Shoalhaven
South Coast. 8.4 km north of Milton.
Gazetted
1 December 2017
Mapped size
4,687 square kilometres
Nearest town
Milton
Photo: Grahamec (CC BY-SA 4.0). Wikimedia Commons.
Location
Gold marker: the middle of Shoalhaven. Dark marker: Milton.
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
Shoalhaven is a fossicking district drawn around a local government area. It was gazetted on 1 December 2017. The mapped area is about 4687 square kilometres. The middle of the district sits 8.4 km north of Milton.
Shoalhaven runs from the coast at Nowra back into the ranges. Yalwal, in the hills north-west of Nowra, was a reef-gold town with a short, hard life. Most of the shire is not gold country, so use the map to decide where to spend the day. Gold still leads the inventory.
Inside the mapped district, the Geological Survey of NSW mineral inventory records Gold (43), Silver (24), Lead (19), Copper (17), and Tin (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, 5 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.
Tin is in the count as well.
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
Use Milton as the last supply stop. This district is 8.4 km north of Milton. Confirm the last stretch of road before you leave the bitumen.
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 Milton unless you already have permission to camp on the land you are visiting.
Coastal towns have plenty of overnight options. The ranges behind them are quieter, and a full camp in a state forest follows Forestry Corporation rules even when the fossicking permit is in your pocket.
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 Shoalhaven 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.