An Excursion to the Upper Yarra Falls: No. I
Published in The Leader, Saturday 15th November 1884, page 16
By G.
No poet has yet sung the beauties of the Yarra. Melbourne people are not usually at all enthusiastic about their river, and beyond a row to the Survey Paddock or Studley Park, during which the offence to the nose compensates not a little for the pleasure to the eye, but few know anything about it. The upper waters of the Yarra present beauties of a high order notwithstanding, and a small party determined to devote their last New Year’s holidays to visiting one of the most notable of them—the Yarra Falls. It may be asked, Where are the Yarra Falls? There was a well known fall in town, which has been just removed, and there is a but little less known fall in Studley Park, which, if the opposite bank, on which stands the ruins of Dight’s mill, was purchased by the Government and thrown into the park, and restored by the hands of a landscape gardener, would make an object not unworthy to be reckoned one of the beauties of the Yarra; and there is a much less known fall near Templestowe; but the Yarra Falls are none of them.
I failed in a previous attempt to reach the Falls, but I determined last summer to try again. There were several difficulties to overcome. There was a party to get together, neither too large nor too small, that is, not less than three nor more than four. There was the question of accurate information as to the route. I reflected that the track having been cut by a Government party, there would probably be a plan of it somewhere in the archives of the Government department. I will not detain my readers with a narrative of my adventures in the Government offices in search of this plan. I received every assistance from the officers of the various departments concerned, and finally obtained a tracing of it on a scale of forty chains to the inch. I found that the track went from Reefton to Mount Lookout, on the road from Jericho to Walhalla; that the distance was about 17 miles; that it crossed the Yarra about 20 miles from Reefton, and about a mile and a quarter below the crossing were the falls.
The last and most important point was the party. There are always many things to be considered before men of various vocations can arrange to take a holiday together. Finally my companions of the previous year agreed to go, and at the last moment I enlisted a fourth man, whom I shall describe as R., who had been with me on a somewhat similar trip to Mount Baw Baw. This I thought a great accession of strength, and I will explain why. Of my companions of the previous year, one is a man of extensive scientific and professional acquirements, which, though intended for exercise in a larger sphere, are not successful for finding a way through difficult country. To him we were indebted for the aeromatic measurement of the heights, but, like myself, he is a man approaching middle age, living in Melbourne, and following a sedentary occupation. The other is a young man training for a sedentary occupation. R., though he now also follows a sedentary occupation, had been reared in the Australian bush, and was a first rate bush man. The remaining member of the party to notice is the horse who was to carry the pack. He is an old bush horse (some people may call him a pony), well adapted for rough ground. He had been out at grass some time before the start, and came home, to my great disgust, in by no means good condition. However, we determined that there was nothing for it but to start with him, as another horse that we might obtain for the occasion would probably turn out altogether unfit for the work.
Our equipment amounted to about 2 cwt., when the water tins were empty. It consisted of a calico tent, 6 feet by 8, with a fly, a rug or blanket each, a piece of waterproof to put on the ground, a change of clothes each, captain’s sea biscuits, tinned meats, cold boiled corned beef and bacon, tea, sugar, cocoa, cheese, brandy, lime juice, &c., and oats. The last item may puzzle some readers, but it is absolutely necessary. In the dense forests which cover the ranges one may travel for miles without meeting with a blade of grass or anything else that a horse can eat.
We made our start shortly after the new year. Three of us, with the pack, took the coach from Lillydale to Warburton. The fourth rode the horse. We had dinner at Warburton, loaded the horse, and commenced our tramp. Warburton is situated on Yankee Jim’s Creek, about 3 miles from the Yarra in a little valley shaped like a punch bowl, where several creeks unite. Considerable gold workings have been carried on there, and water has been brought there by races for the purpose of sluicing, which has much increased the natural volume of Yankee Jim, and at the same time giving him a chocolate tint unusual on a mountain stream. There is at Warburton a store and house of accommodation, kept by Mr. Bullen, a State school, and one or two other brick houses. At Warburton we made some inquiries as to the track. We were told it had been cleared to a width of 12 feet right through, and we could have no difficulty in keeping it, and that the water in the Ten Mile hole was permanent. We were able to test the accuracy of the first part of this information by our experience of last year. It was inaccurate in a way information as to a bush track will often be. The informant will have travelled the track when open, and will have omitted to allow for the changes by falling timber and growth of scrub, which in a few years will nigh obliterate an unused track.
