Nundle
New England. 11 km east of Nundle.
Gazetted
10 December 1999
Mapped size
1,604 square kilometres
Nearest town
Nundle
Photo: Dolphin51 (CC0). Wikimedia Commons.
Location
Gold marker: the middle of Nundle. Dark marker: Nundle.
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
Nundle is a fossicking district drawn around a local government area. It was gazetted on 10 December 1999. The mapped area is about 1604 square kilometres. The middle of the district sits 11 km east of Nundle.
Nundle Council asked for the district to be declared.
The old Nundle Shire now sits inside Tamworth Regional Council.
Nundle and Hanging Rock were rushed for gold in the early 1850s, on the Peel River side of the range. The village is still the practical base: a short main street and day trips up the Hanging Rock road. Gold is the metal the state inventory records most often inside the old shire boundary.
Inside the mapped district, the Geological Survey of NSW mineral inventory records Gold (75), Copper (12), Manganese (8), Tungsten (7), and Sapphire (4). 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, 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.
Other gem minerals in the count are Sapphire.
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
Nundle is east of Tamworth, up the road toward Hanging Rock. This district is 11 km east of Nundle.
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 Nundle 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 Nundle 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.