New South Wales Consolidated Acts

MINING ACT 1992 - SECT 12

12 Fossicking

(1) For the purposes of this or any other Act or law, it is declared that fossicking is a lawful activity.

(2) Subsection (1):

(a) does not affect any other Act or law that prohibits, regulates or restricts fossicking or that has the effect of prohibiting, regulating or restricting fossicking and, in particular, does not make fossicking a lawful authority or lawful excuse for the purposes of any such Act or law, and

(b) does not confer on any person a right of entry on to land (other than land prescribed by subsection (2A)) for fossicking purposes.

(2A) For the purposes of subsection (2) (b), the prescribed land is Crown land (within the meaning of the Crown Lands Act 1989 ):

(a) that is not held under a lease, licence or permissive occupancy under the Crown Lands Act 1989 , the Crown Lands (Continued Tenures) Act 1989 or the Western Lands Act 1901 , and

(b) that is not under the management or control of a trustee or a public or local authority.

(3) Any publicly owned mineral that is recovered in the course of lawful fossicking becomes the property of the person by whom it is found at the time it is severed from the land on which it is found.

(4) A person must not carry out fossicking on any land the subject of an authority, mineral claim or opal prospecting licence except with the consent of the holder of the authority, claim or licence.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units.

(5) Subsection (4) does not apply to the carrying out of fossicking on land the subject of an exploration licence if the land is within a fossicking district.

(6) A person must not carry out fossicking on any land that is, or in waters that are, the subject of an approved determination of native title under the Commonwealth Native Title Act to the effect that native title exists, except with the consent of the relevant registered native title body corporate with respect to that native title.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units.