MELWOOD to BULLUMWAAL - 19 June 2005  

Along the Peahill Road at Melwood we were shown a beautifully crafted stone well of over a metre in diameter. The well has long since filled with debris from the surrounding forest. Maybe it was built by miners who were in the area searching for gold. Further along this road we found three koalas in quite a small area. Were these animals that had been transported from Raymond Island last year because the large numbers of koalas on the island was destroying their habitat and food source?

Even further along we came to the Chinese gold diggings. Massive amounts of stone has been moved to construct several deep channels. A water race must have been dug to bring water from Boggy Creek to the area. Apparently the water was then directed through the channels which had hessian bags stretched across them to trap the gold. In this area the gold is fine and scattered and nuggets were infrequent. On the side of a fallen log from which the bark had been removed were several round flat white silken discs which we took to be spider's egg cases.

In the Mount Alfred State Forest we stopped at the corner of Stony Creek and McComas Road where pink Common Heath ( Epacris impressa ) was flowering. There was a large pool in the creek with Pondweed ( Potamogeton sp.) in the water and masses of the bright green Common ground-fern ( Calochlaena dubia ) along the edge. Fungi were Russula mariae , a beautiful deep pink topped gilled fungus with pale pink stem and white to cream gills; a 13cm Lepiota which has a fawn cap with dark brown flecks and a button top; and a pale yellow coral. There were also some mid-brown tiny gilled fungi where the cap had a paler rim and the outlines of the gills could be seen through the top of the cap. There was plenty of evidence of the Superb Lyrebird by its scratchings and we heard Superb Fairy Wren and Grey Fantail.

Along Cox Road we found Hazel Pomaderris ( Pomaderris aspera ) leaves whose upper surface had a very thick layer of Sooty Mould (so it's not only in our gardens)! However along the veins were tiny white structures we took to be the egg cases of some invertebrate. A small Manuka ( Leptospermum scoparium ) plant along a tiny creek had leaves which were infested with bright red insect galls. On the soil was a yellow puffball which had broken to reveal a mass of dark brown spores. On a small log was a small white thin and soft bracket fungus. The spore undersurface was wrinkled like the leather fungus Phlebia .

Off the Bullumwaal Tabberabbera Road we saw the Beehive Gold Mine. A mullock heap had formed a very large isthmus with steep sides pushed out from the side of the hill. Several old pieces of the iron equipment still lay about, including an old boiler from a steam engine. Further along the walking track were the remains of water races which had become eroded and were now quite large. Bullumwaal, about 30km north of Bairnsdale, was the centre of the gold mining industry in the lake district. The name is an aboriginal name meaning 'two spears'. It grew up in 1870s and was at its peak in 1880s and 1890s. At its peak 4000 people lived and worked around Bullumwaal. The gullies and water courses for kilometres around the town were worked by fossickers. The town has grown up around Boggy Creek. The Beehive Mine was found by two prospectors and a company was formed in 1883. It was the principal mine in the area with many lodes and shafts as deep as 180m. The Beehive Mine battery was constructed in 1890s in German Gully, first with five heads and this was later increased to ten. The Gully was dammed to conserve water. The surrounding hills were denuded of Red Box ( Eucalyptus polyanthemos ) and Yertchuk or Prickly Stringybark ( E.consideniana ) to fuel the boilers of the battery. After the mine finally closed in 1913, the battery was moved to the Bairnsdale Historical Society.

North of Bullumwaal township we saw the entrance to another mine dug into the hillside along the edge of Boggy Creek. This may have been the Champion Tunnel.

Gold mining information from "Bullumwaal - Some Memories" by Jean Hardwidge, Norma Websdale and Linda Barraclough and "Bedrock" by Keith MD Fairweather.