Dismantling old timers mounds/mullocks - legalities???

After a bit of advice.

Obviously we all find bits and pieces of gold in old timers mounds/piles/mullocks heaps - big and small.

Now if I dig a hole somewhere, I refill it. Even in the side of a mullock, I re-fill it.

But, as some of these piles are reasonably big and the detector only detects so deep there could be more in deeper. So I am wondering about leveling some mounds bit by bit. And by hand of course - no machinery.

Morally I don't really have an issue with this as these mounds were built by man and are a bit of an eyesore in the bush. Personally I don't think they have any 'heritage' value unlike a puddler or something like that. They are like ticks on an NT dog.

But, what are the legalities?? Do we have to return the bush to the state we found it even though that state is ugly and man made? Or are we actually performing the environmental service that the old blokes never had to do by flattening these things out and bringing the landscape back to something more original?

Interested in everyone's thoughts :Y:

Remember that the oldtimers dug down until they got to the paydirt level, so the last dirt they dug was potentially the rich stuff, hence the detectable, shallow nuggets on mullock heaps when they hadn't been careful enough to separate the paydirt layer from the waste material (mullock). By the same token, the first dirt they dug is at the bottom level of the mullock heap, so the more dirt you remove today, the less your chances of finding any gold in it, IMHO.

That is very true grubstake - a rule of thumb that I had learnt but since forgotten.

But, I wonder how much gold is at the bottom of the pile considering gold is often found in the shallow layers. The old boys may have dug through those initial layers heading for the deeper stuff without working it at all.

I was asking an older fella last week about an area that is near my home as he has frequented it many times and found lots of gold there. He has also found more than 50 ounces all over Australia and said that he's never found a bit of gold over about a foot and a half. Has dug plenty of deeper holes but they were junk. Reinforces to me that a lot of what we are chasing is in those first layers and might be on the bottom of the heaps. Or maybe not...it's worth a bit of sweat to find out - that's if I'm allowed to??

In the areas i go to , the mulloch heaps seem to be where all the nails and old time junk ended up , drives me mad to even do the surface of the heap and its more efficent to detect away from the heaps anyway.
Personally i think the heaps are historical and should be left as is or atleast rebuilt to their former shape , imo.

Personally I never spend any time on the mulloch heaps, there is so much ground to be covered and morally for me they are the history of this country and I don't like to ruin them, also like grubstake said if there is something is in the metal detector range I swing a 7000 and I found nuggets down to 2', over that depth I am not interested.

I was camped in a GT Goldfield last September.
Me and two mates where detecting only & mainly virgin ground.
Near our camp someone had been digging away the mullock heaps and processing them like your describing.
The gully workings looked very messy and the scars on the landscape where evidence that could be used to prevent our future access.
The unsightly holes and unfilled holes throughout the mullock heaps were clearly dug by prospectors all where quite recent, last few weeks, months etc.

I doubt you would get very much out of them, i would think if you raised the question with PMAV, Parks & DEWLP you would find it is not legal.
I personally would not be doing it.

With the current huge popularity of prospecting you would hope that people start filling in their holes and demonstrate prospecting can be done with
minimal impact.

I would leave the mullock heaps alone. They are part of the history and personally I like them. Enough have been lost from councils using them as road toppings and other people bulldozing whole leads and the like. Just detect them and find what you may, fill in your hole and leave them be. Grubstake you are spot on mate.

GT

On my last detecting outing back in early December I was out for a few nights and every night I could hear the puffer of a 12v dry blower going not far from where I was camped right in amongst the diggings, when I was heading out to town for supplies I drove past this bloke who must have been 80 not out with his dry blower set up right on a digging's mullock heap and shovelling the pipe clay through.
When I packed up to head home I drove past the spot and he wasn't there so I got out for a good look at his handy work and he had shovelled about a quarter way around of 4-5 diggings and the mullock heaps were fair size, I'd say he ran 1 digging a day, I've owned and run a dry blower and I can tell you he had done a fair bit of work, no idea how much he would had got from the 4-5 holes but it did look odd if you turned up not knowing what had happened to the heaps. it was an eyesore from a historic point of view.

On the other hand I've worked a big tailing's pile with a mate and we had 2 dry blowers going, the tailing's were from an old shallow lead and I'm not sure if they were classified or not, I think it was the discarded less payable material and unless you knew exactly where it is you'd never find it so from a historical point of view I don't think it's in the same category as mullock heaps on known diggings. Some of the gold is SDC or high freq VLF territory but it would be a lot of effort for the odd piece you'd find, even with the dry blower it really wasn't worth the 8 hours each of shovelling but there's gold there if really hard work is your thing.

It's a great question you asked Northeast but trust me it comes at a cost for the small amount of gold you might get. I sold my dry blower and reverted to normal detecting as it's a lot less taxing on the body than picking/shovelling apart mullock and tailing's piles for the small return for effort, and that's blowing which will catch a lot more small stuff that a detector will.

Well, it looks like the nays have it - from practical, moral and legal perspectives.

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to answer. I also thank you for giving straight forward and non-emotive responses - I know questions about prospecting history can get a bit heated at times.

Looks like I'll be leaving the heaps as is. Not so much for the fact that I don't think there would be a bit more gold in them but more for the fact that I respect your opinions and appreciate all that I have learnt through the forum.

Keep up the good work :Y:

I have tried scapping off an inch or so off a heap then detect it. Did not get any more gold and the clay and gravel give way to topsoil and rocks.

Its tough work removing the material and I reckon mostly not worth the effort. Just try and leave it as flat and natural as possible when you leave. I always kick rocks n leaves over anything I dig/scrape to conceal my presence.

Having said that I detected my first speciman on an old heap and kept taking a few inches off the top each time then detect.

Have pulled out about 15 specimans from the old quartz dump.

I dont believe one person can do that much damage to the old working and when you walk away, a few week later it will become a normal part of the bush to the untrained eye.

Personally I would love to put a small shallowing digging mullock through the highbanker to see whats there????

Cheers

RS