Dredging in Australia for recreational activities IS illegal..

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1968falconxt said:
I was surprised when I walked in to a very popular prospecting shop in Maryborough a few weeks ago to find them selling dredge components (nozzles etc)

Same as a bong mate!! Legal to own, illegal to use recreationally.
 
Simmo said:
1968falconxt said:
I was surprised when I walked in to a very popular prospecting shop in Maryborough a few weeks ago to find them selling dredge components (nozzles etc)

Same as a bong mate!! Legal to own, illegal to use recreationally.

Yeah I know that, but it is not a good look from a shop that is asking for a petition to be signed to allow the continual use of the bush for prospecting, whilst at the same time openly promoting the illegal use of dredges...
 
Simmo said:
1968falconxt said:
I was surprised when I walked in to a very popular prospecting shop in Maryborough a few weeks ago to find them selling dredge components (nozzles etc)

Same as a bong mate!! Legal to own, illegal to use recreationally.
:D :Y: :eek:
 
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I seem to be getting the impression a few of you are not who you claim to be..
Just a heads up to us real hatters watch out!

Protected this protected that what about all the pesticides we induce,? the toxic emissions from vehicles.

What about core issues like japans power plant disaster? Hmmm 400 tons yes folks thats 400 tons of contaminated water a day pass threw the reactors. But one might ask how much leaks into the sea. GET WITH THE PROGRAM attacking someone because he or she uses a highbanker.. or dredge

Which does not run copper/ mercury plates which does not add anything into the stream.

If any environmental groups agencies are reading this, tackle real issues issues that create cancer birth defects. Not people chasing a little gold!
 
Small take on Dave 79's opinion.

Anything with an internal combustion engine is ok provided it is under 7hp. Dredges to have silt control around them and to operate outside of fish spawning seasons.

read the Oct 93 report and aside from minor technical issues the problem for government was more administration
 
Eski said:
Small take on Dave 79's opinion.

Anything with an internal combustion engine is ok provided it is under 7hp. Dredges to have silt control around them and to operate outside of fish spawning seasons.

read the Oct 93 report and aside from minor technical issues the problem for government was more administration

Where, when, how....
Where is this Golden Grail 93 report you speak of.....?
 
I see the good of dredging then the bad sides ill be honest here Ill point out some bads and some goods of dredging no im not a dredging do a little bit of sluicing that is all

so here it is

good things about dredging

1 removes mercury lead and other heavy metals including gold as you already know

2 it dose feed the fish if they are in the creek as it sucks up worms yabbies etc. spits them back out and you get huge groups of fish

3 it removes other iron junk from the waterways that has been dumped and found its way into the waterways

4 it dose the job of animals such as platypuses turning the creek upside down and sorting out the fines heavy's all at once.

5 I would like to try it but since its illegal I can't could of in the 1970s before the laws changed.

ok some bads

1 its illegal to do

2 it silts up waterways and annoys farmers collecting water downstream and can block their systems from all the silt

3 greenies don't like it at all because they think all the heavy metals just go strait out the back but we know better

4 dredging the banks and undermining them is a no no as it causes land slides of the bank and heavy erosion of the land.

5 can't really think of a 5th one someone else will surely for me so ill just leave it as that.

personally I don't dredge but I don't have an issue with it I've seen the good and the bad it dose and unless you own a huge 3 story bucket dredge and want to use it Ill start caring and sooking about it. like others have said already there's much more illegal things to worry about going on in the world than dredging like drugs. drugs really stuff people up and affects the people around them

they say the ovens and other rivers around east Gippsland was never dredged because they could never fit a dredge as big as the one at Eldorado into the narrow shallow valleys but the ground was rich so rich people pulled nuggets off the creek beds. imagine getting a small portable one in there now you'll strike it pretty rich. sure the old miners dug up the creeks even diverted creeks/rivers and did more damage then we will ever do now days but they never got it all.
 
how can dredging be illegal in west oz ,when cockburn sound wa is dredged by a cement company.also there is a dredging claim shown on wa dept of minerals maps at goldfields creek? :pickshovel:
 
OldGold1938CueWa80 said:
how can dredging be illegal in west oz ,when cockburn sound wa is dredged by a cement company.also there is a dredging claim shown on wa dept of minerals maps at goldfields creek? :pickshovel:

Ofcourse big companies can dredge. Just the individual doing it for a hobby can't. :argh:
 
I have just sent off an Email to Earth resources Victoria asking for precise and specific details in regards to the legality of Yabbie Pumps for extracting fine gold from Victorian rivers, streams & creaks. I also asked for precise definition of Mechanical, dredge and hand operated where gold fossicking is concerned.

No matter how often you read the Miners Right rules and regulations there is always confusion as to the meaning of Dredge, Hydraulic Sluicing, Sluicing, High Banking, mechanical, machine and whether anything hand operated is mechanical or powered.

I do not expect to receive a clear detailed and easy to understand answer.
I am expecting a simple referral to the regulations because that is all I have ever received whenever I ask questions about the Miners right regulations.
 
Adrian , would be interesting if you could post the response.... but the reality is whatever they put on paper, in the field they can find any reason to say your setup differs.

say you had a hopper up the hill and a sluice at the bottom , and hose running into the hopper - connect the 2 with some 90mm storm pipe. what if you shovel load the hopper??? that could be interpreted in a number of ways due to using water as medium to transport ground
 
Golddredge, i don't think anything we do now will change the dredging situation. the time has past and we don't have the numbers.

Petitioning for change of rules for different category called "Minor prospecting lease" on the other hand may be viable. IE, limiting the engine size of what can be used to excavate and prospect. this may also be a new way to re-invigurate the current mining industry in vic
 
As a owner of a dredge in the days when a miners right allowed you to work in a stream.
It was a hard days work to find colour and you could have a rewarding day on the clean up.
One thing I see you all missed was the huge greens push at the time to stop the water being
muddy. As we all know the sediment of the bottom goes through your dredge clouding the water
as it traveled down stream this was a shock and horror to the greens as you might drown the fish.
I have seen trail bike riders do more damage to bank walls that we ever did.

I had been working in a creek over 10 years and had not seen this great destruction the Greens were pushing
at the time. One day when working I looked up and saw a lady and police officer walking towards me
and the lady was saying you cannot work in this creek, I said why not have been for over 10 years and
I have a miners right. This country was born on gold and wool how far we have slipped backwards from
radical greens.
 
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