020 (2020-07-02)	89,000[70]
55	11	"Episode 11"	9 July 2020 (2020-07-09)	89,000[71]
56	12	"Episode 12"	16 July 2020 (2020-07-16)	80,000[72]
57	13	"Episode 13"	23 July 2020 (2020-07-23)	81,000[73]
58	14	"Episode 14"	30 July 2020 (2020-07-30)	91,000[74]
59	15	"Episode 15"	6 August 2020 (2020-08-06)	84,000[75]
60	16	"Episode 16"	13 August 2020 (2020-08-13)	76,000[76]
61	17	"Episode 17"	20 August 2020 (2020-08-20)	81,000[77]
62	18	"Episode 18"	27 August 2020 (2020-08-27)	91,000[78]
63	19	"Episode 19"	3 September 2020 (2020-09-03)	82,000[79]
64	20	"Episode 20"	10 September 2020 (2020-09-10)	78,000[80]

Specials

Aussie Gold Hunters specials

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Original release date	Australia viewers
65	1	"Countdown to the Motherload"	17 September 2020 (2020-09-17)	54,000[81]
66	2	"Surviving the Wilderness"	24 September 2020 (2020-09-24)	38,000[82]
67	3	"Gold Fever"	8 October 2020 (2020-10-08)	58,000[83]

Season 6 (2021)

Aussie Gold Hunters season six episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Original release date	Australia viewers
68	1	"Episode 1"	29 April 2021 (2021-04-29)	58,000[84]
69	2	"Episode 2"	6 May 2021 (2021-05-06)	52,000[85]
70	3	"Episode 3"	13 May 2021 (2021-05-13)	79,000[86]
71	4	"Episode 4"	20 May 2021 (2021-05-20)	71,000[87]
72	5	"Episode 5"	27 May 2021 (2021-05-27)	68,000[88]
73	6	"Episode 6"	3 June 2021 (2021-06-03)	71,000[89]
74	7	"Episode 7"	10 June 2021 (2021-06-10)	66,000[90]
75	8	"Episode 8"	17 June 2021 (2021-06-17)	62,000[91]
76	9	"Episode 9"	24 June 2021 (2021-06-24)	69,000[92]
77	10	"Episode 10"	1 July 2021 (2021-07-01)	64,000[93]
78	11	"Episode 11"	8 July 2021 (2021-07-08)	64,000[94]
79	12	"Episode 12"	15 July 2021 (2021-07-15)	59,000[95]
80	13	"Episode 13"	22 July 2021 (2021-07-22)	80,000[96]
81	14	"Episode 14"	12 August 2021 (2021-08-12)	60,000[97]
82	15	"Episode 15"	19 August 2021 (2021-08-19)	73,000[98]
83	16	"Episode 16"	26 August 2021 (2021-08-26)	79,000[99]
84	17	"Episode 17"	2 September 2021 (2021-09-02)	63,000[100]
85	18	"Episode 18"	9 September 2021 (2021-09-09)	55,000[101]
86	19	"Episode 19"	16 September 2021 (2021-09-16)	65,000[102]
87	20	"Episode 20"	23 September 2021 (2021-09-23)	66,000[103]

Season 7 (2022)

