The upside-down land
Today I was taken on a tour of the central Victoria mining fields in the Daylesford area by architect and heritage advisor, Mandy Jean. I was captivated by this area after Mandy sent me an email many months ago describing this area in vivid detail ….
‘ Nearby are the deep leads of the Berry Mines set in an amazing lunar landscape of many volcanic cones. In one spot you can see 16.The lava flow trapped the water, both underground and above, beneath they say there are rivers of gold which were mined and above, less well-know are the marvellous Moolort wetlands, a series of magic ephemeral lagoons that form a series of amazing wetland swamps….Most of the mining activity left high salinity and heavy metals in the creeks.The Dja Dja Wurrung call it upside down country…..’
Volcanoes are not something I would particularly associate with Australia so this was fascinating. They are subtle and very much part of the ancient landscape. One of my favourite photos is the one at the top of the page, of the ruined Cornish engine house, like an ancient ruined classical temple, abandoned in this remote ,wild and windy place.
Mandy has a different perspective on what should be done with mining landscapes and is an advocate of reclaiming and returning them to their original state, replanting native species, etc. We met up with Margy, who runs the Friend of Cornish Hill environmental group in Daylesford, who are working with schools and local communities to restore and naturalise the landscape.
I was also really interested to learn about Aboriginal earthworks in this area, a bit like the chalk carvings on the downs in the UK, in the form of animals – emu, kangaroo, etc. These are constructed so as to be aligned with, and ‘touching’ certain constellations at different times of the year. An historian called Stanford documented these and information is to be found in the Science Museum in Bendigo, worth a future visit.
