Visiting Australia - Beach detecting around Sydney

[James57]

I will be traveling to Sydney, Australia from Canada from in December. I was thinking of bringing my metal detector. I will be on business but I think that I can hit the beach at 4:30-5:00 am and get a few hours of detecting in before I have to go to work.

I have a couple of questions about detecting in Sydney:
- are there any legal restrictions with beach detecting in NSW?
- I live in Vancouver and the beaches here have lots of detectorists detecting on the beach on a typical early summer morning. Is it the same in Sydney?
- Are there any metal detector clubs with organized hunts there?
- Is the beach sand very mineralized in Australia? I have to use a DD coil with my DFX on a beach in Vancouver because the concentric coil tends to chatter too much due to the mineralized sand here. In Florida, the sand has 0 mineralization.

Any information would be appreciated! I am looking forward to spring/summer in Australia next month. In Vancouver, it is dark by 4:30 pm at this time of year and it is monsoon season with cold rain every day.

 

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[Yarrum]

I can only answer one of your questions and that is; you are fine to detect on the beach.
As to the conditions I'm a loooong way north of Sydney so I can't help with that. Just remember it can be very hot in the Australian summer you should be right in the early morning though. Enjoy your trip.

 

[seadancer1]

You can detect any of the beaches with no problems, however December is our Summer and the beaches are quite populated during the day, so its best to hunt early morning or evening.
Most beaches get cleaned daily (raked) which makes it harder to find anything of value....you are best hunting the smaller, lesser known beaches which are detected and cleaned less often. The Sydney harbour beaches, rather than the ocean beaches such as Bondi, Manly, ect. You should have no problems with mineral sands, our beaches are not heavily mineralised but are sandstone beaches.
Try such places as the beaches surrounding Botany Bay, or the inner side of Pittwater. Buy a tourist map, or search google, or, if you have it, Google Earth, to spot the small Bay beaches. Good luck.
Cheers,Brenda

 

[viv poly]

Hi James. There's a Facebook page Metal Detecting in Sydney that might be useful to you. Happy hunting and enjoy your holiday. I live on Botany Bay and I've found a few interesting things washed up on a beach just near Sydney Airport. There used to be a thriving fishing community here up until the construction of Port Botany and Sydney Airport when a lot of land was reclaimed, so anything metallic you find would probably be leftovers from the construction work.