Obligations of Fossickers
Access to land is the biggest problem facing individuals
engaged in fossicking. Fulfilling our obligations will make
it easier to gain entry to fossicking areas. It is just
common sense to act with courtesy.
Due to increased population in North
Queensland it is only logical that there will be increased
pressures on the environment and regulations will only
increase. Unfortunately the good ol' days of being able to
go anywhere unhindered are well and truly over. Conflict and
confrontation with grazing lease holders is not an uncommon
experience for many fossickers. Partly we are ourselves to
blame but mostly it is our legislators that have failed us.
If you do not make allowances for fossickers in the rules,
you will get trouble.
The Queensland Fossicker
visit this site for an overview of legislation and possible
solutions.
Palmer River - Access to Maytown - An outrage
Q. When is a public road not a public
road?
A. When it deviates from its original
route.
This is the situation with the access
road to Maytown. Over many years of use some sections of the
road have deviated due to erosion. Thus becoming property
tracks. Driving on a property track without permission makes
you liable for prosecution for trespass. The leaseholder
referred to as the "property owner" has the right to deny
access to any of his property tracks. And they do because
they can.
Where does this leave people that live
and work on mining leases in that area? It has been
traditional custom to use this track (called White's Creek
track) for many decades.
The problem of access to the Maytown area
has been an ongoing drama now for too many years to remain
unresolved.
Despite numerous complaints to the police
and the Cook Shire Council, the verbal and physical
intimidation has continued.
I believe that the Cook Shire Council has
examined and resurveyed the road for the purpose of
re-gazetting. Submissions have been made to the Queensland
Government but it does come down to compensation and legal
costs. Resumptions of land can be costly.
Expect
a long protracted wrangle between the parties involved. In
the meantime, us the public, are being denied natural
justice. Express your disgust, lobby a politician today.
Interesting site
Land Court of Queensland
check out this recomendation in
regards to the Maytown region.
A solution seems to be at hand, provided
a decent sized area is set aside for recreational
fossicking.
Miners
Right the situation in Queensland
Whether you use a metal detector to look for gold or a gemstone
and mineral fossicker, it is getting harder and harder to gain
access to land to engage in this activity. Fossicking is a healthy
and popular Australian pastime that has been strangled almost
into oblivion by successive governments and bureaucrats.
This story is repeated in all states of Australia.
First
a historical perspective ..
Eureka
(a shame that the symbol of the Eureka
flag has been
hijacked by left wing political groups)
The Eureka
Stockade gave us rights and privileges bestowed by Queen Victoria
back in 1853. The most important item that resulted from that
rebellion was the Miners Right. The premise was and still
is that the crown (Commonwealth) owns all mineral rights and
has the right to dispense leases and Miners Rights on
all crown land occupied or unoccupied. This legal document gave
us the right to access land (like old gold fields) to engage
in prospecting or fossicking for minerals and gemstones.
The
Miners Right was taken away from us in 1989 with the introduction
of the Mineral Resources Bill. The Miners Right was a
very powerful and useful document that helped regulate mining
and prospecting in an orderly manner for more than 150 years.
It is a belief in some quarters that the removal of the Miners
Right was done illegally. But with fashionable rewriting of
history in recent years it seems almost impossible to reverse
this unjust removal. Back then the government had this cute
little discussion paper called the "Green Paper" that had invited
input from concerned parties. The poor old prospector and fossicker
was unfortunately drowned out by the big end of town. Utterly
shafted. Suddenly with the Miners Right gone we had no
rights of access. We were blocked by vindictive lease holders
that tried to criminalise our attempts at doing what we had
been doing legally for over 150 years.
The Qld Govt stuffed
up big time!
The Miners Right was replaced with the Prospecting
Permit that has greatly diminished rights. Access to land previously
enjoyed for generations was removed overnight.
Just to think
that over a hundred years ago, in Nth Queensland, prospectors
like James Venture Mulligan, Christy Palmerston and others
were legends in their own time. They helped to make the north
what it is today. Most northern towns like Cairns and Port Douglas
owe their existence to mining and exploration.
Here is what
Professor Manning Clark wrote in his book "A short history of
Australia" on the subject of gold and the diggers of 1853,
... They were beginning to talk of the three great grievances
of the diggers: the licence grievance, the land grievance, and
the political grievance. They complained that it was beyond
their capacity to pay the licence fee, and that the police were
unduly severe and tyrannical when searching for unlicenced persons.
