planning a trip to Ballarat in October school holidays

[johnandles]

Hello any help with my plight.. My Wife and I , + 2 teenage kids want a weeks holiday in Ballarat Victoria,(we live in Adelaide,South Oz).
The wife likes the idea of seeing all the touristy type things on offer.I own an Exterra 70 and have not taken it for a good walk yet.
Any thoughts of somewhere we (or me!) can go within an hour or two drive of Ballarat that I can (sorry, we can ) use the 70.
Also I will need info on permits etc.
Maybe advise on an interesting route from Adelaide to Ballarat,don't mind an overnight stay on the way.
Thanks in advance
johnno

 

[nero_design]

Contact your local detectorist and Prospecting Supply Store (like "Miner's Den") for information on Permits.

It costs about $27 for a Victorian Permit last time I looked. It's valid for two years. Some states like NSW have no Permit requirements since the Fossicking Permit was abandoned some years ago. I live in NSW but have a Permit for Victoria just in case I ever decide to go Prospecting there. Not sure what the SA requirements are.

The same stores can offer you maps showing where people are permitted to Fossick. Further to this, you can look for other areas that the Government allows fossicking on and you may always ask permission to fossick on Private property and private leases. Failure to seek permission to enter private property can result in legal action by the land or title owner.

Generally speaking, it's pretty easy to get a hold of suitable maps. Again, your local Prospecting supply store carries everything you might need or want but don't delay if it's approaching holiday season because a lot of essential maps just disappear from the stores in the weeks leading up to them.

 

[johnandles]

n/t

 

[johnandles]

n/t

 

[kris]

It`s not a permit it`s a miners "RIGHT" won for us at Eureka and granted by Queen Victoria.
regards and good luck kris

 

[nero_design]

Kris sounds like he still bitterly remembers the consequences of the Eureka Stockade. For those board members from overseas: Miners in the late 1800's were furious that they were being forced to pay an enormous fee to be allowed to dig for gold. This was enforced with an iron fist by corrupt and cruel police and troopers. The fees continued to rise to the point that only the VERY successful diggers could afford to pay the fee for their permit. Anyone caught during the on-the-spot checks who was digging in the earth was arrested if he did not have his permit on him. The first offense was usually a stiff fine. For a repeat offender, the usual sentence was "a week on the logs" where they were forced to work to repair and maintain roads with timber logging. The reason for the high fees was that people literally abandoned the cities when gold was discovered and the gold rushes here caused entire ships to empty and towns to become derelict as stories (most of them greatly exaggerated) came about describing how the gold was so plentiful. Indeed this was actually the case in two or three places. One chap officially recorded over a KILO of gold in a single panload and others would spend a day picking up nuggets from the surface of the ground which weighted between 3 oz (smallest worth bending over for for some lazy persons) to 30oz apiece! Imagine for a moment that the only job you could find was on less than minimum wages under atrocious conditions...and you heard about people picking up a million dollars worth of gold off the ground less than a day away.... would you not be tempted? Stories of ground awash with gold meant people like convicts, bankers, shopkeepers, publicans, police, soldiers and every citizen who heard would pack up and be gone overnight. Word went out to Ireland and other colonies where the Australian Government would pay for the people there to come to Australia to replace those who had fled to the goldfields... under promise that they too would not do the same. But they all jumped ship when they arrived just the same. Police were sent to intercept the ships and to hunt down any who fled for the goldfields with little to no effect. Ships were hijacked at sea and ferries between the states were likewise commandeered by passengers wanting to divert the vessels to the nearest port to the Goldfields. Then 75,000 Chinese turned up for the same reason in one set of landings and you can guess at the pandemonium. There were reports of entire towns being abandoned overnight.

By enforcing a fee to prospect for gold, it reduced some of the losses from the people running society in the cities.

When the miners had had enough of the autocracy ignoring the reality of their finds per week versus the cost of the fee or permit, they rebelled. Eventually, they built a fort of their own called the Eureka Stockade in the town of Ballarat and made their own flag and defied the government to force them to pay their fees. The Government sent in heavily armed troops who stormed the stockade, tore down the flag and killed a good number of the diggers. Those arrested were all acquitted by the Court jury out of sympathy. The result of the incident was that a fairer Miner's Right was established to replace the old license.


