Crevicer Gold Sucker

Mike54 wrote:What can't I use my pick anymore.... I don't think so....

Cheers.

Mike.

Is a pick a hand tool?

Your right Ark. Shovel, pick, fj holden hubcap, it doesn't matter. No moving parts=legal.

Holedigga wrote:The law is simple and clear. You can use non mechanical hand tools to dig. People need to read it, learn it and obey it. When the Mineral resources development act was being initiated to replace the old 1958 mines act i was involved in the working party with specific attention to what you can use under a miners right. People will always try and beat the system but basically it means USE A SHOVEL!!!!!!
This law is not vague, indecisive, unclear or whatever term people like to use.
Maybe a letter to the dept. asking them to change the text on the back of a Miners Right to "shovels only to be used to dig", might clear it up.

It is very CLEAR that the law is UNCLEAR because so many people have demonstrated that they are unsure of what they can and cannot use to find gold because they donot know what is ment by NON MECHANICAL TOOLS where digging for gold is concerned.
There is no point in thumping your fist and stamping your feet when changes to the wording are obviously necessary.

The human body is a machine by the very definition of the word.
There is six simple machines. The Lever, The Wheel. Axel, Pully, screw, wedge and the Inclined plane.
Our body is a system of levers and pulleys. The bones forming the levers and the muscles and tendons forming the pulley type function creating movement when powered by signals from the brain and as sutch it IS A MACHINE and can legally be termed Mechanised or mechanical.

SO HAND HELD NON MECHANICAL TOOLS MUST BE DEFINED AND DESCRIBED AND IDENTIFIED EXACTLY, especially when serious fines and jail sentenses are involved. The regulations on the back of the Miners Right are ridiculous in their simplicity that leave it wide open for law enforcing authaorities to bend and twist the meanings to their hearts content.

There is a wide range of hand held gravel and sand extraction devices available to the casual fossiker that are small , plastic and very easy to use and these devices enable people like myself who have a crook back and knees who can no longer swing a pick with any authority to be able to continue our life long hobby and occupation.
These small yabby pump type devices ,move very small amounts of sand and fine gravel whereas somebody with a pick and shovel and crow bar is capable of moving a lot of sand, gravel and rocks in relatively short period of time.

I see absolutely no treason at all why these small scale handheld yabby pump suction type extractors should be banned.

[quote="Adrian ss
It is very CLEAR that the law is UNCLEAR

The human body is a machine by the very definition of the word.
There is six simple machines. The Lever, The Wheel. Axel, Pully, screw, wedge and the Inclined plane.
Our body is a system of levers and pulleys. The bones forming the levers and the muscles and tendons forming the pulley type function creating movement when powered by signals from the brain and as sutch it IS A MACHINE and can legally be termed Mechanised or mechanical.

[/quote]
Does this mean I can't go panning anymore

deleated!

shiraz wrote:[quote="Adrian ss
It is very CLEAR that the law is UNCLEAR

The human body is a machine by the very definition of the word.
There is six simple machines. The Lever, The Wheel. Axel, Pully, screw, wedge and the Inclined plane.
Our body is a system of levers and pulleys. The bones forming the levers and the muscles and tendons forming the pulley type function creating movement when powered by signals from the brain and as sutch it IS A MACHINE and can legally be termed Mechanised or mechanical.

Does this mean I can't go panning anymore [/quote]


As I said, The law is wide open to misinterpretation and misrepresentation and we all know how narky some parks and land administrators can be when it comes to gold fossicking.

HI Sparrowfart.

I guess the subject is a bit of yawn to some, Fair enough, but on the othe hand the topic has proven to be of interest to quite a few members.

Adrian, I take great insult from your comments that the laws were written by people with little or no knowledge of the English language. I was one of the people involved and the act was written with the help and assistance of small scale miners, prospectors, PMAV and others. Mate I don't know how long you gave been prospecting for but its obvious you simply don't want to operate under the laws which are VERY clear. I have been doing this for over 40 years and come from a long line of miners dating back to pre gold rush times. My heritage descends directly from the miners in the mines of Cornwall.
For the sake of the forum I will refrain from any further comment on this subject as I am not here to be insulted.

