Action Thread about HighBanking in NSW

Hi All,
I was listening yesterday to the Country Hour to cattle men outlining the battle they've had trying to get cattle grazing back into Alpine National Parks in Victoria.
A spokesman from DEPI was saying they just don't want grazing in the high country.
That got me to thinking about the amount of resources and money the cattlemen have thrown at this issue, for little gain.
I reckon it would be nigh impossible for a disparate group of hobbyists to lobby any govt for a relaxation of restrictions of prospecting on public land.

I would predict that the future will look grim, with further restrictions placed on any "commercial" activities on public land - maybe even bee-keepers? So I reckon prospectors should be very mindful of how their conduct may impact on all of us, through any negative publicity through not filling holes, erosion, digging into banks, siltation, etc.

Just my thoughts....
TD

I'm not a farmer or high country basher but put it in perspective. They probably have only spent what they saved. Grazing value up there was pure profit.

If our sluicing and highbanking are problems for the environment and endangered species due to water turbidity......

Then there must be nothing left alive in the Turon River after just a moderate flood like this


This is from the Wallaby Rocks area.
I have seen floods, I have also seen the aquatic life after the river has fallen and cleared.

How many sluices and highbankers need to be in line to produce turbidity like that in the picture.
Tens of thousands would be my guess.

Yet the aquatic life survives the floods.

Bloody greeenies....Top shelf idiots

Tricky Dick said:

Hi All,
I was listening yesterday to the Country Hour to cattle men outlining the battle they've had trying to get cattle grazing back into Alpine National Parks in Victoria.
A spokesman from DEPI was saying they just don't want grazing in the high country.
That got me to thinking about the amount of resources and money the cattlemen have thrown at this issue, for little gain.
I reckon it would be nigh impossible for a disparate group of hobbyists to lobby any govt for a relaxation of restrictions of prospecting on public land.

I would predict that the future will look grim, with further restrictions placed on any "commercial" activities on public land - maybe even bee-keepers? So I reckon prospectors should be very mindful of how their conduct may impact on all of us, through any negative publicity through not filling holes, erosion, digging into banks, siltation, etc.

Just my thoughts....
TD

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it might be a good idea to print up a little letter about the intended ban on pumps / sluices and laminate it.

If we go out bush and find someone has dug massive holes and left them unfilled , leave them a letter taped to a stick in that hole so if they come back they will wise up to the risk that they could contribute to bans on this hobby unless they clean up their act.

as far as giving up a fight because its " too hard" . Not this little black duck.

There will be investigation of the people behind these proposed bans , if it turns out that the true driver is some big investment bank conspiring to kill our hobby so they can sell carbon credits on crown lands and make $1.2 billion from doing so then they would want to make very sure they are not engaging in any breaches of australian law in the process.
If people dont understand what i am saying here , there is a process where you could take a 6000 hectare state forest , change the name to " Conservation area" and once you do that little stroke of a pen you can sell carbon credits on that land to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars a year in revenue.

Hi all .banning pumps on sluices,there would need to be amendments to multiple laws,as they do contradict each other.there has been helping hands at work within the state government,the need for fossickers liecence was removed,most state forests are fossicking areas.and to my knowledge there are reports and ideas being thrown around at the moment about opening parts of national parks for fossicking.with the use of sluices being allowed to fossick for gold.not all members of gov.are against the mini gold rush that has been growing slowly over the past few years.some of them fully understand the costs involved with drill sampling,and also how much some new deposits can be worth a substantial amounts of money to state revenue.these people want hundreds of hobbiest looking statewide for mineral deposits.its seems to be dependant on how many ignorant prospectors are going to ruin the contryside,that will determine if laws will be changed to stop it.as long as everyone (mostly everyone there will always be those few)sticks to the rules all will be good

I think removing the fossicking license made it easier for them to change the rules when they felt like it. Looks like they might be going the same way as VIC by opening up selected areas in NP and banning pumps.

I think banning pumps will only encourage people to take dirt/wash/gravel home for processing which is illegal also as you're only legally allowed to take the minerals with you.

I reckon go the extremist approach as they do, start a petition and try to get dredging allowed again, then put up a fight and just settle for keeping things the way they are.

Heatho said:

I think removing the fossicking license made it easier for them to change the rules when they felt like it. Looks like they might be going the same way as VIC by opening up selected areas in NP and banning pumps.