From Warburton the track passes through a saddle beneath a lofty plume of timber on to the waters of Scotchman’s Creek. It then becomes a sideling, following the course of a tributary of Scotchman’s, winding in and out with the contour of the hills, and crossing minor tributary creeks or gullies by log bridges or crossings. After a time it crosses Scotchman’s Creek, then crosses the spur on the opposite side on to the waters of Four Mile Creek, near the mouth of which it makes the Yarra. This locality from Warburton is the prettiest to be found in Victoria. The tall timber is not sufficiently thick to obstruct the view of the fern gullies below or the wooded slopes above, while every turn of the track runs into a fresh gully, shaded with tree ferns, out of which flows or trickles a stream of limpid water over boulders covered with small ferns and mosses.
As we neared the Yarra we found the ground taken up by selectors, and the forest ringed and dead. When the work of clearing is complete, the open fields showing the wooded hills in the background will add a new feature to the landscape. As it is, the acres of white dead trunks, rising close upon 200 feet into the air, have a melancholy aspect. On reaching the Yarra the road again becomes a dray track, recently cut along the river, round the spurs of Warburton Hill. Not long after crossing Four Mile Creek we determined to camp before leaving the selections. The selector’s clover which had strayed on to the road would give our horse a good supper.
A place was selected for the tent between two live trees which were growing beside the river, near which we unloaded the trap. We then set about to camp, one lighting the fire, another tethering the horse, another pitching the tent and another cutting ferns for a bed. When all was done we had our evening meal. R. went down to the Yarra and caught several fine black fish. The flying squirrels flew from tree to tree, and screeched a little. After dark we turned in. During the night we heard another fall of timber not far off.
The next morning we were up at four a.m. After bathing in the Yarra we breakfasted on the blackfish caught the night before, which were cooked on the embers. We then packed up and started for McMahon’s. Shortly after starting we crossed Big Pat Creek, the dray road still continuing. After this we passed the houses of two more selectors, and the road again became a pack track, and at about noon we reached McMahon’s. The road all the way kept at an equal distance from the Yarra, being cut on a sidling, so as to get round the ends of the spurs, and running in and out so as to cross the gulleys. The views up and down the Yarra are very pretty—the water perfectly transparent, broken by two or three little falls or rapids in every creek, and the view closed in by a wooded mountain at the end. Sometimes one would pass the valley of a creek joining the Yarra on the opposite bank. Then there would be a view of a succession of wooded ridges one behind the other of successively deepening tints of blue.
At McMahon’s we met Mr. Ridgell, from whom we had heard of the falls the year before. Mrs. Ridgell set before us a quantity of cherry plums, which were very acceptable after our long walk. Fruit grows well in the Yarra Valley, and Mr. Ridgell had obtained a certificate at the exhibition, but unfortunately it does not pay to take it to market. We were particularly anxious to identify on our tracing the position of the ten-mile water hole, which we had failed to make the previous year. We learned that it was about a mile beyond the finger post; that the road went up hill to the finger post, and then a gentle slope down to the ten mile water. I showed Mr. Ridgell our tracing, on which the creek which crossed the track before it reached the Yarra was made to run from right to left. He appeared somewhat staggered by this, but I remembered that the year before he had told me distinctly that the creek ran from left to right, and, inwardly determined not to be put out, I found the arrow head upon the tracing, notwithstanding that it did so. Mr. Ridgell here gave us a piece of information, which proved useful, that the track went down to this creek on a sidling.
We had determined to go on to Reefton and get some more provisions and horse feed at the store, but we changed our minds, and had dinner at Ridgell’s. This took a little time getting ready, and it was consequently a quarter to four before we were off. Instead, therefore, of keeping along the Yarra we turned up the spur immediately after crossing McMahon’s Creek, This would take us by a different road to our camp of the year before at the little water holes. The ascent was longer, and therefore not quite so steep, but this was some what compensated by the track being a good deal overgrown with scrub. We found that the main spur between McMahon’s Creek and Alderman’s Creek divided into three spurs at this point, that to the west being the one from McMahon’s, by which we had come, the middle being that from Reefton, and there being another to the east. Turning therefore down the middle spur towards Reefton we soon came to our camp of the year before. This we reached at six p.m. It was much as we had left it—the heap of ferns which had made our bed; the tent pegs and logs we laid at the bottom of the tent; the empty tins, the ashes of our fire. We at once unloaded, and set to work to camp.
