Walking through history
Perched high above the Crooked River are the rusty remains of an impressive steam engine and battery. A few metres further, a sizeable mullock heap gives away the location of a mine’s entrance.
This is the New Good Hope Mine, hidden in the impossibly steep and remote mountain terrain of northern Gippsland, in Victoria. For those walking McMillans Walking Track (MMWT), the mine’s battery (accessible on a short but arduous detour) is an impressive relic of a long-forgotten era.
Gippsland is a region of immense diversity – uninterrupted beaches, vast coastal lakes, fertile river plains and seemingly endless forests. At its northern extremity the topography is wrinkled like a crumpled piece of paper. Pushed up to heights of almost 2000m, dissected by steep river valleys, eroded into ridge after ridge, it’s a tangle of gullies and ravines. Except for some open high plains and the major peaks, all of this is covered in dark forests and dense scrub.
In winter, it’s a twisted landscape scoured by violent blizzards that dump heavy snow onto mountainous terrain. In summer, it
