Castlemaine Gold, Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park - May 2018

Eureka Reef Ruins. If old gold mining relics aren't your thing then maybe give this post a miss.

With the sting going out of the warmer weather I figured that this week I might head up the the Victorian Goldfields and re-walk a stroll written up by Mr Tempest, the Castlemaine Gold Walk. I’d walked this walk before and managed to get very wet and driving up this morning I wasn’t overly confident that I wouldn’t be getting a bit damp again today. Apart from it being pretty wet it was also pretty chilly, driving past Woodend the ambient temperature readout in the ute had the outside temperature as 8˚, thankfully I’d come prepared with a lightweight shirt and shorts…..

I sat in the ute for half an hour waiting for the showers to clear a bit.

Parking the ute at the southern end of Castlemaine at the end of Wheeler Street I got changed, pulled on my boots and then sat in the ute for half an hour waiting for a decent break in the showers. By the time my boots actually hit the dirt on the track today it was already after 1pm, yeah it looks like this post might be featuring a few sunset shots I’m thinking, well if the rain stops anyway. A lot of this walk contours around the hills along the the numerous old water races left over from the gold mining days and, after around 5 minutes of climbing I turned onto Poverty Point Channel, my first water race for the day.

I've just climbed up to meet the Poverty Point Channel, a lot of this walk not only utilises old water races but also follows sections of the GDT.

The old water races make for nice easy, fairly level walking generally, so I was able to spend a fair bit of time in an almost mediative state as I amble along this afternoon. Pretty soon the old channel had weaved its way through the hills and away from the houses of Castlemaine, apart from the occasional light shower the weather was looking ok, so all was pretty good in the world. These box-ironbark woodlands always present a challenge for me to photograph, but with all the old mining history around I wasn’t just relying on the flora this afternoon. The other thing with these dry open forests is that sometimes you’ve got to look for the small details, stopping to have a chat to a local walker going the other way I happened to glance down at the channel, slowly my eyes focussed on the rocks and I could see a large snake skin well camouflaged in the rocks, sweet. Dropping into the dry channel I couldn’t help but hope that the original owner of the skin wasn’t too close at hand though.

Climbing through the dry forest beside the Poverty Point Channel.

Hmm, I wonder where the original owner is?

Somewhat unusually the Poverty Gully Channel actually climbs a fair bit. I was making my way up to the small Poverty Gully Reservoir and I’m thinking that the old water race used to supply gravity fed water for Castlemaine in the older days, hence the gradient. The old reservoir is dry now days but it still makes for an interesting spot to poke around for awhile taking in all the old channels and water infrastructure. Leaving the old reservoir I once again started my meandering route along the continuation of the water race, the walking once again very level and easy. It was along here that I figured that I’d better actually have a look at my map and notes, yeah maybe I should of done that before setting off, not for the first time I found that I’d missed the described turn off by a fair way. After shaking my head and mumbling something about early onset dementia I had a closer look at my map, It seemed that I would now be walking Mr Tempests route in reverse if I kept going. Having walked this walk before (makes you wonder how I’d actually missed the turn really?) I was pretty confident that there would not be too many navigational problems going around clock wise so I pushed on.

The old Poverty Gully Reservoir.

There were still a few showers scudding through.

Arriving at Dingo Park Road I left the Poverty Gully Channel and picked up an old eroded fire track running up the crest of a spur, this old track isn’t signposted so you need to keep an eye on the map (he says now!). The old track climbed up the spur to todays high point at The Monk, the 459 metre summit no really giving me much in the way of views though. After poking around the summit for awhile peeking through the trees looking for views of distant valleys, I got a photo of the fairly anorexic trig(?) point on the summit and then set off down towards my next objective, Cobblers Gully.

The 459 metre summit of The Monk hasn't got a very elaborate trig point.

Looking down through the trees towards Castlemaine from The Monk.

After a bit of zigging and zagging I turned off Jacobs Road and started to drop into Cobblers Gully, stopping on the easy descent to take a couple of photos of the old dry stone walls still standing in the bush. Bottoming out the old track follows Cobbler Gully down stream towards Spring Gully, everywhere I looked along here there was evidence of the gold mining history, from mine shafts to old fences and other structures, but probably the most obvious mining left over was the eroded Cobblers Gully itself, the gully has been deeply eroded by sluicing and now makes for a somewhat impressive (in a macabre kind of way) site.

Dropping into Cobblers Gully there is a bit of evidence of the old mining history scattered around the forest.

The erosion left over from the gold sluicing in Cobblers Gully is quite impressive - in a macabre kind of a way.

With cleared land appearing beside me for the first time on the walk so far, I knew I was getting close to the tiny locality of Spring Creek. After crossing Spring Gully Road I wandered up to the Spring Gully picnic area, last time I did this walk I’d missed this spot as it had been pouring with rain, but with the sun now out and the skies looking relatively good I figured the afternoon was a good time to check out the old mine. Spring Gully was first worked in the 1850’s and there is a fair bit of old mining history scattered around the forest. The large mullock heaps, sluicing scars and mine shafts are probably the most obvious things, but looking a bit closer there is the remnants of historical buildings and fences and assorted building materials scattered around the forest floor.

