Thread: DOC land claimed to be private land?

Hi folks,

Here is what happened, I went for a day hunt last weekend in DOC land. I have done many hours of research and am pretty sure it is DOC managed area on the doc.govt.nz map. The area is also within the DOC area in my hunting APP. There I was walking back trying my luck to see if there are goats and pigs etc and a truck drove up to me asking what I was doing there! I explained and showed the area to be DOC on my phone but he says it's his private land. There are fences here and there within the block of which some are electric. Sorry, I don't want to give away the area but has anyone here had this happen to you and how do I clarify if it is private or DOC land?

Cheers
Alex

Sounds like a paper road or similar? If you don't wish to name the area then contact DOC directly instead of asking us to speculate on what could be??

much more common than you think - have a look on WAMS maps (walking Access Management system) you will be able to look at boundarys with aerial photos and they zoom in quite well -contact DOC if it does look like DOC land being used for grazing - but some do have a grazing concession and treat the land as if it were their own - many with a concession make the mistake of thinking of it as a lease - no in fact anyone with a hunting permit can hunt the land under a grazing concession -the concession only gives the right to graze stock on it nothing else- a lot of DOC land has never been inspected by DOC for years some possibly never

Even if it is public (doc) land it also has to be listed on the docmaps website as a hunting area, either open (brown) or restricted (yellow)
Recheck the map and see your local doc office.
Also be aware that there is a lot of landlocked public land with no legal public access. I was spoken to years ago by a landowner after I assumed a stream was public access to a hunting area.

These landlocked DOC blocks usually have an access track to them, generally through private land. So access is an agreement, formal or informal, between DOC and the landowner. If you cant get landowner permission, even with a DOC hunting permit, then you aint goin no-where

some farmers here in the NI also steal public land because doc doesn't inspect it, quite a few placed ive been to the farmers move their fences into the bush and deforest it bit by bit. farmers aren't as innocent as they like to tell us.

Originally Posted by NewbieZAR

some farmers here in the NI also steal public land because doc doesn't inspect it, quite a few placed ive been to the farmers move their fences into the bush and deforest it bit by bit. farmers aren't as innocent as they like to tell us.

Not saying this aren't the case but what was the out come 12ish years ago when doc spent millions employing staff to walk boundary lines? I know one farmer who refuse them on his farm and said i will draw on your map what lines are fucked. No point wasting couple days walking it, and two off them. He is still waiting for doc to front up with half the cash to put a new fence up

Originally Posted by bigbear

Not saying this aren't the case but what was the out come 12ish years ago when doc spent millions employing staff to walk boundary lines? I know one farmer who refuse them on his farm and said i will draw on your map what lines are fucked. No point wasting couple days walking it, and two off them. He is still waiting for doc to front up with half the cash to put a new fence up

no idea, never heard of it. got some info you can share?

Originally Posted by Dusty Fog

I resent that. Not all hunters are cnuts who destroy public property.
Enough said

Agree, not all hunters are like that.

I can fill you in on what happenend as I worked for DOC at the time - DOC employed contractors to walk boundarys of DOC land to see how much was fenced and how much was not -most of NZ was covered - huge areas not fenced - now it must be remembered that huge parts of DOC land the fencing act does not apply - National Parks and a no of other areas are exempt from fencing act -the onus is on farmers to keep their stock out -DOC do not legally have to pay the cost - We used to supply half materials as normally pleased to get job done - so big bear may be why your mate still waiting- its up to him - farmers slowly encroaching on DOC land ?- sadly common - Worst I saw was 25 acres complete with fences and stock water troughs - to many treat DOC land like a spare back paddock

Originally Posted by Dusty Fog

Ah but it's not doc land
When doc was formed it was a step closer to communism.
I keep saying and it keeps getting twisted around again but it's public land.
I see ardern switching her game because her profile is heading down the gurgler.
Everything has to do with politics so plz don't ask why I've included it in this post

you are right it is DOC administered Public land we own it

Easy to sort out..... Did you have a permit for that DOC administered block ?

I'm not going to name the property, there was a 1080 drop, said farmer who is on muilt generation family land, complained to DOC about dropping 1080 on his property even though he refused to allow on his boundary which meant that the 1080 couldn't be within 400m of his boundary. After DOC got the land surveyed it turned out the fence and paddocks were 700m into land and looking at historic Google earth pictures you could see that the fence had been moved multiple times and land cleared.
Apparently farmer got away with a slap on the wrist.

A workmate sold their small block of land a few years back. In the process, they found out a neighbour's paddock was actually theirs! The neighbour had been grazing it for years and knew it was their land but never mentioned anything about it.

Originally Posted by Cigar

A workmate sold their small block of land a few years back. In the process, they found out a neighbour's paddock was actually theirs! The neighbour had been grazing it for years and knew it was their land but never mentioned anything about it.

I did some plans for a renovation on a lifestyle block years ago and it was a similar situation, I took the owners out on the deck and pointed out where the boundaries really were.