PMAT signs members up in person, not onlineA topic on the association's Prospecting Tasmania forum explains that online payment is not available and that membership is taken in person at a meet, field day or the annual general meeting, so a paper receipt can be issued. That post dates from 2019, so confirm the current arrangement on the forum.
The forum is readable before you joinPMAT's Prospecting Tasmania forum can be read publicly, which makes it a reasonable place to see what trips are being planned and what ground people are working before you go along to anything.
The annual general meeting is the fixed point in the yearPMAT holds an annual general meeting early in the year, most recently on Saturday 7 March 2026 at the Lake Burbury Camping Ground, with member field trips posted through the year on the forum.
Membership is also an access positionPMAT works on fossicking access and represents prospectors to government, so a membership is partly a vote on where you will still be allowed to prospect. That is a large part of what the fee buys in a state with as much reserved land as Tasmania.
Check the land status yourselfTasmania's prospecting ground is threaded through reserves, conservation areas and active tenements, and none of that is obvious on the ground. Work it out on a map such as Detector Maps before you travel, and confirm anything you are unsure of with Mineral Resources Tasmania.
