Inverell
New England. 9.3 km west of Ashford.
Gazetted
10 December 1999
Mapped size
8,619 square kilometres
Nearest town
Ashford
Photo: Kgbo (CC BY-SA 4.0). Wikimedia Commons.
Location
Gold marker: the middle of Inverell. Dark marker: Ashford.
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
Inverell is a fossicking district drawn around a local government area. It was gazetted on 10 December 1999. The mapped area is about 8619 square kilometres. The middle of the district sits 9.3 km west of Ashford.
Inverell Council asked for the district to be declared.
People come to Inverell for sapphires, and for the Copeton diamonds, found in old gravels around what is now Copeton Dam. Tin is actually the most common record inside the shire boundary, with sapphire next. Read those counts as a map of known mineralisation. A weekend in the wash is its own luck.
Inside the mapped district, the Geological Survey of NSW mineral inventory records Tin (234), Sapphire (125), Silver (36), Zircon (32), and Gold (19). Those are recorded locations of mineralisation. They are not grades, and they are not a forecast of what a pan will show.
What you can find
Inside this district, tin leads the inventory. In New England that is usually cassiterite in granite wash and old alluvial leads. A sieve is the hand-tool method. A pump is not.
Gold is also recorded, in smaller numbers than the leading mineral. The same consent rules apply.
Other gem minerals in the count are Sapphire, Zircon.
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
Inverell is on the Gwydir Highway, west of Glen Innes. Inverell is the practical base. The mapped centre is 9.3 km west of Ashford.
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 Inverell unless you already have permission to camp on the land you are visiting.
New England evenings are cold for much of the year. A day trip from town is the simple plan, with a warm layer in the vehicle even in spring.
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 Inverell 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.