Aussie Gold Hunters season seven episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Original release date	Australia viewers
88	1	"Episode 1"	2 June 2022 (2022-06-02)	49,000[104]
Jacqui and Andrew encounter a crocodile as they camp on the banks of the Palmer River. Plus, the Ferals travel to Jarman Island to mine on untouched land.
89	2	"Episode 2"	9 June 2022 (2022-06-09)	62,000[105]
The Gold Retrievers chase off a late-night intruder. Shane and Russell venture out on a new expedition, while the Poseidon Crew make a big decision.
90	3	"Episode 3"	16 June 2022 (2022-06-16)	40,000[106]
A disastrous fire could ruin the Gold Timers’ season before it has even begun. The Ferals are forced to launch a rescue mission when Rob goes missing.
91	4	"Episode 4"	23 June 2022 (2022-06-23)	57,000[107]
Jacqui and Andrew are stranded in the dangerous tropical wilderness of the Palmer River region. Meanwhile, the Poseidon Crew face a critical meeting..
92	5	"Episode 5"	30 June 2022 (2022-06-30)	54,000[108]
Winter storms ravage the Gold Retrievers’ new $35,000 dry blower and could end their season. Meanwhile, the pressure to find gold could tear the Ferals apart.
93	6	"Episode 6"	7 July 2022 (2022-07-07)	52,000[109]
The Poseidon Crew are forced to hunt Victoria’s frozen high country. Meanwhile, the Gold Timers use the last of their savings to hire some big machinery.
94	7	"Episode 7"	14 July 2022 (2022-07-14)	44,000[110]
The Gold Timers gamble their last $6,000 and commission a magnetic drone survey. The Ferals face a killer snake, while Brad and Chris get expert advice.
95	8	"Episode 8"	21 July 2022 (2022-07-21)	50,000[111]
The `Dirt Dogs' gamble big to hit their tally, while Henri and Kellie mount a last-chance hunt for big nuggets. The `Gold Gypsies' pursue their goal.
96	9	"Episode 9"	28 July 2022 (2022-07-28)	44,000[112]
The Poseidon Crew take a gamble on gold ground they’ve already detected. Levi and Bridget make a rookie mistake, while the Gold Timers catch a thief.
97	10	"Episode 10"	4 August 2022 (2022-08-04)	45,000[113]
The Ferals confront a gold thief who’s raided their lease. The Gold Retrievers explore a promising new lease, while Jacqui and Andrew get their big break.
98	11	"Episode 11"	11 August 2022 (2022-08-11)	46,000[114]
Permit delays ruin the Poseidon Crew’s hopes of a massive payday on their famed ground. A torrential downpour forces Shane and Russell to evacuate their dig site.
99	12	"Episode 12"	18 August 2022 (2022-08-18)	53,000[115]
Jacqui and Andrew are targeted by potential gold thieves. Marcus and Linden hunt ground close to the site of the biggest nugget ever found in Western Australia.
100	13	"Episode 13"	25 August 2022 (2022-08-25)	49,000[116]
The Poseidon Crew finally start digging legendary ground in search of a multi-million-dollar nugget. Shane and Russell endure the snake-ridden wilderness in Pilbara.
101	14	"Episode 14"	1 September 2022 (2022-09-01)	50,000[117]
A robbery at the Gold Retrievers’ camp puts more pressure on Chris and Brad’s partnership. Marcus and Linden finally hit a rich patch of nuggets.
102	15	"Episode 15"	8 September 2022 (2022-09-08)	57,000[118]
Jacqui and Andrew feel the pressure as they battle hard rock ground that could ruin their latest deal. Plus, Shane and Russell search an ancient mine.
103	16	"Episode 16"	15 September 2022 (2022-09-15)	48,000[119]
The Poseidon Crew are running out of time to find a 1,000-ounce nugget. The Gold Retrievers work through the night in an attempt to escape dangerous summer heat.
104	17	"Episode 17"	22 September 2022 (2022-09-22)	50,000[120]
Shane and Russell take the biggest gamble of their season. Marcus, Linden and Dale desperately need new ground before intense heat shuts down their operation.
105	18	"Episode 18"	29 September 2022 (2022-09-29)	43,000[121]
The Gold Timers negotiate a lucrative deal to sell their mining rights. Torrential summer storms in Victoria threaten to shut down the Poseidon Crew’s operation.
106	19	"Episode 19"	6 October 2022 (2022-10-06)	54,000[122]
In the Pilbara region, the Ferals hit a run of nuggets that could transform their season. Meanwhile, the Gold Retrievers are rocked by a medical emergency.
107	20	"Episode 20"	13 October 2022 (2022-10-13)	56,000[123]
The Poseidon Crew’s mine site is swamped after a brutal storm. Ryan collapses in a deadly heatwave, while Russell and Shane uncover a big nugget.

Parker's Trail crossover

In 2020, season four of Gold Rush: Parker's Trail featured gold mining in the states of Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia.^[124][125] The season saw former Aussie Gold Hunters' cast member Tyler Mahoney in a main role.^[124][125] There were also guest appearances by former cast members Jake Larsen demonstrating heap leaching,^[126] as well as Ted and Lecky Mahoney teaching the process of pegging land leases.^[127]

Reception

The series has been a domestic and international ratings success.^[128] The series has been the #1 factual program on Foxtel for four consecutive years from 2017 to 2020.^[13] In addition, in the United Kingdom, where the series is broadcast on Quest, Aussie Gold Hunters is consistently the channel's top rating show of the week as well as frequently ranking in the top 10 of non-public broadcasting shows.^[8][128]

Broadcast

As of May 2020, Aussie Gold Hunters has been broadcast in 125 countries with an estimated reach of 40 million viewers.^[128]

See also

• Gold Rush, a similar show set in Canada and Alaska
• Yukon Gold, a similar show set in Canada