Spent yesterday traipsing (16km) around the Upper Jordan catchment, once the richest alluvial goldfield in the world (the average 3.6 metre square ‘paddock’ yielded 200 ounces of gold!) with Spot and my two ‘boys’ Bryn & Matt. We found an old boiler surrendering itself to the forest amid a welter of other old mining equipment, as well as the ruins of two old miner’s huts, one of which still enriched by mementoes of my old hunting mate, the ‘legendary’ (late) Arthur Meyers with whom I hunted (this area) in the 80s and 90s.
This area has produced the largest sambar deer heads ever taken in Australia, some of which (eg a monster taken by George Allen, Arthur’s mate) have never been measured. Many of the watercourses have become a ‘sea’ of blackberries since my ‘time’ hunting there; one gully I crossed involved a struggle of over an hour to force my way through. At one point I had to carry the plucky Spot in my backpack…
