Sweetwater:
A few of us went out to explore a couple of old town sites this week; Ron, Dave, Flic and myself.
In our sights was finding a hotel site that was built in the 1800s along a Cobb & Co track in western Qld. After some extensive research we found some references to the hotel in some state archives and books, and even an old mud mad circa 1892.
On a recent trip to the area Flic found a bottle from the 1920s along the local creek while I was pegging lures so we knew we were close. This trip we went back with metal detectors and some more info.
This time around we stumbled upon the remains of some very old bottles fairly quickly so we knew we were close, however there were no signs left of the building itself. A mound or raised section of ground and some rocks close to it got me thinking that it all looked a bit un-natural to the local lay of the land, it could have been the old fire place. Within a few minutes the metal detectors were turning up old belt buckles, trinkets, fragments of cast iron cooking pots / kettles, and even a piece of a harmonica (mouth organ). Then Dave's detector went off again; this time only a couple of inches down was an 1876 penny in very good condition. Not worth a lot, but definitely a prize find, and pretty much the final confirmation we had found this historic site.
Among the broken bottles and fragments of plates / crockery there was one unbroken bottle which has been dated to the late 1800s. We didn't dig further down where the bottles were found, there could be a lot more buried in the ground from dozens of floods of the past century plus since this site was abandoned.
Was great to get out of town and out of mobile phone coverage for a few days camping / exploring, good company, camp fire cooking and a few drinks around the camp fire.
Binder:
Sounds like a nice way to spend a couple of days!
elops:
Listened to Nugget on the way home from Rusty's today, must have been a great trip very interesting.
bushwacker:
Would take you back in time by the sounds of the finds 8)
bondy99:
Just found and read this.
Would have been good to get out and about to explore. Were 4WD vehicles were required to access some of these remote areas?
Camp fires and boiling the billie brings back few memories.