Here is an update on the PMAV meeting held at Marborough last night, this has been cut and pasted from the Prospecting Australia website
Quote
PMAV Central Goldfields Branch
Special Meeting held on 17th May 2017
At Maryborough Highland Society Clubrooms
Opening
The President opened the meeting at 7.30pm.
Bill declared that there would be no Central Goldfields Branch meeting tonight because of time restraints but would instead go straight to the main topics of the night. He then welcomed Mr Tim Miller (from the office of Jaala Pulford MP for Regional Development), Louise Staley (MP for Ripon) and Olly Oleszek ( PMAV President).
The World Heritage push by Councils.
Tim Miller
Tim presented an outline of why he believes the "World Heritage" push by Councils has been grossly distorted by statements from Councils and media reports that have led to a widespread misunderstanding of what the real situation is. He stated the reported $68,000,000 wildly incorrect and would be more like $22,000,000. He also stated that the reported 25000 sq kilometre’s was not a blanket cover but only related to the area of land under the control of the combined councils. Tim answered many questions from the floor and was adamant that the only sites that could be included are ones that are already under existing Victorian Heritage listings such as the Castlemaine diggings but mainly historic buildings. He went on to stress that at this stage the "World Heritage" push is only a proposal and that there will have to be extensive community consultations (including with the PMAV)before they can go ahead, and this process could take 2 to 3 years. Tim also laid out a fact sheet which had already been doing the rounds on Facebook and Internet Forums which clearly puts a whole new perspective on the matter and should alleviate all concerns.
Bill then stated that with all the information it’s clear that all prospectors can rest easy as there is no change to the present situation, ie we can detect as normal including respecting all the existing heritage sites as we have always done, he then went on to thank Tim for his attendance to which everyone gave applause.
New State or National Parks
The PMAV Victorian President Olly Oleszek
Olly pointed out that new State or National Park listings were being proposed (allegedly by the Greens) such as the Great Forest National Park in the Central highlands which would close off 355000 hectares in the hope of attracting thousands of tourists and thereby generating millions of dollars which seems to be a familiar theme these days. Also proposed is a National or StatePark for The Golden Triangle/Western Vic which would total 120,000 hectares, and he went on to say that an obscure survey in Canada is the basis of the $68,000,000 touted in the World Heritage statements. Many millions of dollars will be lost if forests are closed says Olly as there is evidence that State Parks drive people away with an example being the closure of the Eldorado C/van Park due to lack of prospectors following new restrictions. He restated that the new proposed State Parks will cover a huge area and he will soon be calling for everyone to send Emails to Politicians as they don’t like this effective way of getting a message across.
At this point Louise Staley (MP for Ripon) gave her backing to the idea of sending Emails and also of being very vocal pointing out that the Greens are very vocal and we have to be the same. She also likes the idea of having one big rally on Parliament steps as another effective way to get the message across.
Olly then finished by saying that we are expected to accept other cultures but our culture is gold mining and they will destroy it if they can.
All guests were thanked for attending and a report/news item will be in the Maryborough Advertiser newspaper on Friday May 19thMeeting Ended 8.38pm
Our Bigger problem now is these proposed State or National Park for the Golden Triangle via the Central west Forest Investigation.
Here is a report from our PMAV President Olly Oleszek who was at our meeting last night.
I attended the Pmav central branch last night we had Louise Staley member for Rippon and Tim Miller advisor to Jaala Pulford member for Western Victoria, the main topic of discussion was the Proposed World Heritage listing of the Golden Triangle. Tim Miller told us that a lot of the hysteria regarding this listing was due to media misinformation that gave the idea that the whole of the goldfields was to be listed. He gave us assurances that the listings would only be site specific ie the Castlemaine diggings, the Maryborough railway station etc, this did take a bit of anger out of the meeting but the Pmav will be monitoring any further developments and taking the appropriate action as required. I spoke on a much more pressing issue and that is the Central West Forest Investigation, there are initially 3 areas under investigation the Pyrenees Ranges State Forest, Wellsford State Forest and entire Wombat State Forest which could become State Parks or National Parks and we would be excluded from these, if these parks are lost to us the Greens have another 7 areas on their wish list Dunolly-waanyarra, Kingower, Bealiba, Moliagul, Harvest Home, Timor and Fryers Range. As you can see this would virtually wipe out prospecting in the Golden Triangle add to this the Proposed Great Forest National Park and Victoria would be a non prospecting state and we are being supported whole heartedly by Louise Staley. More information will be posted and a plan to contact your local politicians both upper and lower house will be formulated
Olly Oleszek
President
end quote
So it would appear that the world heritage listing is probably not going to happen BUT the state park and national park listing is very likely to happen if we don't yell and scream.
If you like to do any gold detecting/panning/fossicking looking for gemstones the areas left to do it in Victoria will be almost non-existant and your dog will have to be left at home too
cheers Keith
