New "Illegal Opal Fossicking" Signs. Lightning Ridge, N.S.W.

[Syndyne]

Wal, sadly the rules don't vary at all across any opal fields, albeit Grawin, Coocoran, Mehi etc. etc. much the same as in White Cliffs. We are all under the N.S.W. blanket regulations for the Opal Mining Act. If someone goes down a shaft there the outcome would be no different. However I can only agree that this issue certainly needs addressing somewhat, how though, given the nature of OH&S is a task I certainly wouldn't want to champion.

The more cautious, safety-minded miner in me see's a very different side -that Mbasko is alluding to with regulations always being set in place, particularly when we see tourists walking around over filled in shafts that they are often unaware of (which I've mentioned a few times here over the years). These can look just like any other old mullock heap, only have an exposed shaft hiding underneath. Many shafts in the late 70' early 80's were only covered in thin concrete caps that are now broken and collapsed in. These are often hard to even see with a few weeds and a bit of surface soil over the top (easily enough room for someone slip through). These types of things are a logistical nightmare given they are often right on the sides of roads and tracks and have been abandoned for decades.

The Grawin mullock dumps are also off-limits (you beat me to it Mbasko!). That was put in place some time ago after a few close calls with trucks and tourists -and fair enough too. My Mum and her partner lived and mined close to the Grawin dumps at their camp for ten years. They saw, and heard of a lot of close calls taking place over time.

I may have stirred up a bit of a hornets nest here, but that was certainly not my intention. It was merely just to inform of the small changes taking place here now. The old Ridge hasn't really changed for the better since 2000 as far as mining and regulations go (us locals know this all too well), but we are lucky in a way that it hasn't been stopped altogether. That is a reality that may come somewhere down the line and we all have that in the backs of our minds these days.

Cheers,
Shauno.

EDIT: Spelling correction.

 

[WalnLiz]

Wal, sadly the rules don't vary at all across any opal fields, albeit Grawin, Coocoran, Mehi etc. etc. much the same as in White Cliffs. We are all under the N.S.W. blanket regulations for the Opal Mining Act. If someone goes down a shaft there the outcome would be no different. However I can only agree that this issue certainly needs addressing somewhat, how though, given the nature of OH&S is a task I certainly wouldn't want to champion.

The more cautious, safety-minded miner in me see's a very different side -that Mbasko is alluding to with regulations always being set in place, particularly when we see tourists walking around over filled in shafts that they often unaware of (which I've mentioned a few times here over the years). These can look just like any other old mullock heap, only have an exposed shaft hiding underneath. Many shafts in the late 70' early 80's were only covered in thin concrete caps that are now broken and collapsed in. These are often hard to even see with a few weeds and a bit of surface soil over the top (easily enough room for someone slip through). These types of things are a logistical nightmare given they are often right on the sides of roads and tracks and have been abandoned for decades.

The Grawin mullock dumps are also off-limits (you beat me to it Mbasko!). That was put in place some time ago after a few close calls with trucks and tourists -and fair enough too. My Mum and her partner lived and mined close to the Grawin dumps at their camp for ten years and saw a heard of a lot of close calls taking place over time.

I may have stirred up a bit of a hornets nest here, but that was certainly not my intention. It was merely just to inform of the small changes taking place here now. The old Ridge hasn't really changed for the better since 2000 as far as mining and regulations go (us locals know this all too well), but we are lucky in a way that it hasn't been stopped altogether. That is a reality that may come somewhere down the line and we all have that in the backs of our minds these days.

Cheers,
Shauno.

Agree with all you say Shauno re safety and that's something we all should abide by. But I still say that with council support a reasonably large area could be set aside for fossickers to be beneficial to both the town, and the tourists..

It's not like space is a big concern, and if some of the miners were willing to dump some of their spoils onto a reasonable sized paddock with toilets like at White Cliffs, it would be a win /win situation for all involved. Like I have said before...It's the "intent" of council that rubs me the wrong way.

 

[user 4386]

My concern is the 'Intent" of council to minimise fossicking in the area. Start with signs at the Ridge, then expand to the Sheep yards and Grawin, and soon enough that's the end of noodling on that field. The noodling spot in front of the tourist centre is nothing short of a joke.