I think banning pumps will only encourage people to take dirt/wash/gravel home for processing which is illegal also as you're only legally allowed to take the minerals with you.

I reckon go the extremist approach as they do, start a petition and try to get dredging allowed again, then put up a fight and just settle for keeping things the way they are.

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Take a leaf out of their book of dirty tricks

Create a new name for dredging , say "vacuum extraction" , fight for that , then settle for water pumps and high bankers being approved .

Who knows , they might even approve vacuum type extraction for crevicing which would actually be more environmentally considerate as there is less chance of killing a yabbie with a vacuum as there is with use of a garden trowel

I might be wrong but i was reading about hillgrove and a couple of fossickers found an estimated 300 million oz gold deposit.which has sparked intrest from a mining company.they are now reopening a mine there which will employ some 1100 workers .not to mention the boost to the local economy.unless there is something else that can generate money and jobs like mining does.it would seem that state gov likes the idea.but if you have people making a fuss about turbidity and noise from hobbiest's pumps(nundle guy and the likes).there will be investigations and reports done on the use of pumps and turbidity.they may change the rules .there could be set times to operate with pumps,ierospecting seasons that work around spawning seasons of aquatic life in certain areas.there could be tax to pay and tax deductable equipment that could be used.nothing has been written on stone tablets yet.if there are people willing to run for political parties to make changes that can only be a good thing.like him or hate him there is a certain nickel miner running a party trying to make inroads for australians.these types of people are the ones we need to be allied with .they understand mining industry and laws and are willing to make some noise about it and they have contacts and the money to back it up.small political parties will never get anywhere without contacts and money.ask pauline hanson.lol.and from what i have seen happening lately some mines have closed others are scaling down other projects have been put on the back burner.it would seem the whole country is on the brink of not only a down turn but a recession.so if the mining industry grinds to a halt australia could not generate income equivilant to mining from tourism.but ya never know paul hogan might throw another shrimp on the barbie,and save the whole country.

Whats bloody wrong with these dumb-asses, don't they (the Greenies) remember how this country was founded???

We should stand up and fight for our freedom to prospect, its becoming ridiculous half of these rules and regulations are just pointless.

Headsup.i believe the term gravel transfer system is what is being used in the states.the new 49er's seem to be the ones that the laws are being changed for .100 or so hobby prospectors showup to a claim and proceed to excavated whole hillsides which dump into streams.they have alot of videos on youtube to watch them in action.the law makers there seem to be focusing on them in particular.

G'day all, I've been thinking on this problem of turbidity, and pumps, and it seems to me that if turbidity is the real problem with motorised sluicing, then why not have an isolated, circulating water system? Simply have a 44 gallon drum split through the centre, your pump, with some sort of a sediment trap involved in the half 44, and away you go. When you've finished, dig a hole away from the creek or river and pour the re-circulated water into the hole. while the water is being absorbed by the hole, we process our fines by hand, then backfill the hole we dug for the mucky water. If they still disallow this solution, then the problem is the use of a pump, rather than turbidity. What do you reckon?

G'day all, I've been thinking on this problem of turbidity, and pumps, and it seems to me that if turbidity is the real problem with motorised sluicing, then why not have an isolated, circulating water system?

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I can only go on the conversation i had... But when they were bringing up turbidity it had nothing to do with pumps but sluicing in gerneral...... yes he was talking about river sluices. The pumps they said were not legal as they were mechanical, even though they only process water and are aloud under the water act.

It is very hard to do much about turbidity from a river sluice as it needs flow to work. Highbankers on the other hand have ways to avoid or minimise turbidity (just don't run straight back into the water course) unless set up in the middle of the creek/river.
The area you are digging also would make a difference, sand and gravel will make a lot less turbidity than and area heavy with silt or clay.

creekbed said:

They will always make a point of being disagreeable, they love pulling out the old "turbidity" card and playing it........remember this same Govt dept are incharge of Fishing too, and then they will go back to the office and do whatever they can to try and find a way of finding your equipment illegal. They are not interested in gaining a better understanding.They have blinkers on and only know the pre rehearsed speil issued to them by the Dept. Most have fallen into the bucket of green paint and thats why they seek out the jobs they do.
Those of us that have been gold prospecting for many years and I'm talking about before the rule changes in the 80s and 90s have learned to just be quiet, work quietly and don't draw any attention.

