Victorian Government Response to Victorian Environmental Assessment Councils (VEAC) Investigation into additional prospecting areas in parks

[RM Outback]

Thanks Rudy, the thing that most concerns me is the number of threatened species in the areas concerned. I think the final determination will be strongly based on the impact on those species. There are however many things that would have an effect on these species, including global warming and loss of natural habitat. But the exclusion or even reduced numbers of people in these areas will potentially make some areas more prone to bushfires, which will could cause mass extinction of most wildlife in these areas. So it will be a large task to balance the positive and negative aspects of the future of this area. Ken.

It's the same old crap argument they tried 20 years ago, threatened this threatened that. At the end of the day these tertiary educated mungbean eating, water kefir drinking tree hungers need to justify their qualifications by any means it seems like :N:. When the bush and public land that we pay for is closed to us the reason for it I feel will be because of the above mentioned people. Who would struggle to exist without their petrol /diesel vehicle /electric car /train /light (even solar panels are derived from raw materials WTF) and the list goes on. Better stop now I've been awake since the early hours and the 3 beers are making my fingers feel upset.

 

[drystone]

Hi all,
for what it's worth, the Prospectors and Miners Association of Tasmania (PMAT) will be lodging a formal submission to the VEAC expressing solidarity with Victorian based detector operators and for retaining the existing system of multiple land use.
National Parks exclude the majority.
Speak up or lose it guys
cheers,
Drystone (PMAT committee member)

 

[GypsyGoldAu]

Thanks Rudy, the thing that most concerns me is the number of threatened species in the areas concerned.

Semantics is the 'key'. Threatened:....isn't ALL fawna 'threatened' each and every day by 'natural predators'? This nom de plume by any other name, is rolled out yet is a state that is in flux, as conditions vary. Nature has it's own 'ledger' and we are mere custodians, but do little to 'effect' the final outcome.

The same game is played out big-time in the US by the EPA to the point of landowners 'property confiscation'....some 'Orders' are now being o/turned in the US Supreme Court due to the 'earmarked species' redoubling #'s OUTSIDE the prohibited areas...

Were the 'species' categorized as 'Critically Endangered', one may give consideration to the submission, but millions, and i mean MILLIONS of species are currently 'under threat' as they like to put it, every day.

It's all about power & control for a partisan party agenda for the appearance of 'relevance', as we all know Gov't only stuff things up when left to 'control'.

From Wikipedia re; Extinction

"This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "reappears" (typically in the fossil record) after a period of apparent absence."

"A typical species becomes extinct within 10 million years of its first appearance,[4] although some species, called living fossils, survive with virtually no morphological change for hundreds of millions of years. Some scientists estimate that up to half of presently existing plant and animal species may become extinct by 2100."

 

[ken2m]

One of the (1980s)"threatened species" was the kangaroo, there was real concern that our national icon the kangaroo was at criticaly low levels. I go camping often in the Whitfield area, while driving along patrol track I decided to pull over and see if there was any foxes or rabits in the freshly cleared area under the high voltage lines. Well we stopped and walked about 4 metres away from the car, and looked through the scope sight (not much good at night) so we waited and looked for what must have been about 10 minutes, then a bit of movement, quickly identified as a roo, then a few more, then even more, it turned out that there was a roo at least every 3 metres for as far as you could see. I got the fright of my life when I saw a roo about a metre tall less than 3 metres away from me, and then came the real memorable thing of the night, a just short of 2 metre high roo that was about 2 metres away from me. When the roo moved was the only time that they were able to be seen. He must have sensed that I was no threat to them. A truely memorable night that I shall never forget. Ken.

 

[ken2m]

Thanks wombat for the original post otherwise the whole process would have had minimal input from prospectors.

And also a reminder that the submissions for round 1 are due in no later than the 21st August (11 days away) Ken.

 

[BigWave]

Public consultation ends on 21st of this month, so please have your say here:
http://veac.vic.gov.au/investigatio...rce=Email marketing software&utm_term=website
Hate to see Vic go the way of some other States :N:

 

[ken2m]

Submissions due tomorrow Monday 21st August. Ken.

 

[Occasional_panner]

Done. It was a very simple process, just fill in your details and state your case for prospecting.

Submissions close today so please even if you just put a few words together at least your number will be counted as a concerned prospector. Anyone from interstate or overseas can give their opinion too.

Here is the link again

http://veac.vic.gov.au/investigatio...rce=Email marketing software&utm_term=website

 

[BillS]

Done

 

[ken2m]

Talk about leaving it to the last minute. They have recieved mine. Ken.

