NSW members....Crookwell and Tuena area -- NAPFA needs your help on Conservation Areas -- now please!

If you fossick in the Tuena area, you need to have a look at this urgently. It arrived in my email today after an inquiry I made about one year ago! I have spent a few days scrub bashing there and there are some old diggings and it is a know gold area.

It is a public consultation notice on a draft Plan of Management (POM) for what is collectively known as the Crookwell Reserves, located north of Crookwell in the Central Tablelands of NSW. They cover a combined area of 2779 hectares.

Whether intentional or not consultation period is just ONE WEEK! It needs to be in on 25th February.

Thalaba State Conservation Area (31 hectares), Gillindich Nature Reserve (1225 hectares), Burwood Creek Nature Reserve (34 hectares), Nuggetty State Conservation Area (1146 hectares) and Mount Davies Nature Reserve (343 hectares) were gazetted in August, 2010 (certainly without any known consultation with the fossicking community).

All were previously areas of Crown Land recommended for addition to the protected area to enhance the protection of a number of key vegetation communities, and to improve habitat connectivity in this fragmented landscape by incorporating reserves into this poorly conserved region.

What you need to know is that Fossicking can be permitted under the NSW National Parks Act in State Conservation Areas – provided it is allowed for in the Plan of Management. This document is setting up that plan of management.

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/parkmanagement/CrookwellReservesdraft.htm

So, if you are familiar with this area because you fossick there, or you wish to retain it for future fossicking NOW is the time to do something about it.

Don’t sit back now and then whinge about it later!

NAPFA will put in its own submission but your own personal stories and contributions are vital for NSW NPWS to understand that these areas matter to fossickers.

In doing so you may be able to weave in the following points (in your own words please):

• Prospecting activity adds significantly to the economy of town in those areas where it is permitted (Tuena in particular needs all the help it can get);
• Responsible prospecting involves only a very limited, passing environmental effect;
• People have been prospecting in NSW since the 1850s and this is a heritage cultural activity that should be encouraged and protected in its own right;
• There are known gold diggings in these areas;
• Prospectors can be the eyes and ears of the NPWS in the field and able to report illegal or suspicious activity;
• Prospecting in largely undertaken by older people who enjoy this healthy, outdoor recreational activity;
• Gold Panning and sluicing removes mercury and lead from rivers and streams;
• Prospectors routinely take more than their own rubbish out of areas;
• There are bigger environmental issues to focus on – such as blackberries, foxes, rabbits etc.
• There is no scientific basis to deny a relatively small group of individuals the opportunity to be able to fossick for gold, gems and other minerals in these areas. It will have no lasting impact on the environment.
• Fossickers are not looking for money or hand-outs – just the right to enjoy the natural bounty of NSW.
• Allowing fossicking in the plan of management for this area will increase the enjoyment of the natural estate, in-line with stated policies of the State Government to encourage more recreational use of public land in NSW.

If possible please send a copy of your submissions to President@napfa.net

Thanks!

Stephen Dangaard
President
NSW & ACT Prospectors and Fossickers Association Inc.

Wow, thought they would try to sneak that one through eh? Thanks for the heads up Steve.
I've never prospected through that area but do travel through there about twice a year and see some very attractive ground. It's all in the back of the memory bank for a more convenient time for me to explore.
If there is a next time
As Steve says, "Don’t sit back now and then whinge about it later!"
Curley

So far two private submissions.

Must be a lot of people interested in this area as Tuena is frequently on forums.

Now is the time to speak up!

Although it is short notice, at least we are alert to it now. As they say in all the movies "Speak now or forever hold your peace!"

Will it mean they will visit the area??? Until the next BIG flood that could be a problem !

Ark wrote:Will it mean they will visit the area??? Until the next BIG flood that could be a problem !

Sorry Ark I don't understand your post?
Curley

Ill pm you !

