This year has seen the club attract quite a few new members that have been attending on a regular basis, some of them weekly, others as they can. They have all learnt and contributed no matter how small, all efforts are greatly appreciated to keep the club rocking on.

We have had a few field trips including Rushworth/Corop for jasper and gold fossicking, which yielded quite a bounty of jasper but no gold, but in it's place we brought back buckets of pyrite from the quarry where the sledge hammers gave our attending members a good workout.

Next we again made the journey to Britannica Creek, with a good turnout of members travelling in convoy for the day - fossicking for smokey quartz and citrine. A few very wet members enjoyed a sunny afternoon, BBQ lunch and a day traipsing through the bush, but all were able to come home with worthwhile finds and at least one leech.

March saw a great weekend trip by members to Mortlake for peridot. Several members made their way to Mortlake on the Friday with a few more turning up early hours on the Saturday and all made their way to the local quarry where the locals assisted with earth moving equipment and a good helping of local knowledge to assist the majority of our members return to Essendon with prized selections of peridot and again, buckets of lava bombs to be scrutinized at our leisure back home.

Our last field trip this year was to Valencia Creek with the Morwell Club hosting the weekend - fossicking for agate, thunder eggs and quartz. This weekend was again well attended by members and we had a wonderful night of entertainment and fun, with the other clubs teaching us what they could about the refined art of damper making, which was to their detriment as Essendon took off the inaugural trophy for the year. Again, a good bounty was brought home by all, with most of our vehicles being at least a couple of tons heavier on the journey home.

I am thankful to all who had a hand in organising the field trips this year and hope that we can duplicate some, if not all, again this year, and hopefully have a few new experiences to new and exciting sites that will give all attendees the opportunity to gain some knowlege and that one elusive find that will reap us all a wonderful reward.