It is not council that is restricting - the sign is not theirs (same laws all fields). Agree re the tourist centre dump, but why go there? Even the mayor is a member of the board that is trying to encourage it, not ban it. Pity about Grawin, that is a loss.

 

[Rumply22]

Is there any current miners that might be willing to offer a tailings pile for a family to noodle through at the Ridge? I am taking the family up there in September, 10 and 12 year olds, and would love to find some space that is safe and not encroaching on a miner, that might have a better chance of finding the pretties than at a "public" site.

I primary pan and sluice for gold, so less likely to fall down a mine where I go. Will have to do some more research before we head up though.

 

[Syndyne]

That could be a solution Rumply and one I've had in mind for some time as this isn't a recent change.

I can see that there are one or two mitigating factors that would arise from that proposal.

The first being that opal is far too sought after to be blindly dumping and if a good stone, say worth several thousands of dollars in value is found then who has ownership? Court cases have come up from someone finding a good opal on tailings and mullock heaps many times before. It's not as straight forward here as finders keepers. The somewhat famous Halley's Comet nobby (sold a few years back for 1.2 million dollars) was a case in those exact regards. It was found on a tailings pile and had several parties laying claim to ownership with long drawn out court battles. All parties involved had to split the sale price in the finish. I knew most of those blokes, some have now passed, and it never did them any good in the long run.

The second issue I see is that miners wash around 90+ percent of all removed opal dirt these days. We can't dump mullock on claims outside of the older, preserved fields either. Other than saving enough to back-fill a shaft or two that may be on the claim, the bulk of it being mostly barren, unwanted dirt either goes to the designated dumps which are still registered claims controlled by the mines department or, is taken to be run through the washing plants if thought to contain opal in any amount.

As far as a safe place goes, again it would have to be limited to the town area and I think it would just still end up like the salted dumps at the Information Centre in reality. No one seemingly wants to take on any legal liability these days, even the local Council. If you haven't been here before then it is understandable that you may not know that there are old mining shafts and open cuts right throughout the town residential area itself. I've got an old hand dug and back-filled shaft right outside my back door and if I walk about thirty metres from my back fence then I'm immediately on the Newtown Opal Field which was heavily mined out as it was quite rich back in the day. Most of town is situated like this against old, well known opal fields.

I certainly hope something comes of it (though fairly unlikely IMO) as I do feel for those that would like to fossick as we all did back in the day. My Mum and I used to fill a small jar with cuttable nobbies from around the 3 Mile and surrounding fields every time it rained in the 80's. A few used to make a decent bit of money from specking the old heaps in those days. The bulk of that dirt was primarily dug by hand in the early 1900's in poor light (either gouging by candlelight or carbide lamp) by miners that really didn't see all that much outside of what they'd hit with their picks. This lead them to dump a lot of missed gem opal on the surface via a windlass or york hoist, even a few 'Winter tourist miners' would dump opal up top in their mullock as most had little clue as to what they were doing when a bit green to opal. This hadn't really changed all that much either right up until rumblers, agi's and puddlers were introduced in the late 60's early 70's to wash the opal dirt. That old original hand dug dirt was later all picked up by loaders, taken away and washed for it's opal content in the late 80's early 90's and was full of good, gem opal.

Food for thought anyhow.
Kindest regards,
Shauno.

 

[Rumply22]

That could be a solution Rumply and one I've had in mind for some time as this isn't a recent change.

I can see that there are one or two mitigating factors that would arise from that proposal.

The first being that opal is far too sought after to be blindly dumping and if a good stone, say worth several thousands of dollars in value is found then who has ownership? Court cases have come up from someone finding a good opal on tailings and mullock heaps many times before. It's not as straight forward here as finders keepers. The somewhat famous Halley's Comet nobby (sold a few years back for 1.2 million dollars) was a case in those exact regards. It was found on a tailings pile and had several parties laying claim to ownership with long drawn out court battles. All parties involved had to split the sale price in the finish. I knew most of those blokes, some have now passed, and it never did them any good in the long run.

The second issue I see is that miners wash around 90+ percent of all removed opal dirt these days. We can't dump mullock on claims outside of the older, preserved fields either. Other than saving enough to back-fill a shaft or two that may be on the claim, the bulk of it being mostly barren, unwanted dirt either goes to the designated dumps which are still registered claims controlled by the mines department or, is taken to be run through the washing plants if thought to contain opal in any amount.

