Report by Andrew

Another very cold morning for our gathering at St Georges Lake prior to our 13-car convoy a few kilometres up the road to start our hike at Humbug Road. We hiked in a group of ten plus three leaders/officials, but we had planned to split into two smaller groups before we had a late cancellation due to someone waking up not feeling well and opting for safety first. Which is a good example for us to remember in these difficult times.

After about one and a half kilometres we came to Lincolns dam on Lincolns Creek and I shared with the group a newspaper report from 1923 where discussions were being held to replace an important bridge at some location across Lincolns Creek, probably Humbug Road. Offers of assistance read as follows:
P.Pearce, all the big timber; D. McDonald, cart same; W. Aut, one week’s work with horse and dray; R. Stephens, ditto; H. Robinson. E-Robinson. G. Heskin. One week's work; A. Whiting, J. Bailey and others, some assistance. (a link to the full article as well as other items I shared can be found after the photographs).

As we continued, we came to a section of the ‘Russells Water Race’ one of many privately built water races in the area:
"The race was constructed in the early 1860s to service Russells' alluvial mining claims at Lincoln Gully and Humbug Hill. Water from the race was sold to other miners along the race route and also serviced the domestic needs of miners at Cabbage Tree Flat. The race was reused in the mid 1870s by the Creswick Council to augment the town water supply, and by miners at Mill's Reef in the 1880s. The race continued in use at least until 1913 when it was used by the Russell family for hydraulic sluicing on Slaty Creek. The race is no longer in use, but the original Russells' dam constructed in 1862 has been enlarged and currently contributes to the Creswick water supply".

As the day warmed up a little, we had cool but pleasant hiking conditions as we explored parts of the Creswick Forest that this group had not visited before. At an opportune time, we came across a large fallen tree beside that track that served as our benches while we enjoyed our morning refreshment break.

Not long after this, we noticed some small mullock heaps slightly off the track, and upon investigating found a sequence of four deep uncovered mine shafts running in a line down the side of the hill, obviously following a seam of gold bearing quartz. The track at this point was winding back and forth and looked a little ominous when viewed on the map but it turned out to be pleasant walking as it was more-or-less following the contours, and before long we found ourselves at the ‘Slaty Creek Camp Ground No 3’ where our planned route conicided with the Goldfields Track (Eureka Section) This section of the Golfields Track along Slaty Creek is particularly pleasant walking and we soon arrived at ‘Slaty Creek Camp Ground No 1’ where lunch was enjoined in a large pavillion.

The last few kilometres presented several very slippery and muddy gullies to negotiate before arriving back at our parked vehicles. We decided not to stay around for coffee as the surroundings were not very ‘picturesque’ and we had not long had lunch. Thank you, Gordon, for planning and leading another very pleasant and interesting hike.