Dredging in Australia for recreational activities IS illegal..

[golddredge]

Hi gold3n but that is incorrect as iv'e tried to obtain,,Dredging rights without any joy.As stated dredging is illegal the big reason why is mercury.When mercury is sucked up and run threw it seperates into a million microscopic pieces. Fish crustaceans, and other invertebrates ingest this, toxin making them unsafe to eat... In a sentence there are to many environmentalists.

 

[paddy]

i dont think there's to many enviromentalists. we can look for gold and minerals without blaming people for looking out for others/the future surely?

 

[golddredge]

If so why do American new Zealand canada etc allow dredging???

 

[user 1769]

If so why do American new Zealand canada etc allow dredging???

Because both of those countries have a much stronger culture of minimal Government interference on people's affairs? I don't agree that we'd have more environmentalists here than they do in either of those countries...
Because Australia has a very strong culture of 'a fair go for all', and for small prospectors and miners claims, and dredges are considered greedy?
Because their Governments have a different opinion to ours on what sort of damage dredges do (or don't do)?

 

[G0lddigg@]

i think its relative to how reliant our country is on water compared to those countries. Australia being the driest continent there's a lot more pressure on our water table being clean. I personally think the majority of people is allowed to dredge would do the right thing and mostly you would see creeks banks reinforced with rock walls and such. lets face it a dredge will remove mercury and lead.

I don't think its likely that well ever be allowed thought.

 

[golddredge]

Highbanking panning sluicing all have the same impacts as dredging, secondly there is mile upon mile of creek river stream you get the picture. Thirdly new gold deposits are replenished after good rain. Personally in my opinion dredging,is illegal because its profitable and non taxable to the hobbiest.works the same with cigarettes there bad for your health kill destroy lives, but the government keep selling, too much money made on tax.

 

[Goldtarget]

Let Em grab a detector. Notice how detecting tech had a positive upswing right at the dredge ban. I know the argument was green to ban but I suspect the greed and the non taxable position of dredging profits was the real reason. Blokes payed mortgages off and still could keep semi permanent jobs.

At least the government gets a slice of detecting pie, gst, importing duties and the like.

It's not a conspiracy theory just ask the dredgers that were all in during the 80s how they were going

I'd go work part time in a supermarket and dredge if it was legal. I'm sure I'd find most places pretty crowded.

 

[blisters]

Dredging can pass a lot more material than shovelling into a sluice or pan. The associated impact through water turbidity is a visual indicator that opposers to prospecting have latched on to. I think the dredging ban shows as prospectors, that we should be very careful to adhere to the regulations, in particular to sluicing.

 

[Goldtarget]

I'm not advocating for a return but there's alot of real estate I've worked that would see more of massive flooding damage/turbidity in a couple of hours than I could muster with a dredge in a thousand years.
Permit it, pick times of the year where it makes most sense (least impact) and rotate the locations over time and come down hard on anyone not following simple restrictions. Too Easy.

 

[blisters]

Totally agree and a great balanced solution. Even a small rise in water level creates far more disturbance than a dredge let alone a full scale flood. I'll have to educate myself on why it was banned in the first place.

 

[WalnLiz]

Don't want to get involved with the pros and cons of Dredging as it's unfortunately now "illegal". But the big "Pure Mercury" debate, as was used for amalgamation by the old timers, and the movement of it by small educator dredges, has been proven to be a load of scare mongering crap.

"Normal river flooding" and its capability of transferring the mercury further up any river bank than a dredge will ever achieve, was never any part of investigations leading up to the banning. A lot of other ecological studies by qualified experts in the field re Platypus and fish habitat (trout which were deemed introduced and feral to native fish), was also eliminated from the "one sided report" from which the ban was based.

"Unbiased" research into the pros and cons would soon shed a "realistic" light on the subject.....But hey...some "Greenies" know better, and twenty years ago they predicted the sea level would rise a full metre by 2030....better start rising soon as to date there's been no change. Ohhh... and if you're a "Greenie" go chain yourself to a tree with a good book on the theory of evolution and common sense....maybe it will turn on a light and wake you up from that fairytale dream.....Rant over. :|

Wal.