Next morning we arose at six o’clock, but when going to fill our billies for breakfast were annoyed to find that our consumption of the previous evening had nearly exhausted the little holes. The result was that after we had breakfasted and watered the horse, there was only enough water left to half fill one of our water tins. This was a disappointment; we accordingly loaded up, and moved off at about half-past nine. At about 5 miles from our camp was marked on the tracing the old shaft of the Excelsior reef. We found the track not so plain as it had been the previous year, and shortly after starting we had some difficulty about it; but our experience enabled us to avoid the branch tracks on to which we had then wandered. We had also the advantage of the pioneering of R. It was a hot day, with a north wind. At about half-past one we came upon the heap of mullock which marked the Excelsior shaft. This was satisfactory. It enabled us to tell our precise position on the track and consequently our rate of progress.
We determined to have lunch, so unloaded the horse and sat down in the shade of the scrub. During lunch we discussed our position. We had taken four hours to come 5 miles; our rate of travel, therefore, was one mile and a quarter per hour. Supposing that we proceeded at the same rate or, allowing for the road being probably worse, at a mile an hour, we ought to reach the finger post in two hours, and the ten mile water in three hours. On a clear road we could have travelled 3 miles an hour and upwards without difficulty. But on the sort of track we had come by it was different. In the first place one has every step to look to, so as to avoid slipping upon the sticks and bark with which the ground is strewn. Then one has to see that one is on the track, and for this purpose keep a good look out for blazes, cut timber and other indications. By wandering a little off it the ground becomes much rougher, and travelling proportionately slower. Then one has to step over or go round fallen logs, and also to keep an eye to the general features of the country and attend to the direction in which one is going, either by the compass or the shadows, to be assured that the track one is following is the right one, for a short distance before reaching the shaft we had had to pass through rather dense scrub. All these causes combined reduced our rate of travel from the regular 3 miles an hour to a mile and a quarter. So soon as we reached the old shaft I was convinced that we had passed it the previous year, and upon going forward it now became evident that there had been in the interval a great growth of scrub, obliterating every trace of the track. As we went on matters grew worse. In the hollows the scrub was high over our heads, the stems close together as thick as a man’s wrist, and matted with wire grass, and continually cover-ing fallen logs, Through this we struggled, hot and panting. A portion of the scrub had a white flower upon it, the pollen from which made us cough and sneeze.
The horse came on steadily, pushing aside the scrub and stepping, sliding or jumping over the logs, as the case might require. Mixed with the live scrub and rising above it were tall, dead sticks of considerable weight, which had been killed by fire. These the horse knocked down right and left with his packs, and some of us got nasty knocks from them. Whenever we could see about us we had to keep a good look out for spurs coming in on our left, lest we should miss the finger post and wander on towards the Crossover. One such spur we noticed and spent a little time in ascertaining that our track did not go along it. Our line of march was as follows: R. went ahead to look out for tracks, and the horse was never led out of sight of the last blaze or cut log, until he had struck another blaze or cut log ahead. When this was not for some distance the others would spread out, so that one kept in sight of the horse and one again of him. The signal to come on could then be passed as soon as the track was again struck. In this way the party was never off the track. As we went we made blazes to guide us on our return.
Our progress was, of course, slow and toilsome. We were, therefore, not surprised that at half-past four we had not yet seen the finger post, but by five o’clock we were anxiously looking out for it; and about this time a change came over the character of the track. We had been passing through country which had been burnt since the track had been cut, and upon which a growth of scrub had taken place, completely obliterating it. We now came to a place where the original 12 feet clearing could often be seen. It was obstructed by fallen logs, sticks and wire grass, but not by scrub. The scrubs on each side were old, with slender stems and leaves at the top. The ground, moreover, became a black mould in place of the stony surface we had before met with. There was an appearance of musk and tree ferns, and the timber was increasing in size, the prevailing tints becoming a mixture of black and pale green. All this was an indication that we had reached, or were approaching, the crest of the south dividing range of the Yarra, where we ought to see the finger post, but the finger post we saw not, so we went on from five to half-past five, and from half-past five to seven, when we camped.
