The out of print Dunphy sketch map of the Brisbane Waters National Park area shows that on a spur a little west of Pindar Cave, there was “ML4”, a mining lease for an old ochre mine”. The Ochre Pit was reportedly mined by the Pindar brothers before their internment, as possible enemy aliens at the start of World War One. Research suggests that after WWI the Pindar brothers never returned to the area to resume mining at the site. Ochre is an earth pigment of iron oxide, used in those days for decorative purposes by both the Aboriginals and early NSW settlers. There are only 17 known Aboriginal ochre pits in NSW.
The Ochre Pit was then accidentally sighted back in 1983 by a party of walkers from the Sydney Bushwalking Club (SBW). The SBW October1983 magazine details that walk. The magazine article notes that the Pit was dug into the side of a spur and measured approximately “20 metres by 4 metres” and that there was also a "wrought iron core extractor" nearby as well as evidence of fencing a bit further west.
The motivation to re-find for the Ochre Pit came from Jim Smith, Phil Gough and Vince Murtagh. An initial attempt by the latter two, with friends, was aborted because of dense untracked scrub on both the ridges and gullies near Pindar Cave, and no water beyond the cave.
Our October 2016 exploratory walk’s aim was to locate the Pit again. Would it be still in its original undisturbed condition? Our expectation was that it would be now heavily overgrown and entombed in thick scrub!
Our party was just three walkers, members of both the Catholic Bushwalking Club (CBC) and National Parks Association (NPA) comprising Paul and Jane Millgate and Vince Murtagh. We took a scenic train trip to Wondabyne railway station, north of Sydney and then walked to Pindar Cave, about two hours of walking from Wondabyne on a well-formed track.
Immediately after we left Pindar Cave we encountered the dreaded dense Pindar scrub. There were no paths to follow where we were heading as we bush bashed our way through the untracked scrub. It was hot, tiring and thirsty work.
Our aim over the next two days was to explore each of the seven potential spurs, searching until we found the Ochre Pit. We navigated our way to our first targeted spur, selected by Paul after a close reading of the old SBW article. Luckily, within minutes of exploring that particular spur, we noticed a strange, densely overgrown feature.
Bushwalk
