Had a couple of Emails and S/Ms for this ,

There are 3 ways of establishing yourself,
!, you can find a suitable area and peg  (claim) yourself a block at 900 square metres, its a little under 1/4 acre, (total once only outlay is around $1250 including bond of $1000) and it is for a 5 year lease, and it usually takes about 4 mths from the time you peg it to the time you can move on it,  , you then pay a yearly sum for rental of $35 to the Mines dept, and Rates to the Emerald shire of around $400 a year, you can free camp in the bush while waiting, but you will need an address for the Mines Dept to send you bills, this is renewable for as long as you want ,if you surrender it the $1000 bond is returned to you
2, you can find a bare claim and buy it from the owners, (usually at an enflated value) but you can move on it striaght away, and start building , rental and rates are the same as no 1, I recently sold one for $3500,and bought another at $5000, ( more prospects for sapphire,)
3, Buy an already established place, (house, shack, tin shed, van,) for you to live in, plus machinary plant to mine ,and settle in immediatly, rental and rates same again as no 1, these can go for as high as $100,000 dollars
what you do with it after you have the title is entirely up to you, some stay all the year round , ( there is a lot of here,) some do the same as we do and go picking cherries and head for the cooler climates in summer, or cover the rest of the country using this place as a base
The place is populated by nomads, V/veterans, and mostly senior cits and your only expences once established is food fuel and your yearly rates,, hope all this helps a little, Mike
My neighbour has just dug up a yellow sapphire , got it cut and polished and sold it for $8500, better than lotto, and you keep fit with the digging
pic is a view of the diggings from a mound of tailings, you can also google it on the earth program