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Mystery Road

3/6/2021

3 Comments

 
PictureThe view from the mullock heap to the desal park
By Geoff Ellis
 
WEST Area Road shouldn’t be a mystery. It starts at the hospital roundabout and leads past Donmix, the rescue station, the motocross track and Townsend's Nursery, only to come to a sudden halt at a locked steel gate. What lies beyond?
 
Early this week I took a stroll with Neil Rankine along the track that starts at that locked gate. It heads for the desal park (AKA the Victorian Desalination Plant Ecological Reserve) but can't quite get you there due to a strip of farmland that is the missing link in a trail that should be Wonthaggi’s version of The Tan.

The rarely trodden path heads for the mullock heap, a massive tribute to the labour of the coal miners who lived and sometimes died underground to feed their families and keep the trains running.
Picture
Like a pyramid that was built skip load by skip load.
It’s a pretty steep heap but the reward at the top is the best view in town. Sure, it's mega windy but this person-made pinnacle should be guard railed and promoted as the start of the desal walking track.
Picture
View to the north
From that ad hoc lookout it's all downhill to an area that was once the centre of the redstone processing business that supplied gravel to the shire and private industry. (See https://www.basscoastpost.com/local-history/a-young-man-and-his-truck)
PictureIndustrial dinosaur from the age of cables and cast iron
The path then winds west across overgrown concrete pads strewn with relics of coal mining and redstone crushing. One mystery is how all these pieces used to fit together. Another is why there was so much concrete. There's even a rare Harman excavator that seems to have been abandoned when its steel cable finally snapped under the weight of all that rock.

​In the distance a concrete bunker stands impervious to the encroaching vegetation as the metal housings that used to be part of the machinery quietly rust where the scavengers left them after removing anything of value.


Picture Ancient concrete art
Amongst the tall spiky grass there's a bit of a wall that some long-forgotten artist decorated. Their fading initials mysteriously read KBC. 

The path meanders through bushland until a farm fence bars the way. The missing link is on the other side. Except for this few dozen metres of farmland, we could stroll to the tracks that run through and around the desal revegetation area to link up with the path to Wonthaggi via  Williamsons Beach and the Heathlands.

PictureWest Area Road to the desal park. The missing link is less than 200m
"I'm sure the distance needing to be spanned is no more than the width of the rail trail,” Neil says, as we follow our footsteps back to the steel gate.
​ “We've successfully got farmers working on both sides of the rail trail with gates either side.

 
“This could be done with a crossroads, cattle grates on the walking sides, and two gates to allow the farmer to operate across the track.”
 
This trail could become a compelling 6-7km walk or ride through a variety of landscapes, Wonthaggi's version of The Tan. Complete with its own industrial dinosaurs. All it would take is access to that missing link and significant input from the Traditional Owners.
 
And a better name than Victorian Desalination Plant Ecological Reserve. 

​
3 Comments
Liz Glynn
4/6/2021 03:38:38 pm

Excellent idea; adding to the list of already wonderful walking tracks around Wonthaggi.

Reply
Anne Bevis
5/6/2021 09:02:19 am

Such a great plan! So many interesting things to see, great view and tree are already walking tracks in that area..

Reply
Anne Heath Mennell
5/6/2021 03:42:23 pm

A looped walk would be great, especially through such a varied environment

Reply



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