Never a silly question and happy to answer, for DEG ground, no...

Never a silly question and happy to answer, for DEG ground, no it isn't a free for all and yes you do have to have paperwork (40E's) or permissions in place.
I know the leaseholder that hold's Station Peak/Egina/2502 etc and that's been my interest the last two years but it is also on Yande ground which is a no go zone without special permissions in place.
This year will be interesting though, i can see a lot of people heading toward the Pilbara based on what's gone on of late, it's always been common local knowledge that Yande is off limits for detecting unless you have permission but that only keeps the honest people out, a lot of people still sneak in there but they deal with offenders if caught, but that's the lure of gold for you, if you want to find out someones true character throw some gold into the relationship