Another office closed by DMP

CLOSURES “TEAR AT HEART” OF MINING TOWNS
The historic gold mining town of Norseman has joined Coolgardie in facing the closure of its mining registrar office.
Coolgardie has been serviced out of the Department of Mines’ Kalgoorlie office since May when its building was closed indefinitely for repairs. The Department has eight regional offices and is calling the Norseman closure "temporary" because of staffing issues . It will open two days each month to coincide with scheduled court dates. “Every effort is being made to provide quality services to the regions however, the current availability of relief staff has made it difficult to maintain these services,” the Department’s tenure and native titles branch general manager Tony Bullen said in a statement.Eastern Goldfields Prospectors Association president Cranston Edwards says the closures “tear at the heart” of Goldfields mining towns. He says it has the potential to turn Norseman and Coolgardie into ghost towns like Kanowna, which once had a population of 12,000 people. "We don't like this one bit at all ... the prospectors, small miners and major mining companies all use those offices,” Mr Edwards told the ABC.“The Norseman office is particularly important because it’s the gateway to WA … it’s the first mining registrar office for all the grey nomads who come over from the east. “I'm not sure why they're trying to save money by closing this when the mining industry is actually paying its way." Shire of Dundas president Laurene Bonza is concerned the Department's push for online applications is an excuse to close regional offices.

I quite agree with you Paintar, Norseman has been the first place we call into on our fairly regular visits west.
There has always been two or three locals checking on something or another to do with applications etc., my purpose is usually to look for pending ground, 40e application or purchase of topo mapping.
To be closing these important points of DMP contact will surely worsen the incidence if illegal prospecting, maybe there is a hidden agenda here between corporate gold tenement holders, PL (pastoral lease) holders and the involved govt. departments.
Smells a bit iffy to me.
Mike

It's all about "streamlining' I guess???

Interestingly the Leonora Mines Dept WAS an agent for the Dept of Transport...this has now been taken over by the post office.
Hmmm...do you reckon Leonora is on the chopping block??

Nope its all about cutting government costs. A registar worker told me a few months back that they are also loosing staff due to cut backs. Unfortunately the officers/clerks in this office had a wealth of experience and knowledge and now all that was left was someone who did not know the answers to my questions (lesser salary I would guess), matter of fact I knew more. I guess the government's thinking is "well if there is not going to be a gold tax, we will get it another way"

In the fishing tackle industry we cop the same, every time a Labor government is formed in WA the the information leaflets stickers and paraphernalia suddenly disappear as do staff. Once a Liberal government is back in "bang" it all returns. Been in the tackle industry for 26 years and have witnessed it so so many times.

The issue of closing DMIRS offices, particularly Norseman has been going since the days of Barnett and the Libs being in power. The closure of the Coolgardie office was started just prior to the change of govt. APLA was asked to get involved in both closures but there was little point as they were done deals before we arrived on the scene. Norseman closure was simply lack of use, a dwindling population etc. Coolgardie was similar but more to do with new DMIRS office in Kalgoorlie only 38 kms away. I travel further than that to get to Perth DMIRS and I live in Perth. But the main reason was that Coolgardie office is literally falling down, collapsing and would cost too much to repair foundations and brickwork. It's actually dangerous for anyone to work in it. All this was told to me by a supporter of trying to retain the old building. It seems the clay upon which it's built is clastic in nature and it's slowly breaking up under the footings. The whole building needs to be taken down, stone by stone, have the footings re-established and then re-assembled - stone by stone.

That's what I was told by people in Coolgardie. Unlikely that APLA will chase the issue despite it being a nail in the coffin for regional towns. For us, we have too many other problems that affect us far more and across the whole of WA, plus there's only so many people that are willing to take up the issues. Priorities are vital when we have only limited resources.

Marble Bar may well go the same way as these two as that office is currently closed and all business is being done via Karratha.

HTH

Thanks for clearing that up, makes prefect sense .