HI Holedigga.

Sorry mate, no direct insult intended.Please accept my apology.

I have removed the ofending sentence. A poor choice of wording on my part.
I do believe absolutely that exact discriptions of the tools and equipment that is allowed to be used under the terms of a Miners Right should be made totally clear to everybody when they obtain a miners right.

Just because certain laws have been nutted out by a selected and experienced group of people with a direct interest in a particular situation does not mean that the laws are right and correct in every aspect. They may have been right according to those who implemented them but as time goes by and certain situations arise it can become apparent that some changes may be necessary in order to keep up with changing times and situations. It can take quite a while for glitches in laws of all kinds to become apparent.

Yes I have been prospecting and fossicking for 50 or so years off and on and my good old grand pappy and an uncle who were gold and opal miners from the very old school taught me about gold mining..... I guess that does not nesessarily mean I know much about it, I just like to think that I do.

No problem, we all see things from a different perspective. I now realise why i left this forum a while back. I won't be back again.

That's it I'm done.

Crikies what happened here then

Just a slight observation!
It seems we have small minority in an age group that can no longer dig big holes or lug around heavy equipment, so there canning everyone who can!

Lots of names, tho none will be mentioned! "unless provoked"
Jealousy is a very sad excuse for bagging able body'd prospectors!

So whats the go with the blokes done with a dredge at Eldorado?? Even the locals know nothing about it???????

The locals do know about it. We are just keeping quiet until the dredgers leave the caravan park for good.

Wouldn't it have been in the interest of all concerned when preparing the regulation regarding the use of mechanical tools to take into account the minority of people who may have a disabilitie (medically confirmed of course ) and have an exemption for them implamented in regards to using such items that would assist them in their endevours of participating in their chosen hobby. The use of a small yabbie pump type of device which is plain to see doesnt remove as much as a single shovel load could be granted to a person that has been proven by a GP or even a medical panel if thats how far they wish to take it, to allow them to continue to be active in the hobby/profession or whatever they are doing.
People have been granted permission to drive a motor vehicle without the use of a seatbelt due to medical reasons and you can get disabled parking approval if you legitatmly require it.

Deleated.

Adrian ss wrote:
That's it I'm done.



Hi Adrian, I think you have been targeted by some nutter posing as a guest. I can't see any reason for it, it just appears to be malice. I guess some people have nothing better to do than annoy good folks. Probably some druggie or some such.
Anyway sorry for sleeping on the job, merry Christmas.
Sparrowfart.



No targeting in my view ! Just a difference of opinion ! The guest thing appears when a member deletes his or her membership . On face value this ex member had considerable experience in the early set up of the uses of tools under the miners rightin Victoria . As I said in my posts in this tread I do not see a problem in the wording of the miners right . If you have a problem with the wording , set up a petition to change it , badger your local politicians , start a movement to get change ! And I would be only to happy to see the likes of these suckers be made legal under the tools of use but until then my opinion is that they are illegal and this is what we should be telling the new comers into prospecting ,not inferring that they should use these things and hope for the best !
As I have said before we have some people who love to play the devil's advocate in some posts

1852 wrote:The locals do know about it. We are just keeping quiet until the dredgers leave the caravan park for good.

Hooly Dooly, that method of attack will scare the suckers away for sure

or is it locals talking about locals?

old news or new news?

From the rumour going around, it was apparently a 6" dredge, and very recent, ain't gonnu hide that in a hurry!

A few weeks back, a 6"dredge, and a couple of temporary residents in the c/v park.

Flat out finding enough water in reedy creek ta run a solder sucker let alone a 6 inch dredge

Plenty of water in reedy, had a good downpour a couplu weeks ago

The still waters which abound the area are full of monster leeches, 6" long, dead set! Friendly little suckers too

So have yu got your leech pump yet Adrian

Good to hear there is a bit of water about. Last time I was there you couldn't drown in it if yer tried

Nope the pump did not arrive yet, so the leeches are safe n the yabbies have nothing to fear
I lived in Wangaratta for a few years so I know the area reasonably well. Used to look for gold and gemstones there back in the early sixties as a tacker at the Wangaratta Tech.