As far as a safe place goes, again it would have to be limited to the town area and I think it would just still end up like the salted dumps at the Information Centre in reality. No one seemingly wants to take on any legal liability these days, even the local Council. If you haven't been here before then it is understandable that you may not know that there are old mining shafts and open cuts right throughout the town residential area itself. I've got an old hand dug and back-filled shaft right outside my back door and if I walk about thirty metres from my back fence then I'm immediately on the Newtown Opal Field which was heavily mined out as it was quite rich back in the day. Most of town is situated like this against old, well known opal fields.

I certainly hope something comes of it (though fairly unlikely IMO) as I do feel for those that would like to fossick as we all did back in the day. My Mum and I used to fill a small jar with cuttable nobbies from around the 3 Mile and surrounding fields every time it rained in the 80's. A few used to make a decent bit of money from specking the old heaps in those days. The bulk of that dirt was primarily dug by hand in the early 1900's in poor light (either gouging by candlelight or carbide lamp) by miners that really didn't see all that much outside of what they'd hit with their picks. This lead them to dump a lot of missed gem opal on the surface via a windlass or york hoist, even a few 'Winter tourist miners' would dump opal up top in their mullock as most had little clue as to what they were doing when a bit green to opal. This hadn't really changed all that much either right up until rumblers, agi's and puddlers were introduced in the late 60's early 70's to wash the opal dirt. That old original hand dug dirt was later all picked up by loaders, taken away and washed for it's opal content in the late 80's early 90's and was full of good, gem opal.

Food for thought anyhow.
Kindest regards,
Shauno.

Thanks for your reply, you make some very good points! It's a shame, but understandable.

That's very interesting but if history too. Thanks.

 

[dhall123]

The TV shows bring uneducated people with zero bush skills, it's a accident waiting to happen.

by no means am i and expert but simple respect has gone out the window and replaced with greed

 

[Wbfoto]

Things have changed on the Opal fields I live at Grawin and have been mining there for the past 16 years in the last three years due to TV show that refuses to advise people what the laws and requirements of the Opal fields are and Covid who had people not able to get out of the country or even out of the state has seen us get smashed with thousands of tourists they wander all over your claims even into our camp/houses yards and when asked to leave become very abusive telling they have every single right because they watched it on TV the signs don’t help a lot but are better than nothing as a result lots of long time miners are leaving the area me including my camp and mine is now for sale due to only one thing the influx of tourist most are polite but there’s a large element of rude arrogant people who believe that they have rights to go wherever they want whenever they want and take what they want .as a mine operator/manager we are responsible for what happens on our claims people wandering in and out picking up what they want and just believing that they have every right to do so we are liable for any nice dent. I’m sure if I walked into their house yard or property in There town or city and just walked into their front yard and started picking things up and walking away with them that they would have the police on me before I could leave the property but out here it seems to be that because it’s scrub with lots of trucks running through it it’s just they’re right to go wherever they want do whatever they want and take whatever they want. signs are not enough. people should be policing this there should be big fines for going on the someone’s claims there also should be plenty of areas available for people who want to come out and go fossicking to be able to legally do so it is sad something that has been happening for decades now has to stop because of the actions of it very small few. sound familiar when it comes to fossicking? Metal detecting is no different people failing to shut gates or fill in holes or seek permission has stopped detector operator from going to certain areas now it’s happening in the Opal fields until people start having some respect for the people that earn their living out in mining then unfortunately more curbs and restrictions are going to be put in place on recreational Fossickers. it’s not the Government we should be whingeing at for stopping recreational fossicking on the opal fields it’s the rude arrogant entitled tourists that we should be complaining about there the ones that are putting the restrictions on fossicking in the Opal field at least at Grawin and lightning Ridge.. forget what you see on tv and put yourself in the miners position how would you feel if we all walked into where you live and work without permission and just started helping ourselves to whatever we wanted??

 

[Wbfoto]

I expect two of the signs are primarily a legal liability issue to warn visitors of the danger (if they don't they are legally considered negligent, and I have seen such signs on all opal fields regardless of State). This one greets you at White Cliffs.