The cleared land signalled the fact that I was getting close to Spring Gully.

Spring Gully was pretty quiet.

The old bridge over Cobblers Gully at Spring Creek has seen better days.

Spring Gully Diggings

Like Cobblers Gully, Spring Gully has some pretty impressive sluicing scars....

....and some very deep mine shafts.

Leaving Spring Gully I was starting to think that I might not make it back to the ute in the daylight if I kept mucking around taking photos, it was already almost 4pm and I had a fair way to go, not that I was overly concerned though as I had my head torch and the walking would be do-able in the dark. Climbing up Spring Gully it was the sun that was giving me the most grief now though, heading directly into the low sun as I trudged up the quiet dirt road towards Telecom Track. Climbing up here I also left the cleared land of Spring Gully behind and resumed my walk through the Box-Ironbark forest. After a bit of a dog leg corner I found Telecom Track, but I was now looking for another old water race which I think is Campbells Creek Channel. I’m guessing the reason Mr Tempest wrote his notes up in the opposite direction is probably due to the signposting, there wasn’t a lot of sign posting heading in this direction but when I’d arrive at the end of section I’d inevitably find a sign pointing from where I’d just emerged.

It was already fairly late in the afternoon as I climbed up towards Telecom Track.

There was still a bit of weather around the hills.

Campbells Creek Channel actually makes for a little harder walking, where as Poverty Gully Channel that I’d followed earlier forms part of the long distance GDT and is fairly well maintained this old water race is a lot less frequently walked I think. After winding around the hills for awhile, sometimes across surprisingly steep slopes, Campbells Creek Channel crossed Arthurs Track and headed off in the direction of my next objective Eureka Reef. Now once again I was looking for a turn off that I wasn’t sure would be sign posted from this direction, so when I came across a track crossing the water race and heading off in vaguely the right direction I did the sensible thing and headed off down it. It almost goes without saying that after dropping way too far I grudgingly excepted that this wasn’t in fact my track, bugger! Climbing back up I was lucky enough to spy some of the remains of the old Eureka Diggings in a gully to my left and after a short off piste section I was on the Eureka Reef Heritage Walk and back on track.

Campbells Creek Channel made for rougher walking across sometimes fairly steep hillsides.

More mine shafts, the one is on Campbells Creek Channel near Eureka Reef.

The workings at the Eureka Reef were extensive, mining existed here for 100 years from the 1850’s and like Spring Gully and Cobblers Gully, these diggings have a lot of history scattered around the forest. Meandering around the old diggings I slowly made my way to the Eureka Reef Car Park, the exact route that I was meant to be following wasn’t always obvious along here but really you can’t go too far wrong, although if you do find yourself meandering trough the diggings off the track then be very careful of old mine shafts. Passing through the car park I picked up the continuation of Campbells Creek Channel and headed off for for the last bit of my clockwise loop back to meet Poverty Gully Channel.

I like walking in the late afternoon, the light is generally pretty good.

After a bit of off piste action I picked up the fairly short Eureka Reef Heritage Walk.

The Eureka Reef area is very large, here's an old sluicing gully complete with fully grown trees growing out of it.

Eureka Reef

Successfully meeting Poverty Gully Channel in the gathering gloom it was now obvious that I wouldn’t be casting a shadow when I eventually got back to the ute, not that it mattered a lot as I was now walking back down a familiar route. With the lights of Castlemaine twinkling through the trees I dropped down towards town, managing at one stage to get a photo of the sun setting below distant hills. Meeting the turn off from Poverty Gully Channel I walked the last few metres down to the ute in what was effectively darkness. Arriving at the ute it was time to pull my boots off and jump in for the two and a half hour drive home, cruising through the darkness happy to have spent a nice afternoon out in the bush.

Leaving the Eureka Reef Car Park I picked up the Campbells Creek Channel again.

Re-joining the Poverty Gully Channel the loop was complete, I was now heading back down to the ute.

Passing around the old Poverty Gully Reservoir again, the conditions were a bit darker now.

The Dirt.
I walked around 21.8 kilometres on all my aimless rambling today and climbed 395 metres on what is a medium grade walk. There isn’t a lot of water about on this walk so take everything you need with you. Actually there are no real facilities of any kind except for a picnic table at Spring Gully so it’s BYO everything really. This walk would suit people who are into our old gold mining history, the tracks are all reasonably OK and I’m thinking that the sign posting is pretty good if you walk the way Mr Tempest describes it in his book Daywalks Around Victoria, it’s walk number 22 in Mr Tempest’s book by the way. Now while I wouldn’t want to do a walk in these dry Box-Ironbark forests every week they do make for nice spots to walk in our cooler months in my opinion.

Relevant Posts.
Daylesford & Sailors Falls, 2014.
Daylesford & Hepburn Springs, Hepburn Regional Park, 2016.
Macedon Ranges Circuit, 2016.

Walking down the Poverty Gully Channel the lights of Castlemaine were starting to twinkle down in the valley.

Dropping down to the ute off Poverty Gully Channel, the photo doesn't show it but it was as good as dark now - perfect timing really:)