Diggers without licences were treated like felons, marched along
the highway in charge of the mounted police, exposed to the
gaze of the populance, and if unable to pay the fee, put into
a cell with thieves, horse stealers, lags and murderers amidst
filth and vermin.
Do you see
some similarities? It seems that not much has changed.
The new mining
act encourages illegal activity because most access to fossicking
areas has been taken away and the usual refusal of grazing lease
holders to grant permission. Where are we supposed to go?
The creation of additional national parks and heritage areas
locking up more land creates more pressure. More pressure that
is clearly increasing tension and ill feeling.
All types
of excuses are used to deny access. We have been immobilised
by saying that a few wrong doers spoil it for the majority.
What a lot of nonsense. Laws and regulations have always been
in place to deal with this. Our justice system is based on the
notion that we are all innocent till proven guilty. All sections
of the community have a small percentage of law breakers. Let
the law deal with it. Don't just ban everything because it is
the easiest thing to do. We all use the land for various recreational
purposes and we don't want to be divided against each other.
We demand a fair go.
Most topographical
maps still show mineral fields or goldfields. If they do exist,
they must be made accessible to the public. These lands cannot
be equated or compared with your average suburban block but
are mostly crown land and rented out as a long term grazing
lease. So long as we do not interfere with the pastoralists
grazing business, we should have access to this land via a
Miners Right.
The Queensland State Government
is at it again and wishes to reclassify State Forests as
"Protected Areas" and so excluding fossickers from these
areas. We are talking about 460,000 hectares of land that will
be lost. At present fossicking is allowed with a regulatory
fossicking licence. Thousands of fossickers from this state
and other states of Queensland as well as from overseas will
be affected.
Every state in Australia has its
own legislation and laws covering mining prospecting and fossicking.
Outdoor recreational activities are many and varied, from 4WD,
camping, fishing, horse riding, bush walking, gemstone and gold
fossickers and others. The authorities are not looking after
us because we are fragmented and don't speak with a common voice.
This has to change.
Queensland must have the most
restrictive mining/fossicking regulations of any state in Australia.
It is bordering on criminal that such unjust regulations exist.
What were the politicians thinking?
The way forward is to have an
even handed approach that does not favour certain sections of
the community.
The many problems
encountered by small miners and prospectors can be appreciated
when reading the book by Ralph de Lacy
THE SMALL MINER AND NATIVE TITLE.
Find out for yourself who some of the culprits of obstruction
are.
Miners help to dig nation
out of debt
Miners are digging
Australia out of its trade deficit woes. A surge of the nations
value of exports of coal iron and minerals is helping reduce
the trade deficit.
Here
we go again
The Queensland
State Government has introduced the "Wild Rivers Bill". This
landmark legislation was introduced into State Parliament by
the Natural Resources Minister Stephen Robertson.
The "Wild
Rivers Bill 2005 is the first legislation of its type
and the most comprehensive at preserving wild rivers in Australia.
This bill has
the potential of stopping all recreational activities on rivers
in any part of Queensland.
Mayors "wild" about
river Bill
(Cairns Post September
19, 2005)
Problems with
accessing a historic track to Maytown and concerns over proposed
laws to have so-called "wild rivers" declared for conservation
have prompted the Mareeba and Cook shire councils to lobby the
State Government.
Mareeba Mayor Mick Borzi and Cooktown mayor Bob Sullivan have
requested they and Local Government Association of Queensland
president Paul Bell meet Premier Peter Beattie to "strongly
object" to the Bill. Mareeba councillors have agreed to support
their Cook colleagues in objecting to the Wild River Bill as
it would "hinder recreation and necessary economic development
activities" in both shires.
The two mayors are also preparing a submission on the denial
of access to parts of the Chillagoe-Maytown track.
Hodgkinson
Goldfields - Metal Detecting - Camping
Only with permission from from the
Grazier. A fee may be applicable. Two weeks advance notice
required. Fossicking licence is required. PHONE 07 4093 5957
for permission.
If it
cannot be grown, it must be mined ......
Copyright © 2005
-2007 All rights reserved.
|
