Fossicking rules and responsibilities Guide

Fossicking is a regulated activity in Queensland and requires a fossicking licence.

This licence allows you to search for and collect fossicking materials for recreational, tourist and educational purposes only.

Licences are not required at tourist mines and similar sites that charge a fee for entry. You also don’t need a fossicking licence to hunt for treasure or lost items using a metal detector. You should check with the local council for any rules about accessing public beaches and other areas for this purpose.

This guide explains what tools you are allowed to use and where you can fossick. It also explains your responsibilities under fossicking legislation in regards to safety, hygiene and behaviour.

Contact us if you have any questions about fossicking.

You can receive an on-the-spot fine or be prosecuted if you breach the provisions of your fossicking licence.

• Personal protection and safety

  Stay safe while fossicking by observing the following principles.

  Personal protection

  • Wear suitable clothing for the conditions, including a hat and sturdy footwear (shoes or boots).
  • Apply sun protection and wear sunglasses.
  • Use an insect repellent when appropriate.
  • Wear gloves when digging and sieving to avoid wear and tear to the hands.
  • Wear rubber boots if working in water for long periods.
  • Wear proper eye protection (safety goggles/glasses) whenever breaking rocks.
  • Carry a well-stocked first-aid kit.

  Before leaving home

  • Check all equipment, including tools and camping gear, to ensure that it is in working order and safe to use.
  • Check your vehicle to ensure that it is in proper working condition and that adequate supplies of food, water, fuel and spares are on board.
  • Advise someone of your plans (including when you expect to return) and contact numbers.
  • Check park alerts for the latest information on access, closure and conditions.
  • Check the current bushfire situation.
  • Check weather forecasts and road conditions.
  • Carry a mobile phone or other suitable communication equipment to maintain contact or to get help.
  • Avoid going out alone.

  When fossicking

  • Be careful when digging around large boulders because they may roll or move suddenly, causing severe injury.
  • Never burrow into or undermine a stream bank or earth face or work under overhanging rocks or earth faces.
  • Never dig holes deeper than the permitted depth.
  • Use existing roads and tracks only and avoid cross-country driving.
  • Beware of noxious weeds such as parthenium that can cause serious allergic reactions.
  • When visiting old mining areas beware of open shafts and avoid getting too close, as the surrounding ground may be unstable. Never enter old underground workings.
  • Be careful when fossicking on mine dumps, as much of the material is loose and may move without warning.
  • Never set a fire to clear grass or undergrowth.
  • Don’t carry or use firearms or explosives.
  • For the safety of others, make safe and refill any excavations before leaving, remove rubbish and bury human waste.

  When camping

  • Position your camp site well away from any stock watering points.
  • Be careful with fire—use gas for cooking or set camp fires in a proper fireplace with a cleared space around it.

  In an emergency

  • Dial 000 from a telephone or 112 from your mobile phone.

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• Where you can fossick

  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, wildlife reserves, state forests and state timber reserves.

  Specified fossicking land

  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:

  • General permission areas - areas where landholders have given general permission for fossicking and camping on specific areas of their properties. Make sure you follow the rules and pay the fee if required.
  • Designated fossicking lands and fossicking areas - areas established by the government in cooperation with local government and landholders. They are signposted and publicised as part of a statewide network to promote local tourism. Commercial mining tenures are allowed in fossicking lands but not in fossicking areas.

  Find out more about specified fossicking land:

  • Central Queensland gemfields
  • Central gold district
  • South-eastern Queensland fossicking
  • Northern Queensland fossicking
  • Western opal fields

  Watercourses

  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.

  Other land

  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:

  • there has been a native title determination over the land
  • the land has been ‘vested’ in another agency and used for a particular purpose.

  Researching land tenure and ownership details

  Land details

  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.

  1. Wait for the map to load, then click on Layers.
  2. Click Add layers.
  3. Browse through the list of layers. Click to the right of a layer to expand the selection. Select the tickbox to the left of a layer to add it to the map. Useful layers include Cadastre layers (for land tenure and land parcel information), Native title and Administrative boundaries (to find the local government).
  4. Zoom in to the area of interest using the + tool and/or your mouse.

