The usual unfilled holes

Sadly ; Castlemaine is becoming the most holey city in Victoria??
On numerous trips out, there are multiple upon multiple unfilled holes, these are not little scrapes but large unfilled areas.
One spot was a beautiful historic rocked filled sluiced run that was pulled apart and destroyed.
These so called prospectors are giving ammo to certain groups that would like to shut down our hobby.
If you know anyone who is lazy or ignorant to the rules of prospecting please educate them.





I can foresee that a miner rights will become very expensive with a TAFE course needed to obtain one.
On top of that I think fines may become serious, just like the fisheries; where equipment and vehicles can be confiscated if you don't have a fishing license.
Please please please, fill your holes properly.


not so cheers   moredeep

This was a good example of a stoned sluiced run which was pulled apart by an ignorant novice or a ignorant experienced F#%*wit.
I met up with axtyr today who commented on the amount of unfilled holes here in castlemaine.


cheers   moredeep

When I saw what these/this person had done I was so angry. I couldn't believe that anyone could do this. Some of the holes were quite deep and others were about a metre square scrapes.

I doubt they even have a Miner's Right as it clearly states to FILL IN YOUR HOLES. It is even printed on the detector coils. Miner's Den also tell you to fill in your holes after getting your Miner's Right.

It's a very simple process, dig the hole, put the dirt back. It's not rocket surgery.
If you can't fill in the hole don't dig it in the first place.

Regards Axtyr.

Another problem with holes not fill in is it attracts more of the other idiots to extend them.

This sort of thing is most likely done by weekenders who are only up for limited time so need to dig as much as possible per trip out in a desperate attempt to recoup the thousands invested in shiny new machines.

I have noticed a remnant pillar of elevated river wash left in dangerous condition after some  have undermined it to the point of reaching the old timers workings inside the pillar. I’d estimate an easy 30 tonnes there resting on almost nothing.

LongBrown wrote:This sort of thing is most likely done by weekenders who are only up for limited time so need to dig as much as possible per trip out in a desperate attempt to recoup the thousands invested in shiny new machines.

I have noticed a remnant pillar of elevated river wash left in dangerous condition after some  have undermined it to the point of reaching the old timers workings inside the pillar. I’d estimate an easy 30 tonnes there resting on almost nothing.

Note sure that the term weekender is relevant as many of our members are "weekenders", and those causing the destruction will start using that as an excuse. It looks like fines or bans on more areas are likely, but then those doing the damage are likely to ignore those changes anyway.

I meant those who are on limited time in the field. Weekenders or out of towners  or whatever but they are in a hurry to find a bit no thought to the future.
Chokem Flat area is a fine example to study the impact of weekenders they rock up turn the place over , defacate everywhere and then leave.

In saying all of that I’m still considered a blow in myself

must say the emi is pretty bad in the golden triangle these days too

alot of chatter from my sdc

normally a quite machine too.

Getting bad out in daisy hill also, was out the other day and noticed big rocks 2 foot across moved everywhere leaving big holes unfilled all over the place and completely leveling the old heaps a local detectorist told me there in groups of 4 in one car hitting all the areas leaving open holes all over the place ,Even the bush tracks have large unfilled holes all over the place.

I have come across unfilled holes in Vic, WA, Qld and NT.  Laziness or don't give a rats, who knows?.  unfilled holes are everywhere.

To newbies in the game of detecting for gold, or to the more experienced who simply couldn't give a damn, I say to you, you wouldn't leave your own back yard in a state of despair/degradation, then why not leave the forest as you found it.
A 5 minute dig hole, takes half a dozen boot scrapes or about 30 seconds in order to have ones hole backfilled back to its natural state.
Be bothered, give a damn, do the right thing by the forest/land you tread on, before governing authorities end up doing it for us.
We detectorists/prospectors are losing more and more common ground to National Parks than ever before from the little we have left now.
Don't give authorities even more power to do as they see fit & rightly so if they continue to encounter destruction & devastation of landscape, heritage sites & habitat such as this.

Kon

This is typical lazy 101.

Cae of do not give a rats and like they treat the bush with contempt.

I always back fill holes no matter the deep and size.

It also does not give the feeling that i have been there before.

Agree with alot of you that holes just attract more dim wits to make them even worse and to even vandal there areas.

Aloso i am sick to my back teeth seeing the bush lovely as it is been a dumping ground for rubbish and a dumping spot.

Councils if run well have trasfer stations for this.

And litter and their crap left around also on road sides its become a disgrace.

Mostly are from Melbourne who i think are the most grotty type of people in the world.

