- Target:
- MR KON VATSKALIS , N.T. GOVERNMENT
- Region:
- Australia
It was mostly individual prospectors that opened up most areas of Australia’s mineral wealth. There are now still thousands of active prospectors in Australia spending their own time and money seeking more mineral wealth for themselves and their country. It is also a healthy lifestyle.
The Eureka Stockade (an organised rebellion) gave us the rights and privileges imparted to us by Queen Victoria back in 1853. What resulted from this rebellion at the time was the Miners Right.
The premise was and still is that the crown (Commonwealth) owns all mineral rights and has the right to dispense leases and Miners Rights on all crown land occupied or unoccupied. The Miners Right gave us the right to access occupied lands with permission so as to engage in prospecting and helps regulate mining and prospecting in an orderly manner.
Don’t let the Government of the Northern Territory take this RIGHT away from you akin to what the other states are now doing and have succeeded at doing. This is our pastime and the N.T. Government is now making it harder for us to access and enjoy. This also threatens a sector of the tourist industry not to mention the dwindling sales to Australian companies that support the prospector / fossicker.
So much for “THE GREAT TERRITORY LIFESTYLE” as we know it and of which the N.T. Government so strongly instils into our society.
We the undersigned call on the NT Government to amend the current NT Mining Regs and Act of 2011 and to re-instate the previous conditions of the Fossicker, the N.T. Miners Right and Fossickers Permit as the current act and regulations do not favour or support the NT Prospector – Fossicker in a fair and just way.
The current ACT / REGS 2011 requires that the Fossicker is supposed to give seven days notice of his intentions to the lease holder / pastoralist of which is based on weather conditions at time and time available within the 4 month prospecting window (because too wet, grass too long, too humid, too boggy) that we have. We also venture out at intermittent - ad hoc times to various locations to fossick. These new regulations are most unreasonable for the Fossicker.
With permissions given, the Fossicker is also required to have on his person at all times the documentation associated with the approval process. This is to be carried whilst he is trudging through the bush and when sweating profusely. If the prospector has the good fortune of getting the written permission within the specified time frame from the lease holder / pastoralist (of which tie up huge amounts of land) they can quite easily give a final refusal for whatever reason. The prospector is then forced from his land and to comply with N.T. legislation thereby being denied access after travelling 100’s of kilometers.
Also there are huge tracts of non-grazed pastoral land tied up with an unworked dormant EL slapped on it. We would like to see a limited area assigned to EL leases and not boundless amounts.
Of what land is available for the NT prospector / fossicker is abysmal and has been flogged to death over the years. In addition these fields are way too far from Darwin for many Fossickers.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The AMEND THE 2011 NT MINING ACT AND REGULATIONS petition to MR KON VATSKALIS , N.T. GOVERNMENT was written by G.Horwood and is in the category Miscellaneous at GoPetition.