Fossicking is a regulated activity in Queensland and requires a fossicking licence.
Read this guide to learn about fossicking—where to fossick, tools to use, materials you can collect, safety and your responsibilities.
This Fossicking in Queensland brochure can be used by organisations to direct customers to this online guide.
Contact us for fossicking enquiries.
Stay safe while fossicking by observing the following principles.
This page explains where you can fossick in Queensland and what permissions are required. Remember, no matter where you fossick, you must have a fossicking licence and follow fossicking rules.
Fossicking is not permitted in national parks, conservation parks and wildlife reserves. state forests and state timber reserves.
Fossicking is only permitted in state forests and state timber reserves where there is a general permission area.
Specified fossicking areas have been created to allow easy access for fossicking. In these areas you don’t need to obtain special permission from the landowner.
These areas include:
Find out more about specified fossicking land:
A boundary watercourse does not require permission to enter. However adjoining owners to a boundary watercourse may have rights over the land to take water or trespass rights. You should contact them for permission before fossicking.
If a watercourse is part of another land tenure, for example a land lease or freehold lot, you’ll need the landholder’s permission.
Also note that additional rules and responsibilities apply when fossicking in watercourses.
You will generally need the landholder’s written consent before fossicking on any land that isn’t specified fossicking land. Table 1 below shows some common land tenures and who to contact for permission. The next section explains how to find information about land tenure and landholders.
If the land is unoccupied (for example unallocated state land), you don’t need permission to fossick unless:
You can get information on a land parcel’s tenure and lot on plan number by using GeoResGlobe. Use this list of abbreviations to help you interpret the information.
If in doubt about the tenure of the land, contact the local mining registrar.
Once you have the land parcel’s details (e.g. lot on plan number), you can obtain the landholder’s details by requesting a current title search.
The Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations has contact details for native title bodies.
Land tenure | Who to contact |
|---|---|
Freehold land | Owner |
State land leases, licences and permits to occupy, e.g.
| Leaseholder, permit holder or licence holder |
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander land | Trustee or leaseholder |
Forest plantations | Licence holder |
National parks, conservation parks, wildlife reserves | Fossicking not permitted |
Rail corridors | Department of Transport and Main Roads |
Reserves | |
Reserves in the Wet Tropics area | |
Resource reserves | |
Road reserves | Permission not required for collection. No digging allowed. If road is a stock route, contact local council |
| State forests and state timber reserves | Fossicking not permitted unless GPA over the area |
Stock routes |
The Fossicking Act 1994 and associated regulations contain requirements for fossickers to maintain safety, hygiene and a high standard of behaviour during their visits.
Landholders should contact the Resources Community Infoline if unacceptable activities occur.
Infringement notices (on-the-spot fines) and prosecutions may be used to enforce the provisions of the legislation. Breaches may also result in cancellation of licences.
These responsibilities apply to all fossickers.
When fossicking, you must not:
On leaving a site:
Within watercourses, you must not:
On leaving, refill all excavations and place excess material so as to minimise disturbance to the channel and significant streamflows.
Sluicing is permitted, however you are not allowed to use a motorised pump or machinery.
Within designated fossicking lands and areas you must not:
On leaving a site, you must make all excavations safe for future fossickers, stock and landholders if necessary, as instructed by the authorised officers.
Fossickers must comply with any special conditions of access.
Your fossicking licence allows you to search for and collect fossicking materials using hand tools and for recreational, tourist and educational purposes only.
Hand tools such as picks, shovels, hammers, sieves, shakers, hand sluices, electronic detectors (metal detectors) and other similar hand tools can be used.
No machinery is permitted. This includes water sluices with electronic pumps and dredges of any kind.
You can collect from the surface or by digging, but you are not permitted to dig below 2m of the natural ground surface of land or below 0.5m in streams. Overhangs and tunnels are not allowed.
On road reserves, no digging is permitted but collection from existing exposures is allowed.
You can collect gemstones, ornamental stones, mineral specimens, alluvial gold (including nuggets) and some fossil specimens, but not meteorites and fossils of vertebrate animals.
You don’t need a fossicking licence to search for ‘treasure’ such as lost jewellery and coins on a beach.
You can sell the occasional ‘lucky find’ of a gemstone or sell and trade to hobbyists or through fairs and exhibitions. However, repeated removal for sale through shops or businesses, or as part of making a living, is considered commercial, and requires tenure under the Mineral Resources Act 1989.
Royalties are payable on fossicking materials that are the property of the Crown, but threshold exemptions of $100,000 mean that generally most fossickers are not liable.
Fossicking rules and responsibilities, 06 Nov 2024, [https://oss-uat.clients.squiz.net/recreation/activities/areas-facilities/fossicking/rules]
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