Eureka Track Stage Two

Hike No 85

HIKE REPORT BY GORDON TALBETT

On a day when low temperatures, driving winds and heavy rain were forecast, 12 hardy Hikers gathered at Kirks. Everyone was hoping that their luck with the weather would hold once more. Andrew and three other drivers went off to leave cars at the finish point beside White Swan reservoir and the rest of us drove to Andrew’s house in Canadian. This would be the starting point for the revised Goldfieds Track, the section between Mt Buninyong and Creswick now re-named the Eureka Track. It now follows the Canadian Creek instead of the Yarrowee River.

Soon we were pushing north along the Creek into a brisk headwind. A little way before Elsworth St we passed the remains of a ‘cyanide pit’; a circle of laid bricks capped with cement which was protruding by 2 courses above the leaf litter. This would have been used for the secondary processing of spoil left over from the original alluvial diggings (see the postscript below). Shortly after this we passed the location of the ‘Jewellery Shops’, where deep shafts to 100 feet had struck the junction of the Canadian Lead and the Prince of Wales Lead; ‘the ground there was prodigiously rich in gold, heavy, lumpy, bright gold in profusion’ (W B Withers). (There is an old lamp post and sign on Main Rd, 100 metres south of Elsworth Street East, giving the exact location.)

We followed the Creek north and then west to Peel St, and re-joined the original Trail to cross through the centre of Ballarat. We amused ourselves on this section by trying to spot all the Trail markers. These are very carefully camouflaged, or even hidden behind the brickwork of the railway bridge. Thank goodness for local knowledge and the GPS unit!

Leaving the city behind, and most of the north wind, we followed the Yarrowee River upstream through bush and past occasional houses to Brown Hill oval where we sheltered by the pavilion and had morning coffee. Anther short section of creek-side walking brought us to the Western Freeway underpass and then the beginning of the climb up the Great Divide. The initial steep climb Greatly Divided the party, as did the subsequent roller coaster track through the old gold diggings, but our party arrived together at Nuggety Dam. Andrew offered us the choice of lunch at the dam and a walk in the rain after, or to keep walking and reach the cars before the rain: we kept walking.

We soon crossed White Swan Rd and while skirting the west side of White Swan reservoir we met a Parks works party and their very impressive array of earth moving equipment and huge pile of rocks. They were repairing track damage caused by wallowing 4-wheel drive hippos. One more corner and a gasp of horror at the sight of a burned-out vehicle and then the cars were in sight and the rain was just beginning. We had lunch around Andrew’s dining room table.

History notes from W B Withers, 1870, History of Ballarat.

The Canadian lead was discovered in 1851 and was named for a man called Canadian Swift. This very rich lead ran parallel to Main Rd, from near Golden Point to near Mt Clear, and gave its name to Canadian Creek, Canadian Lead Primary School and the present suburb of Canadian.

Sailors Gully was named because John Sawyer and 7 others, of whom 6 were sailors, commenced prospecting there in 1853. They sank a 107 foot shaft and despite having to bail out water non-stop using a double bucket system, they found numerous nuggets with the largest weighing 100 oz.

Cyanide in Gold Mining

Cyanide has been used since the late 1880’s to extract gold from low grade ore, or from the tailings left over from alluvial mining and quartz crushing.

The ore to be treated is finely ground and a cyanide solution is added to make a slurry. Each gold atom bonds to 2 cyanide ions forming a water-soluble ionic compound. Lime must be added to the slurry to make it highly alkaline to  suppress the formation of cyanide gas. The gold-cyanide solution is then treated to release the gold. The remaining cyanide solution must be treated to recover or inactivate the cyanide.

Cyanide gas and cyanide solution are both highly toxic. Cyanide gas is use in US Gas Chamber executions. Cyanide solution is fatal if ingested, and fatal to all water-life if it enters a waterway. Other compounds of cyanide are less toxic but can form residual deposits in soil: this was the case along Canadian Creek. Extensive soil remediation was required to allow the building of the Canadian Lakes estate, the Canadian Lakes and the Canadian Creek linear park.

Photo's by Andrew Parker 

Click here for slideshow