Lawns, gardens, parks and ovals · Adelaide: Lost a ring in the grass? Put the rake down.

Grass is kinder than sand. A ring that drops into a lawn often stays near the surface, close to where it fell. Mowers, rakes and well-meaning helpers are what change that. I’m Thomas, a metal detectorist based in Adelaide’s south, and I do every search myself.

Call 0431 196 875 Or text me the details
$150 Callout + first hour$250 Max standard searchFree Initial advice

What to do right now

  1. Stop and think. Where were you standing, and what were you doing? Throwing a ball, pulling off gardening gloves, hanging out the washing, playing with the dog. The moment it came off tells us where to start.
  2. Look first. Walk slowly with your eyes down, and ask helpers to do the same. Search with your eyes, not your feet.
  3. Don’t mow. A mower can throw a ring or carry it off in the catcher. If you’ve already mown, check the catcher and your green bin before collection day.
  4. Don’t rake or blow. A rake can drag a ring along or flick it metres away, and a leaf blower can do the same.
  5. Don’t dig. Turning the soil over can push a ring deeper and mix it in. Leave the ground as it is.
  6. Keep pets and kids off the patch until it’s been searched, if you can.
  7. Mark it. Drop a map pin and take photos from a few angles. A phone’s location is good to about five metres at best, and often worse near houses and trees, so landmarks matter: a tree, a tap, a clothesline, a goalpost, a bench.

We start with the story. Then we narrow down the most likely area, and I work across it in overlapping sweeps.

Backyards and parks are rarely clean. There are nails, foil, bottle caps and bits of old wire, and a small gold ring can sound a lot like the foil, a bottle cap or a bit of wire (why gold can sound like rubbish). So I check every signal in the agreed area rather than skipping the ones that sound like junk. That’s why a careful search takes patience.

On suitable grass, I aim to retrieve items with a small plug and replace it carefully, keeping disturbance to a minimum. We’ll talk about the ground and any likely disturbance before I start.

Garden beds, mulch or gravel? Tell me what’s planted and what you’d rather I didn’t disturb, and I’ll ask before I move anything.

Parks, ovals and school grounds

Public land has rules, and permission comes first.

  • Council parks and reserves. Councils set by-laws for their land. In Holdfast Bay, for example, digging or disturbing soil on council land needs the council’s permission, so I check what’s needed before I dig.
  • The Park Lands. Most of the Park Lands around the city and North Adelaide are looked after by the City of Adelaide. If you lost something at an event or on an oval there, tell me which park.
  • Sports grounds and school ovals. If a club or school runs the ground, I’ll need their okay first.
  • National parks and other state reserves. Using a metal detector, digging or disturbing soil in any park or reserve under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 is an offence. That includes national, conservation and recreation parks, such as Belair National Park, Hallett Cove Conservation Park and Shepherds Hill Recreation Park. Metal detecting isn’t allowed in reservoir reserves either. If you lost it on a walking trail, call me anyway and I’ll tell you plainly where that leaves you.

Rentals and other people’s places

If it isn’t your property, I’ll need the owner’s or occupier’s permission before I search. That goes for a rental, a friend’s backyard, a venue or a workplace.

What it costs

$150 covers the callout and the first hour of searching, and a standard search is $250 at most. There’s no deposit, initial advice is free, and recovery can’t be guaranteed (how pricing works).

Questions people ask

Lawn searches, answered.

It’s been a few weeks. Is it still worth a search?

It can be. A lawn doesn’t shift the way beach sand does. Tell me what’s happened there since, such as mowing, watering, digging or building work, and I’ll give you my honest view.

Will you dig up my lawn?

I don’t dig random holes. I only dig where there’s a signal, and on suitable grass I take a small plug and put it back carefully. We’ll talk it through first.

Can you find keys or a phone in the grass?

I search for those too, and they’re bigger targets than a ring.

It was at a park. Do I need to sort out permission?

Tell me which park or oval it was, and roughly where. We’ll sort out what’s needed before the search starts.

All questions
Sand & shallow waterLost a ring at the beach?
Read the guide
Ring metalsWill a metal detector find your ring?
Read the guide
Do it yourself?Hire a metal detector, or a detectorist?
Read the guide

A little hope starts here

Lost it in the yard?
Call or text.

Tell me where you were standing and what you were doing when it came off.

Emailed and not heard back? Call or text 0431 196 875.

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