private property keep out

This happened to a prospecting mate of mine recently in the castlemaine area.
He was detecting on what he knew was national park land,there was a private property adjoining onto the park,no fences were present.
The land owner had taken the liberty of putting "KEEP OUT PRIVATE PROPERTY SIGNS" some 100 to 150 metres out from his boundary line to keep prospectors away from his land.
My mate new that these signs were BS as he had done research on the area.
He had searched google maps,geovic,landchecker and other various sites to verify the correct boundary lines.

While detecting one day he was approached by an abusive bloke claiming to be the owner, "your on private property" can't you read the FN signs.
His carry on went on for some time he threaten to call the cops which my mate encourage him to do so.
A threat of "something you won't see coming" was made,which was A BULLET.[no gun was present]
After a few more f's and c's from this bloke the police finally arrived.Statements were taken.

My mate had to prove to the police that this bloke was lying because they said they had no authority to make him show the deeds to his land [crazy stuff ]
My mate notified parks victoria who gave him a visit,he was ordered to move the illegal signs to their correct position. WIN!!! [castlemaine parks vic were great,thanks to noel muller]

Long story short, the firearms squad was notified that he had made a threat [he owns weapons],they paid him a visit.
 He'd made a false statement to the police claiming that it was trespassing.
It could have gone to court but there was really no point,the desired outcome had been achieved.
My mate said to the police you can do what you like with this bloke,it's your choice if you want to charge him with lying/making a false claim and threatening behavior [which is a hefty fine or jail term ].
As always do you research,stick to your guns  and have your phone on record as my mate did,very very helpful.
AND stay calm when confronted by a knobhead,don't give them any ammo  to lay a counter claim.
Safe and happy prospecting  

cheers   moredeep

Wow. Good on him for not only doing his research but for standing his ground in threatening circumstances. Luckily no physical harm done.

Lots of cowboys out there. Landholders included.

There is a bloke who bought a small property right in the middle of the Sailors Gully lead at Wedderburn who goes aggro if you detect within 150 metres of his fenceline, I wonder what he has to hide?

There is a lot of crazies out there, trust me.
wombat

Only be warned once, years ago, not to go to a certain gold area in the hills ( in another state) because the bike'es were doing some gardening there, glad we are not like in the US where on various threads I read of detector operators carrying hand guns for protection. Anther thread here:

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/14468-security-alert-north-columbia-ca/

The land owner apparently said,"why didn't you come and ask permission" ,my mate said I'm not on your land I don't have to.
and besides you have a big sign at the front of your property driveway saying KEEP OUT PRIVATE PROPERTY.
Not very inviting,what a nerve.


cheers  moredeep

Sad that scenarios like these exist or continue to exist through this day & age moredeep. All it takes between people is the use of a bit of common sense & a little respect for one another, so that we may all get along peacefully. As were said, shame that there exist some cowboys out there, (as well as the odd land owner), that care little for doing the right thing & prefer in taking the law into their own hands. A little respect for one another's rights through civil communication, is all that's required, not communication through provocative threats of violence.  
Going out of ones way knowingly doing the wrong thing (such as in this case the landholder) is inviting trouble, trouble of the kind one does not need. We live in troubled times & all of us wake up each day, walking to a fine line between sanity & the insane, for no one knows nor expects what might happen, when one is put on the spot, threatened with unlawful assault/violence.
One should always go out of their way towards sorting out ones issues with another, in a civil, respectful & peaceful manner, but in this case, not condemn the whole/entire prospecting fraternity, for the stupidity of one or a couple of mischievous individuals, that one might have come across in the past.
In this case your mate were in the right & the land owner (although knowing he were in the wrong & would not have a leg to stand on in a court of law) tried to get away with it. But like I say, its not the police/courts that come later I worry about, but more so the immediate threat to ones safety/life that comes first in that instant, when threatened in a violent manner by another.
At the end of it all & if things were to turn violent, only the lawyers/courts win & the parties involved (almost always) end up losing out in some form or another. This is why people should think twice, before acting physically on their verbal intentions.

