U3A Ballarat Hikers

U3A Hike No 98 Report by Ken Dickson S ix middle-aged men from Ballarat U3A travelled in convoy to Chewton and started their hike at the site of the old Garfield Water wheel which was constructed in 1887.  It was 22 metres in diameter and powered a 15 head quartz-crushing battery, the largest water wheel ever constructed in Australia. The foundations are all that remain.     From there ,  we walked up steps and  initially  followed the Goldfields Track along  a  water race which  provided pleasant walking  in mild conditions.      We came across several abandoned  s late quarries where  some of the well-known ‘Castlemaine Slate’ came from.   We explored the ruins of an old Blacksmith Shop.   In this area there was a circular depression which was the remains of a puddling machine. These were used by miners to separate gold particles from clay and heavy soils. By the middle of the 1860s puddling machines were a thing of the past. As the alluvial gold deposits ran out, the

U3A Hike No 97 Report by Martin Russell After travelling to Daylesford Lake to park our pick-up vehicles, we travelled on to Leonards Hill to commence our hike.  Leonards Hill is a small village which first emerged as a saw milling settlement, to satisfy the demands for timber required by the mining industry in the then nearby goldfields of Daylesford, Smeaton, Allendale, Creswick and Ballarat. At Leonards Hill we turned into Barkstead Road and continued on to Sailors Creek Road until we arrived at our departure point – Wallaby Track. Following our customary pre-walk briefing and a double check of the head count, all 28 members of the party set off along Wallaby Track towards Lake Daylesford, each immediately engaging in the normal practice of conversation as we went. We continued along along the Wallaby Track for some distance, not realising how close we were to cleared land; enjoying the bush surrounding and noting the signs detailing the rules for firewood collection

U3A HIKE NO 96 Hike Report by Andrew Parker To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. ( Tennyson )   Ten Intrepid hikers commenced hiking from Chokem Flats camp ground near Fryerstown and headed in a northerly direction to Breakneck Hill.     The name ‘Breakneck Hill’ made us wonder what we were in for, but as Gordon assured us, it was just a steady upward four kilometre climb to the top.   We turned left at Telecom Track, obviously named for the telecommunications cable which had been laid through the forest here, and not long after we turned again to follow the Campbells Creek Channel, part of an extensive system of channels right across this region   At Vaughan, in the dry summer of 1861-62, water-starved miners told a visitor that should ‘a main conduit’ from the Coliban River be constructed, ‘whole hills would be made to pay, such as Bald, Shicer , [and] Kangaroo, ... while the whole basaltic plain towards Newstead might be tunnel