 

[Swinging & digging]

There is almost no point debating wether dredging is harmful to the environment or not?
It is totally finished in Australia and not likely to return.
The main fear of now legalising it is that there would be hoards of prospectors wanting to do it.
I was a legal dredger in Victoria for the last 3 years it was legal and it was very hard to find payable quantities of gold back then as most places had been heavily worked, floods since then have not renewed the deposits like many of todays prospectors think, we had tons of trouble with greenies, land owners, campers and fisherman and that was with say 300 full time dredgers and 500 part time, just imagine if it were legal today we would have 10 to 15 thousand operators and very few streams would be opened.
Operators would be fighting over ground etc, there were gun battles over ground in the 80s.

Best to just stick with our current laws and restrictions and try and educate those leaving the unfilled holes and hacking into stream banks before we try and ask for things we won,t get?

One only has to to look and the disaster the VEAC review into prospecting in National Parks has gone?
The Prospectors of Victoria and the PMAV should have asked for something achievable like getting detecting access to Paddy,s ranges State Park for detecting and low impact hand tool prospecting.

 

[WalnLiz]

Pretty obvious it's never going to become legal again...and totally pointless pursuing that chain of thought. My problem with the whole scenario is it will also happen to highbanking, sluicing and eventually panning, as everyone thinks someone else will do something about it, and by doing that, nothing will get done. The remaining lands will become national Parks / conservation areas / Heritage regions.....and the access roads will be increasingly padlocked....just give it time.

Current laws and regulations can, and will be changed, and unless a majority expresses concerns about these laws the minority will get to change them...and that's the Greens.

 

[thedigger]

The funny thing is about the cattle in the high country,and how they doing all this damage,well greens are just plain "DUM",they just never look at the deer,I think that is too hard problem so they just ignore,they can not pick on anyone,well if you spend time in the high country you can see that they are a big problem.
The dredgers were a easy target,so is why I think it got banned.
Regards Frank

 

[Twapster]

Its like the marine parks, once I could take my little boat and park and fish...no no im now in a protected area, I have to fish at the spot there's no fish. Im sure if the fish end up there, that too will become a marine park. As Wal says, its a natural progression that dredging was first, but now we see highbanking and sluicing under scrutiny, and detectorists in certain areas. U cant go dig up a $2 coin in a park because ur disturbing the soil.

I admit I have had thoughts of a dirt hole and filling it with water and sucking it out with a vacuum cleaner. Unfortunately ur not supposed to do that so I have to refrain. I just wish there was like a long weekend, or lets say a day like ANZAC day where u can play 2 up, National Prospectors Long Weekend where once a year for 3 days, u were allowed to dredge for gold!

 

[blisters]

The same problem exists for 4wders getting locked out of areas. I'm not sure what benefit greenies get from locking themselves out of vast swathes of our land.

 

[Simmo]

The same problem exists for 4wders getting locked out of areas. I'm not sure what benefit greenies get from locking themselves out of vast swathes of our land.

Oh they don't want the land for themselves right now ........... They want to keep it for their children...........

 

[bmzgold]

The problem with greenies is, they want to keep the bush in its "Original Natural State", but as we all know, the areas that we all want to prospect in are far from that, they have been worked for 150 years (or more and are never going to return to there "Original" or "Natural" State.
I fully agree, that some areas should be protected, Eg "Undisturbed sections of the Current National Parks, the best thing they could do is focus on these, and aim at eradicating all introduced weeds, plants and feral animals.
The best things we can all do is,
join the PMAV and make sure that we have good representation,
dont give them more ammunition to use against us, by filling our holes, being polite and friendly to all we meet and make sure we take all our rubbish (and a little more) home with us.
Then we might be able enjoy this great hobby well into the future and be able to pass it onto our own children.

Just my thoughts
Boyd

 

[173rar]

In the late 70s and 80s I used a series of dredges as a fully licensed prospector, I stuck to the rules laid down and never touched the banks, the main rule was to only dredge the bottom that is parellel with the surface. It was the only form of mining that filled the hole as you went. As for the fish they would feed around your hands. The mines dept. asked dredgers to let them know of any mercury deposits in the rivers, I don't know if they did anything about the information supplied,(Other than banning dredges) It was a labour govt. in Victoria at the time (John Caine) I reckon he was just toadying up to the emerging Greens!! Shame I used to get GOOD gold, on the Goulburn River I averaged a half ounce a day.

 

[Wombats1]

gotta love the west!