Can anyone offer advice with regard to NSW Crown Land please? I thought I understood my rights...

Hi everyone,

I am pulling my hair out trying to get an official answer out of anyone regarding access to Crown Land in NSW near Braidwood, specifically at Araluen Lower where Araluen Creek meets the Deua River. The Crown Land extends on both sides of the River and adjoins the Monga National Park. According to the Map Legend the Crown Land is identified as "Vacant and Reserved Crown Land' and a bit up the back identified as 'Leased Crown Land' (NSW DPI South Coast Forests Map 2007). All I am getting is the runaround. I thought perhaps someone here who has been prospecting in NSW a while might have been through all this and can set me straight.

To summarise:

A couple of years ago I had a Fossickers Permit from the South Coast Forests Department in Batemans Bay because that branch apparently covers the National Park area around Canberra I wanted to look in. I rang them this year to renew a my Permit and buy an updated map (as I was told that there have been changes) and was told I would have to write a letter and send them a cheque or a money order, they no longer take credit card details over the phone. My response was that I submitted my credit card details to this same woman two years previously to which she replied well they don't do it anymore. I then asked about the area on the map marked as 'Vacant and Reserved Crown Land' and was told I would have to talk to the Department of Lands and no she didn't have the number.

I rang the Lands Department (1300 Number) and was told I would have to talk to the Crown Lands Branch at Goulburn.

I rang the Crown Lands Branch at Goulburn and the woman who answered the phone told me I would have to contact the Council for that Area because she didn't have any identifying information for the land, I would have to give her the property numbers for the adjacent properties before she could tell me what, if anything the crown land I was interested in looking at was used for. I told her I wanted to do some fossicking/prospecting. she told me "We don't usually let people prospect on Crown Land." I was like WTF?!

I told her that the Mining Act of 1992 for NSW states that Fossicking is a lawful activity on Crown Lands that is not held under a lease, license or permissive occupancy under the Crown Lands Act 1989, Continued Tenures Act 1989 or the Western Lands Act of 1901 and not under the management or control of a trustee or a public or local authority, and she told me she couldn't help me, I'd have to speak to the Council. I still have to identify and locate a Council for the Area.

By this stage I was both gobsmacked and a little peeved to say the least. What is happening to this Country? Can anyone offer me any advice as to my rights? (note: I pay child support, I already know I have none)

I thought I'd just ring the Braidwood Tourist Agency who apparently have fossicking information and advertise fossicking in and around Braidwood (the website makes it sound like fossickers and prospectors are welcomed with open arms) but it was after 4pm on a Friday Afternoon and they were shut.

any help and or advice greatly appreciated.

G'day Phoenix135.

No m8 I'm not the one who can help you with this one,hopefuly someone else on this forum could.
From what i could make out of your post,it sounds like you know more about the laws governing crown
land than the councilors themselves.

Cheers kon61.

LOL kon61,

no, don't know much at all, most of it I picked up trawling through this website from go to whoa the night before last and again last night

I do assume though that the Mining Act still applies even though in NSW we no longer have mining permits. I am frustrated by the lack of help from the Crown Lands Department and the way our society seems to be changing for the worse - can't own a gun anymore, can't carry a knife anymore, can't say anything that someone else might consider to be offensive even if it is true and accurate, can't get a straight answer that isn't complete legal or political jargon. I weep for the not-too-distant future when I probably won't be allowed to go anywhere anymore - especially if the allotted 'fossicking areas' and shrinking crown lands are any indication to go by.

Don't worry yourself to much over it,eventually someones bound to give you a straight answer to your question. Bureaucratic rhetoric,is pretty much the same in every state and yes neither do i see it as getting any better in the near future either.

Cheers kon61.

Phoenix135

Your right when you say you don't need a miners right for NSW, your can still fossick on crown land, and if its occuppied crown land like a grazing lease like a (pastoral lease) you need permission from the pastoralist.

If the crown land your are talking about has access it it with out going through and private property or any other occuppied lease etc, then just go there and do your thing, if all the various departments you have spoken to don't know anything about it then how can you be doing the wrong thing.

If it a forrest in NSW like you allready know you can get a permit.

cheers dave

Its more easy just to go there and have a swing and in the unlikely event somone ask's you what your doing just say you spoke to one of those knobs on the phone and they said its ok to fossick there, i doubt they are going to follow it up, if anything ask the locals maybe a pub owner will be more help than a bureaucrat who wouldnt know if there arse was on fire, ive had the same issues you ask one mob and they give somone elses number who then tell you to ring the mob you just got off the phone from, so if they dont even know how the hell are we suposed to know.

Had a bit of a ring around myself years ago , I was told i have to have a fossicking permit , could,nt use power tool or any type of generator no explosives , no petrol powered sluice , definetly no detecting . I,ve heard about a few guys going right up shoalhaven river/Danjera creek, river sluice on there backs coming back with some colour . Nice bit of history in the book, Bungonia to Braidwood

Not much use having a fossicking permit..................carn't do anything when you get there...........may as well have a bushwalking permit

Thanks Guys,

I'll have a go - a friend once told me it's easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

Davsgold,

I believe the bushwalking permits are coming next year