Mining Treasures of the “Mountaineer” Revealed.

20 May 2007

Author, Peter Ward.

With the bushfires having cleared the impenetrable Good Luck Creek, historian Rob Christie walked a party the two and one half hours from Stonewall, at the foot of the Bulltown Spur Track, to the old "Mountaineer" mine and battery. The riches of Grant's past history again came alive, as the bush revealed secrets not exposed to such plain view for several generations.

In a narrow valley that once occupied five hundred alluvial miners in the 1850’s, the amazing industry of these seekers of fortune was now clearly visible. The entire valley has been sluiced, and huge piles of stacked rocks make the "Chinese diggings" at Bairnsdale pale into insignificance. In one place an amazing track has been built, rock by rock, a full twenty metres off the valley floor to enable access around fifty metres of vertical rock face. The author knows of no other similar example of this magnitude, and the view of this trail, in its current exposure, leaves the viewer in awe. Further along are some large and well preserved tunnels high on the hillsides, providing exceptional examples of rarely seen drives into lifted alluvial gravel seams.

The Mountaineer itself was a reef mine, and now revealed all it's original crushing machinery, including eight head battery complete with the steel hubs of a water wheel direct coupled water wheel . The skips sit complete on the incline to the battery, still connected by their cables.

Already the blackberries are clawing at the walker's feet, bracken is in places a metre high, and the secrets of this amazing valley are destined to again be hidden.

Whilst the trip down the Bulltown Spur is for high clearance four wheel drives only, and the walking is difficult, it is well worth the effort.

The question is, why aren't these treasures of our past being actively preserved, promoted, and made available to the public with good signage, maintained pathways, and blackberry control?