Heading off in a few minutes and am looking forward to the short break.

Cheers
Adrian SS

Just arrived back after a few days in Wangaratta and poking about Eldorado.
The Yabbiy pump did not arrive until after I had left so just had the pans and tectors.
I did not spend much time panning due to my back giving me too much trouble but did find enough colour to satisfy a tourist. It is clear that there is still plenty of fine gold comming into reedy creek according to my gold spear. If I had been able to use the yabbie pump I might have been able to stay a bit longer
It was good to get out into some fresh air for a while even if just for a few days.
Eldorado does not appear to have changed much since my last visit 20 or so years ago.

I played the tourist and went for a look through the Beechworth Gaol and many thanks to the WARDEN for an excellent and very informative tour.
I also now have a very healthy respect for Holedigga,s historic knowledge of the local area and gold prospecting in general, Cheers mate.

If you are thinking of doing a bit of dredging along reedy creek Ya might want to go on one of those gaol tours before ya set the dredge up.

It's a pity holediga is no longer with us then!

Hi Adrian, I think you have been targeted by some nutter posing as a guest. I can't see any reason for it, it just appears to be malice. I guess some people have nothing better to do than annoy good folks. Probably some druggie or some such.
Anyway sorry for sleeping on the job, merry Christmas.
Sparrowfart.


In light of Adrian's last post your post is seen to be of rash judgment and in my opinion you should remove it sparrowfart! Said without malice nor deranged by drugs!

Ark wrote:It's a pity holediga is no longer with us then!

Yes.
I met Holedigga by sheer good fortune for the first time while in Beechworth (was not going to go there originally but my sister changed my mind) and had a very informative chat for an unfortunately brief period of time but long enough to learn that the man is full bottle on the local and Beechworth gold field history as well as the prospecting laws of Victoria.

In light of Adrian's last post your post is seen to be of rash judgment and in my opinion you should remove it sparrowfart! Said without malice nor deranged by drugs! [/quote]




Perhaps your right at that.
Sparrowfart.

G'day Adrian glad your little break was enjoyable... Have you had a chance to try out the Yabby pump yet?

Cheers.

Mike.

HI Mike54.

No not just yet.
The device is quite small and feeds into a 1 gallon bucket. The pump is well constructed and is suited mainly for fine sand an very small gravely material.
I have no doubt at all that I could (when I was fit) shift a great deal more dirt with a shovel and pick.It needs a good flow of water in order to work well, otherwise the pump will become blocked. At a guess, it might take 6 to 10 pumps of the handle to fill a medium sized dish with gravel/sand.
A shovel will be required In order to get down to the gold bearing material in a stream where it can be drawn up into the pump and directed to a bucket or dish.
I will attempt to give it a try out in a day or two.

Have given the yabby pump a tryout and it works quite well with fine gold.
Gold from around 0.5g upwards can become trapped in the valve workings of the pump, which I guess is better than falling back out when you lift the unit out of the water. These bits seem to become lodged in the ridges and groves where the various bits and pieces come together.
So those rattles that you think is gravel and sand could be good sized bits of gold so it is essential that the nozzle and hose and pump plunger be cleaned into a tub before packing up.
The unit is capable of lifting good size nuggs with one and two gramers shooting up the tube no probs but for some reason a couple did not want to go out past the outlet valve.
I donot like the corrigated hose but it does catch some fine gold that had not made it to the bucket, the hose needs to be flushed every now and again.
If the hose was smooth walled then it is likely that some gold would fall back out past the inlet valve.
It is quite a handy gadget and way, way easier on my back than a pick and shovel
It was also quite good at finding water beetles and mozzie wrigglers; No yabbies this time The beetles went back into the creek and the mozzies ended up on the bank to fry in the sun.