Access and the future of prospecting

Evening all, as a newbie I am still getting my head around where I may be able to go prospecting in this great land of ours. In reality it will probably mostly be in Victoria and as I live in Melbourne's east the obvious place is somewhere like Gippsland or the high country. Trips to the GT will come as and when I can do them (and the boss is happy to come along).

Regardless of this I keep seeing more posts and information on Facebook groups etc about how we (like a lot of other groups such as 4WD etc) are being locked out of areas.

My questions is, are we on the cusp of detecting, sluicing etc being almost killed off by government and greenie bureaucracy?

I have become very interested in this as a hobby to take into my retirement and I don't expect to make big bikkies from this - it will be a hobby just like any other, but I don't want to shell out my hard earned $4-5 k only to have the ability to actually undertake the detecting over the next few years lost due to legislative changes.

I would appreciate your thoughts. Mac

McNome
wrote "My questions is, are we on the cusp of detecting, sluicing etc being almost killed off by government and greenie bureaucracy?"

My view (survey of one) ...'very likely' and we are not helped by a minority in our hobby that illegally access land, leave gates open, leave rubbish lying around and don't fill holes.

In my home state, the government has legislated to keep us out of national/state parks and state forests and while there are large 'general permission areas' these are at risk should we mess up and give any excuse to our opponents to further restrict us.

In my area at Gympie (the gold town that saved Qld) we have a small GPA in the middle of town and only a small contingent of fossickers who go there for a dig, pan or detect. Others who use the area or maybe even some of our own crew are leaving an increasing amount of rubbish in their wake. Locals who often walk their dogs in their sometimes complain about the mess 'we' leave'. It only takes one person to formally complain and we are like shot ducks. I am sure the authorities would boot us out of there given half a chance.

This is an investigation presently underway at the moment regarding land usage including prospecting, 4WD, firewood collecting and other uses.
http://veac.vic.gov.au/investigation/central-west-investigation

The investigation concludes in March 2019, First round submissions closed on 21st August but a second round happens in the future.
You can register your interest here.
http://veac.vic.gov.au/investigation/central-west-investigation/register

The original posts are here on this topic, regarding the central west investigation.
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=22706

It is worthwhile to be involved or we will risk access to these areas, and others in the future. Ecological concerns are the main driving force in these investigations.
Only by conducting low impact prospecting (filling holes, rubbish removal and all the other responsible things) will we manage to maintain some areas for the future. Removing rubbish left by others and filling in their holes and educating new prospectors as to what is expected of them is part of a process to maintain access to these areas. Once access has been restricted it is all but impossible to get it re-classified in the future. Ken.

If Victoria is anything like NSW we are probably stuffed Ken, the green minority have a lot more power than the public majority.

In NSW about 12 years ago the government instigated reforms to the recreational fishing sector, they started by having meetings and asking for submissions on what areas we would like to keep open and what areas we would be happy seeing turned into green no go zones for fish rehabilitation. The reforms sounded like a good idea as fish stocks are definitely being depleted though the effect rec fishing had was debatable. Fishing clubs in my area (Jervis Bay) submitted recommendations, they were well thought out, practical and would have had the desired effect of giving fish safe areas to breed and multiply. When the first draft plan was released it had every area the fishing clubs wanted left open marked as green zones and only barren areas left open for rec fishing. The backlash from the fishing clubs, tackle stores, boat shops and individuals resulted in some areas being left open but the greens basically got what they wanted.

If you really want to be heard in these inquiries into public land use you also need to target your local MP, they usually have no idea what is going on and just follow instructions from above. If you get the local pollies onside you may have some chance of keeping a few areas open.

My submission was targeting the positive aspects of low impact prospecting and the education of the "uninformed" as to cleaning up their own mess as well as others. The fact that if unused tracks will become impassible during a bushfire. By closing areas only the un informed and irresponsible would go to those areas, and the people that are responsible and law abiding would not be there to improve things. I looked at the terms of reference for VEAC and aimed my submission to be supportive of that. I have aimed to make the areas better places by responsible prospecting and educating less knowledgeable (ecologically) people that I come in contact with in the areas concerned. They win and we win. Ken.

Unfortunately, Ken every little bit of good you do will get wrecked by 4wd clubs that go to areas to "conquer" a track, then with all the wheel spin the ruts get chewed out even more until the track is impassable to firefighting vehicles. 4wd'ers don't care as they often have 35inch tyres. Have a look at these clowns https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxMtOIRoVXY
When I get to a tricky spot 10 min of track building (rocks logs placed in hollows) and then it's passable again, not only for me but others, 4wd groups just love spinning wheels flicking mud everywhere and getting a buzz out of "their tough rig" getting over a tricky spot.
If you go to somewhere like Wonangatta it is full of bloody rubbish everywhere, smashed glass all over the place, and if you have a fairly standard 4wd you can only get in if it's been graded recently.
That is one spot where the buck can't be passed onto bush walkers or caravanners or weekend sedan campers as it's only accessible by 4wd, and it's a bloody mess.
Restricting tire size would go a long way to keep clowns out.

Occasional_panner said:

Restricting tire size would go a long way to keep clowns out.

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Same can be said about sluice boxes, trommels etc. I seen many posts here and other sites of people competing to see who can build the biggest long tom, trailer mounted trommels etc and you all wonder why they have been banned?
Any reasonable person can see that recreational areas were intended for pans and small sluices, wanna be Todd Hoffmans should get a lease and mine legally instead of wrecking it for the average joe.