Kon.

Sure there are land owners who are hard to get on with but in my experience they are in the minority. I have known many prospectors who jump fences at night even one who dug up a putting green for a 3 pincer. One even revelled in the name Fence Jumper and another who bragged about raiding leases in WA. There are many on both sides but I reckon there are more prospectors who do the wrong thing than landowners.

Agreed Jim, but the point made here is about unlawful aggressive behaviour towards someone who's adhering to the law & someone who's not. There's good & bad in all of us, regardless of gender, race, creed or occupation, but referring to this case alone & it happened to be the land owner knowingly breaking the law & insisting to proceed on his wrong doings, by telling the prospector he's trespassing?   Mind you the same would apply for a prospector/detectorist breaking the law by entering on private property without permission, for two wrongs, cannot make it right.
Going out of ones way towards doing the right thing by one another, isn't always the easiest of things to do, but it sure goes a long way towards keeping the peace.

Cheers Kon.

The bloke in question had been claiming roughly 8 to 10 acres of national heritage park land for several years.
Who knows how many prospectors had been threatened by this fraudster
Justice finally caught up with him 

cheers   moredeep

UPDATE,Things had been quite quiet in this neck of the woods for a while.
Illegal signs had been removed but not replaced to indicate true boundary line leaving any unsuspecting prospector to fall into the lair of this obnoxious land owner once again.
So it happened, he confronted Axtyr and his friend [who remained very cool and polite] and this time he had the support of his two nephews as they tried to B/S that they were on his property.

They also stated that they were going to "sight" in their high powered rifles and would be shooting into the dam bank and advised them to move away from the area [they said they had notified the local police of their intent to shoot] they probably didn't tell the police it was to try and intimidate the prospectors in the area.
Dozen of shot were fired but we kept calmly detecting and continued on long after the shooting had stopped.

The land owner was unaware that I was present some 70 meters away and I could here all the B/S that was going on. The A HOLE was up to his old tricks again
So another visit to the police and letters written by Axtyr's friend Bob and myself to parks Victoria resulted in new signs that reflect the correct boundary line.
HALLELUJAH, finally this knob got it into his thick scull that he cannot intimidate prospectors that are in the right .
We shall continue prospecting there for as long as we like.



cheers moredeep

Nice to see he got his comeuppance. I hope the police/rangers pay him a visit. But above all, be careful out there.

head ranger from Parks Victoria did pay him a little visit AGAIN!

Cheers moredeep

Some camo gear, Night vision goggles and a rocket launcher might be in order..

good thought Adrian, but I fear the resulting explosion would spread to much shrapnel into the surrounding bushland.
We'd spend all of our time detecting and picking it up again



cheers moredeep

Moredeep, after you left on Thursday we kept detecting. He was working around his shed when he spotted me. I could see him watching me and after a few minutes he made his way to the top of his dam to observe us from behind the bushes there. As I was talking to Wayne I looked over and he was standing in full view on top of the dam so I waved to him but got no response. We were obviously not on his property so he left. I was expecting to hear shots being fired but nothing more happened.

Regards Axtyr.

WHAT A TOOL, I can think of another appropriate response but it may have been a bit chilly to expose ones gluteus maximus


cheers moredeep

That could be a bit risky with a bloke like that...He might suddenly start getting a bit friendly.    

Maybe we should organize a token hunt day there for the whole detecting club

now there's an idea deutran
I was going to post the address of the spot as soon as we are done with it.
It's only producing small gold, enough to keep us interested though.
I was trying to think of some analogies to the situation,
1-it would like buying a house next door to a school then complaining there are too many kids playing and that they are too noisy.
2- or buying a house next to a house of ill- repute ,expect a lot of traffic and the occasional unexpected knock on the door.
So you buy a property that borders state park in the gold fields next to a gully that has lots of diggings, the end result is obvious, get use to it
Maybe we should lend him a detector


cheers moredeep