The Barossa Goldfield Walking Trail: In the Barossa Valley region of South Australia
With the 150th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade coming up, we're about to get plenty of reminders about the huge Victorian goldrushes. Sure, they had their rebellion and the Eureka flag and all of that, but they're not alone. In the Barossa Goldfield near Williamstown, five or six thousand diggers turned up in one rush. More than three tonnes of gold was extracted from these hills - that's five ,six or seven million dollars worth in today's money!
Now that I've got your attention, we're walking into a goldrush. And into the northern end of Para Wirra Recreation Park, where the scrub is pockmarked with mining shafts! An optimistic mob poured down the slope around the fenced walking path in 1869. The Victoria Hill rush was on, one of twenty or more in the these hills within months of each other.
If you want to time travel back to the action, the bloke to take you there is Bob Swarbrick. Easing into semi-retirement, he found a quiet place to live nearby and the Barossa Goldfield somehow seeped into his bones!I asked him about the number of shafts in the area.
"We've got a few. I reckon we've got about a thousand all up through this hillside."
They were all dug by hand as far as fifty metres down. One of the several helpful trail signs shows that they were looking for alluvial gold in a gurgling river. At least it was gurgling 7 million years ago!
" Once you reach the riverbed, then you go down below it and then you go each way . You just tickle the top of your tunnel and get all the river bottom spoil off."
Take a bucket-load down to the creek to wash it. Could be bean-size nuggets in it... or it could be nothing. The little creek line at the bottom of the path takes Bob back to where the whole Barossa Goldfield began. On a stream like this, the Spike Gully Rush began in 1868 and it was a rush and a half, as Bob relates.
" It starts with four spotted down the creek and within a week there were four or five hundred in the area... and in a month, four or five thousand."
The town of Barossa leapt into being and a streetful of shopkeepers sprang to life. Goldfields Road brings you past what looks like a cowshed from the car. It is in fact the Victoria Hotel, which traded for three decades. The Barossa school kicked on right through to the 1950's, and the building is still going strong as a private residence.
Back down our walking trail, a scene from a dream appears. A small dam reflects the overhanging gums, and we wonder if the serenity here (and the free dam water) may have been some compensation for the families who escaped the harsh reality of the international economic depression that hit them after the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Bob points to a stone fireplace in a clearing.
"This is the Edwards' place They were thrown out of their house in the depression in Port Adelaide, and so they walked up here. They knew the goldfields were here and built this little tin shanty. We're in mum and dad's bedroom, round the other side were the boys and the middle section was where they used to live."
Several families noodled their way through the mullock heaps in the gully in the hope of a boost to their rations.
Bob and I stopped to look at one of the larger shaft openings.
"This is a hell of a big hole. It's the Belle of Barossa. It's a different sort of mine, it's bigger, it's hard rock and this was run by a syndicate group."
They chased quartz reefs with their hints of gold down under the hills, digging several shafts and tunnels.Bob is honorary everything on this park trail, and he knows every nook and sloping airshaft. It's his gully - but he gladly shares its riches.
But wait, there's more! If you go down an extended loop further in to the Recreation Park, you'll get to the Royal Phoenix mine tunnel and to another mine which a Mr A. L. Menzies, an American expert, wanted to become the biggest mine in Australia. He employed a hundred men and he had a huge battery for crushing the ore, but it went broke in a couple of years. No nuggets left, but a day in the bush on the Barossa Goldfields trail is priceless.
Walk in anytime. To get to it, just head for the Barossa via Gawler, turn right at the Sandy Creek pub and follow the signs.
The Historical Society, including Bob, are round at the cottage near the top of the trail every third Sunday afternoon. Their big Annual Open Day is on Sunday 17 October 2004, and so bring a picnic and join in the fun.
Barossa Goldfield Walking Trail
Parawirra Recreational Park
Goldfields Road
via Cockatoo Valley (between Sandy Creek and Williamstown)Open every day
( Park may be closed in extreme fire danger weather)Barossa Goldfields Historical Society
Bowden's Cottage,
Goldfields Road,
Cockatoo Valley,
South AustraliaOpen every 3rd Sunday
1.00 pm - 4.00 pmContact Bob
08 8524 4548
0407 712621ANNUAL OPEN DAY
Sunday 17 October 2004
9.30 am - 4.30 p.m.Gold panning, blacksmithing, tea and damper.
Guided walks
BYO picnicEntry $5 adults $3 children
