Victorian investigation into additional prospecting areas in parks

[casper]

Click the link for the report of the Victorian investigation into additional prospecting areas in national parks

http://www.veac.vic.gov.au/investigation/investigation-into-additional-prospecting-areas-in-parks

Of interest to readers will be the recommendations on allowed equipment - the thin end of the wedge!!!!

Casper

 

[casper]

Of interest to readers will be the recommendations on allowed equipment - the thin end of the wedge!!!!Casper

The equipment recommendations (aka restrictions) are intended to limit the amount of material that can be processed to 1 cubic metre per day and that's why 'sluices' will not be allowed under the recommendations. How I interpret this is that a highbanker will definitely not be allowed into the 'new' areas but it's not clear if that includes the humble stream sluice.

I can understand a highbanker restriction which is effectively mechanisation of the sluicing process but the catch all reference to "sluices" is worrying and requires clarification before the recommendations become law.

I'm going to join the PMAV.

Casper

 

[Nugget]

I'm pretty certain that any form of sluicing will not be permitted.

6.3 Equipment and activities

The Council believes that in national and state parks, if
recreational prospecting in waterways is allowed to take
place, it is appropriate that it be limited to hand pans and
sieves, shovels and picks, and metal detectors, to limit
the amount of material that can be excavated from the
streambed. It is widely recognised that a person using
even a small sluice box can process far more material per
hour than a person using a gold pan. The Council believes
that the formal conditions for prospecting equipment,
depth and volume of excavation, and repair of damage,
applying broadly to recreational prospecting in Victoria
fall short of minimum standards routinely applied in other
parts of Australia and require review in consultation with
stakeholders. In national parks however these conditions
should apply immediately. The offence and penalty regime
should be in the primary legislation. Recommendation R1
addresses these matters.

The Council considered recommending that a special
permit or consent regime be established for prospecting in
the recommended additional areas. Such regimes provide
for finer scale management of sites and visitation levels,
improve compliance, and can provide for cost recovery
at a level that reflects the actual costs of management.
In the Victorian context, a permit regime would also be
consistent with the approach taken for all other activities
in national parks (with the exception of fishing and deer
hunting) that involve taking, digging, disturbance, or which
are conducted for private profit. However, on balance,
the Council believes that implementing the additional
restrictions and conditions specified in recommendation
R1 would provide an adequate framework for
management and therefore has decided not to
recommend a requirement for special permits. In making
this decision, the Council was mindful that in the time
available for the investigation it was not able to assess the
implications of an individual permit regime on management
of those parks in the more heavily visited goldfields area of
Victoria where prospecting is currently allowed

 

[casper]

I'm pretty certain that any form of sluicing will not be permitted.

sadly yes! - and the inference in the recommendation is that it will eventually broaden to cover recreational prospecting in all areas of the state and not only NPs.

casper

 

[shivan]

I think if it goes through the Victorians will be lucky to have some places in national park to prospect, even if there are restrictions.
As for further restrictions in other areas, that could be a problem. But surly PMAV would not just let this happen?

 

[casper]

I'm pretty certain that any form of sluicing will not be permitted.

6.3 Equipment and activities

The Council believes that in national and state parks, if
recreational prospecting in waterways is allowed to take
place, it is appropriate that it be limited to hand pans and
sieves, shovels and picks, and metal detectors, to limit
the amount of material that can be excavated from the
streambed. It is widely recognised that a person using
even a small sluice box can process far more material per
hour than a person using a gold pan. The Council believes
that the formal conditions for prospecting equipment,
depth and volume of excavation, and repair of damage,
applying broadly to recreational prospecting in Victoria
fall short of minimum standards routinely applied in other
parts of Australia and require review in consultation with
stakeholders. In national parks however these conditions
should apply immediately. The offence and penalty regime
should be in the primary legislation. Recommendation R1
addresses these matters.

The Council considered recommending that a special
permit or consent regime be established for prospecting in
the recommended additional areas. Such regimes provide
for finer scale management of sites and visitation levels,
improve compliance, and can provide for cost recovery
at a level that reflects the actual costs of management.
In the Victorian context, a permit regime would also be
consistent with the approach taken for all other activities
in national parks (with the exception of fishing and deer
hunting) that involve taking, digging, disturbance, or which
are conducted for private profit. However, on balance,
the Council believes that implementing the additional
restrictions and conditions specified in recommendation
R1 would provide an adequate framework for
management and therefore has decided not to
recommend a requirement for special permits. In making
this decision, the Council was mindful that in the time
available for the investigation it was not able to assess the
implications of an individual permit regime on management
of those parks in the more heavily visited goldfields area of
Victoria where prospecting is currently allowed

With referrence to the quote above in bold - just what are the interstate requirements or restrictions for prospectors??
Is Victoria that far behind the other States with regard to regulating Prospecting?

Casper

casper

 

[Jon]

In the long run, decent metal detecting for nuggets will be doomed in Vic. Reserves and the likes are going up all over the place. At the moment we can go in to many of them but sooner or later we will be told they are no go zones. It'll happen.

 

[Ag Man]

I'm going to my local PMAV meeting this Thursday night & I'm hoping some more light will be shed on this - perhaps some of the jargon taken out & explained in short what is being recommended. The way things get worded in such a long document gets confusing for Jo Blo(or Aggie for that matter...). :/

I just paid for my 10 year Miners Right - I hope I'll still be able to do some sort of sluicing during that time...

If rules are going to change & it's only panning allowed everywhere, then I might start up knitting as my hobby

 

[casper]

I'm going to my local PMAV meeting this Thursday night & I'm hoping some more light will be shed on this - perhaps some of the jargon taken out & explained in short what is being recommended. The way things get worded in such a long document gets confusing for Jo Blo(or Aggie for that matter...). :/

I just paid for my 10 year Miners Right - I hope I'll still be able to do some sort of sluicing during that time...

If rules are going to change & it's only panning allowed everywhere, then I might start up knitting as my hobby

Yes! i would hope sluicing remains allowable in some form too. I can see Highbankers going the same way as Dredges did in the past though because in some eyes it will be viewed as small scale mining as distinct from "prospecting". I would hope that ultimately a small back packable stream sluice of regulated length and width for stream sampling might be negotiated. I recently bought a MacKirk RECON for that purpose and there's no way you could classify the proposed 1 cubic meter of material and put it thru in a day through it - it's just too slow :|

I'll be joining the PMAV.

casper

 

[shivan]

With referrence to the quote above in bold - just what are the interstate requirements or restrictions for prospectors??
Is Victoria that far behind the other States with regard to regulating Prospecting?

In NSW we already have a limit of 1 cubic meter and I think that its for a 48hr period 8.(
I could be wrong but I thought WA and VIC further ahead with their rules than the rest of OZ, in giving fossickers some freedoms and potential for small scale operations (only going off what I have heard)
I really hope VIC is not looking at NSW regulations as I think that would only be a step backward.

I have been fearful for highbanking in NSW ever since my talk with the DPI

I wonder if it would be possible for NAPFA, PMAV, APLA to get together with the other states and look at getting national rules set rather than state rules? Though I guess that could backfire as well.........
Just feel if we don't stand up for what we have we may not have it much longer 8.(