Was wandering if anyone could tell me how to find out if certain roads and tracks are 'gazetted rds' ?
As so much of this country has been given to farmers for 'agricultural use' I am sick of following tracks marked on maps and coming across gates with "private property", "no thru road" or "do not enter" signs on them or leading into what is obviously grazing country or worse still the
gate is locked.
I realise farmers have some trouble with a minority leaving gates open and rubbish around or worse still, shooting, but that doesn't give them the right to lock the rest of out of what is most times 'leased' land.
The way I understand it, and please correct me if I'm wrong, they don't 'own' land they are leasing for grazing purposes, therefore it is not 'private property'.
I also understand that farmers must allow access via gazetted roads through leased land, problem is that most will try and
bluff you by telling you that "that particular track" is not gazetted and runs through private property.
Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against farmers, I grew up in the country, I would just like to know my rights re. accessing leased land and grazing country.
The ones I have been through I have always done the right thing and closed all gates, stuck to the track and never left behind rubish, I don't belive in shooting for sport so there is no problem there either, when I have come across either a farmer or farm house I make it a point to approach them and have a freindly chat, letting them know where I've ridden or driven from and re-assure them that everything has been left as found.
Sometimes I have wanted to go back to that track/area and aren't sure as to whether I am within my rights to ignore the "no through road"
sign and enter without permision or not ?
So I guess what I am asking is,
A. Does anybody know the rules regarding this issue,
B. Does anybody know where to find out, whilst planning a trip, whether a track is gazetted or not,
C. If a track is marked on a map, with a name ie. "Billy goat track" does that mean that it is gazetted unless otherwise specified ?
There was a scenario a little while ago with some adventure riders coming across a
locked gate to what they were sure was a gazetted road they were following, they didn't have enough fuel to turn back so they made a collective decision to unbolt the hinges and replace it once everyone was through, to continue on the short distance to the next town, once home they did some investigations and discovered that it was in fact a gazetted road.
Were they within their rights to do what they did?
Apparently 'Oziexplorer' digital maps has a section that tells you if certain tracks are gazetted, I don't run that map version as I find the magellan 'discover oz' more than sufficient for my use.
If anybody knows of a website that I can get the info to answer the above would be much appreciated.
Pezza