Hill End / Tambaroora Area NSW information and questions

I've sent NAPFA an email about this.
Will try to call the number tomorrow myself during the business hours (8:30am to 4:30pm) also.

A-team outside of NSW State Forests no permit/licence is required in NSW but permission of the land manager is. The Crown Lands/Common have always been allowable out there so not sure what's happening.

Egorert - was this just in that one area or are they placed elsewhere also?
Could be a good reason behind it if just the one area.
Edit: would also be good to know the exact area where the signs are (Golden Gully is long).

The signs were errected after some idiot was caught digging up the access track at the first crossing on The Common a few months back.

If you are going to fossick there just dont get your paydirt from the crossing and pan away from there and you should have no problems. If anyone other than an authorized person tells you otherwise tell them to take a hike. IE. The local copper or a mining inspector. NPWS have NO juristiction on The Common. .
npws own about 35 blocks of land in the old Tambaroora townsite , not the entire location

Dont bother waitng for napfa to do anything about it. They are too busy trying to fix the highbanking debarcle. Its only been, what 6 years and we are still waiting for action on that issue.

Similar signs were erreted on The Common at Stuart Town a couple of years ago and that did not stop fossicking in that area.

The signs put up at Stuart Town & Hargraves didn't have anything about fossicking requiring prior approval + a phone number to call.
In fact I know first hand that those signs had nothing to do with fossicking & weren't put in place because of it so were never going to or designed to stop it.

These signs are different but agree with what you say Bob - some commonsense & all should be ok.

Thanks for the replies,

I would agree with Balmain Bob - it looks like they consider only narrow area where road crosses the river to push people to go outside of that spot.

I will try to call the number again (tried before from Hill End area but failed due to weak signal).

mbasko said:

Egorert - was this just in that one area or are they placed elsewhere also?
Could be a good reason behind it if just the one area.

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The signs - I noticed only 2 of them - were installed recently - they were not there at the middle of December.

mbasko said:

would also be good to know the exact area where the signs are (Golden Gully is long).

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A-team said:

Do you have a prospecting license?

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If you mean that permit to fossick in a NSW state forests then yes.

mbasko said:

Will try to call the number tomorrow myself during the business hours (8:30am to 4:30pm) also.

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I spent half an hour today calling, but after several redirection they just interrupted the calls within few seconds. Hopefully you will have more luck.

Abbotts Road is not a gazetted road and the local council will have nothing to do withe the upkeep of it. The locals that live further down abbott rd try to maintain it the best they can.
There are plenty of location both upstream and downstream from the crossing that good paydirt can be taken you just may have to walk a few hundred metres from your car

Rang the number & the customer service rep doesn't know anything about it?
She took my details & will get the district office to call me back (within 2 x business days).

I sent an email as well yesterday and will post when they reply

I wish dome of these governing bodies would join the forum so as they can give updates on changes like these and give clarity on how to prospect in their area, it would be so much easier for us and them and they might actually find some of us would be willing to work with them in reporting obvious idiots that spoil it for the rest of us.

Back when napha had the meeting at Hill end back 5 or 6 years ago some bunch of knobs had a trailer mounted trommel parked at that little creek crossing and 3 blokes shoveling flat knacker into it.
Not a ranger to be found in town that day.

Balmain Bob said:

There are plenty of location both upstream and downstream from the crossing that good paydirt can be taken you just may have to walk a few hundred metres from your car

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Surely I don't want to pan directly there, the question is if this sign refers to that small part of the road or to whole area which is crown land, too.

Rang the number & the customer service rep doesn't know anything about it?

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They just didn't give me time to say anything - 2-3 seconds and then interrupted.

Anyway, I sent them email too, let's see..

NAPFA members should have or will receive an email regarding this shortly.

Basically the access points into the Common are under 3 different lots of status/management.

The first 20m is NPWS (at the start of both access points off the main road), then it goes into unmanaged Crown Land & finally the Common.
As Bob said above some person/s have dug up the crossing & made a mess. Unknown if it was fossickers or someone removing material for another purpose? Either way the actions of a person or persons has placed pressure on another spot where access was freely given.

Crown Lands sees it as a safety issue as they are responsible for that section, (as Bob said Bathurst Council will no longer do road maintenance in that area) , they have put up the signs & at this stage it looks like at least 10m either side of the crossing will be off limits altogether.
The other unmanaged Crown Land areas do need a permit to fossick/prospect & details of that should come to light next week along with high resolution images of the area + boundaries.
The unmanaged Crown Land includes the main fossicking area along Golden Gully/Tambaroora Creek + the area known as Floggers Patch. It goes from approx. the first crossing thru to past the second crossing including north to the creek & then thru south to approx. the other side of Gold Mountain + east to the creek right thru.
Hopefully the high resolution images expected next week will show it clearly (or clearer than I can explain here) .

Outside of this is The Hill End/Tambaroora Common on which fossicking/prospecting is still an allowable activity under the Common Trust.

aussiefarmer said:

I wish dome of these governing bodies would join the forum so as they can give updates on changes like these and give clarity on how to prospect in their area, it would be so much easier for us and them and they might actually find some of us would be willing to work with them in reporting obvious idiots that spoil it for the rest of us.

Back when napha had the meeting at Hill end back 5 or 6 years ago some bunch of knobs had a trailer mounted trommel parked at that little creek crossing and 3 blokes shoveling flat knacker into it.
Not a ranger to be found in town that day.

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The rangers were more probably there
You just didn't notice them
They had shovels in their hands and hiding behind their trommel :awful:

Further information is available here:
https://www.napfa.net/NAPFA-News.html

This is part of the email I rec'd recently - the image is not real clear but I get the gist of it.

Hello Neil,

Please see attached diagram and link to the Fossicking Guidelines:

http://www.resourcesregulator.nsw.g...6/Fossicking-A-guide-to-Fossicking-in-NSW.pdf

The diagram shows the Hill End & Tambaroora Common outlined in yellow.

Some of the Crown reserves at Tambaroora are not within the Common - approval is required for fossicking on these parcels.

Please call me to discuss if necessary.

Regards,

D. Lawrence

Daryl Lawrence
Group Leader, Property Management, Orange

Hi all,

I am taking my Niece's out panning this weekend at Hill End and am looking for some advice where to go in the area. any assistance would be appreciated.

thanks

Go to the Tambaroora fossicking area
Take Hill End Road north (towards Mudgee) about 2-3 Km you will see the old heritage chimney on your left.
Turn left just after this and you will cross Tambaroora Creek.
As long as their is some water you can pan anywhere along the creek
Go for a walk as there are some nice areas to pan.
Take some rubber gloves as their can be a leech or two in the creek.

Just don't pan where the track crosses creek, the rangers and locals get very cranky.

aussiefarmer said:

Just don't pan where the track crosses creek, the rangers and locals get very cranky.

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Can't blame them after what some tool/s did there. I went out & had a look. It was pretty bad even after they fixed it up a bit.
Technically that whole front area of creek is off limits now without a NSW Crown Lands permit (too late to organise now). There is still plenty of creek area to access further up in the Common & other Common areas back towards Hill End.

you need to get permission to go fossicking on crown land now, i had seen signs start popping up so i emailed them to confirm and yes it was true and i dare say it was because of people doing the wrong thing and digging up access roads and digging places the shouldn't