Tuena Creek
Southern Tablelands. on the edge of Tuena.
Gazetted
2 November 2001
Mapped size
1 hectare
Nearest town
Tuena
Photo: James St. John (CC BY 2.0). Wikimedia Commons.
Location
Gold marker: the middle of Tuena Creek. Dark marker: Tuena.
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
Tuena Creek is a fossicking district mapped as a defined patch of ground. It was gazetted on 2 November 2001 and covers under 1 hectare. The ground sits on the edge of Tuena.
It carries forward former fossicking area 17, one of the old fossicking areas remade as districts in November 2001.
Tuena is a quiet gold village on the Abercrombie. Nuggetty State Conservation Area is in this same country. Park policy allows fossicking there except on the banks and alluvial flats beside Tuena Creek, which is the opposite of what most panners expect. Read the park rules before you step off the public road.
The mapped ground itself has no gold, gem, or metal point inside it in the state inventory. Within 3 kilometres of its centre, the same inventory records Gold (15). On a small creek district, the old working is often beside the line rather than on it.
What you can find
The counts below sit within 3 kilometres of the mapped line. They are not a guarantee the mineral is inside the district itself.
Within 3 kilometres of 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.
These names come from survey points within 3 kilometres of the mapped centre, not from inside the line itself.
Getting there
Tuena is a small village south of Bathurst, best approached with a local map rather than a single highway assumption. This district is on the edge of Tuena.
The mapped line is the district. Private land inside or beside it still needs the landholder's permission. A mining lease still needs the lease 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 Tuena unless you already have permission to camp on the land you are visiting.
Showgrounds and caravan parks in Tuena 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 Tuena Creek 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.