Using a dredge in Australia for recreational prospecting is illegal - information and questions

[the duck]

I think this topic is almost finished and not going anywhere i will keep an eye on it

 

[WalnLiz]

Totally agree with you Duck. :/

 

[excalibur63]

I agree, weathers warming up, water is too, got all the camping gear ready. N.E. Tasmania here I come. Good luck and fortune to all over this festive season. Be safe smart and not too overenthusiastic. Have fun and don't forget to pack rubbish bags.

If any one is heading out the N.E. I'm the one in the Green Cherokee, drop in for a coffee and a chat.

 

[Tathradj]

Just how much dirty is the water as well.

[video=480,360]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POccSVWpcwE[/video]

 

[blayke]

i have never dredged so i have no real idea. but this and many other american small scale miners videos including information from gold fever seem to indicate if anything its good for the river system. my thoughts would be if your dredging a small creek, and your moving along the water there would be no potholes left as by dragging a small scale floating dredge behind would fill any holes left, would also mean less erosion by not digging into the banks? is there any documented negative effects or is it just the possibility that a dredge could fail and put petrol/oil into a system that a boat or 4wd could do just as easily?

why was it banned in australia?

 

[kuskus]

I think it's to do with the mercurie the old timers used. The mercurie has settled but the dredgers are sucking it up and dumping it back into the water flow. I think???. :/

 

[yobskin]

Mercury will stay in your sluice!!! Only thing i can think of is its easier to process material hence you could process more. Fish are used to dirty water...but not every day of the week.

 

[G0lddigg@]

If you read back throught the old gngem mags you can see that generally there was no issue with dredging amd fish. In fact one study showed how trout use tye fine sand particles to attach their eggs. The test showed dredged areas had much higher concentrations of small fish which suggested a better breading habitat due t9 fine dand being deposited higher in tge creek which caused more eggs to be deposited.

The reality is hobby prospectors turned miner and kept pushing the limits. I think anything over 4 inches ahould have been banned but instead tgey ban the lot. Wishbi had ben around to enjoy that hobby.

 

[Tathradj]

It would be nice if you could license a 2".
Not blanket ban the lot.

 

[johnb]

This is the type of bullshit that gave dredging a bad name .What about when these rivers are in flood the water runs brown I dredged for years and fish would swim around the nozzle looking for something to eat .

 

[Goldslave]

I'm with you JohnB. I dredged for many years and not once did I feel I was doing any harm to the fish as they were always trying to get a feed from where I was working, and like someone also mentioned the mercury (if there was any present) would always be caught in the riffles of my dredge.
As far as fish and dirty water is concerned, have a look at the water holes around the Condamine river and the size of the fish caught in these muddy waters and I'll bet it will truly amaze those who are trying to S@#$T can all of us that want to have a decent hobby.
Cheers
Goldslave

 

[HeadsUp]

this video is from the USA showing how much lead sinkers and bullets they removed when dredging for gold from a 100 yard stretch of one river

my record in a day is removal of 1.2 kg of lead shot with a sluice

[video=480,360]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EN-56acPRg[/video]

 

[Hiluxlou]

Where's the gold?

 

[LC76]

Where the gold?

Think you might have missed the point.

We need more examples like that in the publics eye to help prospecting in Australia.

 

[HeadsUp]

maybe they didnt show the gold coz they are worried the geenies might go buy a dredge , jump in the creek and go berserk wreaking havoc and giving us environmentally conscious prospectors a bad name ?

 

[Hunting the yellow]

Where the gold?

Think you might have missed the point.

We need more examples like that in the publics eye to help prospecting in Australia.

it would be better example if we wore pulling out lead and mercury that had both lasted since the gold rush era 160 years ago

 

[Hiluxlou]

Heads up my comment was a bit tongue in cheek , that video is amazing , the amount of lead is scary !! Wonder if any rivers in aust carry that much lead.
Cheers
Luke

 

[G0lddigg@]

THere's a stretch of river in Ballarat that ajoins a gun club, this river is on the exempt list. Its a public walkway if the wind is blowing the right way you will be hit multiple times by lead shot, putting a pan into the creek will provide you with a fist full of leadshot right from the surface, this river runs all the way through rural victoria and into geelong and the sea.

in 1984 a dredge sunk due to the leadshot it was holding after 4 hours, a friend of mine put a submission to the ballarat council to test dredge a section of the creek to show how much mercury and lead was being put into the creek. proposal was declined council would have to admit there was a problem with the way things were before any change would take place.

Maybe we could start a thread for "Rubbish i removed while gold prospecting in Australian waterways"

 

[HeadsUp]

THere's a stretch of river in Ballarat that ajoins a gun club, this river is on the exempt list. Its a public walkway if the wind is blowing the right way you will be hit multiple times by lead shot, putting a pan into the creek will provide you with a fist full of leadshot right from the surface, this river runs all the way through rural victoria and into geelong and the sea.

in 1984 a dredge sunk due to the leadshot it was holding after 4 hours, a friend of mine put a submission to the ballarat council to test dredge a section of the creek to show how much mercury and lead was being put into the creek. proposal was declined council would have to admit there was a problem with the way things were before any change would take place.

Maybe we could start a thread for "Rubbish i removed while gold prospecting in Australian waterways"

http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/1180944-3x2-340x227.jpg

please do.

make it applicable for detecting and wet prospecting

 

[G0lddigg@]

as requested https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=125481#p125481