Hi guys I have sent a message in decrying the fact that they may exclude fossickers and metal detectors from an area that over 100 years has been involved with this area. It is depriving us from recreational access to an area created by people like us. I intend to shoot off an email to the premier as well and suggest you all consider this angle as a second bow string.
regards Phil

Have emailed a copy of my message to our esteemed Premier. A response to the plan and inclusion of a link to the premier is about the only way to exercise any chance of fossicking rights inclusion I suspect. I urge all in NSW to start an email deluge and those interstate to also respond to potential closure of more recreational access in this state. Oh Pres i sent a copy of an email to you.
regards Phil

Bumping this back to the top. Lack of input is sad.
regards phil

Hey, come on everyone ... I'm here in SA, and even I sent in a submission! This is not just about New South Welshmen ... this is about OUR Community! All of us!! And our rights and liberties!!!!

PS: Happy to put a copy of my submission up here so it's available for plagiarism, alteration, addition, ideas etc (I plagiarised half of it myself! )

PPS: An email deluge to the Premier? Please, PM me the addy ... I'm happy to send my submission off to him as well!! I've sent it to every other email address

Hi all I have also done a submission

NOT HARD TO DO..

Jen

G'day guys I have submitted mine as well hope you guys and gals sign up as well.

Cheers.

Mike.

Who do we send submissions to and what do we reference it to so that it is read by the right people/department? Do you have addresses and email address?

The more info you put up here the more likely people are to respond.
In any situation where voting, nominating or volunteering is concerned, most people expect the initiators to do the hard yards, otherwise nobody will follow and most people are followers.

Imadogman wrote:
If possible please send a copy of your submissions to President@napfa.net

Thanks!

Stephen Dangaard
President
NSW & ACT Prospectors and Fossickers Association Inc.

Adrian, see first post
Curley

Adrian --

While NAPFA would appreciate a copy to President@napfa.net, the personal submissions need to go to:

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/parkmanagement/CrookwellReservesdraft.htm

It was in the first post, but easily missed I suspect.

cheers.

As well as making a direct response to the proposal this is also the guy you need to lobby. If you are interstate explain how disappointed you can,t spend legitimate liesure activities and hence money in NSW because of lost access to recreational fossicking and metal detecting. Methinks that the big end of town and greentape are alighned yet ironically at logger heads here. Anyway be you intra or interstate please put in a submission and a worst CC Barry. As a responsible ciyizen and long term taxpayer and spender it is our right and our time to secure access to future generations of people to experience and enjoy this great land.
NSW
The Hon. Barry O'Farrell
Full details: click here.
Email: office@premier.nsw.gov.au
Ministerial Office Address:
Hon Barry O'Farrell, MP
Level 40, Governor Macquarie Tower,
1 Farrer Place,
SYDNEY NSW 2000
Phone: (02) 9228 5239
Fax: (02) 9228 3934

Fair Dinkum folks, a few keystrokes on something serious - just do it.
Phil

Submission done!

Annie

It is done!

I hope mine wasn't too lengthy

I am starting to wonder that people don' trealize this is the thin edge of the wedge.Most conservation areas have no access in their plan of management. Again I urge all in NSW and outside of state to put in a submission and to the premier too. The anti- fossicking industry is alive and well in NSW National Parks and chardonnay conservationalists who would scream if their wine was not cold.
regards Phil

Please address
ta Phil

This is a copy of my submission. I have only enclosed it as a guide to what I wrote. Please put your submission in ASAP - even if you haven't travelled this part of the world as yet. Point out that in the near future - it is on your bucket list. Write something, anything may help.
Gary.

I have been travelling between Goulburn & Orange for over 30yrs & have quite often camped, fished & prospected in the different areas between Crookwell & Abercrombie. Each time I have spent money in Crookwell, Tuena & Blaney. One of the main attractions for the area is the freedom to camp, fish & prospect. If that is altered, It would be quicker for me to travel via Molong,Cowra Yass etc. This means that the small towns previously supported by me would miss out on the money I spend on each trip. Amounts to thousands of dollars over the years. If I travel via Molong - Yass, I do this boring trip in 1 hit & don't stop at all until I hit the South Coast.
It would make common sence to leave things as they are - an income generator for these small communities that rely on tourist. My aim is not to strike the big times when travelling through Tuena, I just want to relax & take in the scenery. If you take this away from us - we will just have to go elsewhere.
Thankyou,
Gary .

