Clarification of WA miners right

Gday

Last year I spoke to a station owner that I ran in to West of Cue and she asked me to make sure that I called in to the homestead to see them when I was in the area as they had a roo shooter working about the place, nice and friendly she was too.

She said that they would let him know that we were camped in the area so he would not shoot at us.

Last week I ran in to another station person East of Cue who was a bit abrupt and demanded to know what I was doing in the area,I told het that I was prospecting, she then questioned me about whether I was camping out or not, when I said that I had stayed the night she went on to tell me that I was not allowed to do that, and then the same roo shooter story came out, and she said that I had to let them know I was in the area, you would think that they owned the land and were not merely leasing it, crown land, that belongs to us all, the station was some klm from the area we met and I would have called in when we got that far out, but as it was we came in from the other way, I didnt like the way she demanded to know why I was there and the "this is my land attitude" that she came accross with.

I would like to be able to get a clearer picture of what our rights are, and why these pastoralists think we dont have the right to be there, I have looked through the legislation on this but it seems to be contradictory in some areas.

Any advice would be appreciated and particularly any direction as to obtaining written material that could be given to pastoralists that display this sort of attitude.

cheers

stayyerAU

Hi StayyerAU,

Here you go http://www.dmp.wa.gov.au/documents/Info2(2).pdf

As you can see you are requested under the Act to make contact with them to let them know you will be prospecting on their lease.
They cannot refuse permission and can be reported to the ISU if they do. However good manners and common sense on both sides should be used long before the ISU are involved. A friendly phone call to advise them of the general area you will be working in and the time period you will be there usually does the trick.

Driller.

Gday Driller

Thanks for the link, as I said before I would have called into the station house but had not gotten that far, before the meeting.

I guess what erks me a bit is that I am a responsible prospector and try to do the right thing as far as making sure that I dont do anything that will upset the enviroment or the leasholders, but sometimes when you are looking for new areas you will pass through other areas, it is quite impracticle to phone or write to everbody to tell them that you may or may not be in their area, so for simplicity sake I call in when I can, and as they have no right to stop you then this is purely a curtesy call anyway.

I have to still clarify the point of the camping issue, as far as I am aware if you are camping with the intention of carrying out further prospecting and not other activities then it is quite exceptable, for up to three days I believe, even so what possible harm are you doing surely it takes nothing away from the leaseholder, if they were so concerned about their lease and the possible harm to the wildlife etc, then they would get out there and repair the three or four windmills that I saw that were not working.

The other thing that I have noticed is the appearance of many miles of new fencing in the all areas out of Cue, many access points to prospecting areas have been blocked off, so be aware that some of the old areas you used to visit now have to be accessed by a different route, so if you are planning a trip to the area then you might want to call the station in that area to enquire as to whether you can get access, I have a concern that people that have travelled some distance to get to an area only to find it blocked off will be frustrated by that and will resort to cutting fences to gain access to known spots.



Anyway I intend to do some further research on the matter and get some clarification on the issue of camping.

cheers

stayyerAU

Hi Driller,

I could not get any joy at this address you gave. Can you please check to see if it is correct.

I have a different attitude to stayyerAU regarding relations with station owners. They might only lease the land , but it is their
home and the source of their livelyhood, so they deserve as much courtesy as I can give them. You should have seen the
behaviour of some of the dectectorists at Mosquitoe Creek last winter. The station owner was really pissed off, and I can
understand why - guys burning off spinifex and starting fires that burnt out huge areas, solar panels stolen off bore pumps.

Cheers,

Jigalong.

Hi Jigalong,
Try this one. If it will not work you may have to go into the main website and wade thru it yourself. They are in the process of rebuilding and things are there one day and gone the next.
I agree with your comment on Pastoralists. They do cop a lot of crap from bad prospectors. If you go about it the right way they are usually pretty easy to get on with.

Driller.


http://www.dmp.wa.gov.au/documents/Info2(3).pdf

Driller,

When you click on it as a link, it does not work because for some reason the last bit..... (3).pdf......is not included . If you cut and paste it works fine.

Thanks a lot,

Jigalong.

Agree with Driller. Pastoralists are the primary occupiers and thus every courtesy should be extended to them. The old days where the economy of a nation was dependant on individual prospectors has well and truly passed. All that is left are mostly touristy prospectors which pastoralists view as a nuisance at best. Some are particularly bad and the more experienced/older ones seem to behave the worst showing little respect for the environment or the law. They go about rat-bagging and strip mining other tenements, interferring with stock water supply, carrying on and drinking at night and using their quads for some entertainment. Combine that with a few rifles and imagine what trouble you can get. Thats why pastoralists are getting upset and how can you blame them.

In case anyone missed it, as for camping, anyone with a miners right can -

take water and camp for the purposes of prospecting.

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Burning spinifex I doubt any pastoralist would get pissed off about, unless the fire really got out of control. Livestock don't touch it. Burning is beneficial as it promotes the germination of shorter lived plants that livestock can feed on. Its a natural cycle of burning and regrowth that we learnt from Aboriginals.