New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Stay off Sheldon Park

A couple of weeks ago I happened across a group of approx 8 people fossicking on Sheldon Park, Belfast, Christchurch. They were digging small holes about the size of a dinner plate. I reminstrated with them and asked them to leave and they refused. They have done alot of damage to the playing surface currently used by Touch Canterbury and the Belfast Touch Module and rugby during the winter. How dear they think they have the right to damage public property used by so many people and damaged by a few ignorant selfish individuals. The turfs dug up on the playing surface have since died due to dry conditions or been displaced by other users of the park. So take your hobby to the aproprite place and leave our public parks for the sports that they are designed for. I have advised the city council and in the future the police will be called.

CHCH Boys, could some one go to the park and check out conditions and make some photos of the ground ?

dinner plate size suggests they are using a regular shovel
to dig with.

no one there was using a regular size shovel as for the councel i know a few of us have spoken to them and they dont have a porblem with the majoredy of us...as we do as clean a job as we can..however i have seen one or 2 guys out that arnt a part of the club..one of them do use a full size shovel and the other is a very very bad plug digger..unfortunatly we cant control what every detectorist does...if i meet up with someone that isnt part of the club and i see them diging huge pluges i talk to them and explain that they need to be neater and i tell them about the club as i dont want to see it ruined for us in this city...

The night in question here was a club night hunt and as far as i knw no one was digging dinner plate size holes...this guy come along and told us to piss off like he owned the place and andrew explained that we wernt wrecking the place and even offered to show him the holes being dug...the guy didnt want to talk or have a look he was very rude and just kept walking....
we strive to dig plugs as best we can... i know depending on ground conditions it is sometimes hard to have a perfect plug (one that doesnt crumble on you) but we do our best.

I will however agree with sheldon.. digging on the playing feild itself if it gets used that offten is not a good idea....i havnt been back out there yet myself to see the damage he is talking about but will try and get out there soon to have a look.. if we go to placese like that then we need to stick to tree lines and side lines...then we arnt wrecking the fields....then fields might be better left for winter when they arnt being used..

Good point. Let's face it - most of the shallow stuff it doesn't matter if you scratch it during extraction. I might have a play with a suitably modified screwdriver.

Good points raised here, and certainly reason for some concern. I think its important that the word goes out that Sheldon Park is a strict no-go area. A bad reputation and a few irate groundsmen could mean that we get banned from a lot of our favourite areas. Its also important for us to address the problem of newbies and their big holes, a dinnerplate sized hole is going to get us thrown off of every park in the city. Just a few moments tuition and guidance could reap dividends in the long term.

was only a matter of time alright with group hunts being organised.

Too much attention is a bad thing, especially with something as marginal as detecting in parks, maybe save the club day hunts to the beach, all evidence gone as soon as high tide returns.

Totally agree, code of conduct.

The best thing is 'What no one sees dont worry them' as the Gestapo and party poopers are alive and well and some people get their enjoyment out of hunting, metal detecting, gold mining and so on but arseholes get their enjoyment out of making like a misery for everyone else and the best thing is NOT to give these cretinous whingers any ammunition to fire. Group trips to a place like that are not good as attention is attracted to numbers I guess where as one person is a lower profile and less likely to come to ones notice - group hunts are best around say where an old pub was known to exist with the land owners permission then the PC brigade cant say a thing.

Playing fields is a total waste of time and in places like that the side line or in an A @ P showground the ring fence or where the refreshment tent was pitched are 'the'places to look.

The longer it is low profile and the more discrete the detectorists are then the longer it will last.

As for you sheldon - 'I have advised the city council and in the future the police will be called' - what a tosser! Personally I dont go to parks and things but to me people like you who whine and whinge are just self righteous sanctimonious parameciums.
If it is NOT illegal to detect there then the police will give you the roasting for wasting their time and well deserved methinks.

Edited by user Tuesday, 12 March 2013 11:41:06 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified