Derelict Mines

[rhino997]

Hi does anyone know anything about the spion kop mine near south forest ?

[kcmonaro]

How lucky are you? Just thought I would look up a bit of info about old mines in Tassy. I have been in Cairns NQ now for about 14 years but I grew up in the Smithton/Stanley area befroe that. As a child while living at Spion Kopp Sth Forest I had heard talk about an old mine that had operated years before right on the Black river near our house. With the spirit of adventure I set off with my dog and went looking for said mine. After a cpl of days I found the mine by stumbling on to the old access road(well overgrown) and the mine is at the end of that. Its a walk in(the tunnel) around 80 mtrs. At that point there is one shaft to ur right and a junction to the left. one tunnel to the right of that jkn only goes around 15 mtrs and the main goes only around 20. thats about all thats there. If you backtrack the road to just before the wash dam crossing there is another tunnel that I have been told joins the shaft up(first mine is higher set) in the first tunnel but the entrance has fallin in and filled the mine with water. My family used to work for the owners of the surrounding land and the mother of the owners wife(not sure if she has passed yet) still had shares in the mine and can remember as a child going for picnics near the mine entrance(the lower one). I got a photo of the mine workers standing outside the higher mine and got to talk to one of the old gentalmen who worked in it. Its a great site and my only regret has been telling anyone about it cause after that fishermen and idiots have been there and left trash and knocked down alot of trees so I think before I give you anymore details about were is is I will contact the above mentioned ppl and see what their views are. Also what is ur interest and plans if u did get directions to it? My plan is to one day buy the land its on and close it to the public(its on crown land). This area is very very speacial to me and I have a close conection to it. At the moment we are in the prosess of buying two other parcels of land down there with old mines on them and once that is done we will move on the Spion Kopp site.If you have a genuine interest in this site then please be patiant and I will get back to you asap. There is also two other mines in that area.

[tasadam]

Wow, what an interesting and intriguing response.
So many secrets out there.

[tastrekker]

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&sour ... 14&iwloc=A
Based on the image in this link, I think more than a few trees have been knocked down.

On a serious note, I too am fascinated by kcmonaro's response. I share similar feelings and connections to places in the bush and I feel violated when they are abused. On the other hand, there are many places which were special to me when I was young and they have now been closed to the public by private owners. This also makes me sad. When this has happened, I have approached new land owners with utmost respect and only accessed the location with their permission. However, it is usually a farewell visit. Deep down, once an area is closed to public access, I know that I will not be able to get the same enjoyment from sharing these special places with other people.

On TheLIST, I notice there is a 9.8ha circular reserve which has been protected from logging near Spion Kop. I wonder if this is the mine location.

[kcmonaro]

Thank u for ur replys tastrek and dam. I was expecting a harsher responce. One of the reasons we are trying to buy a few of the better sites is to protect them for people like those on this site. Those who visit sites and have enough respect to leave "as is" so you and others return again and again. No fee's and no overt controls.The one exeption would be the spion kopp site as it is more than special to me. It was for years my area of escape from a drunken and abusive step father( I lived in the house on top of the hill under the fire tower). I would bolt there for days at a time with my dog and explore and hunt. In that one little bit of bush I was king of all and at the same time a servent to nature. Being able to sit and watch and listen to the locals(wallibies an such) and the wind in the tree's was all I needed to feel safe from anyone. I have two boys now and I can never explain enough to them the magic of that place. I know Im rammbling on a bit but I dont want you to think my reasons are purley selfish(well maybe a little). I have traveled and worked all over this country and nowere comes close to Tassy's bush walks and sites. You are all trully lucky to live there and I will be home on day soon and share Tassy's magic with my boys. Untill then the coal mine here(peak downs- Moranbah) will keep me busy for a cpl years yet.

[rhino997]

Hi Thankyou for the description of the spion kop mine. We have been in tassie for about five years and spend a large part of the weekends looking around the bush for historical mine sites. Its our little adventure and we do get a thrill when we find mine sites that are pictured in old MRT Reports. I have quite a large photo collection. We spent a sunday looking around the spion kop area with no luck. Your description will help us.
Thankyou Lindsay and Ryan

[rhino997]

Hey guys we went to the spion kop mine again and found the main adit.
Thanks kcmonaro for your helpful information. Are the 2 other mines worth looking at ??
The lower adit ( The one thats collapsed)

The wash dam

Black river

The higher adit


Inside the higher adit




Winze in adit

[kcmonaro]

