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

[Kingsolomon]

What about the American dredges that work on land that you use water pumped from a source and flood the area you want to dredge? Not harming any platypus dens...my friend that used to use a dredge now does this , I am dubious on the legality.great way to work though , and as your not right on the river , I assume it is...

 

[trashmagnet]

What about the American dredges that work on land that you use water pumped from a source and flood the area you want to dredge? Not harming any platypus dens...my friend that used to use a dredge now does this , I am dubious on the legality.great way to work though , and as your not right on the river , I assume it is...

yeah mate dry dredging is still illegal, as you are not using hand tool for digging just like hydraulic sluicing.
regards trashy

 

[WalnLiz]

Dredging is 100 % illegal in all states.

Dredge is lot like your car...you can own a dredge, and you can own a car,... drive your car at 150km/hr and you can get away with it....till a cop catches you. Then you'll get a big fine. Use your dredge and you may well also get away with it....get caught and you'll pay a big fine ......It's this thing they call " The Law ".

Cheers Wal.

 

[Goldpick]

I worked on an alluvial trommel plant in north QLD for a mining company, cleaning out wash to bedrock with excavators and rehabbing with the oversize/rejected material, surely that's got to have more of an impact over dredging?? It was fun whilst it lasted, but far from being economically viable to cover costs/wages etc. I guess they don't everyman and his dog going around digging up creeks disturbing the environment, plus hard to control individuals messing thinks up vs regulated mining companies, or lease holders with environmental obligations.

 

[artsaus]

It's very sad to see your local haunt dredged out. Large stretches of Mitchell's Creek have been vacuumed clean to bedrock and i'm not happy ! It's just plain greed and has ruined it for us regulars to the area. Don't forget - Dob in a dredger !

 

[HeadsUp]

mate i saw the same thing at Tambaroora Creek near Hill End a month ago

i reckon less than a week before i got there they had shovelled it through a highbanker and then used a big vacuum cleaner to clean the bedrock . it was cleaner than my kitchen floor

 

[rc62burke]

mate i saw the same thing at Tambaroora Creek near Hill End a month ago

i reckon less than a week before i got there they had shovelled it through a highbanker and then used a big vacuum cleaner to clean the bedrock . it was cleaner than my kitchen floor

Hey Headsup
It sounds like you are describing a completely different thing to "Dredging" mate to me it sounds like a very thorough operator to clean up the gully floor, as I would do to when on good gold, wire brush dust pan spoon all part of the tools to get the gold, very different to a dredge.
cheers
Lee

 

[Ramjet]

Sad events which can only hurt the honest prospector.

 

[mozzie1957]

Given that dredging is illegal in Victoria, as far as I'm aware, what's the go with this character:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Australi...90722493965?pt=AU_Bullion&hash=item5af8e01e0d

Advertised as found in the Loddon with a portable dredge.

He sold a 504 grammer recovered the same way as well.

Anyone shed any light on this? Or is this flat-out illegal?

 

[Ben78]

'possibly' found before the regs changed?

I thought it was possible to get a permit to dredge so long as you had a proper Mining Lease and all the environmentals were in order etc? I know that some of the EL reports I have read for NSW areas have been highlighted as potential dredging targets - a exploration company wouldn't say stuff like that if dredging was totally out of order.

 

[casper]

Given that dredging is illegal in Victoria, as far as I'm aware, what's the go with this character:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Australi...90722493965?pt=AU_Bullion&hash=item5af8e01e0d

Advertised as found in the Loddon with a portable dredge.

He sold a 504 grammer recovered the same way as well.

Anyone shed any light on this? Or is this flat-out illegal?

Hmmmmmm! looking at the pic it's a "stretch" by the seller to call it "Crystalline" and i think it also a generous comment to say it was "maybe found before dredging was illegal" when considering how long dredging has been outlawed I'm curious about the seller's modern WWW reference re dredging information!!

casper

 

[Guest]

Good luck to him but in my eyes it's a lot of equipment to set up while looking over your back

 

[HeadsUp]

he sells underwater portable dredges and sells gold.

its illegal

go figure

 

[Redmanti]

Could be a nugget found 50+ years ago.

He has broken no law.

 

[Marked]

Could be a nugget found 50+ years ago.

He has broken no law.

They had "portable" dredges 50 years ago? Given that the seller refers you to a current site selling portable dredges, the inference is that it was one of these dredges that found the nugget.

Given the information in the ad, there is no proof he has broken any law, but it is highly suggestive that the law may have been broken.

 

[Redmanti]

Could be a nugget found 50+ years ago.

He has broken no law.

They had "portable" dredges 50 years ago? Given that the seller refers you to a current site selling portable dredges, the inference is that it was one of these dredges that found the nugget.

Given the information in the ad, there is no proof he has broken any law, but it is highly suggestive that the law may have been broken.

It's very suggestive I agree.

I'm yet to find someone dredging. Guess you could easily dredge your own rural property and nobody be the wiser.

 

[user 1769]

We had a guy selling supposedly Tasmanian paydirt a while ago. I could never figure that one either, as they said it was from "their claim in the west coast". Tasmania doesn't have a claims system any more, and there aren't really that many small scale mining leases in the area for gold.
I think Mineral Resources Tasmania was very interested to track them down for the royalties they were owed. Don't know what happened in the end. BTW it's also a good lesson that if you sell your stuff, do it discreetly and for cash. Else you should be paying royalties to the state government.

 

[trashmagnet]

that bloke is a rogue , he got done dredging in the Loddon so knows full well you can't use them.
he has a few e-bay names and if you end up winning something below what he wants (if he forgets to cancel auction) he will lie and say he sent item to wrong address and say he can't get it back, happened to me. but I sent some friends from melb around to see him and he suddenly found my item 8) I got lucky

I will be avoiding him in the future

 

[Ramjet]

that bloke is a rogue , he got done dredging in the Loddon so knows full well you can't use them.
he has a few e-bay names and if you end up winning something below what he wants (if he forgets to cancel auction) he will lie and say he sent item to wrong address and say he can't get it back, happened to me. but I sent some friends from melb around to see him and he suddenly found my item 8) I got lucky

I will be avoiding him in the future

Scum.

 

[dryhorrors]

lol was browsing the net and found this little thing
was gonna get one and try make it work for hand dredging
http://www.dhgate.com/product/new-a...siphon-fish/131231789.html#s1-17-1|2389270332
dunno if it would work cant hurt to try i guess hahaha