By LYNETTE HASELGROVE
THE Stanthorpe Field Naturalists will join the Toowoomba Naturalists club to visit Allora Hill on Sunday, 25 August. The meeting point will be at Weeroona Park at 8.30am.
In early July a mostly sunny day saw members venturing down a track in Broadwater State Forest and at about 7.5km the walk was a bit longer than the club’s usual weekday outings.
At Broadwater Creek members scrambled through and over the top of some big rock formations. Passing a secluded dam they walked back up the escarpment and up a rockface with views over most of the forest before heading back.
The main outing for July was to the Beehive Mine in Sundown National Park.
A large group of members and visitors drove to Red Rock Gorge where they had a break before setting off along the old mining road to the Beehive Mine on the northern side of Red Rock Gorge.
The road – put in about 1914 – has been cut into the sloping hillside below Mt Lofty and one could imagine the amount of work involved by the sizes of the rocks dug out.
Lunch was enjoyed in the sun at the end of the road with views of Jibbinbar Mountain and north to Nundubbermere.
After lunch some of the group scrambled down into Red Rock gorge and after some searching located one of the diggings.
Members then returned to the parking area and followed the track down to the gorge lookout where the falls were running after the recent rain.
According to group leader, the Beehive Mine was discovered in 1912 by Bill Lynam and Eli Marstella on the northern side of Red Rock Gorge. Surface deposits were extremely rich. The leases were transferred to the Beehive Tin Mining Company in 1913 who made numerous open cuts and pits along the contact zone of the granite and traprock and carried out sluicing along the sides of the gorge.
They also tried alluvial mining along Red Rock Creek.
The company was wound up and the leases forfeited in 1917.
To provide power for the sluicing a steam engine was lowered to the floor of the gorge. This was later hauled back up to provide power for the Glen Aplin sawmill for many years.
The Stanthorpe Field Naturalists Club has two outings each month usually on the first Friday and the Sunday preceding the fourth Wednesday (meeting night).
If you would like to join the group please visit the website at www.granitenet.com.au/groups/environment/fieldnats/.