 

[Occasional_panner]

Talk about leaving it to the last minute. They have recieved mine. Ken.

Looks like it's still accepting submissions, maybe it's till the clock ticks over to Tuesday, not close of business.
So anyone who hasn't please submit something.
http://veac.vic.gov.au/investigatio...rce=Email marketing software&utm_term=website

 

[Flowerpot]

Hi I hope this is ok to post mods.

 

[ken2m]

The preliminary report is due for release before the end of the month, so time to get to work again soon. Over 650 submissions in the first round. Looking eagerly to see that the area covered by this investigation remains as is. Ken.

 

[xcvator]

How many lies and half truths can you find in this submission

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/doc/member-docs/8322/1531632568_bullshit.pdf

 

[ken2m]

The draft paper has been completed and with the quick look that I had it looks quite favourable for prospecting in these areas. I will have to find time to thoroughly read the 211 pages. The link to the pdf is below.

http://veac.vic.gov.au/documents/Central West report_FINALISED interactive pdf.pdf

I mainly did a search for prospecting and read the nearby text, but the whole paper deserves to be read as well.

It looks like a good read.

Thanks to the others that had an input. :Y: Ken.

 

[Occasional_panner]

Yeah looks like business as usual for everyone, what the hell was that all about? Just some pen pushers looking to keep themselves in jobs??
Might be some details I missed though.

 

[Swinging & digging]

If you read the report there is areas we are aloud in now that we won,t be allowed in soon.

 

[xcvator]

Rita Bentley
Admin
7 hrs

I've been doing more investigation into VEAC's report and although the news is bad for prospectors it is even worse for recreational hunting. It is proposed that hunting be prohibited in all categories except State Forest. Since there is only 10,180 hectares of the current 89,278 hectares still to be State Forest you guys should be as angry as I still am.
Those activities that stick to formed roads and vehicle tracks are, for the moment, no more restricted. But if you want to camp you will need to stick to designated campgrounds.
Horse riding on formed roads and tracks but no camping, grazing or feeding - forget National parks, Conservation Parks, maybe Regional Parks and Nature Reserves.
Dog walkers are generally excluded from NP's, Conservation Parks and Nature Reserves.
There isn't much in the way of positive news for firewood collectors either, Banned in all areas of the Wellsford, the only area it will be permitted around Daylesford is in the Wombat Regional Park. The Pyrenees/Mt Cole areas - in the Pyrenees Regional Park and the remaining, very precious to us, State Forest. VEAC are talking about a new licence system for firewood collection as well.
The general public needs this news as many are totally unaware and will remain that way until they ask 'what the hell happened?'
Can we all please spread the word about the BUGU FB page and VEAC's intentions? We will try to prepare a fact sheet over coming days and post that. The BUGU map is still current so please share that and if you need printed copies please personal message me or any other admin. We will need a donation to cover post etc but $5 should cover it with a bit left over for other uses during the campaign. Why not include an order for car stickers @ $2 each?

 

[user 7222]

I got my bumper stickers yesterday, 10 of em.

 

[drystone]

Hi all,
I have just waded through much of the VEAC Central West Investigation Draft Proposal (just the title is long-winded). :zzz:

From what I can gather, proposed land uses are weighted on how many threatened species/relict plant communities are to be found and the perceived pressures likely to be faced in the future (expanding population, hotter/drier climate etc)

As a previous post mentions, the biggest potential loser in this will be hunters, followed by wood cutters, followed by recreational prospectors.

For a quick pass, the permitted activities have been summarised in a couple of tables in the draft:

http://veac.vic.gov.au/investigatio...eting software&utm_term=Draft Proposals Paper

table 5.4, page 105,
table 7.2, page 143

It appears that National parks, Conservation parks and Nature Reserves will not allow prospecting, however Regional Parks, Bushland and Historic Reserves and State Forest will allow it.

One of the proposals is to join some Parks together, and expand others to allow for better "connectivity" which does help flora and fauna cope with pressure.
that's the "take" bit. :/

One of the other proposals is to create a couple of additional (new?) Regional parks which allow for a broad range of recreational activities, including prospecting.
that's the "give" bit. :|

Being Tassie based, what I don't know is whether the new regional parks are worth a cracker or whether they exist already, just under a different flag.

Either way we are watching with interest as what happens in Vic can then be used as a template for other states,
cheers,
Andrew (PMAT member)