Victorian Government Response to Victorian Environmental Assessment Councils (VEAC) Investigation into additional prospecting areas in parks

[user 7222]

It amazes me that more people haven't comment on this thread.
My fellow prospectors, you are being informed that you are about to lose huge chunks of bushland to recreate in and it seems that no one cares.
Please read the VEAC Report and take the time to submit your statement for or against it. If you do not do this then I believe youll have no right to whinge and complain when there are less areas for us to go into. If you're not part of the solution and wish to fight for YOUR Bushland, then you are part of the problem.

 

[Goldtarget]

Woah Woah Woah. Now I know you're a fair dinkum bloke Patrick, and a great prospector, and agree wholeheartedly in what you've said right up to that last little bit about being part of the problem.

Truth is not one prospector asked for or supports a change when we get short changed. And I along with many others submitted supported by different groups, users and lobby groups. I personally contacted a few recreational clubs and their representatives to push for further submissions and I see on the list at least some of the groups did not get a viable submission in.

It's frustrating and then the result is disheartening, but the fact is "people power" just doesn't seem to be enough to keep things from changing. Now I agree there's a problem but I'm bereft of answers as it appears targeted sensible discussion and submissions don't hold enough weight.

My conclusion is that the only real way prospecting will be influenced in natural areas is through 3 avenues.
1. Politicians aligned with user groups view who are able to effectively retain the status quo. But let's face it, it's extremely unlikely.
2. Influence and control as agents of land management. Again, let's face it, the direction comes from the top down not the bottom up, but it certainly would help the cause.
3. Challenge the legalities. Costly but the only real way to circumnavigate existing conditions and use of land. I'm no legal expert but there must be some grounds to challenge. In this case there is probably little hope, but wider land management and prospecting restrictions are surely open to be tested legally. My favorite bet is on the exempt list, I think let them take some if you can slip in the back way to open up areas there is known gold in locations the mean green movement isn't focused on. Let a court decide, and by the time they notice the change the gold will already be on the shovel.

The last hail Mary is to engage in low impact mining licence, costly, but almost assures you of land use. The last lot of changes in vic restrictions is actually very appealing. Trust me, if they go all the way this is exactly what I intend to do, legal, and requires very little external influence to enact.

All hope is not lost even when it feels hopeless. As long as companies are allowed to take it from the Earth there's always a way in for us.

Cheers.

 

[ken2m]

It amazes me that more people haven't comment on this thread.
My fellow prospectors, you are being informed that you are about to lose huge chunks of bushland to recreate in and it seems that no one cares.
Please read the VEAC Report and take the time to submit your statement for or against it. If you do not do this then I believe youll have no right to whinge and complain when there are less areas for us to go into. If you're not part of the solution and wish to fight for YOUR Bushland, then you are part of the problem.

Apathy is the reason that people generally get the short sharp end of the stick. Everybody leaves it to someone else to do something. I put in an initial submission and attended one of the "drop in sessions", but I haven't read the full report yet, but I will. I may put in a further submission if I am able to make a positive impact on the final report. From memory the last report was accepted in about 95% of recommendations when it was tabled in parliament. Ken.

 

[oldmate]

Hi all. As most are probably aware the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council wish to lock us out of huge swathes of the Victorian bush. You can go here and sign a petition to help avoid it.......

INTERNET://www.change.org/p/don-t-lock-up-the-victorian-bush/u/20313995

you can go here and read others submissions.......

INTERNET://veac.vic.gov.au/investigation/central-west-investigation/submissions

and/or you can go here and write your own submission

INTERNET://veac.vic.gov.au/investigation/central-west-investigation/submissions

Please don't sit idly by while our prospecting land is taken away.

ACT NOW! SUBMISSIONS CLOSE ON 31ST OCTOBER.

Oldmate.

 

[RM Outback]

Good post Oldmate :Y: can't hurt to keep reminding everyone.

 

[MegsyB007]

I've read a few submissions regarding prospecting that are a bit 'light on' with any beneficial aspects of prospecting noted in them, so I posted one myself.

How many prospectors have picked up a lot of lead, rusty tin and rubbish while prospecting, and disposed of it properly?

This should be mentioned, because VEAC are not considering that there are thousands of prospectors out there cleaning up these areas, who are helping to keep these areas as pristine bushland, and also getting the lead out of the rivers and creeks while panning. That's heavy metal that pollutes the waterways, that prospectors are taking out of the water and improving their condition.

Come on fellow prospectors - tell them how we are BENEFICIAL to these areas! We're the unofficial rubbish collectors of native areas and waterways, and either they don't realise how much we collect, because there's not a lot there (thanks to us), but they're trying to shut us out and these areas will lose their best resource that uses them - us!

Send in a submission and tell them!

 

[moeee]

How many prospectors have picked up a lot of lead, rusty tin and rubbish while prospecting, and disposed of it properly?

That is a mighty admirable thing to do - thing is , all that trash you picking up and disposing of was hidden underground and out of sight so has done nothing to improve the beauty of the landscape.

