History: Old Road, Bathurst area, NSW, Australia

[TugBoat]

This is the discussion thread for

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=691794

I thought that a number of you may be interested to see an 'Australian Style' goldmine. This information is a precursor to my attempt to get some goldmine AP images.

So I hope this is the sort of thing that this forum is interested in.

Tim

[Tom Harper]

Tim,

Thanks for the exhibit. Just the thing for this forum.

I recently read "The Fatal Shore", so the first thing I thought of was the convict roads.

Very interesting project. Does the road extend beyond the area you photographed?

Tom

[kd7ost]

Perfect Tugboat,

Great thread and a very intersting read. Were those Parish maps something you were able to dig up locally, museum, family heirlooms or what have you? It's great to tie old documents to your project.

You reference Mining leases. I'm speculating that's the same thing as the Mines here in the States where the term "Claim" is used.

It appears to be pretty well abandoned today. Is there any local mining operation still underway?

Nice pictures from the ground too. Seeing the old pipe and construction debris helped give me a sense of the whole area you covered.

Dan

[Gray]

Wonderful presentation Tim, Just the thing for here, and well done for flying in quite difficult conditions to bring the story to us! Everything looks quite well preserved!

Gray.

[Tom Harper]

Tim,

The structures look like water gates. Were they irrigating or possibly storing and diverting water for the mines?

Tom

[quailbird]

Way to go Tim! I very much enjoyed the history of that area. Thank you for sharing!

[TugBoat]

Let's see if I can address some of these issues...

What's left of the road?

The section of road that I have described is part of about 1km of road. As far as I am aware this is the only section of the original road to O'Connell that is not under the current road.

Exactly why this bit is left is unclear - however it is in a particularly twisty section of road and perhaps this is what saved it. The modern road was relocated as part of improvements. In other areas the current road is just on the original road.

Of course, in the farming area nearer O'Connell any old road that was not under the current road would have been converted to farming use a long time ago...

Parts of the road that may have run to the mines themselves are also long gone. Partly because of the policy of keeping fire fighting trails clear and well maintained - any old access roads would have continued to be used as fire fighting trails.

The Parish Maps

These are actually from the official Lands Department archive records. These type of records are being converted and put on the Internet.

See: http://www.lands.nsw.gov.au/survey_mapping/parish_maps

If you know the name of somewhere in New South Wales you can use the link to the Geographic Names Register to locate the parish and then search the parish on the map register.

The Mines

These are really a separate project and I don't want to go too far into this because it is a big topic. However, there were mines all over this general area as a result of the discovery of gold - although not all the mines are gold mines.

A general timeline of this general area and gold mining is here: http://www.glintofgold.com.au/timeline.html

The nearest mine (the one I want to try and do some AP on) is about 1km away to the east. This is one of the ones shown on the maps I posted. This mine is recorded with a yield of only 5kg of gold - not much, but still has some big holes in the ground and some old equipment.

Mining Leases

Here in Oz you don't own the minerals under your land (except in some limited, exceptional cases). So exploration/mining licences are required and where the mines are on Crown Land other permits.

Some background to this is here: http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/cguide/c4g/goldcom.htm

I don't quite know how that relates to a US "Claim".

Timber Structures

These are not part of any water diversion/storage scheme. They are just part of the earth works. I imagine the timber protects the stone work from being dislodged and damaged on impact. If you look at the images of the 'good' area you can see how the timber sides and rail would protect the stonework from being dislodged and knocked off.

Water was important for the mine, but it is a few 'valleys' away and had its own dam and water catchment area.

[Tom Harper]

Very interesting.

Thanks Tim.

[Rogerdoger]

TugBoat,

Loved the stereo pic. It's the first one I have been able to see in years. COOL!!

Roger

[TugBoat]

Hi Roger,

I am glad that the stereo worked for you.

I try and follow jlballou's great instructions for this sort of thing - but in the end I find it either works or doesn't. I can't work out exactly that it is that makes it work or not work :confused:

I suspect there is something in the way the images are distorted that is important (ie. some distortions the brain can cope with others it can't). With my low tech camera I am always very suprised at how much distortion there is in the image. All sorts of non-linear twists and stuff that isn't really apparent until you put the images on top of each other. I try and untwist them where I can.

What I tend to do now is try as many pairs of shots as I can until I find one that 'works'. Sort of hit and miss... (mostly miss)

Tim

[TugBoat]

For anyone who is interested there is a quite good history of this area available as a PDF at http://www.oberonweb.com.au/OberonHist.pdf

This road is nearest to Wisemans Creek which is near the north western tip of the Oberon Shire (even though this tip of the Shire is closest to Bathurst).

The Oberon shire also includes places on which I have posted previous threads in the AP forum:

Tarana: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=363731

Chifley Dam: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=158909

Oberon Dam: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=424088

[kd7ost]

Nice follow up information Tim. It's an interesting story. I know out here there were old trails made by wagon and oxen called a swale. You can spot them because like Tom has stated in previous posts, the center of the road is low because that's where the draft animals walked. It's not a two track like we se today from vehicles which leave the center untouched. However, when the Model T came out many or most drivers had no roads to follow save for the old swales. Naturally the wagon drivers took the easiest path they could for the animals, so it followed that they were good routes for cars in the day before improved roads existed. The cars caused the swales to take on a two track appearance and it gets difficult in those cases to say it was an original pre automobile trail.

Anyhow, I suspect a similar thing happened where your trail and roads are located. Roads took the easiest path on the vehicle and existing terrain. Only modern roads, bulldozers, the requirement for high speed travel for many drivers might have justified the expense of abandoning the original road to build up and knock down terrain features to put in high speed safe highways. It makes sense with that knowledge that the new roads follow the old roads most of the way.

Dan