Local oddities

Kemmis Creek has some fascinating history tucked away in the bush. The shack is at an old goldmine on the flanks of Mt Gotthardt. It's still working from time to time, apparently, with deep trenches following zones of mineralisation where granite has intruded the basement sediments.

The bricks are all that's left of an old copper smelter. The bricks were made at the base of the hill, near one of our drill sites. They were then hauled up the hill behind a horse and dray to build a smelter. They weren't really high temperature bricks though, as they eventually melted! The farmer told me that mining stopped when Aborigines killed 31 miners, but I haven't been able to verify this story.

Around the smelter site were several old cars, including a Chev sedan, a Ford flathead hearse and F600 pickup. The area has obviously been burnt at some point, as the vehicles had varying degrees of fire damage.

Lastly, the place is overrun with pigs! This was the biggest, and he wasn't too worried about us drilling around his foraging areas.