Ophir
Central West. 19 km north-east of Orange.
Gazetted
19 September 1997
Mapped size
5.4 square kilometres
Nearest town
Orange
Photo: Maksym Kozlenko (CC BY-SA 4.0). Wikimedia Commons.
Location
Gold marker: the middle of Ophir. Dark marker: Orange.
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
Ophir is a fossicking district on a public recreation reserve. It was gazetted on 19 September 1997 and covers about 5.4 square kilometres. The reserve sits 19 km north-east of Orange.
Cabonne Council asked for this district on public recreation reserve R65909.
Ophir is where payable gold was first proved in New South Wales. In February 1851 Edward Hargraves, working with John Lister and William Tom, panned gold from Summer Hill Creek. The government made the find public that May, and the rush that followed pulled people out past Bathurst and rewrote the colony. The fossicking district gazetted in 1997 is narrower than that old field. It is public recreation reserve R65909, mapped because Cabonne Council asked for a defined place where a visitor can still put a pan in the creek.
Inside the mapped district, the Geological Survey of NSW mineral inventory records Gold (34). 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.
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
Orange is on the Mitchell Highway, west of Bathurst. This district is 19 km north-east of Orange.
The reserve has a manager. Follow the reserve conditions, stay inside the mapped line, and treat it as a public place that other people are using on the same day.
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 Orange unless you already have permission to camp on the land you are visiting.
Showgrounds and caravan parks in Orange 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 Ophir 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.