TRIP REPORTS
The homestead was burnt down some years ago
allegedly and heresy by some teenager scouts on a camp
trip. At the western end of the camp area there is a
poorly maintained walk track on the other side of the
creek that meanders around a hill to then descend in the
gouge proper. This is a very pleasant and cool area of
pools and cascades that disappear under huge rock
monoliths that have collapsed into the creek valley. My
distance memories of this gorge were full of ferns of all
descriptions. Unfortunately, large bush fires over the
past decade or so has but all destroyed the many tree
ferns of yesteryear.
Lunch was at the fire pit at the western end of the huge
camp area. Clearly the whole camp area has not been
maintained by Parks Vic as the dead grass throughout
was knee high.
The trip home was back to the Slate mine. With Gordon
and Neil coping well with Blue Square rated tracks I
though we would attempt to go home via Mitchells Track
west heading towards Jamieson. All I can say that track
has deteriorated significantly since I last transversed it. It
was slow and technical. Again the Disco recovery service
wasn’t needed. As we got to the south end of Stymes
Track I think the Paj drivers had had enough and it was
now very hot in the low 40’s. The though of the
swimming pool grew larger. I am sure some parts of the
hot dry track were seemingly an oasis. Stage right and on
our merry was back to Steiners and Mansfield.
Back at camp the weather took a turn for the worst with
a thunder storm and a brief shower. Vic.Emgency app
stated that there was now a fire north of Steiners in the
Dungeon Gully Creek area near Three Chain
Track/Ashwin road. I wonder if those hot heads 4WD’s
roaring past us were heading for this bush camping area.
Maybe Karma!
Saturday 26th January
Hot yet again. I had to return to Melbourne for a
wedding that evening so I left the others to enjoy
Mansfield and its Aussie Day activities and markets
Sunday 27th January
I drove back early to be at Mansfield by 9:15am to start
another day trip. Shortly afterwards Sujeevan who had
also driven from Melbourne joined us for the day.
This Trip was to Tolmie for morning tea and look at their
Recreational reserve before exploring Stringyback Creek
and Ned Kelly’s country, and finally onto Powers
Lookout.
I had prepared some history notes about these 2 bush
rangers for the trip.
The brief Ned Kelly story is that 4 Mansfield policemen
had ridden out with tents and supplies to search for the
Kelly Gang ( and possibly others) . Ned and his brother
surprised two of the police at their camp (McIntyre and
Lonigan) and held them up. McIntyre surrendered but
Lonigan fired at Ned so Ned fired back and shot and
killed Lonigan. When the other two members of the
group returned some hours later, McIntyre was
supposed to tell them to surrender and Ned had
promised not to harm them. However, Scanlan fired a
shot and was shot in return. Kennedy took cover behind
a tree and fired shots but was also killed by Ned.
McIntyre escaped on horseback and Ned let him go,
wishing to keep his promise. It was these events, where
Ned committed his first murder – which he claims were
all in self-defence – that sealed his fate when he
ultimately stood trial and was finally hanged.
The Stringybark Creek Historic Reserve (SCR) area was
recently upgraded in 2017, It has several Interpretative
information boards in the historic area and at the
different important spots along the easy walking paths.
What new information that I came away with is that the
Stringyback Creek camp site was where Ned’s was
possibly gold prospecting and was not his main camp. He
actually had cut out about 20 acres of bushland several
hundred metres away to the north of the camp site. The
farmlet was reportedly unknown to any neighbours or
police. He had constructed a house etc. This property
was where he had supposedly disappeared for about 20
months despite been claimed as a culprit in the
Fitzpatrick Incident. Earlier in 1876 after he had got out
of jail, allegedly he had joined his stepfather in stealing
horses and was probably using this hidden farm area
before moving the horses on. The area was a known
“Black Pathway” for horse stealing and cattle duffing in
north-east to and from NSW in the 1860s and 70s.
Ned came down through the bush from his house to the
camp site after hearing noises from the creek camp site
only to find 2 of the police late Saturday afternoon. The
rest is supposedly history
We found the track that allegedly leads to Ned’s old
home ruins that comes off Tatong Tolmie Road opposite
Madhouse road intersection. As it was heavily over
grown and a walking track only we abandoned that idea.