The Leanganook Track

Today's Hike takes place on a section of the Great Dividing Trail (GDT), a stretch of walk that travels for approximately 280km, between, Bacchus Marsh and Bendigo in Central Victoria. The GDT is divided into four sections, each of which I am intending to hike at some point in the future. 

The plan for today was to walk only a part of the Leanganook Section of the GDT. This section stretches between Castlemaine and Bendigo is the total distance for this walk is 58km. In particular I was concentrating on a section called  the Heritage Park Walk. Traces of the alluvial gold rush era are everywhere evident in this Walk through the Castlemaine Diggings and Forest Creek goldfields dominated by Chinese in the 1850s, and the foundations for the giant Garfield water wheel driven battery, which crushed quartz for gold until the start of the 20th century. It was this water wheel that was to be my aim for the day.

I Was Searching for the Remains of this Water Wheel, Contructed in 1850.

Setting out from Bendigo, Castlemaine is only about 40 minute ride on my trusty motorcycle. I parked near the corner of Pyrenees Hwy and Hargraves Street, as this is apparently where the trail begins. I had purchased a map from the Great Dividing Trail Association. Let me start by saying the map is about as useful as a one legged man in an ass kicking contest. The map features an out of focus large scale aerial photograph, that at best, only represents the actual track. It has no helpful guide notes, and the features are incorrectly located. My recommendation would be to buy it only as a secondary reference, and rely on the more accurate VicMaps topographic maps.

My first waypoint was the Pennyweight Flats Cemetery. The map was useless, and it was only that I noticed a street sign that I knew I was heading in roughly the right direction. Approximately 4km from the starting point I saw a tourist sign indicating that I had arrived. Although not yet in the "bush" the box ironbark trees hiding the cemetery are only reasonably modern trees of about 20-30 years old.

Pennyweight Flats was the location that the mining families buried their infants and children. Growing up in Castlemaine in the 1850s was not an easy existence. Prone to disease, especially from contaminated water, from dangers such as snake bite, falling into diggings and of course drowning in any of the numerous water courses dug to accomodate miing activities, the poor kids had a tough start in life.

Pennyweight Flats got its name as a result of there being no gold in the location. It was said that the flats contained not so much as a pennyweight in gold (a pennyweight being the smallest measure of gold). The children were buried in this location because it was correctly believed that it would be free from disturbance from the frenzy of mining activity occurring at the time. The ground was hard and inhospitable full of slate, quartz and hardened clay. Many of the graves are shallow graves with a fw stones placed around it to mark the site and a humble stone to mark the head.

Other more affluent families afforded a formal headstone, some of which remain readable today, including some in Chinese.

The stone above reads "SACRED" and it truly is a sacred site. Although fenced off and slowly the ironbark forest takes over, the site remains a timeless reminder of the hardship that the early settlers endured in order to make a living in pioneering days.

From here I set out looking for any remains of the old waterwheel above. Now according to the useless map, it was about 5.5 km to this location, although the location indicated on the map was nowhere near 5km away. I figured out the general direction and headed off.

The trail is reasonably defined in the next section of the track. There was only one part where I made a wrong turn. There was a trail marker that indicated to veer off to the left. I turned too much left and headed generally north when I should have headed north east. I realised I had left the trail when I ended up in an old gold digging about 1km north of the last marker. The site was interesting with yet more graves, and some old fireplaces with rusted out pots. These digging were not marked on this map, so I had no means of relating map to ground. In the end I decided to head back to the last marker.

I discovered my error, and this time headed more to the North East. The trail is very well defined here and easy to follow. It proceeds in a gentle uphill climb for several kilometres, but is by no means taxing. After several kilometres, I figured I had walked more than the advised distance on the map. I figured that yet again the map was not worth the paper it was printed on. I assumed I must have missed it because I was a long way past where it is located on the map. Nevertheless, because I had plenty of time, I decided I would continue along the trail. It was an enjoyable walk, so I was determined to enjoy it.

So I determined that I would walk a further 2 km at most before heading back. I figured I had already walked about 7-8km, so 2km more, and a return would put me on about 20km which is a good distance for a day walk.

The out of nowhere, (and certainly nowhere near where the map indicated), I stumbled upon the remains of the old waterwheel...And what a splendid site it was too. In the days of the gold rush, the area would have been completely logged, every tree used for timber for shoring, or firewood for cooking/heating. The old photo above shows very little vegetation. But now the forest has grown back and is slowly eating what remains of the flat areas where quartz was mined in search of gold. But the abutments of the waterwheel remain defiantly standing there, as if guarding this sacred site.

The remains of the Garfield Water Wheel circa 1850

As you can imagine I was busy snapping away for a little while. It is such a peaceful location.

As I headed back on the return journey, I appreciated the forest for it's diversity, and vowed to maybe do a longer walk next time. Maybe even to the summit of Leangonook (or Mt Alexander as it was named by the authorities).

 Only next time, I will bring a far better map!