424. Bodens + Surface Hill 10.7km

 U3A Hike No 424





Hike Report by Deb

Today’s hike was all about water and gold mining and took place in spring sunshine and a perfect temperature. Spring wildflowers especially sightings of several types of orchids were a highlight.

The walk commenced at Argyle Dam and from there followed the water races still very well formed but filled with branches and silt. We made our own path or more accurately followed Andrew until usual walking track was reached. Morning tea, a highlight for some of us was in a beautiful, wooded clearing and the walk continued through typical gold mining scrub. On the track we bumped into the U3A Bushwalking Group with whom we share a few members and we enjoyed a brief catch up and converted Barbara from a bushwalker to a hiker so our group of 17 became a group of 18   Our numbers increased again as Mark joined us at Surface Hill just in time for the photo and for the remainder of the hike

The focus was definitely on Thomas Boden who owned and built the labyrinth of water races about 1870 in order to facilitate the method of hydraulic sluicing to extract gold from soil but this area also was abundant in wildflower, including Bird Orchids, Bluebell Creeper, Pink Bells and many types of 'Egg & Bacon' plants.

Photos by Andrew


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