This policy identifies the limited opportunities for fossicking in parks, and explains how future opportunities will be assessed.
Policy
1-7. Is fossicking allowed in parks?
- Fossicking is generally not permitted in parks because it can pose unacceptable risks to natural and cultural heritage. Under the National Parks and Wildlife Regulation 2019 it is an offence to '...interfere with, dig up, cut up, collect or remove for any purpose any soil, sand, gravel, fossil, clay, rock, ochre, mineral...', (clause 13(1)(h)) or to 'dam, divert or pollute the water in any waters or water tank in a park' (clause 13(1)(i)) without consent. This means fossicking is prohibited without consent, which can be provided in a plan of management for a park, or, in the absence of a plan of management, in writing by a NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Branch Director.
- Fossicking is currently permitted in two parks through plans of management:
- Abercrombie Karst Conservation Reserve (Grove Creek part only)
- Torrington State Conservation Area (throughout the park).
- Fossicking in other areas will only be considered if there is no plan of management and it does not pose unacceptable risks to park values.
- Fossicking in other areas will be considered only if there is an appropriate level of environmental assessment and it is consistent with:
- the objects of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 (NPW Act)
- the relevant management principles for the park
- the relevant plan of management.
- Consent to fossick may be considered, subject to the relevant plan of management, in the following reserve categories:
- national parks
- state conservation areas
- regional parks
- land acquired but not reserved under Part 11 of the NPW Act.
- Consent to fossick will not be considered for
- nature reserves
- historic sites
- Aboriginal areas or Aboriginal places
- karst conservation reserves, (except as already permitted in the Grove Creek area of Abercrombie Karst Conservation Reserve)
- wilderness areas.
- Fossicking in areas or waters subject to a successful native title claim also requires the consent of the relevant registered native title body corporate (as required by section 12(6) of the Mining Act 1992).
because it is not consistent with the management principles for these park categories under the NPW Act, or the management principles for wilderness under the Wilderness Act 1987.