well done on finding the upper adit. imagine how i felt as a 12 year old and finding that on my own.i think it took me about an hour to pluck up the corage to enter it and just as long to walk the length of the tunnle. to me the cave spiders looked 20 feet wide(lol) but i didnt want to kill em so had to show a brave face and inch round em. i realy do want to return one day to dig out the entrance to the lower adit but a geo at te mine im at said that even drained it would never be safe to go in cause of the damage from such a long soaking from the water. to be honest the other two adits are pretty lame and i suspect that those two would have been started before the one's u found but didnt pan out. they only go in ten feet or so. if u realy are determend to find one of them then start from were you would have parked ur car out on the gravel rd and keep driving down the hill twards the crossing. u only need to go to the bottom of that hill(bout 100 mtrs) at the bottom start searching the left hand side of the rd in about 30 or 40 metres. its hard to find as its entrance is even smaller than the other adit.its up to u but its not much to see. now this is one that i never told anyone about so please keep its location to genuine bushwalkers like urself and not the local yobo's. The other one is realy just too hard to give directions to. its a cpl of hours of hard slog even when u know were it is. best i can do for that one is to gps mark it when i get back down there and pass on the co-ords to u. Family gossip told me once that there is another good sized mine in the arther river area and some of my ancestors had leases south east of balfur and had a cpl of sizable adits there as well. its another one of those must do jobs that seem to get further and further away as each year passes. anyway, i gotta go get some sleep time(last night shift last night) but before i go i want to say a heartfelt thank you for posting those pics. it ment so very much to me just to see it again so again, thank u thank u thank u

[mickstarr]

would anyone have maps of the tracks to DPA mine at Black Bluff as we are going to try to get there later this year don,t post PM me as its better thet way we will be staying on the other side at Loongana in a remote cabin and going back to smiths plains to get acces unlees we can get there from the southern side any help much appreciated Mick

[corvus]

would anyone have maps of the tracks to DPA mine at Black Bluff as we are going to try to get there later this year don,t post PM me as its better thet way we will be staying on the other side at Loongana in a remote cabin and going back to smiths plains to get acces unlees we can get there from the southern side any help much appreciated Mick

mickstarr get a copy of On the Road to Cradle by Nic Haygarth (Tiger Plain Books ) he has a full chapter on the DPA mine and a map.
corvus

[greyim]

Devon Mine Tastrekker

I much enjoyed this walk today, thankyou. Track has recently been cleared and used by _TV's. Lots manferns ~1.5hrs each way... large welcome sign on track around boom gate. Starts at 41 33' 28"/146 04' 43"

[ghosta]

Interesting topic.

No photos of the wolfram mine so I thought Id add one.

It was taken in 2007. We planned to walk from the wolfram mines to Pelion. Doing a bit of reasearch I went to Parks and Wildlife website and found the track to the mines listed as one of the 10 Four wheel drive tracks recommended by them, so I thought it would be pretty easy. Luckily I threw in the chainsaw; there were logs over the track everywhere. We had to fill in many washouts with logs cut from nearby fallen timber, but we drove within a couple of km of the mine. off we went. The track stopped at the Wolfram the mines, we searched for 2 hours for the track to Pelion without sucess. So we had to go back home.

Somehow a stick jamed between the tyre rim and sidewall and we had a slow leak. Well not really a slow leak. I had had new tyres put on the vehicle and couldnt get the wheel nuts undone. The wheel wrench was bent almost in half. So we had to pump up the tyre every ten minutes. It started to rain. Then we came to a severe washout. We rearranged the logs over the washout as when we went over them on the way in the tyres kicked them out of place. Halfway across the car slipped out of low range and came to a halt. Some of the temporary timber slipped out from under the wheels and the vehicle was in a precarious position, but was hunug up underneath the front of the vehicle with one front and one back wheel hanging over gaps between the logs. I had to climb out the window to get out and inspect things as I couldnt open the door because the logs making up the roadway prevented it, and the car was on a terrible lean sideways. Below the wheels off the ground I could see the stream 2 metres below.

We were still 20 km from the start of the track and perhaps 40km from phone service. So no option but to try to get out. Using the jack we managed to get some pieces of log under the wheels, enough to drive the vehicle backwards about 30 cm. More rearanging of logs. At the end of the logs was a high bank around 60cm high and I knew we could not get up enough momentum to get up it. So my 14 yo son drove and we attempted to push, scrambling along the logs behind the vehicle. Thats after pumping up the leaking tyre.

My son drove the car out without our asisstance. I dont know how he did it. He had to get up enough momentum to drive 3 metres along logs precariously placed and drive up a 60 cm almost vertical bank in the rain without spinning the wheels. But he did it. Ive never seen anything so remarkable and Ive done a LOT of bush driving. I can see why they used Landrovers on the Camel Trophy event!

Eventualy we got home. I emailed parks and wildife to ask why the track was on their website as a recommended 4X4 track and they couldnt answer the question, they had closed the track 3 years earlier they said.

We didnt get to Pelion but we had one hell of an adventure!

[corvus]

ghosta,
Had a good chuckle at your tale of woe there is a really good post on the forum about this track which shows that even trail bikes have difficulty traversing it,I will try to find it.
corvus

[corvus]

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=605#p4132
this is it
corvus

[Wootton48]

Hi Ghosta,

Enjoyed your post! My group of friends usually access Patons Road every couple of years. Previous attempts have been no good due to too many trees and washouts, however we got through reasonably well at Easter 2011. The road is definitely now only accessible by ATVs as the washouts are too wide and deep for other vehicles. It was my first trip to the Wolfram mine, and we also entered the adit for a look. The mine itself is in remarkably good condition and one can only wonder of the men that worked in those conidtions years ago.

Still a great place to explore and we hope to get there again in 2012. Cheers.