Cootamundra
South West Slopes. 9.6 km south of Harden.
Gazetted
4 March 2016
Mapped size
1,874 square kilometres
Nearest town
Harden
Photo: Nick Pitsas, CSIRO (CC BY 3.0). Wikimedia Commons.
Location
Gold marker: the middle of Cootamundra. Dark marker: Harden.
Fossicking district
The gold line is the gazetted fossicking district. Inside it, you do not need an exploration licence holder's consent. The line is not landholder permission, and it is not the only place fossicking can be lawful in New South Wales.
Line simplified from Geological Survey of NSW fossicking districts, CC BY
History
Cootamundra is a fossicking district drawn around a local government area. It was gazetted on 4 March 2016. The mapped area is about 1874 square kilometres. The middle of the district sits 9.6 km south of Harden.
Cootamundra's gold sits in the hills west and south of town, including the old Muttama and Cullinga workings. Gold leads the state inventory inside the old local government boundary by a wide margin.
Inside the mapped district, the Geological Survey of NSW mineral inventory records Gold (71), Copper (9), Lead (7), and Zinc (5). Those are recorded locations of mineralisation. They are not grades, and they are not a forecast of what a pan will show.
Of the gold records, 1 carry a placer description, which means the survey classed that gold as alluvial.
What you can find
Inside this district, gold is the main mineral the survey records. Work gravel with a pan or a detector, keep holes small, and put the ground back. Gold on a mining lease still needs the lease holder's consent.
Base metals appear beside the main target. Old copper, lead, and zinc shows are often on leases or private paddocks. Colour in a rock is not permission to break it.
Anything you keep has to fit the state take-home limits: 50 grams of gold in any 48 hours, up to five nuggets of 10 grams or more, 100 grams of gemstones, 10 kilograms of gold or gem-bearing material, and 5 kilograms of other minerals. Publicly owned minerals found while fossicking lawfully become yours. No royalty is charged on them.
Getting there
Cootamundra is on the Olympic Highway. Cootamundra is the practical base. The mapped centre is 9.6 km south of Harden.
A shire-wide line is not an open invitation to every paddock inside it. Private land needs the landholder. A mining lease, mineral claim, or opal prospecting licence needs that holder's consent. The district removes only the need to ask an exploration licence holder.
Open the district on the Dig Here map before you drive. The map shows this boundary against current titles, which a printed description cannot keep up to date.
Camping
The gazette notice does not create a campground. Plan to stay in Cootamundra unless you already have permission to camp on the land you are visiting.
Showgrounds and caravan parks in Cootamundra change with the season. Book what the local council currently lists, and do not assume a creek flat is free camping.
Important notes
- !Inside a fossicking district you still need the landholder's permission on private land. You do not need the exploration licence holder's consent. A mining lease, mineral claim, or opal prospecting licence still needs that holder's consent.
- !Hand tools only. A pan, sieve, pick, shovel, non-powered sluice, and metal detector fit the rules. Pumps, dredges, powered trommels, and machinery do not.
- !Disturb no more than one cubic metre of ground in any 48 hours, put the soil back, and take your rubbish with you.
- !On native title land or water you need the registered native title body's consent. The only tools allowed there are hand-held, and digging or clearing is not permitted.
- !Mineral counts on this page are locations from the Geological Survey of NSW. They are not grades.
Nearby districts
Open Cootamundra on the map
Titles change. Check this boundary against current leases before you dig.
Open mapDistrict boundaries and mineral counts are from the Geological Survey of NSW, CC BY. The words on this page are Dig Here's. Read the current rules on the NSW Resources fossicking page and check titles in MinView.