Melbourne people are grubs.

I have been seeing this a lot up my way in the Mudgee area. It's a pet hate of mine, especially as it is so hard these days to get permission to access land.
Unfortunately, some of the locals who are not newbies are just as guilty

How do you stop people going out into the bush and scratching around in the dirt looking for gold, Why should we stop them? They spend their lives cooped in in cities bound by laws and restrictions of all kinds.Then there is the noise and polluted air and traffic jams and daily robberies, people being murdered,  shops and houses broken into, cars being incinerated by punk arsed kids with the brains of  dehydrated maggots. I imagine getting out into the scrub would be a welcome break from all of that garbage........Somehow they have to be re-educated to respect themselves and other people.....Re education begins at Primary School and in the home and that means we have to re train our teachers to be able to teach without computers and and I mean REALLY teach without the ridiculous levels of Home Work that the kids have to endure.  No wonder they are all off their heads loaded up with elicit drugs and red bull.

When I was at primary school and at Tech college our teachers taught almost one on one and explained the why and how of everything in minute detail and we did not require great masses of home work, yes we had some but not to the extreme levels of today, the kids near on have to teach themselves today which is likely why they know nothing.

It is interesting to note that by the time kids today get to year 10 and 12 they do not have to study many subjects yet I recall doing 14 subjects when in year 8.
In year 8 I was studying English, English Literature, Maths 1 and 2, science, I did not do Calculus (electable ) or Physics (electable) Social Studies, History, Solid geometry, Technical Drawing, Art, Modeling (clay type) Wood work, Turning and Fitting, Sheet metal work,
We were examined on all of those subjects twice per year. The final year exams were carried out over a two week period.
In my last year at a High School, We only had 6 subjects, I was in heaven.

What has this got to do with leaving holes open in the gold fields?? Blowed if I know.

I know of one very successful gold detectorist who has left holes open in the past, his excuse was that the open holes allowed him to keep track of where he had already detected.

Yes I have heard that line spun around the traps a few times..
Knowing where I have been in the bush has never been a problem for me..just lucky I guess. It is mandatory to know where you are going, how to get there and you must know at the very least, the four compass points.
     Some blokes drag an iron chain behind them that leaves a mark in the ground and on the rocks, Some follow foot prints, some use dead reckoning, others use a compass, some are lucky enough to simply know where they are day or night. some use Way points saved  in a GPS; but one thing is for certain and that is no matter what method you use to keep track of your detector dig holes etc, if you get out into the bush often enough you will get turned around one day. It happened to me just once  (once  was enough).  I thought that I could never get lost ever, but I did and it is a very strange feeling when you suddenly realize that you have not the slightest clue as to where you are; no clouds, no sun or shadows   It took me an hour to get out onto a forestry trail and I was a good 1.5 k from the car even though it only took 15 minutes to walk into the scrub while detecting.
   Most of my detecting is done to a grid pattern, I rarely just wander aimlessly about. It was during a bit of aimless wandering that allowed the above incident to happen.

Leaving the dig holes open just to keep track of them is a pretty random excuse even though we have all done it probably more often that we like to admit.
   Anyway it is a simple task to kick a few rocks back into hole and after the next rain storm nobody will know you were ever there. and there will be a new tree and grass growing out of those detector holes.
Hmmmm now that's an idea! Every time you dig a nugget you plant a tree in the hole.

Like the majority of posters on this topic, I, too, consider that leaving open detector holes as ignorant and piggish!

That said, there are upsides (possibly) to this problem. Detector holes, especially if there are quite a few, are a good indicator that gold has been found in the area. This is particularly useful here in WA where you can walk hours looking for a patch. Open holes are easier to spot at a distance.

We all know that “they don’t get all” and anyway, we also think that we are better at detecting than that bloke who was there ahead of us.

Sometimes, I think that we can get too precious about this subject. The old timers dug plenty of holes and mine shafts that were not filled in, but I never hear anyone complain about that. What’s more, they scattered rubbish everywhere (which we do complain about). Just like us, they were digging holes looking for gold.

Now, what really makes me ponder, are the hundreds if not thousands of open pits, costeens, exploration trenches, rubbish pits, evaporation ponds, etc, etc that will never, ever be filled in. Then there hundreds of thousands of tonnes of steel infrastructure like ore crushers, tanks, buildings, fencing that are left on site to rust away and will never be removed in our lifetime. This is not only true for gold, but for all mineral production.

So, is a bloke walking around with a little plastic disc on the end of a stick and a little hand pick really the bad guy?

Having said all that, I do think that filling in our detector holes is the right thing to do.