Fun and leisure (well not that leisurely lol) and certainly not there to mine the creek to the nth degree day after day/month after month. Just a little colour on the mat and an excellent environment to go with it makes for a great fossicking experience 
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Like any public area you are not going to make your fortune. That is a given & I would think pretty obvious. A bit of colour at the best. There would have been zillions in your chosen spot before you over the years. Most definitely for fun & leisure if that’s how you look at it. Jammed fingers & black nails from shifting rocks happen. That ain’t fun, believe me & the rocks would have been moved numerous times over the years too. You back fill your dig site, just like some one did before you & you are working barren pre worked ground. At least it costs you nothing but your time, energy & effort. You may get rewarded with a flash of colour… or not. But hey, it isn’t always about the gold.
JW 
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Just a thought … would it be a good to time to lobby for some new Public fossicking areas to relive the pressure on the existing ones? I can think of some ideal locations … it would take some time to develop but I think this current govt would be more likely to approve …or would this just stir up more anti mining rhetoric and risk the future of the ones we all ready have?.. .thoughts?
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I imagine that overall it would be a welcomed idea, but the execution would require a lot of planning and thought. Open up too small amount and they’ll likely be overcrowded with people trying to get in first on fresh public ground. Open too many and the anti-mining rhetoric could pick up accordingly and cause some backlash. There’ll be a balancing point which would keep everyone happy I’m sure, but I’ll leave that to the professionals to figure out lol.
Either way, I imagine that if new ground was opened for the public it would be a welcomed idea among most, as it’s not just the fossicking, but the possibility for new camp grounds too.
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Simply bring back the miners right allowing access to any land without a permit (like Australia) for minimum impact activities such as are allowed at public fossicking areas. In reality these activities already take place more often than notwithout the miners right.
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I guess the only thing that bothers me are people there all year around taking all they can while day trippers miss out.
Holes dont bother me. In fact i prefer them - means i can get down without shifting piles of rock. After any rain those holes disappear. I guarantee after this weekends rain there will be no holes anywhere.
Even bank digging doesnt concern me too much. Nature recovers quickly. What we are digging in is ground that was turned over 1000 worse back in the day. Check out Dillmanston. Or the damage done by 4WD hobby drivers. Also stream/creeks get opened up by nature way more than a fossicker with a shovel and pan.
But people could take their rubbish out.
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I think you will find that the areas in your thoughts Mal have already had a lot of traffic through them. Nothing new in the gold game.
JW