Opalton claims

[slippery eel]

Hello,
Have been watching the outback opal hunters (7mate) and the last episode showed a deserted claim in the opalton fields. How funny are those blokes on Cols Crew. Not much else near opalton pretty wild country but just wondering can anyone go there and take over the deserted claim???
Cheers

[MALACHI]

Hi Slippery Eel and welcome.  I've also been watching this show via "Dailymotion" on Youtube.    The same thought went through my mind. I would imagine that there is a claim protocol that has to be met. eg pegging the claim and maintaining the mining fees. Perhaps you would have seen in one of the episodes were an inspector/ranger is going around checking the leases. So if a claim is not up to date, you should be able to prospect and perhaps place your own claim on the site.
Cheers
Malachi. 

[Rusted]

We just came back from there in July, the field is huge.
You will find plenty of abandoned claims but how you go about verifying that I don't know, I guess get a coordinate and ask the Mines Dept.

You would have Buckleys chance of stumbling across the particular claim shown in the show. Like all mining areas there are tracks everywhere going all over the place,winding around hills and mine dumps, easy to get completely bushwacked. Tracks shown on the ordnance survey maps have been dug up and diverted, sometimes quite considerable distances away from the original, so even the best maps aren't really going to help.

[FlashGP]

The Qld Dept of Mines and Energy has online maps of mining claims, i used it to locate info on a glod mine at clermont.   But I has claim number.  You should also be able to find out information on the status of claims, but this may cost.

The system is different to the Qld Globe, but that has some resource info on it as well.

If you are going to stake a claim, you need to understand the red tape.  The local mines dept offices are helpful at getting their paperwork, but you need to talk to the people in the mining district in which the mine is located.

[ia1nw22]

 If you need to check if a claim is current in Qld ,
Go online

Go to the Qld Dept' of natural resources , mines & energy
Find , Public searches for resource authorities , down on the right .
Find , resource authority public report .
Enter the Claim number .
Submit . And it's status is there .
If it is a very old claim it probably won't be in the computer data base .
The mines Dept' people in Winton were always very help full and are the first people to take any inquiries too .
Hope this helps
Good Noodling

[slippery eel]

Many thanks for the info.  Wrong time of the year now but we would have to be very self sufficient.  The nearest village appears to be Winton.  Wikicamps shows a campground at opalton with very basic facilities.  Water would be the big problem.
Cheers slippery

[Bucket]

Yep, you're spot on slippery eel, Winton is the closest town, there are two caravan parks in town, a number of hotels/motels and a free camp around 3 kms south of town on the Opalton Rd. The free camp has nothing but parking, no water, power or facilities. I was through there a few months ago and stayed in the free camp as the caravan parks were packed like sardines and fully booked out for a few days. Its still a fair haul to Opalton, one I chose not to do as I'd already been to Koroit. Beautiful country but you have to be self sufficient before you head out there. Good luck with it!

[Rusted]

The camp at Opalton is the only thing at Opalton, Toilets and water and a bit of ground, is the extent of it. To do any good speccing you would need to go a fair distance, the heaps close by would be well looked over.

[glot]

Contact the term. They will be more than happy to give you the details

[Gemster]

Lol just like the Aussie Gold Show... Now WA station owners are having Major issues with un-prepared, ill-informed and down right Dangerous People who think the out-back is full of Gold... Several station workers that I chat with often on another Forum are getting real sick and tired of having to rescue 'Prospectors' and have to give them Food, Water and a helping boot right up the back-side..... Their Theft rate has Sky rocketed too.... Some say 'worst thing they ever did was to allow filming on their Lands'....
   Now this is happening on the Opal Fields too... Thanks to the opal show....
   Im NOT by any way implying that you are one of them, but please Do Your Research BEFORE you venture... All is Not what it appears on TV.... It is after all, 'Reality Television'......

  Gemster...

[FlashGP]

Gemster, I think you mean un-reality TV.  A fair bit of the drama seems to be contrived.

[Gemster]

So True Flash...  You have to laugh at some of the stuff that goes on in those 'Shows'.. I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet....   

And as for the 'Deserted Claim' it is Not deserted as you only have to work your claim for a certain period every year to keep the claim... If any-one else worked that particular claim with-out permission, they would be classified as a "Claim-jumper' and that is very frowned upon by the Department...

  Gemster...

[Rusted]

I thought it was just me.

Watch for several minutes, then a heap of ads, back after the ads and they have to go through everything thats happened before the Ad just in case you forgot it and then give 30 seconds of new stuff then break to ads, repeat again and again. I reckon they really only have a couple of minutes of material that they have to pad out to fill in between the ads.

I wont bother watching again.

[MALACHI]

I'm glad I watched this show on daily motion, at least I avoided all the unnecessary padding content. At first I did find it melodramatic and annoying, though having got past that, I did find the father and son team quite funny and further still. I did enjoy the colour being found as they picked away.
Cheers
Malachi 

[Bucket]

Rusted, this seems to be the formula for most of the reality shows on TV at present. I'm surprised at how dramatic they can make a small problem seem like a life threatening situation. The same production company make another reality show I watch called Railways Australia (also makes Outback Truckers). Something like a red signal all of a sudden becomes a case of life and death!