Submission copy.

To whom it may concern.
I refer to the Draft Plan of Management on The Crookwell Reserves in general and in particular the Nuggetty State Conservation Area.
I acknowledge that the Crookwell Reserves are in the traditional country of the Wiradjuri, Gundungurra and Ngunnawal people.

The Crookwell Reserves areas were gazetted in August, 2010 and it should be noted that all were previously areas of Crown Land where fossicking was freely permitted.

These transfers were the result of previously enacted legislation being the National Park Estate (Southern Region Reservations) Act 2000 which brought about considerable land transfers to the management of the National Parks & Wildlife Service as well as State Forests.

With this transfer to National Parks, certain rights of fossickers were extinguished where they previously were able to fossick on the Crown Land.
It is my understanding that fossicking is permissible again if included in the Management Plan for The Crookwell Reserves.

I would like to direct your attention to the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 (the Act), in which it states under
Section 2A- Objects of Act,
(1) (c) “fostering public appreciation, understanding and enjoyment of nature and cultural heritage and their conservation”.

With this in mind, the Tuena and Junction Point area is an important area of cultural heritage of colonial Australia and its goldrush days with a rich history which one would believe the above clause particularly refers to and overall forms part of the intention of the Act. The area is slowly stagnating economically as is evidenced with the recent closure of The Goldfields Inn which was continuously open from the 1860’s. Any encouragement to fossickers in a particular area is an economic boost for areas such as Tuena. It would be devastating blow to the community if the Parsons General Store was to close also. The Parsons General Store has also been open since the 1960’s and remained in the same family since and it is a piece of cultural heritage in its own right and still provides supplies such as goldpans for the visiting fossicker to try their hand.
This request is written on behalf of many fossickers of New South Wales and visitors who are growing tired and frustrated with the increased numbers of areas being closed off where we can enjoy nature and our hobby at the same time. This frustration has resulted in the recent formation of the body named NSW & ACT Prospectors and Fossickers Association Inc (NAPFA).
In section 5 of the draft plan on page 17, under the heading Cultural Heritage, it states “Excavation diggings occur on the banks and flats of Tuena Creek in Nuggetty

SCA and provide evidence of previous mining activity. Fossicking occurs along Tuena Creek” with the Management Response “2.5 Fossicking is not permitted in the Reserves.” with an “Ongoing” priority.

I implore you to remove the word ‘not’ with a reminder that fossicking is permitted under the Act if you include it in the plan!

Seemingly the cultural heritage value is not of high importance if it is related to previous goldrush diggings as evidenced in Management Response “2.4 Determine the history and heritage significance of the excavation diggings in Nuggetty SCA.” Priority. Low.
A question that arises from this is, will this assessment ever occur as there is no timeframe given at this stage?

In summary, my request and I believe the request of many fossickers is that the Crookwell Reserves, or at the very least the Nuggetty SCA are allowed to be used for fossicking once again by including permissions in the Plan of Management. This was a right until 2010, now we ask for your permission.

Further, another request is that the rights of fossickers be considered when assessing areas like this in future. Awareness of the number of areas being closed off and gated against all unless authorised is increasing to the detriment of our peaceful hobby and this awareness is something that members hope the NAPFA association will bring to fruition.

Yours sincerely,
(FF) typos were corrected by the way....

Some excellent individual submissions are being made by members of the forum.

Well done. Still got a couple of days to go!

Thanks Steve for the heads up and Ihave also submitted my opposition .

Thanks Stephen for keeping us posted and the efforts by NAPFA.

Good that the ranger wanted to talk and try to understand that fossickers also want to tread lightly in accessing traditional fossicking areas.

We wait a bit now I suppose.

Detectist (Dan) (NAPFA member)