Wombat State Fores

[vk3aif]

I am at this stage planning on heading up the Wombat State Forest tomorrow 15 July as a passenger/photographer. We intend meeting at the Greendale pub at 10:00 local and making our way through the bush visiting an abandoned hut South West of Daylesford and taking in the Blow Hole at Hepburn Springs before heading for home after a meal at a yet to be determined place.

Information on all these places should be available via google for those interested or I am more than happy to answer individual questions about the area.

So I need to charge up my camera and HT batteries and if anything exciting happens It will appear in the next few days.

So far it looks like we have a Defender, a Patrol and a HZ80 Landcruiser without any pre planning whatsoever other than a couple of beers.

Conditions over here are ATM are cold and wet being in the depths of our winter with below average temperatures and above average rainfall forecast and experienced of late.

links:
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=wo...=1778&bih=1127

http://humanform.info/daylesford/blow.htm

A few images from previous trips:

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[vk3aif]

Well 6 of us headed off from Melton as planned in 2 vehicles on a cold winter morning with wall to wall low dark clouds and the constant threat of rain to meet up with the third 4x4 from Bacchus-Marsh at the Greendale Pub at 10:00 local. Hans arrived right on cue in his Land-rover Defender so some last minute shopping in the general store which is part of the Pub, some shuffling of bodies between seats and off we went.

That was the Last of the bitumen we were now on sloppy gravel and dirt roads for most of the rest of the journey.

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We made our way via various tracks up to the ruins of the "Bolt Camp" a camp set up by the Forestry Commission in 1946 to give "Displaced people mainly from the Baltic States" work after the second world war. As a kid I remember the main communal and eating area being still largely intact but it has since been burnt down though I cannot recall when or how this happened. The camp as I remember it was not still in use and at least some of the accommodation blocks have been moved to korweinguboora, a few miles away and are visible from the main Ballan Daylesford road. Basically all that remains is a couple of chimneys and concrete slabs where several buildings and generator once stood.

I forgot to mention originally that Jim had to resort to using his winch at one point after we had already negotiated several fallen trees across one particular track he had to turn back and in the greasy off camber conditions, he was slipping sideways towards the edge of the track so to avoid going off the edge he winched himself up to flatter ground. He only had his Cooper all terrains on though he does have a set of muddies but they were home safe and warm in his shed. Of course if you want to give your winch a run the ATs have got to be the better choice?

At another point the Patrol did not have enough approach angle to get up one of the tracks and had to go around and meet up with the others at another place but that was because in its previous life it had been fitted with railway wheels and used for track maintenance and the mounting points have not yet been removed. It is full of hydraulic hoses and valves, I don't know if the pump is still there or how it was driven for that matter and there is copious amounts of non standard wiring and switches still there as well.

From there we headed up through Bullarto to the Trentham Falls. It was good to see a fair amount of water going over them as we are only a couple of years out of a 12 year drought.

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We had lunch at one of the Trentham Pubs and then went to the "Lost Children's Monument". The story behind the lost children is 3 children in the winter of 1867 wandered off into the bush and became lost, the towns folk, mainly gold miners from Daylesford searched in vain for several weeks without any success, the bodies of the three being discovered 3-4 months later huddled in a hollow tree. If the winter back then was anything like yesterday, they probably would not have survived the first night?

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From there we made our way via back roads to the area were the Miners Hut is (the folks from ARB were up there 4-5 weeks ago), but we did not have an exact location so a bit of going round in circles we eventually found it.

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Nobody was home though.

The wagons.

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The Patrol is a 2006 extra cab ex mining vehicle and was purchased at auction in Perth a couple of weeks ago and road freighted the ~4,000 Km over arriving last week, Brad was keen to try it out so it came along still covered inside and out with Pilbura iron ore dust. Brad seems to have a soft spot for Nissans having had a MQ Patrol and still having a Navara, GU 5 door and now the GU pick-up with 4.2L TD. as well as a ford van and a Jeep Cherokee. He also had a 4x2 wagon at one stage but that doesn't count does it

Anyway back to the trip, from the hut we went to the Blowhole, "The Blow Hole is a tunnel excavated through a narrow rock spur by gold miners, probably in the early 1860s, to divert the creek water. The exposed dry creek bed could then be worked for gold." from the web site "Daylesford Past and Present". The date is uncertain when this was done as there is no record from the time but it is put somewhere between 1860 and 1885 I think.

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I sure hope they found plenty of gold because it would have taken a lot of effort to chip their way through that basalt lava flow?

We even bumped into some nice Swedish lady tourists there and helped them with the obligatory group photos.

After the Blowhole we aired up in Daylesford, reshuffled our seating arrangements and broke up heading for our homes after about 8 hours and 200Km. Everyone claimed to have had a great day even with the cold, wet and foggy conditions.

I hope you enjoyed this short report?

Dave
VK3AIF

[N7IYT]

Thanks for the report and the pictures! I looks like you had a great time.

[VK4CZ]

Dave

There's one big difference between our local (SE VK4) tracks and Wombat SF (also seen regularly on 4WD TV), that being the amount of mud! My motto... "mud = money". Suppose that's what comes with the extra 1500km south you are. As for me I usually take the chicken track around bog holes!

[vk3aif]

Dave

There's one big difference between our local (SE VK4) tracks and Wombat SF (also seen regularly on 4WD TV), that being the amount of mud! My motto... "mud = money". Suppose that's what comes with the extra 1500km south you are. As for me I usually take the chicken track around bog holes!

G'day Scott, we were up there again a few weeks later on fathers day and it was dusty? Still a few puddles holding mud/water but mainly dry. We did manage to get thoroughly bogged on one track though but managed to extricate ourselves without outside help and still made it to the pub for lunch in plenty of time, I'll have to post some more pics when I get around to it.

I was up your neck of the woods for a few weeks around the end of August, went to the Gympie muster, it was a bit cool at night but lovely daytime temperatures and no rain this time???

I should put up a post on the Simpson Desert as I have been across there in 05, 07, 09 and 11 the missing years I went to Giles, Coongie Lakes, Canning and no outback trip this year Next year maybe the Kimberly if everything falls into place?

Where have you been and how about some help with the Australian group?

[K7DCL]

Thanks for sharing.

[Offrdn60]

Hi Dave vk3aif,

Thanks for the report, I head to the Hut regularly and we really like this area for it's History. We also scout around for old mine sites. Do you head out to the Wombat often?
If you know of any other Huts around the Wombat area would you be kind enough to Email me. offrdn60@hotmail.com
There is a group of us that try and get out and about once a month.

Many thanks

Nick