Tues, 30th June, 2015 ‘Waanyarra’, Dunolly State Forest (Golden Triangle sightseeing)

10 degrees in the van at 8am and 6 degrees outside. We closed up the four season hatches to try and keep the heat in overnight.

Rang Rebecca to wish her a happy birthday.

After a cuppa I headed off exploring the Golden Triangle and left Steve to ‘work’ on finding gold!!

Passed more areas that Steve needs to detect – we could be here for years!! First stop was Laanecoorie which is on the banks of the Loddon River. Very picturesque and there is a great free camp too.

Chatted with a couple who have been here for 5 weeks and were prospecting back up the road at Loddon State Forest – they have found a bit and the biggest was a 3.4 gram nugget. They are heading to WA and he gave me hints on getting the permits etc for detecting in WA. They had a KaraKamper which is made by a company owned by V8 driver Tony D’Alberto’s family. The chap used to work for them. Snazzy little thing.

Walked down to the river for a look.

Stopped at the General Store to read the history info.

Down Weir Road to the huge weir. Being constructed in 1890 it is one of the oldest in Victoria. Plenty of room for water sports here. On the other side is the caravan park.

Drove back into Laanecoorie, back across the bridge and then down to the caravan park. Huge park with lots of onsite permanent vans and sheds. Obviously very popular in summer.

Nice big picnic area too near the boat ramp.

The clouds are coming over and it is not warming up today. Along the road towards Eddington I passed a line of dead foxes hanging on the fence.

Turned into the little area of Eddington and stopped at the Info Board. It is next to the miniature steam train area but it only runs on the fourth Sundays of each month. The township is beside the Loddon River. They also suffered during the floods in 2011.

I got the history walking map and headed down the street.

The Uniting Church, which was formerly the St Andrews Presbyterian Church, dates from 1863 and is in original condition. It is still without electricity or water supply but it is still in use for church services.

This cute little cottage was once the Willersdorf & Forbes Stock and Station Agents Office. It is now known as ‘Arthur’s Shack’ and is privately owned.

Next was the sites of the CBC bank then Moore’s blacksmith but nothing remains now. Then the Post Office and General Store building which was built in the mid 1850s. It has had many lives, including producing malt for the local brewery. It was also a telegraph station, becoming the telephone exchange and then a general storey which closed in 1969 and is now a private dwelling. Next door was the Sheehan’s Eddington Hotel which was bought in 1863 by Timothy Ryan when the Township was subdivided, although the hotel may already have existed. It was a t one time a change station for the coaches running the Goldfields route. It is referred to in a contemporary 19^th century book as serving the worst beet on the goldfields’. It ceased to operate as a hotel in the 1920s and is now also a private dwelling.

The brochure mentions more businesses that operated in the area, one of which was the Sheehan’s Flour Mill on the river. The opening of the Laanecoorie Weir in 1899 though caused the closure of commercial operations dependent on the river at Eddington due to contamination with mud.

So many churches now are private dwellings – certainly would be interesting to decorate them. This was the St Paul’s Anglican Church. The foundation stone was laid in 1865. Due to declining membership the church closed in the early 1970s.

Lovely view over the pastures which used to be the River Flats Racecourse to the Loddon River. It was moved further away from the river due to flooding issues. I turned around and headed back down the street. On the corner was the old Bridge Inn. It was built in the 1850s by Mayo’s. It was purchased by the Goulden family in 1868 and became the Goulden’s Bridge Inn. The family owned it until 1966 after being delicensed in the early 1900s and is now a private dwelling.

The road heads down from it to the site of the original bridge crossing of the Loddon River. The bridge was built in 1861 replacing the punt being used at this natural crossing point. The bridge was damaged by floods several times and it was never rebuilt on this site after being swept away in 1926.

Next were the buildings of the Police Barracks which were built in 1881/2 with lock-ups and paddocks for the horses. It was de-commissioned in 1934 and now privately owned.

Nearly back to the truck I turned left to check out the Eddington Common School which was operating in 1865. This building though dates from 1892 after fire destroyed the previous building. It closed in 1993 and is also a private dwelling.

Back in the truck and then I headed towards Dunolly. Through Dunolly and on the road to St Arnaud. Turned off to check out Goldsborough – another old gold mining area with the Barp State Forest around it that we can prospect in. Crossed the railway line where the old Goldsborough Railway Station used to be.

Nothing much left in the once thriving township – just a few houses now. Goldsborough was home to the first of many Scottish squatters in the district. It is located in the foothills of the Bealiba Ranges. As miners searched the wider leads in the Moliagul area, gold was found near the Goldsborough Town Hall in 1855, starting a new rush of 6,500 people. I headed up the Hard Hills Track looking for Mataranka Camping area which the sign mentioned on the road. Eventually stopped and chatted with a chap with his dog. He said you can camp anywhere. The Mataranka camp is for another non-prospecting group. Another place for us to check out. He said that he was friends of the chap that found the Hand of Faith and that Parks Vic didn’t even ask him where he found it. It weighed 27.27kg and he found it with a metal detector in 1980 at Kingower near the school. They put a sign up about 1.5km from the actual site. The sign has since been shifted to the correct spot. He sold it to a Las Vegas Casino for $1,000,000. He said the poor chap ended up nearly broke pouring all his money into digging up the area trying to find more gold.

Back on the road again. I saw a sign for the Moliagul Historical Reserve and headed in to find the ‘Welcome Stranger’ monument. Instead I found signs saying the area will be closed for a car rally on 11-12 July. I had noticed these signs on a few of the areas I passed.

