A third attempt at finding evidence of historic gold prospecting in the Northern Forest
The plan today wasn’t to explore the hillside directly behind Lees Grove like the last couple of times. Instead, the aim was to head towards Lowry Trig, then drop into a gully I had scouted on an earlier bush bash.
There was a reason for choosing this particular gully.
An old newspaper article from 1901 describes an exploration somewhere in or near Gollans Valley, where several men located a quartz reef and examined an old winze that had been sunk about 10 feet into it. I had often wondered whether this could be connected with the old workings I had been told about behind Lees Grove.
The location certainly seemed possible. It wasn’t actually on the Lees Grove hillside itself, but beyond it, over the ridge and down into a gully overlooking Gollans Valley. But still behind Lees Grove all the same.
Tony Weir joined me for the trip, and we set off up the Lees Grove Track. We passed Lowry Trig and continued to the lookout not far beyond it before backtracking slightly and leaving the track by dropping down into the bush.
We were looking for a location that matched this description from the old newspaper article:
At last we heard somewhere up in the southern sky a faint halloo, and as venturing along insecure places, the slipping of a foot on which must have sent the unlucky one rolling far down the mountain flank, the welcome intelligence “I have found the reef!” came sailing to us on the wings of the morning, and hastening we soon, after several hairbreadth escapes, conquered the highest spur overlooking Gollan’s Valley, and were pointed out by our [text missing] three feet thick, housed between a hanging wall of sandstone and footwall of slate.
Someone had, a great many years ago, sunk a winze on the reef for a depth of about 10ft, for from the bottom thereof grew to a height above the shaft a fern tree. This winze enabled me to make the following observations.
On this high spur, overlooking Gollan’s Valley to the south, and at the head of a watered gully trending down to the valley, this quartz measure crops out, and its downhill side is covered with rotten papa and quartz boulders, so that one cannot well ascertain its dimensions nor composition further than that the surface quartz is more or less cavernous, the cavities being more or less filled with peroxide of iron.
In simple terms, we were looking for the head of a watered gully on a high spur overlooking Gollans Valley with a view to the south.
And where we were standing seemed to fit, although the trees obscured most of the view.
The descent was steep enough to demand some care, although there were plenty of trees, roots and branches to grab as we worked our way down. Supplejack was everywhere, looping between trees and across our route, so we zigzagged where possible to avoid the worst of it.
Once down in the gully, things became tighter, damper, and slightly darker.
Eventually a creek formed, but fallen trees blocked the creek bed at times, supplejack tangled through the undergrowth, and progress became slower. Eventually it seemed easier to climb partway up the western flank and sidle above the worst of it, then dropping back towards the creek when the bush opened up.
All the while we were looking for some sign of the old winze and spoil.
A winze is essentially a vertical or steeply inclined mining shaft, and I had been told that the one we were searching for may still have a mound of excavated spoil beside it. But there was no obvious sign of it.
We continued following the unnamed creek downhill until it finally merged with Gollans Stream.
Originally, the plan had been to turn upstream here and follow Gollans Stream back towards the Rātā Ridge Track from near the source of this stream. But we had reached the junction sooner than expected, so we changed plans and continued south, down Gollans Stream.
The creek had now roughly doubled in volume, and before long we reached another junction where a stream flowed into Gollans Stream from the Days Bay and Rona Bay direction.
Then we found something unexpected.
Carved into a tree were the words:
“Upper Forks”
It was an odd thing to find so deep in the bush.
Technically it wasn’t even the uppermost fork, because the unnamed creek we followed flowed into Gollans Stream upstream, so that was technically Upper Forks, although the name was probably given from the perspective of the creek from the west. Regardless. whoever carved the words into the tree must have known the area reasonably well, and it was strange to imagine someone coming back to this remote junction often enough to give it a name.
It certainly felt like the middle of nowhere.
We kept pushing downstream until the vegetation became increasingly dense and difficult. Rather than forcing our way directly through it, we climbed onto the eastern side of the valley where we found a flatter terrace or plateau and followed that south for a short distance.
By then it was becoming obvious that continuing much further could turn the trip into a considerably bigger expedition than planned.
So we turned for home.
There were two obvious choices. We could retrace our route back up Gollans Stream then continue on Gollans as it heads up to Rata Ridge, a section we hadn’t done yet. Or we could head up the eastern ridge instead.
We chose the eastern ridge.
Partly because it looked more interesting, and partly because I dislike retracing ground I’ve just covered when there is another option available.
The climb was a grind.
We steadily fought our way upwards through the bush, gaining altitude metre by metre until we eventually reached the ridge. From there we followed it for some distance before it frustratingly began dropping again.
Fortunately, we didn’t lose all the altitude we had worked so hard to gain. The ridge soon began climbing once more.
The surrounding ridges and the ridge we were on was surprisingly high, and I imagine that they harbor impressive views over the valleys below. Unfortunately, the bush was simply too thick to get a decent photograph.
Eventually our ridge merged with the Rātā Ridge Track.
From there it was straightforward travelling back to the Lees Grove Track and finally out to the car.
It had been a decent day’s exploration, and the sore legs afterwards confirmed that.
More importantly, it gave us a much better understanding of the country around upper Gollans Stream and raised another possibility for the next trip.
We could follow Gollans Stream downstream before returning along the ridge and spur separating Gollans Stream from the unnamed creek we descended today.
That would let us search another section of country that still fits the historical description for historic gold prospecting.
As for the mysterious winze, there was still no sign of it.
And unfortunately, no gold bars either.
Never mind.
There’s always next week.
