Beach detecting banned on Gold Coast?

This was brought to light on another forum where a couple of detectorists were asked to leave a Gold Coast beach by a council worker, and then followed up by police with threat of arrest if they continue, as apparently digging holes on those beaches is no longer allowed, or was never allowed in the first place. More details have yet to come to hand from those involved, will update when they do.

Needless to say, the implications for this are widespread if true, and some clarification is being sought on whether this is indeed council policy in the area/s affected.

Nutz

Thats not good..
Confirmation and full story are needed to help prevent this anywhere else

That's the most rediculous thing I ever heard, hmmmm no more sandcastles kiddies............ Unless of course they were not filling their holes in......... Unbelievable!!!

Just the other day I thought I would see how far I could go by even detecting around a parked council ute in a park with 2 council rangers sitting in it..... I said g'day, they said g'day having any luck and all was sweet.

Must be more to this story.

hey goldpick... is this a April 1st leftover?

NOPE - It is true...

As to Council workers; they have common sense....

The Council Admin and those that issue Ticket's are another matter...

A few of us have been requested to move on at different times... But this was a little different and went a bit further.

The full story and the Audio recordings and other documentation is all available for review...

As an Aside; there are lots of rules and regs, many are ignored and or not understood....

Read the regs about what you can and can not do, on or at a boat ramp... A good place to stay away from if there is a touchy person around... Any disturbance of sand/soil/bedrock etc etc etc within a designated area to the sides and top and bottom are OFF LIMITS...

hang on... are we talking about detecting a beach or digging holes on a working boatramp?
got a link please?

just confirmed this story on Australian Metal Detecting and Relic Hunting... wow... lots are wondering exactly what law was broken however

Check out Dirt Fishing...

There is a clause about foreshores ?

The issue is that NO where in Australia is it 100% clear... it is all assumptions and miss understanding by ALL parties... with a smattering of some understanding of some local understandings..

A: Can I Metal detect ?

B: Can I recover by dig/scratch/excavate OR only sunbakers ?

C: How are finds Managed - Coin / old coin / lost property / etc ?

D: Heritage and regs involved ?

From what I read on the council by-laws in that area, most of the safety concerns and regs refer to "bathing reserves", or areas of the beach denoted by surf lifesaving flags, controlled and monitored by council appointed lifesavers vs the run of the beach. In those areas it is forbidden to remove or disturb the sand, clay, soil etc, amongst a miriad of other rules to protect the bathers situated between the flags.

Councils don't seem to ever refer directly to detecting activities nor have specific laws targetting detecting, they simply apply existing laws to the activity if they deem it necessary. Technically speaking you are also breaking council laws by detecting GC parks and reserves, as the same laws exist for disturbing the ground in those areas (as in most other Oz municipalities).

My main concern is the outright banning of detecting in areas, vs managing the activity through the issuing of specific permits (not the stupid ones that require a months notice and $10 million of public liability insurance). They can't have it both ways allowing kids to dig metre deep holes on the beach (and often leaving them as is), whilst denying the detecting fraternity to dig small targetted holes followed by backfilling. Without proper management, detecting will simply go underground in the hours of darkness on the beach, and no doubt some will continue to leave open holes as they always have. They didn't care then, and won't care after bans are in place.

If anyone is detecting between the flags, then they are a bit rude. Its a safety concern, our detectors, and scoops could do someone an injury....trip hazard, kids blindly running around. Cant see an issue otherwise, unless people are detecting very close to people, within their private space.

When detecting near sunbakers : it is important to only remove the "large" peaks.

This was posted on AMD a while ago:
Thank you for your inquiry regarding metal detecting on Gold Coast beaches. Council permits metal detecting on the beaches subject to the following conditions:
1. It is not to be carried out in close proximity to people relaxing on the beach.
2. There is to be no interference with other people using the beach or in the water at any time.
3. Directions from Council lifeguards are to be complied with at all times.
4. Other beach users are to be treated with courtesy.

Maybe they broke one of these rules?

Maybe they broke all those rules? Anyway I can't find any reference to it on the detecting relic hunting forum. Probably best not to say anything about it yet.

The above sounds more reasonable and very fair.

Jaros said:

When detecting near sunbakers : it is important to only remove the "large" peaks.

Click to expand...

Refer to rule 2, lol.

Common sense , courtesy and respect ...
As usual the actions of a few dickheads with no regard for anyone or anything other than themselves

Will see what turns up in the wash, may be more to the story, maybe less, though involving police seems to be taking things to the next level.

Hey GoldPick,

I like my detecting on the beaches and look forward to it when we visit the coast, buuuuut someone mentioned dickheads abusing the hobby and I can bring to light

a scenario where a dickhead was detecting and was walking among the bathers "presumably" detecting, he had all the bells and whistles for coin hunting etc, but

when does a "go-pro camera" attached to his person aimed at the many females he was walking amongst not give everyone who enjoys the hobby a seriously bad name?.

It's only fair that the council staffers are asking those who detect on the Gold Coast to move on, these guys certainly should be kicked off the beach but it doesn't

help us at all.

Cheers Everyone

Hope the easter bunny has been kind to you all

BJ

So a pervert was getting his jolly's off eh?
.
I would even react to that one.
...

BJ Bates said:

Hey GoldPick,

I like my detecting on the beaches and look forward to it when we visit the coast, buuuuut someone mentioned dickheads abusing the hobby and I can bring to light

a scenario where a d@#khead was detecting and was walking among the bathers "presumably" detecting, he had all the bells and whistles for coin hunting etc, but

when does a "go-pro camera" attached to his person aimed at the many females he was walking amongst not give everyone who enjoys the hobby a seriously bad name?.

It's only fair that the council staffers are asking those who detect on the Gold Coast to move on, these guys certainly should be kicked off the beach but it doesn't

help us at all.

Cheers Everyone

Hope the easter bunny has been kind to you all

BJ

Click to expand...

YES...

This was posted in 2010...

If you read it you will see how most break the rules....

Thank you for your inquiry regarding metal detecting on Gold Coast beaches. Council permits metal detecting on the beaches subject to the following conditions:
1. It is not to be carried out in close proximity to people relaxing on the beach.
2. There is to be no interference with other people using the beach or in the water at any time.
3. Directions from Council lifeguards are to be complied with at all times.
4. Other beach users are to be treated with courtesy.

Click to expand...

It is all about using a Detector to Detect the presence of items....

AT NO STAGE, does it cover off on the recovery of any items and what is or is not allowed... Thus you can detect as per 1 to 4 but you can not perform any recovery...

Simple...