View attachment 3689

Also, the Mines Dept have no choice but to prosecute for infringements relating to OH&S on an operating claim, which is not what these signs refer to anyway (it does not matter if it is a coal mine or gold mine or an opal mine) - but that is not what is being referred to. From memory at Coober Pedy it is strictly illegal to even enter an old mining area, with signs everywhere for decades (there is a designated area where you can prospect - a small field called the "Jewellers Shop"). It helps noone if there is a tourist fatality. Access would only be further restricted. Local White Cliffs miners are NOT impressed by tourists wandering around open shafts either (I have spent time on all three fields and have known the heads of the local miners' associations).

"How hard would it be for them to give limited access to the many mine dumping areas which don't have shafts so they can scratch around for a few opal chips after the rains" - in theory that seems reasonable but 99% of dumps are adjacent to shafts, whether filled or open. Are you going to map out where the open holes are for them? Look at the density....Are you sure that such designatged areas do not exist? White Cliffs is a tiny field by comparison and all of it is declared an opal reserve (so legal to fossick there - although that only negates any crown land restriction. The third sign in your photo actually specifically refers to "illegal" fossicking, as applies everywhere in NSW (crown land, and private land and claims without owners permission, or using illegal types of equipment). Have you read the barcode on your phone that is on the sign to see if it gives additional details? Have you asked at the Tourist info centre? Lastly, the signs are on a fence line - are you sure that the one sign that you are presumably objecting to does not specifically refer to the fenced area? There is a lot of private land at Lightning Ridge - I have simply asked owners permission and never been refused once. Best to check (perhaps before calling a boycott and going to White Cliffs where the same state laws apply to illegal fossicking except within the small opal reserve which simply lacks any crown land restriction).

View attachment 3688

Signs at the ridge n grawin are more specific and very clear

 

[user 22230]

Probably best to get used to it as more and more land owners are simply becoming fed up with the general "do as I please" attitude of so many. The solution is easy for them, just lock the gates. I can't speak to much for the opal side of things but i can assure you that the opinion of "scratchers" by many station owners is not good, and believe it or not they don't need the 15 to 20 bucks a day or the attitudes of many they have to deal with as a result. How do you educate people ? Buggered if I know. Has also been noted that as the values of gold etc rise the attitudes of many "new" to the search lowers. I can say for certain that if you currently have access to land then cherish and value it, otherwise you will lose it. Happy hunting

 

[Wbfoto]

It appears on the surface to be set up with the miners (claim owners) interests at the forefront. There are reportedly some ~3000 claims on the reserve & no apparent area/s set aside for fossicking.
Maybe if enough people contact the LRAOR https://lror.org/contact/
some thought may be given to "safe" fossicking areas or a general permission type permit for specific areas?

I’m led to believe that the reserve is run by the lightning ridge reserve trust they do collaborate with other body’s you mentioned

 

[Phil8303]

I've never been to the opal fields, being based in WA. I have, however, seen tourists do extremely dangerous and just outright stupid things at many a dangerous spot across the globe. I feel for anyone trying to run a claim and having to deal with these types of visitors.

 

[ricbas]

The only public area now at Grawin is reportedly a small dump near the pub.
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/threads/travel-help-opal-terrority.39890/#post-649972The "public" dumps I believe are owned by the miners (or managed under trust for the miners) & are off limits.
The Ridge has the one at the tourist centre & at least one at a tourist mine (can noodle after paying).
Edit: oh & the one at the Opal caravan park if you're staying there.
Other than that unless you know somebody there isn't much for the general tourist there.

Yep totally agree, have been to Lightning Ridge a couple of times, pretty disappointed that there are only a couple of noodling sites for us grey nomads . With the size and amount of mines around surely the locals or the council could construct and run an area for the tourists. We pay good money into the area but get little incentive to come back. "Once seen once forgotten!!!" Pretty disappointed but still like the town and the Opal van park, will be back next week. Just an idea, the large dumps out at Grawin that are shut to fossickers, maybe open one up to noodling, control it, we will pay to have a noodle!!!! Just an idea.

 

[LONEWOLF]

Best way around this is get to know some miners out there, and fossick on their claims...

LW