Blood-sucking invertebrates.
Small red letters on my map – Montezuma Falls.
On the map it was dirt track straight up the mountain’s side – switchbacks.On my way in to Rosebery I saw the road – narrow but paved – not well depicted on the map.After filling my nearly empty petrol tank I returned and worked my way up the
Williamsford was a town.Today it is difficult to even find the its ghost.A cemetery is still cared for.Tombstones dating to the late 1890’s.Many men dying at 35 or younger.Headstones for children and infants.Life was rough in the mining town.
When the Murchison Highway arrived in Tullah not only was Wee Georgie Wood no longer needed – Williamstown disappeared.A few foundations remain and a swath up the hill where the roped cars rode.Buckets on a steel rope each holding hundreds of pounds of ore from the zinc mines; also provided the transportation conduit for mine workers.Today only a few, token poles stand as a reminder of the tool.
Just outside the townsite the road ended.Signs along the stream warned, “Mining waste, water not fit for humans.”I wonder what its impact are on the local fauna?
The trail followed the North East Dundas Tramway which was constructed in the 1890’s as the link between Williamsford to the smelters in Zeehan.Straight-line distance is about 15 kilometres but with the mountainous terrain and narrow valleys the tramline is about 50 kilometres.The rail line was built on a 2 foot gauge using wooden rails.It was later upgraded to steel rails.
Today the tramway is an easy 4 hour return walk – about 9.5 kilometres – to Montezuma Falls.With 30 bends per kilometre it was a pleasant meander through 100 hundred year old forests.Today’s forest must be a disgrace to the forests which were cut to shore the mines and fuel the smelters.A few large stumps of 300 to 500 year old trees remained.Forestry Tasmania has installed an interpretive panel along the path – “Between the 1890s and mid 1910s much of the rainforest on either side of the tramline was cleared.Looking around today however, you would hardly know.”I find this kind of information misleading – an attempt to justify and continue whole scale clearing of the forests then replace them with fast growing, plantation stock – not ecosystem restoration.
Even saying that the walk was beautiful.About twenty minutes down the trail there was a sign, “You are about halfway to the falls.”After walking another 48 minutes I arrived. . . .
Rounding the bend into a deep ravine there is suddenly a coolness blowing through the forest.A couple minutes later the first view of the 104 metre tall falls dropping in a near straight plunge.Below the falls is a swinging suspension bridge.The tread is hardly wide enough to place a shoed foot but the view made me forget the precarious path I was crossing.
The falls captured my attention for a half hour before I turned to walk by to the camper.I took my time walking back.I hunkered beneath on of the manferns during a heavy rain shower.I stopped to look down the shaft of one of the mines.The original tramline trestle over a side stream distracted me for a while.
It was during one of these moments being distracted that I noticed movement near my foot.Something as benign as a fine twig moved towards me, then another inching in my direction.Sudden Tasmania memories of the past haunted me.Naomi, exhausted by the day on the Overland Track, saw an inviting tree trunk covered with moss.She walked to the tree, leaned her pack against it and slowly sank to the ground.A few minutes later one of us exclaimed:
“Leaches”
Frantically Naomi struggled to regain her feet.The pack anchoring her firmly to the ground.Her anchoring finally succumbed to the frantic thrashing and musical accompaniment; she regained an erect position.After several minutes of communal plucking of writhing, wormy bits from the pack, her backside, legs and shoes she regained her composure.Thirty or more leaches had attached themselves to her, her clothes and backpack.
Fortunately I evaded the full on leach attack.
It was nearly dark when I arrived back at the van.After considering my options I chose to spend the night in the Montezuma Falls parking area.
Early the next morning I headed out and discovered Wee Georgie Wood waking up in Tullah.
Williamsford Road
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