Dredging in Australia for recreational activities IS illegal..

tell Tony Beets from gold rush in the klondike he might buy it. :lol: :lol:

It is illegal to use them on/in our NATURAL WATERWAYS (for the purpose of extracting the crowns minerals,,, namely GOLD) there are still big dredge companies here in Australia and i'm pretty sure there is one off the coast of the gold coast or at least there was because there was a big protest with greanies. anyways back to the dredging for gold, if you no the laws then it is possible to opperate a dredge legally here in Australia but by the time you went through the process it would most certainly be running at a loss so you would be better off using a different method.

Ballarat gold this would depend on where you dredge, dredge size and dredge technology. These days a Dredge is able to recover micron gold. A two man team with a 6 inch can move enormous amounts of material. The trouble is getting past water and land if passed your proposal is then put in the local paper for locals to reject. Its all about money to the government you can pay and get a permit to dredge this means the government has banned this hobbie because its a profitable enterprise.I talk from experience. Ps your allowed to use a highbanker. To accomplish what can be done with a 4 inch in one hour a man must dig for a day with a banker. Dredges are tax free profit

ballaratgold said:

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/7243/1459334135_image.jpg

Click to expand...

I drive past the old girl twice a day, every week day, and some Saturdays, she's a treasure!

This post was enlightening.

May I ask (or be redirected to a page containing the info) is it simply solo/recreational prospectors whom are not allowed or does this cover industrial mining operations also - in which case wouldn't larger operations be causing further and more extensive damage?

***Yes; I'm VERY new to this hobby - any and all info would be greatly appreciated***

Amatuer dredging is and remains illegal in Australia ..... a few in the north of the state (and possibly elsewhere) do a bit of ILLEGAL dredging.
If you want your favourite Murray Cod or Trout river valleys o end up like this then bury your head in the sand and support dredging .....
You've got blinkers on if you think we all do the right thing .... the lure of the yellow has many skating on thin ice ......
Get out and enjoy what we can do within the law, hopefully we don't find it all and can in future teach/watch our grandkids enjoy what we did.
Cheers Tom

pennyweight said:

Ballarat gold this would depend on where you dredge, dredge size and dredge technology. These days a Dredge is able to recover micron gold. A two man team with a 6 inch can move enormous amounts of material.

Click to expand...

I can attest to that. I spent a week on a 6" in southern NZ and I was moving a serious amount of material per day. One day in particular I dredged down to 3m deep of alluvials before hitting bedrock. ( I could stand on bedrock and the water which initially was only a few inches deep was well over my outstretched hand.) It was probably 8mx8mx3m in a day - and some days moved more, the depth slowed me down.

It was a hell of an experience. I spent weeks afterward dreaming dreams of all the alluvial material constantly cascading down and trying to keep up. But then I was a little mad, only getting out of the water after 10 hour stints and half hypothermic. was a long but fun week.

What P me off is the amount of dredges for sale in Australia on fleapay its making a mockery of the laws

i was told its only illegal if u dont have a lease ?

palmerston said:

i was told its only illegal if u dont have a lease ?

Click to expand...

You must have misunderstood...Its only illegal ....if you get caught... :Y: :Y:

i no this much lol but they told me at the miners den if u have a lease u can use one

palmerston said:

i no this much lol but they told me at the miners den if u have a lease u can use one

Click to expand...

I believe, for some reason, that is true of some of the Palmer river leases, somehow they have become an exception

It would depend on what was written in your plan of operations.
Most leases up here using gravity separation plants and water, would have no issues dredging as it would be covered under the plan.

They say qld is ten years behind lol must be tru

palmerston said:

They say qld is ten years behind lol must be tru

Click to expand...

More like 25 mate :N:

sometimes being ten years behind is a good thing the way things are going Palmerston! I'd love to wind some clocks back many more years

Went for a drive over the weekend did a loop of Sofala to Bathurst, plenty of people out on the Turon enjoying the Easter break. Stopped at Coles bridge for a look and discovered a guy I had met there in the past blatantly dredging pretty much directly under the bridge. He had a pretty sophisticated system multiple pumps and a fully decked out work truck with hoses and fittings galore, venturi nozzles and a homemade water monitor he was using to dig holes with just laying there in the open. He had even clamped some sort of white PVC pipe junction to a fallen tree I asked him if he was concerned about running into the rangers and he shrugged, he knew what he was doing was wrong. I told him they had pulled me up in the past for highbanking down from the bridge and he jumped up and down for a bit saying in broken english something along the lines "highbanking is ok, dredging is illegal". I laughed at him and asked why he was dredging then and told him he will wreck it for all of us if he is caught that I wouldn't be surprised if the whole area got shut down. He didn't really give a toss and just went back to what he was doing.

I've reported dredging before and have photos licence plates etc. I handed the offender to the authorities on a plate but they aren't motivated at all to do anything about it.
Jon

They put it in the to hard basket