  If in doubt about the tenure of the land, contact the local mining registrar.

  Ownership details

  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.

  Table 1: Who to contact for permission to fossick

  Land tenure	Who to contact
  Freehold land	Owner
  State land leases, licences and permits to occupy, e.g. Freeholding lease Grazing homestead freeholding lease Grazing homestead perpetual lease (GHPL) Land lease Non-competitive lease Pastoral holding Rolling term lease State lease over a reserve Term lease for pastoral purposes	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, state forests and state timber reserves	Fossicking not permitted
  Rail corridors	Department of Transport and Main Roads
  Reserves	Department of Resources
  Reserves in the Wet Tropics area	Wet Tropics Management Authority
  Resource reserves	Department of Resources
  Road reserves	Permission not required for collection. No digging allowed. If road is a stock route, contact local council
  Stock routes	Local council

  More information

  • Read about GeoResGlobe and access help and tutorials.
  • Find out more about Queensland stock routes.

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• Responsibilities of fossickers

  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.

  General responsibilities

  These responsibilities apply to all fossicking areas.

  When fossicking, you must not:

  • destroy or injure any trees
  • clear any vegetation except above an actual excavation
  • pollute any watercourse, dam or the like
  • create areas likely to erode
  • interfere with any livestock, wildlife or property infrastructure (e.g. windmills, bores, pumps, tanks, fences)
  • interfere with any heritage or cultural site
  • undermine any banks or dig pits to create any tunnels or overhanging sections.

  On leaving a site:

  • refill all excavations
  • remove all camping structures
  • bury human waste at least 20cm deep and 20m away from the high bank of any watercourse
  • remove all rubbish, unless established bins or pits are in the vicinity
  • ensure the site is in a safe, tidy and sanitary condition.

  Fossicking in watercourses

  Within watercourses, you must not:

  • excavate within 40m of any bridge, weir or other structure, unless signs indicate otherwise
  • excavate on the slopes of banks, or within 3m of the top or toe of banks, where such activities may cause the collapse of the banks
  • significantly interrupt or divert the flow of the stream
  • cause any significant turbidity more than 300m downstream
  • interfere with any trees or shrubs in the watercourse
  • erect any structures in the watercourse.

  On leaving, refill all excavations and place excess material so as to minimise disturbance to the channel and significant streamflows.

  Designated fossicking lands and areas

  Within designated fossicking lands and areas you must not:

  • erect any permanent or semi-permanent structures
  • make any new tracks or roads without approval
  • drive on any fossicking land
    • in an unregistered vehicle or without a licence
    • at more than 50km/h
    • off a made track or road
    • in a hazardous or noisy manner
    • in a way that would harm the road surface
  • use a weapon, trap or explosive
  • operate any generator, radio or other electrical appliance with excessive noise that may annoy other fossickers
  • damage any sign or other structure
  • light any fire except within a fireplace or a cleared space with a radius of at least 2m
  • light a fire if a notice indicates that this is prohibited
  • bring any animals if a notice indicates that this is prohibited
  • allow any water supply to run to waste
  • fossick, camp or light a fire when instructed not to do so temporarily by a sign or authorised officers.

  On leaving a site, you must make all excavations safe for future fossickers, stock and landholders if necessary, as instructed by the authorised officers.

  General permission areas

  Fossickers must comply with any special conditions of access.

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• Permitted activities and materials

  Your fossicking licence allows you to search for and collect fossicking materials using hand tools and for recreational, tourist and educational purposes only.

  Permitted tools and extent of diggings

  Hand tools such as picks, shovels, hammers, sieves, shakers, electronic detectors (metal detectors) and other similar 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.

  Materials collected

  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.

  Sale and trade of collected material

  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, 04 Dec 2023, [https://oss-uat.clients.squiz.net/recreation/activities/areas-facilities/fossicking/rules]

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