Yabby Pumps

I'm sure many have tried using a fisho's yabby pump to suck up a bit of good stuff from behind the boulders etc.......do they work? whats the consensus?

Stupid as it may sound. Their illegal, not joking either! Unless your trying to suck a yabby out of a crevice? Ooo, I wonder what the little fellow's been eating? Oh look, Gold!

Hi guys just looked up another post and found Aussiedetecting are selling these as nugget pumps, as these things are hand operated I cannot see why they should be illegal . I could wrong though.
Cheers
Mike.

someday wrote:Stupid as it may sound. Their illegal, not joking either! Unless your trying to suck a yabby out of a crevice? Ooo, I wonder what the little fellow's been eating? Oh look, Gold!

How weird is that! You can use 1000's of dollars worth of space age computer technology but 2 bits of tube with one hand operated moving part is a no no?

The gods are crazy....I might try looking for some fresh water yabbies!

All I use is a hand pump , sorry not sure about a yabbie pump but I use a length of 3 inch drain pipe and use a tennis ball as the seal on the end of a length of rod, with this set up you can shift buckets full and suck the bedrock clean ! I wouldnt be without it.
I should allso add Im not based in Oz ...good luck

mogy wrote:All I use is a hand pump , sorry not sure about a yabbie pump but I use a length of 3 inch drain pipe and use a tennis ball as the seal on the end of a length of rod, with this set up you can shift buckets full and suck the bedrock clean ! I wouldnt be without it.
I should allso add Im not based in Oz ...good luck

I will clearly have to check out the legality in the NT as laws may vary from state to state...It seems strange that sluices and dredges with petrol driven pumps are OK and hand pumps are taboo...your pump Mogy is essentialy the same as a Yabby pump which is designed to suck small crustaceans (Yabbies or Nippers in some states) out of small burrows in the wet sand for use as fishing bait.

can't see that it weould be a problem after reading up, they are hand operated.
I'm up in NT as well and will be doing the same as soon as I work out how to make one!!

I bought one recently for $30 from my local fishing tackle shop as it would probably cost me that much in materials and labour to make one.

I have yet to try it out but have found the perfect spot to do so. Guess where I will be this weekend.

Sluices are fine. Dredges are out! You can dig a 50 meter deep hole with a pick and shovel that's all good But you can't, Hang on "Shouldn't" "Not allowed"? to use any form of water sucking gizmo to suck anything but water! Stupid as it sounds, and is, It's illegal. Promise I won't tell

Hey Gcause, Down the beach?

are you in the NT?

YUP!!!

they love to spoil our fun don't they?

Think what you think, do what you do, Don't say you haven't been warned!

God bless America!

Not only have they heard of Yabby pumps..they even make a you beaut supercharged turbo boosted intercooled version AND call it a Yabby pump! How good is that!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYZyNFathn8 ..Rob C

Are there any states in Australia that anyone can use a hand (yabby) type pump for sucking gravel off the river bed to drop in a sluice ? , or maybe any states where no one is actually bothered ?

The idiotic issue with the yabby pump being ilegal in Australian gold fields is simply because it is deemed to be a Mechaincal hand tool?? (it contains moving parts that enable it to do what it does). The stupidity of this is made even more apparent when you realise that the human body is also a machine and when you connect the human body to another tool such as a spade or shovel the spade or shovel becomes mechanised and can be deemed to be a mechanical hand tool and while it is being used and powered by a human hand, arm leg, foot it could legally fall into the same catagory as any other mechanical hand tool and therefore be illegal for gold recovery.

THE DEFINITION OF WHAT IS AN MECHANICAL POWERED HAND TOOL FOR LEGAL GOLD RECOVERY UNDER THE RIGHTS OF A MINERS RIGHT REQUIRES SPECIFIC AND EXACT DEFFINITION

Just as there is an enormous list of rivers, creeks, streams and rivulets where gold prospecting and fossicking is NOT PERMITTED, (No probs getting this list of thousands of waterways promulgated) so there should be an list of all of the tools that ARE PERMITTED for gold recovery under the regulations of a MINERS RIGHT.

It would seem that there is no issue with getting lists of all of the things we cannot do and where we cannot fossick but obtaining exact information on were we CAN prospect and fossick and the tools we CAN USE is not so easy.

