Thursday 15th February 2024
Photos courtesy of Rob, Tom, and Kate. Walk Report courtesy of Walk Leader Donna.
Fourteen walkers turned up for our first walk of the year. The walk also doubled up as our social walk for the program whereby three further members joined us for lunch afterwards. This walk is an abbreviated version of the Moruya Three Mines walk, a shorter and easier version with, of course, just two mine sites.
The first site that we visited was a large long concrete furnace that was constructed around 1914 but abandoned soon after. The intention was to roast sulphide contained in the ore. However this method of extraction proved to be unsuccessful and the furnace was abandoned soon after. Other than looking like a relic from Angkor Wat, covered by a fallen tree and gradually being claimed by vegetation regrowth, the furnace is still in reasonably good condition. However, it’s still mystifying how this long maze of concrete chambers actually worked. Perhaps that’s why it just didn’t! Following our short bush bash out and back to the furnace, considerable time was then taken to remove numerous leeches from our legs, the only real extraction that we were interested in by this time.
We continued on to our next mining site at the nearby Francis Hill. Historical records indicate that gold and silver were first reported to be found in the area in 1839, however this was no longer a secret by the 1860’s when the gold rush was in full swing. We inspected the remains of a hut and a stamper, both still standing. The stamper is a ten head gravity stamper that had been built around 1890 by Francis Guy, a saw miller from Batemans Bay.
After a break it was time to return to the cars as the Chicken Schnitties and Chicken Parmies were calling us. Once at the cars our President Rob Lees informed our group that the walk would be the last for Bev Brazel, whom was present, with the Club. Bev has sold her house and purchased another one in Canberra to be closer to her family. Bev has been a member of the Club for many years and has made a wonderful contribution. Not only has Bev been a Walk Leader who has always been obliging and led too many walks to count, but she informed us that she has attended virtually every Camp that the Club has held whilst she has been a member. Following Rob’s words, we headed to the Waterfront Hotel and had a nice lunch and catch up.
We’ve all enjoyed the company of Bev, we appreciate her contribution and wish her well in the future and like Rob said, Bev you can join us on a few Monga walks, it’s kind of not too far from Canberra!