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Im with creekbed on this one. Go about your business in a secretive manner and tell them nothing take them nowhere. Stop even discussing the legalitys of what we do on an open forum it only gives the antis more to grind there teeth about. If you need to ask about what is or isnt legal or how the law is interpreted use PMs.

Im with creekbed on this one. Go about your business in a secretive manner and tell them nothing take them nowhere. Stop even discussing the legalitys of what we do on an open forum it only gives the antis more to grind there teeth about. If you need to ask about what is or isnt legal or how the law is interpreted use PMs.

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Just out of curiosity what is the purpose of having an online forum if we all kept quite? If we all went about our business in a secretive manner there would be no trip stories, no help on places to go, no talk about equipment and not talking about the rules would just have even more people end up doing the wrong thing.
I know i would not join a prospecting forum where no one wanted to talk about prospecting.....

There are some soils in this country (quite a lot) which promote turbidity. These are called sodic soils, and the majority of them are clay-like in structure. They won't aggregate in water due to their anionic nature ( negative ions). A good example of how this works is putting two magnets together - they will either reject each other or attract - so those soil particles that are sodic are constantly repelling each other. This character of sodic soils is due to high sodium levels, due to shallow, salty seas that once were covering a majority of Australia in times gone past.
In other areas of our country there are soils that do not have a problem with aggregation, which is suspended soil particles attracting and clumping together, causing them to fall out, and drop to the bottom of waterways. If we could prove by the use of metallogenic or geological maps that where we are fossicking is not in a sodic soil area, and if we could reduce direct discharge from highbankers, etc. back into waterways to greatly reduce the possibility of raising the natural, but short lived turbidity of our waterways, maybe the powers that be might take note of our genuine approach to reduction of turbidity in our creeks and rivers.

This is to replace the other two threads combining all into one.
Just to make it easier for us to keep an eye on it all.
Many Many Thanks for your support people.

I might need to change my avatar.
They will probably say it was taken yesterday and fine me.

So when are we organizing the mass high banker protest ?

It's a shame that the people who make up these silly laws don't actually go out in the field and experience what is involved in high banking, How can they know or make laws about things that they have not tried or been part of, Basing laws on what they are told which is nothing more than hear say is wrong, If the common man did that in a court of law then the judge would put them in their place, Yet these laws are being made up by Judges.

I think everyone needs to get together and Not Except these kangaroo laws, The only reason that I can see that they are being put in place is because the common man is now finding the fine gold that the big companies are after, Under normal circumstances we can find the nuggets and we leave a lot of fine stuff behind so it is still worth the mines coming in and cleaning up, but if a person uses a dredge or a high banker then they can get about 85% of what is within their reach, I truly think the mining/government share holders are behind this.

I don't think the Greenies are behind this because they have been protesting for years over all sorts of things and the government never takes notice of them and when they do it is over something minor, So I think that these changes have come from higher up.

Prospectors need to combine their voices and so should the towns people because this will effect the people who make a living from prospector/miners, just look at GSA, Dunolly as a town they are suffering, and it is not fair that such people loose their right to earn a living,

J.

Ridge Runner said:

It's a shame that the people who make up these silly laws don't actually go out in the field and experience what is involved in high banking, How can they know or make laws about things that they have not tried or been part of, Basing laws on what they are told which is nothing more than hear say is wrong, If the common man did that in a court of law then the judge would put them in their place, Yet these laws are being made up by Judges.

I think everyone needs to get together and Not Except these kangaroo laws, The only reason that I can see that they are being put in place is because the common man is now finding the fine gold that the big companies are after, Under normal circumstances we can find the nuggets and we leave a lot of fine stuff behind so it is still worth the mines coming in and cleaning up, but if a person uses a dredge or a high banker then they can get about 85% of what is within their reach, I truly think the mining/government share holders are behind this.

I don't think the Greenies are behind this because they have been protesting for years over all sorts of things and the government never takes notice of them and when they do it is over something minor, So I think that these changes have come from higher up.

Prospectors need to combine their voices and so should the towns people because this will effect the people who make a living from prospector/miners, just look at GSA, Dunolly as a town they are suffering, and it is not fair that such people loose their right to earn a living,

J.

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I believe that you are right on this !