A yabby pump is a hand tool I have been using one for about a year now to do loaming in the creek beds and it works just fine unmodified, just have to remember to keep it angled upwards when you are recovering the soil samples to drop into the pan. It is great for getting down to the bedrock in the creeks and for testing the creek banks. I usually walk the creek and test every metre or so. Once I find a patch I will setup the high banker and get stuck into it.

Poor Adrian
He has his new toy, now not sure what to do with it, That sucks man!

After some nice looken older gravels for your fish tank are yu?

You may want to remove that sticker, she be a bit of a give away

I got an idea! connect a lever to operate the plunger, strap the pump to your leg under some pants, put yu foot in the drink and start flapping your arm! the outlet could look a tad suss

Yeah that law sucks

Cheers
Chris.

Grant.......... Um-arr, who's a naughty chappy then!

HI gcause,
So long as you are feeding the sluice by hand tools and are not digging into the creek/river bank in any way shape or form then yer OK......So long as yer not making a mess. I am not sure how much mess is deemed to be too much

someday wrote:Poor Adrian
He has his new toy, now not sure what to do with it, That sucks man!

After some nice looken older gravels for your fish tank are yu?

You may want to remove that sticker, she be a bit of a give away

I got an idea! connect a lever to operate the plunger, strap the pump to your leg under some pants, put yu foot in the drink and start flapping your arm! the outlet could look a tad suss

Yeah that law sucks

Cheers
Chris.

Grant.......... Um-arr, who's a naughty chappy then!

I have got a couple of spots in mind where no mortal ranger or troopers have been before Realy nice size yabbies there.

Wphew! fanks fer remindin abart va stikka Jeeez vat culda bin embarrasin.

Heading up inter tha snowies vis weekend to do a couple ov national parks Might take va Drag Line n the Dozer n a couple a stick ov gelli n keep va yabby pump as a spare Shuld doo awrite I rekon

The biggest problem collecting yabby's from the creeks, is the amount of stones and silt that get sucked up in the process!
If there was someway of putting the contents in some sort of guttering with traps and flowing water, the yabby's would come out all nice'n clean!

Then there's the other problem, not all yabby holes are occupied, so you may have to process a ton of dirt before you'l end up with a enough yabby's for a feed

Yeah I'm a dickhead

NA AAH maaaate! sounds like good ide ta me

I have done my research over a number of years and here is the legislation for Queensland that I have to comply with:

Fossicking Act 1994

Fossicking Regulations 2009

Guide to Fossicking Legislation

You also need to be mindful of the Environmental Protection, the Native Title and the Wild Rivers legislation in Queensland when you fossick.

The department in charge also puts out a dos and donts paper that is quite useful:

Dos and donts of recreational fossicking

A yabby pump does far less damage to the environment than a shovel or a pick ever will and the hole it creates fills itself nine times out of ten.

As I understand the legislation as long as I am using hand tools to excavate the material I can then use whatever means I choose to process the material as long as I obey all the legislation mentioned above.

So please show me where it's says anything in the legislation that what I am doing to loam in a creek using a yabby pump to find a patch and then using a high banker to process the material is illegal?

Grant, thats the problem mate! we can't find anything in the regs that says it's elegal! we can't find anything in the regs that says it's legal either!!!!!!!

She be a big grey area, that needs clarifying????

I wonder what the legal definition of a mess is? or Big Mess! or realy bloody big mess! or; OK that's it mate yer outa here, clean up yer stuff n get outa here before I fine yer, type of mess.
We are not allowed to dig into the banks, river banks that is , not a "Which Bank"? (although a good bucket dredge would probly do awrite at Fort Knox ). Does that mean right at the edge or a metre in from the edge or anywhere from the edge to 20 mtrs up the bank?? At what point does the bank end and the unresricted land commence?
As I said in earlier posts; Because there can be realy stiff fines involved if we get it wrong then there should be very clear definitions and descriptions where the rules, laws and regulations are conserned.

I'm getten the feelen it's left grey for a reason!
Maybe in our best interest to leave it alone??? and not for the reason of being shut down either!!

I remember in the ol days son, that river use'tu be full of???? Yeah sure dad