351. Coimadai Antimony Mine Hike 2025 10.6km

April 17, 2025

U3A Hike No 351

Hike Report By Gordon Talbot

Our walk this week was to the Pyrete Range, an eastern outlier of the Lerderderg State Park, situated north of Bacchus Marsh.

After driving through drought-stricken paddocks devoid of any pasture we parked at a barrier on the boundary of the park. The first 2km of the walk were continuously uphill along a dirt road and the unseasonably hot weather made for uncomfortable walking. At last we reached the crest of the ridge and turned off onto what was once a dirt road but was now a walking track. (This road must have been in good condition at least until the 1960s because we passed the remains of a Morris Mini car lying in the bush.)

We followed the track along a dry creek-bed through dry, sparse bushland to arrive at a unique bridge across a small gulch. The bridge was made of sections of reinforcing mesh, joined together and anchored in the ground on either side of the creek. Since our last visit the bridge has sagged badly: it appeared that to have come loose from the anchors at one end and had been reattached without being re-tensioned. Some of us crossed the bridge very carefully, some walked across the creek-bed and one daring walker ran back and forth the bridge several times.

Soon after the bridge we arrived at the site of an old antimony mine. The mine was worked by local miners intermittently from the 1860s to the 1930s. During World War 2 the mine was taken over by the Australian government as a vital resource for the war effort. The extensive remains at the site probably date from that time. We sat amongst the ruins of a processing works for morning tea and then explored old tramway lines and peered into the entrances of decaying tunnels. We continued along the creek, though a narrow rocky gorge, to the more open valley of the Pyrites Creek, where the mine had a pumping station to supply its water.

We returned the way we came, uphill at first but then downhill, in the shade and with a cool breeze at our backs.

Thank you Mark for an interesting walk in a very remote and interesting location.