Coal Mine Road (Walk).

On this trip, we investigate a possible waterfall on Flowerdale River via Coal Mine Road.

This trip was relatively unplanned didn’t even know we would come this way until the day before, we had found out that there was a pretty big waterfall on Flowerdale River so we thought we would try to find it via Coal Mine Road.

Originally we where going to take the Zook but silly me decided to put a voltmeter in to make sure the battery was charging because we have been caught out a few times with the belt slipping so after getting some fuel and getting up to highway speeds (Just) I noticed that there was only 9v showing on the meter so after a bit of swearing and cursing we turned around and got the cruiser out.  After making sure the neighbours were awake to the sound of a V8 we were off… at last.

The first stop was a waterfall at the very start of Coal Mine Road.  Wally Dick and his Tarkine Quad Adventures had been in there the previous weekend and the pictures looked great so we had to go check it out for ourselves.  

and weren’t disappointed.  It was also a little unusual as other than directly underneath the falls the rest was a sandy bottom.  From here we continued down Coal Mine Road until we got to the first mayor bog hole and because we where by ourselves we decided to get out and walk the rest of the way to where we planned to turn in and try to find the waterfall on Flowerdale River.  After making tracks for about an hour we could hear the river roaring and thought that this was a great sign but as we descended down into the river valley we soon realised that it was just a big cascade and also just about impossible to get down to the river, so after a bit of searching and our tail between our legs we decided to make the long climb back out of the gully but then I started looking for some fungi so my disappointment soon vanished.

 

 

 

Once we got back to the track the fungi soon dried up so we started heading the back to the cruiser and on the way back I had seen I had had Preolenna 7 mile marked on my map which was an old coal mine in the area and as it wasn’t far off the track we decided we would try to find it so we head into the bush again in search.  Just as we where about to give up as it started raining we found a marker on a tree and then soon found an old dragline with a log still attached.

At this stage, we had kinda forgotten about the mine as we were enthralled by the dragline and where it might have gone.  So we followed the markers and found ourselves following a log slide down a very steep hill from here the rain started getting heavier and the track went to the left and to the right so we decided to go left and then had moved away from the log slide and found ourselves at the mine site.

The area was never heavily mined so this was a bonus to find it seems this area was mined for coal at the start of the 19th century more info here.

 

Unfortunately for us, the Adit was full of water but it still made for a good photo opportunity. After searching around the area and the rain starting to get heavier we thought we better start moving again but didn’t want to go back the way we came and then lucky for us we found another marker heading in the direction we wanted to go so we followed it uphill and came across the shaft for the mine.

From here we kept heading up the hill and just as we reached the top I seen another fungus covered in water so had to get a shot 

and whilst I was doing this Jacinta found the end of the track and an old boiler 

After not expecting to find anything historic at the start of the day we ended up overwhelmed in it by the end of the day and quite surprised as not only had we found the mine but a pretty significant part of the timber industry and all quite well-preserved. By the time I had finished getting a photo of the Boiler, there was a massive crack of thunder which got us moving rather quickly back to the cruiser and once we got there and turned around day literally turned into night. This was at 1430 had to have high beam on just to see.

So after going out to find a waterfall and failing all was not lost as we came across some fascinating history in both the mining and timber industry and all in the exact same area.  We will return to this area to find out where the log slide goes and complete the track in the Zooks when they are winched up haha.

Hope you enjoyed.

Cheers.

Tassietravelsblog.