Yeah they're legal here.
Your right Dave, there's a bit of gold in them thar hills. Most of it's alluvial. The hard part is getting it as there's bugger all water to pan it. There's a exibit out at a place called Altunga ('bout 150km west), if I remember right, they dry panned the gold out there. There;s still a working mine out that way somewhere but Altunga pretty much shut up shop in the 1930s.
Here's me cooking outback style