On successive weekends lately we found time to drive to Woods Point for a counter lunch. Woods Point is one of those last surviving towns in the Victorian mountains. For us it is a 280 km round trip from our front gate to Woods Point and approx 6 hours’ driving. However it is one of the most beautiful drives (whichever way you go – we usually vary it) not only in Australia but I suspect in the world. The second weekend it was particularly beautiful as we were driving for several hours through a snow-covered fairyland.
We are very busy, hence my slowness in writing new posts. Because of our age (77) we have had to make many trips away over the last few years to visit sick and aging relatives and friends – or to attend their funerals. We have just spent four days in Maitland for example for this purpose – our second such trip already this year. Last year there were nearly half a dozen such trips. This does cut into our time spent hiking, hunting etc.
So many towns have vanished over the years but a few are still hanging on: Willow Grove, Woods Point, Walhalla, Erica, Rawson, Kevington, Noojee, Licola, Omeo, Swifts Creek, Ensay, Benambra, the ‘Blue Duck’, Buchan, Bendoc etc. Many smaller places have lost their stores, pubs etc over the years so often they are only just a name today but many still have houses, halls etc: Tanjil Bren, Aberfeldy, Icy Creek, Matlock, Gelantipy, Suggan Buggan, Tubbut etc.
The closing down (by urban bureaucrats, government etc) of our rural industries (grazing, logging, mining etc) means that they can no longer continue. Tourism does not fill the gap. Indeed there are now (on any given day) vastly fewer folk in the bush and mountains than there were in the past – even 150 years ago when there were literally hundreds of small towns. Some have been completely swallowed by the bush such that there are not even any tracks to them anymore. Louisville, Brocket, Verdon, Centreville, China Flat, Miner’s Flat, Mayford etc on the Dargo River for example. See Wilderness Exploration for some of them.
If you have a 4WD it is interesting and rewarding to locate some which can be accessed and explore their ruins, cemeteries and such: Toombon, Edwards Reef, Red Jacket, Violet Town, Grant, Black Snake Creek, Talbotville, Glen Valley etc. There is something particularly poignant about coming upon a lonely grave (such as Kitty Kane’s on the Woods Point Rd) standing quite alone in the tall shading forest.
Also many of the bush huts, fire shelters etc have ‘disappeared’ over the years. Some of this is (I suspect) as a result of those self-same bureaucrats. Whitelaws Hut on the Upper Thomson River, Fiddler’s Green Hut on the Mt Selma Rd, Marthavale Hut on the Nicholson (What hunts I had there years ago), the hut at the Aberfeldy crossing on the Walhalla-Woods Point Rd etc. There are suspicious fires. Hundreds, (possibly thousands) have gone in just the last thirty years – but some remain – and every now and then a new one ‘pops’ up. Thank goodness!
There are also some (relatively ‘undiscovered’ huts just lost in the bush with no road or track to them. I will be ‘finding’ and revisiting some of them over the next few months and doing some posts about them but perhaps not revealing their precise locations (for obvious reasons). Some appear on maps (such as the NBW (Trans. ‘No Bloody Women’!) Hut in the Baw Baw National Park and the ‘Sambar Lodge’ (Wildflower Mine) in the Upper Thomson but others are known only to a few, such as the ruins of the Falls Hut in the Upper Yarra catchment subject to a $2000 fine for ‘trespassing’ there – as if you could ‘trespass’ on pubic land! Must go back with Della soon. The trout await!
Some need work which is probably beyond me now: Jans Hut and the hut in Ross Creek for example. A couple (of very remote ones) I will be doing work on – and I hope to build one or two more myself before I ‘shuffle off this mortal coil’. I think there should be tens of thousands of such huts scattered all throughout mountain country. Without any planning or permitting! See Wilderness Hut.
Ruins of the Upper Yarra Falls ‘Shelter House’.
Usually we restrict our route to 2WD roads but there are several different ways you can go and return from the whereabouts of eg Jeeralang Junction where we live. I do particularly like the drive up from Willow Grove to Toorongo but I also adore the South Face Rd and Tanjil Bren. But then the Upper Thomson Rd (and Marshall Spur) are great. So are the Mt Selma and Mt Useful Rds. The road through Walhalla and the Aberfeldy River is quite wonderful. Noojee is a lovely place. The road across the Thomson Dam is majestic. You get the point. We can go and return many times without retraceing our routes.
The first trip it was sunny so we had lunch in their delightful beer garden at the Woods Point Hotel.
Thinking of restoring this old Triumph.
And this wonderful shed.
Or maybe this one?
All the houses back on to the Goulburn River so they can catch trout from their back verandahs. What a wonderful idea.
Here’s one for sale. A great place to retire.
The delightful garage – alas closed.
Maybe you remember these bowsers? I have filled up at them.
The general store is still (usually) open. I have tried and failed to rotate these three pictures.
And the hotel.
And a waterfall on the way – ditto. Just tilt your head!
Next time because it snowed we had lunch beside their lovely warm fire.
The snow made such a great magic carpet.
It was transformational.
Yet another Subaru – our newest one.
Antarctic Beech Xmas trees – in July.
Likewise.
Snowmen at Matlock
And snow-women.
A wonderful picnic shelter at Matlock.
The snow was just magic.
Inside the last 1939 fire bunker on the Marshall Spur. After the great fire the Royal Commission mandated these things be constructed everywhere to save lives but they have nearly all gone now. This is one of only two (the other at Jumbuk) I know still exist.