 

[Goldtarget]

How many prospectors have picked up a lot of lead, rusty tin and rubbish while prospecting, and disposed of it properly?

That is a mighty admirable thing to do - thing is , all that trash you picking up and disposing of was hidden underground and out of sight so has done nothing to improve the beauty of the landscape.

Mate the jig is up. It take's a while to figure out if someone's a nuffy or just an instigator and with this comment I know which side of the fence your are on. Perhaps a reread of the rules is in order. It's not clever, funny, or helpful what you have written here.

It's hard enough to get action by individuals on these matters as it is, let alone muddying up the directly helpful content for your own amusement. I take these matters extremely seriously. If i was looking for advice on road rules i wouldnt be asking the loner dressed as a clown in a clown car. You understand?

Try posting over in the comedy section see if you get a laugh there, and let the grown ups deal with the serious issues.

I don't have time of day for idiots derailing serious efforts to stop further changes to prospecting. What you wrote is deliberately ridiculous and undeniably meant to be so. If you have nothing to offer then your in the way and need to remove yourself.

Cheers.

 

[nucopia]

Spot on oldGT :Y:

 

[Heatho]

I don't have time of day for idiots derailing serious efforts to stop further changes to prospecting. What you wrote is deliberately ridiculous and undeniably meant to be so. If you have nothing to offer then your in the way and need to remove yourself.

Cheers.

Or be removed.

 

[Jaros]

Arghh!! Sunday breakfast. yumm. :brokenh:

 

[Heatho]

Carry on fellas, the troll has been sent packing finally. The mod team were totally over his oop: posting.

 

[Tathradj]

Thanks Heatho and Jaros.
We give any one a fair go but this was just over the top.
Thanks for truly restraining yourself OldGT.

 

[Eldorado]

Well said OldGT and thank you to the mods,glad to see him gone.

 

[Mirrors]

Can someone post a direct link to signing the petition ?

 

[RM Outback]

Well said OldGT and thank you to the mods,glad to see him gone.

X 2 :Y: Well done Mods and OldGT.

 

[MegsyB007]

Well! I didn't mean to cause a ruckus with my comment, but it seems I did! Sorry guys... But thanks for the support OldGT and friends.
I guess moeee has never picked up a bag of stubbies, cans and tins lying on top of the ground on his prospecting trips, like I did at Graytown a few weeks back - and yes, the area looked a lot neater when we left!

Does he seriously think all the rubbish we collect is just underground?

Mirrors, the link is at the top of this post's thread. Just copy and paste it into your address bar (with www at the start).
It took me a few minutes to work out that the ones already online (Period 1) that you can read are only from the first round of submissions in 2017 - the current ones are not showing up yet - so don't worry if you can't see your one on their submissions page and think something went wrong! It hasn't - Period 2 is just not online yet.

Cheers guys.
Megsy

 

[user 4485]

Can someone post a direct link to signing the petition ?

www.change.org/p/don-t-lock-up-the-victorian-bush/u/20313995

 

[Goldtarget]

And now a proper discussion can take place. To the OP and contributions of a substantial nature of the discussion I didn't want an aside to this thread but enough was enough when a sad attention seeker wanted to push it in the wrong direction. Anywhere else I could let it slide but being divisive on this issue you have to draw a line.

Thanks to the Mods who can feel a bit damned if you do or don't at times for showing the courage to step in and deal with it swiftly and deftly.

Our access issues need to be high on the agenda for all of us, whether we are on the front lines or not.

Pondering on this, and future submissions, is there possibly a way to collaborate and collate submissions for inspiration/content purposes that helps individuals and groups with their own submissions? In the last few times it has opened up I've wondered if my own submitted content was robust enough, and certainly would have helped getting support from other user groups if they could make the task simple enough. Perhaps some cut and paste word documents or fill in the blanks? I realise this leads to many similar submissions but ultimately may carry greater weight of Representatives if possible. Is anyone aware of such a thing already in existence?

 

[MegsyB007]

Hi again OldGT.
I've done a bit of looking around online to see if there's anything to "guide" a submission, and read one from 2014 from Rita Bentley, the PMAV President at that time, and it has some good points made in it, that could be helpful items for inclusion for others' submissions. It slightly loses the plot a couple of times, and could have done without the "muck around in the mud finding gold" comment too - but it's called "Submission no. 92 Received 11 May 2014 - Parliament of Victoria." Sorry, can't post links yet - still a newbie...

But I feel the most salient fact (that we clean up these areas) wasn't mentioned in it, that should have been.

These investigating committees are all about preserving the environment. What we should do, is send them some photos of areas in National Parks that have rubbish dumped there, where we can't prospect, and other photos of prospecting areas that don't have litter in them.

I haven't made it to the Whipstick yet, but I'm very curious to know what that's like as far as rubbish in the well known prospected area, for an example.

Perhaps a picture could paint a thousand words OldGT and we can gather a whole lot of photos from prospectors of littered areas in National Parks where we can't prospect, compared to clean areas where we do, and add that to a submission? They do like their pretty pictures in their reports...

Cheers,
Megsy