Back onto the main road and on to Moliagul. Turned off onto Monument Road and found the picnic area near the monument.

The temperature has dropped a few degrees – biting cold but I made a cuppa and had my lunch in the little shelter shed. Wouldn’t it be a nice surprise to find a nugget of that size – Gross weight of 2520 (Troy) ozs (69 kg) and it would be worth $10 million now!! Amazingly it was found just under the surface in the roots of a stringybark tree.

I followed the walking trail.

1. The side of this hill has been mined by surfacing. About 30cm of topsoil and gravel resting on red clay has been removed by the miners and washed for gold.

2. This is the site of the house of John Deason and his family. It was a small two roomed dwelling with a large wooden table and a fireplace at one end.

3. This is the puddler where Deason and Oates were treating the wash from their surfacing claim. A puddler was a watertight circular trench with timber walls and base. It was filled with water from the dam and the dirt was added. A horse walking around the perimeter dragged a series of chains or harrows which broke up the wash-dirt and dissolved the clay. The resulting sludge was then drained away. When only clean stones remained they were removed and put through a cradle to separate the gold. Puddlers did not recycle water, so as the dam dried up the miners had to cease operations. Since a puddler was often cleaned up only once a fortnight, Deason  built his house nearby as a deterrent to thieves.

4. The pile of stones in the cleared private land is all that remains of Richard Oates’ house. This area was then populated with a number of European and Chinese miners, and there were two dairies and a market garden, all within sight of here.

5. There is supposed to be a wooden grave marker on the fenceline from the 1860s of an old Chinese man. I couldn’t find it.

6. Piles of stones from fireplaces, raised dirt floors and a narrow laneway between are the only remnants of a Chinese camp which dates from the 1860s. Chinese were not always welcome on the goldfields so often lived in camps away  from all other nationalities.

7. This is a better example of a puddling machine site.

8. This forest was once full of magnificent large trees which were cut down for the miners’ needs.

9. Although this tree has been cut down the stump had survived and sprouted new trunks. This is known as coppice growth. Red box trees have rounded leaves, unlike the grey box trees which have elongated shiny leaves.

10. After the first gold discovery in September 1852 at the bottom of this gully, the miners gradually traced upstream to here. This was called Black Gully because the gold was often stained with black ironstone.

Back to Moliagul to check out the monument to the founder of the Flying Doctors Service, John Flynn.

His father, Thomas Flynn, was the first teacher at Moliagul State School. John was born across the road from this spot – not sure if that means the little cottage hidden under the huge peppercorn tree.

Walked up the street to check out the hotel. Now that’s a loo with a view!!

Met the owner, Jane, who is now renovating the hotel. She had just ripped out the men’s toilets and decided to make a ‘funny dunny’ in the paddock. Her husband is in a band is currently playing in Queensland. She is reusing all the timber etc and likes to only use items from the township. When the church was sold they bought all the fittings etc so the pub has a pulpit and pews!! She invited me to have a look around out the back where there is another building that was the school teacher’s quarters in the early days. Will have to come back after 8 months or so to check out her work.

Across the road was the old General Store that has recently been purchased and being renovated. Though she said that the peppercorn tree brings white ants so they might have a lot of work to do.

On the other side of Burnt Creek is a shearing shed etc. She said the small thin shed (hidden behind the tree) was where the Chinese dried their tobacco. They had big pear tree orchards here.

Headed out of town to drive up to Mt Moliagul Lookout. You can see the towers on the top.

Through more detecting areas. Great view from 530m elevation even though it is very hazy with the low cloud. I was a 280m before climbing up the narrow dirt road – quite proud of myself though I have to get back down yet!! Haven’t got my bearings so not sure what I was looking at but it is mainly flat with just a few small hills/mountains.

Back to the bitumen and into Bealiba. Wandered down the main street checking out the old buildings. Gold was first found at the foot of Mt Bealiba in 1856 bringing 12,000 miners to the town. They only stayed 18 months though and then the area was opened up for farming etc.

The Evans Hotel (1857) was built for George Evans. It catered for Cobb & Co travellers. Numerous professional people operated here. George was a staunch supporter for Bealiba’s progress and was instrumental in getting the rail line through. He was an early councillor of  the Bet Bet Shire.

Renshaw’s Drapery (1913) was the main drapery shop for decades. Renshaw’s were direct importers from England and owned four shops in this region as well as two in Melbourne.

The original Bealiba Post Office started in 1862. The current building was built in 1910 and the Post Office moved to this site on 30^th March, 1939. House deliveries ceased in September 1939. The manual phone exchange here ceased operation on the 16^th September, 1981 when telephones were automated.

The Library and Hall (1879).

Drove out of town to the Bealiba Reservoir which is at the base of Mt Bealiba. It was built to provide water for all the steam trains. You can camp here for 7 days per month.

Back into town I saw the railway station which opened in 1878. I turned in at the car park sign but it said Road Closed so didn’t go in.

Headed back to the Wimmera Highway and drove into Tarnagulla then back to our camp. Steve was a happy chappy as he had found a bigger nugget. Will have to weigh it tomorrow.

Took a photo of the four little ones he has found so far as well.

The evening is quite pleasant considering how cold we felt all day (don’t think it got over 11 all day). After our evening chat around the fire we went inside at 7.30 (14 degrees) and didn’t need the heater on till 8.30 (we have kept the 4 season hatches closed so that helps). Rang Mum and Dad for a chat to see what she thought of Leyton Hewitt’s last Wimbledon match.