Today, technically, the citizen has no "rights" to mine for minerals anymore. From 1898 to 1989 Queensland & Victorian fossickers had access to a variety of occupied and non-occupied Crown Lands via the Miners Right. The term is still used on the new permits for "Nostalgic Purposes" and to placate the angry hoarders of detectorists and panners (see pic below) but the Miner's Right was replaced by the Mineral Resources Act (QLD) and the Mineral Resources & Development Act in 1990 - This was updated to include the Mineral Resources Development Regulations in 2002 - Schedule 4, Regulation 13.


[attachment 83409 License.jpg]

The pic above shows my own Permit next to an original Miner's Right from 1990. Note that the original document (not a copy) should be kept on your person should you engage in fossicking under your 'license to do so'. Note the 'Nostalgic' use of the words "Miner's Right".

 

[B.T]

Creswick is really close and only about 20 minutes out of Ballarat. There are heaps of open bush areas there where you can detect.
They found a lot of gold there in the old days and even today a lot still gets found. I know of some good sized nuggets found with detectors there in the past few years. 67oz, 30oz. A couple of Sydney minted sovs were found there too a year or two back with one fetching $30,000.
I have found some of my best looking picture nuggets at Creswick and most who have been there and found gold will speak highly of its amazing shapes.

 

[johnandles]

n/t

 

[kris]

Yes its a right to search, if you wish to open a miner well you have to take out a lease I would recomend that all Victorian prospectors join the PMAV Prospectors miners association of Victoria who have done a great job of protecting our RIGHTS I for one am glad I don`t live in NSW or Queensland with there oppressive mining laws.
kris

 

[nero_design]

Kris is right about the laws in Queensland. Seems there's a goodly number of worried Prospectors up there.

There's a LOT of worry here in NSW too since using a metal detector can be interpreted as "using a machine to excavate"... which is by definition 'illegal'. I volunteered to pick a fight with a Ranger next time I'm in the Forrest so that my local prospecting club can use me to mount a test case. I intend to use a backhoe to rip a chunk out of my backyard and challenge the prosecution to shovel a bucketload from it using nothing but my 6" coil on my X-Terra 70.

/Seriously!

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

Although I haven't found the actual legislation from it's original source, in last years Gem and Treasure magazine (March and April) there was a write up over the 2 months, covering all states fossicking rules. The article stats on page 48 and is titled "Australia's fossicking rules and regulations" There was no author recorded on either article. On page 52 of the March edition, under the heading "Titleholders consent", the second paragraph starts out by saying, quote "Note that when fossicking, you cannot:
*use explosives, power-operated or any other equipment but hand held (not power driven) implement;" end quote.
From a layman's point of view, if it has accurately been downloaded from the correct source, then it would seem to imply, that it would be referring to the implement doing the actual digging. It never hurts to consult with legal aid though, as laws, that seem to imply one thing, can actually mean something else.
I found this out the easy way about 18 months back, when I consulted with them on another detecting matter. It cost me nothing and saved a heap of grief. On that occasion; I found the NSW legislation on the enclosed lands act.C4. It specifically referred to access to public schools after school hours. It stated that you cannot enter grounds that have a secure fence around it, however, if there was an opening or unlocked gate, then this would render the the site, not enclosed. Thinking that it could mean that a lot of good hunting spots were just begging to be detected, I consulted with a legal aid solicitor about the matter to be told by her, that that's not how she read it. She was kind enough to post onto me, several cases were people had been prosecuted for trespass and that, technically speaking, if you parked your car in a shopping centre car park and had no intention to shop there, then you could, and some have, be prosecuted for trespass.(even though there are no fences around it!) She also added, that the car park scenario, was normally only used when the folks were causing trouble.
Getting back to the article on fossicking, it also went on to say that you cannot remove anymore than 50 grams of gold, in a 48 hour period except where nuggets of 10 grams or more were found. Yeah, good one fellas. You can read that one many different ways! I guess that we must have a lot of illiterate fossickers.
Mick Evans.

 

[nero_design]

Remember to bring a 10 gram nugget with you occasionally... just to check that your detector is working properly. LOL!

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

So would that make it a Grammy Award!
Mick Evans.