McGnome said:

My questions is, are we on the cusp of detecting, sluicing etc being almost killed off by government and greenie bureaucracy
I would appreciate your thoughts. Mac

Click to expand...

YES your spot on the money with that question.

ILikeGold said:

Occasional_panner said:

Restricting tire size would go a long way to keep clowns out.

Click to expand...

Same can be said about sluice boxes, trommels etc. I seen many posts here and other sites of people competing to see who can build the biggest long tom, trailer mounted trommels etc and you all wonder why they have been banned?
Any reasonable person can see that recreational areas were intended for pans and small sluices, wanna be Todd Hoffmans should get a lease and mine legally instead of wrecking it for the average joe.

Click to expand...

Exactly, the point I was trying to make was if you have little to no impact then no one will notice you were there and will not be concerned about it.

Who are our politicians ?
8) ]

The future direction of Prospecting rules, regulations and access will depend on the direction prospecting takes from now.
Every day more and more people are taking it up and many don,t follow the rules and leave a trail of destruction in areas they go.
This reflects badly on the whole prospecting community.

I too have been looking forward to spending my retirement prospecting, but feel further restrictions will erode much of the areas we
can visit to pursue our pastime.

If the results of your search leave permanent scars on the landscape there is only one direction the authorities will take and most
will not be happy with that outcome.

I like what, "Occasional_panner" stated, Little to no impact prospecting. :Y:

Thank You. :Y: :Y:
Public Education and we us folks being the " Eye's and Ears "in our great outdoors
can make a huge impact with very little input.
I am not saying to go all out and end up in a nasty situation but stand up
for what we love and enjoy.
It is a hard battle to keep area's open when some people who have no respect for
the land, Destroy it for those who do.

Go Fossicking, It brings people together.

Doug

Swinging & digging said:

The future direction of Prospecting rules, regulations and access will depend on the direction prospecting takes from now.
Every day more and more people are taking it up and many don,t follow the rules and leave a trail of destruction in areas they go.
This reflects badly on the whole prospecting community.

I too have been looking forward to spending my retirement prospecting, but feel further restrictions will erode much of the areas we
can visit to pursue our pastime.

If the results of your search leave permanent scars on the landscape there is only one direction the authorities will take and most
will not be happy with that outcome.

I like what, "Occasional_panner" stated, Little to no impact prospecting. :Y:

Click to expand...

ILikeGold said:

Occasional_panner said:

Restricting tire size would go a long way to keep clowns out.

Click to expand...

Same can be said about sluice boxes, trommels etc. I seen many posts here and other sites of people competing to see who can build the biggest long tom, trailer mounted trommels etc and you all wonder why they have been banned?
Any reasonable person can see that recreational areas were intended for pans and small sluices, wanna be Todd Hoffmans should get a lease and mine legally instead of wrecking it for the average joe.

Click to expand...

I see this post has a few supporters so I'll tread carefully. I'm in victoria so my comments are based on the current laws that do not state any restrictions on size or amount of material that can be processed.

Comments like this are going the wrong way. I'm not against anyone having a dig or using whatever they like to process with. I'm for prospecting, from the simple panner right up to machine driven trommels. It wouldn't make 1 bit of difference if you outlawed bigger equipment, grubs will still be grubs and mother nature will still reclaim her territory with or without permission.

By adopting a view that bigger machines and tools has a bigger impact and should be stopped, you are basically starting to side with the Greenies and helping them with their agendas. The same rogue blokes will still be operating no matter what restrictions are put in place even if the majority of us all comply. And the same people who pick up others rubbish, backfill others holes and keep educating about better ways to do things will still be out there.

I reckon most blokes would be hard pressed to do a couple days digging straight anyway, and a group of people can turn a lot of dirt over in a short amount of time, no argument there, but I don't see that as some reason to exclude someone!

Hundreds of thousands of people dug for their livelihood all across this great country, we could all keep going the way we are for the next hundred and years and it wouldn't put a dent in what they collectively did. There's more places you can't go now than you can, without even considering private property, and some out there would like that shut down to everything but pans and detectors too? Cmon, I have to draw a line in the sand somewhere.

If you used a trommel at Beechworth with four blokes (working the creek, not the banks) you would never know anyone was ever there as it's a sandy sort of creek bed.
So it entirely depends on the terrain you are in. If you do some highbanking it's easy to level out your tailings pile, when I leave an area you really would not know I was there. Detector holes are usually a scrape and a small dig, but if you make no effort to cover them up it basically says you don't give two stuffs, so the greens get narky. Every form of prospecting can be rectified to make it look like you weren't there with a bit of effort, and it really is just the decent thing to do.
We're pretty lucky here in Vic that we can use bits of equipment banned in most states, so keeping under the radar by having little to no effect on the bush is the way to keep it that way.

I'm still puzzled why no one gets pissed at 4wd groups who wreck tracks, film themselves giggling about it putting it on youtube as ammo for the greens.

Occasional_panner said:

I'm still puzzled why no one gets pissed at 4wd groups who wreck tracks, film themselves giggling about it putting it on youtube as ammo for the greens.

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I think there is growing ammunition on destruction of 4WD tracks, i hear DEWLP are pretty angry with a few instances recently where idiots destroyed some campgrounds up in the Jamieson district. I think you will see the seasonal closure of tracks increased, especially once the Great Forest National Park is implemented.