by David Maidment
Eleven walkers met at Bodalla, on Thursday for a hard walk, with walk leader Rob Lees taking us to what we believe is Bumbo #2 mine.
A hard walk, but we were all very keen. After driving out west along Comerang Forest Road for quite a few kilometres, we found our starting point. The recent forest fires had cleared the terrain a bit, however the bush was reclaiming the land very quickly.
Down down we went, fairly steeply along what is known at the Bulldozer track, our walk leader Rob, just remember, he said, we have to come back up this steep incline. Heading off the Bulldozer track we bush bashed, slid, fell, watched for rock slides, and we finally hit the creek, a short walk along bought us to the Bumbo #2 mine, interesting area, some wheels were found, parts of an air railway, we think, a tunnel filled with water, and then the main tunnel which we think was about 50 metres long, (77 steps).
Rob had some maps, and some old information he shared with us, some gold was found in a seam, probably around 1936.
We then made our way along the creek tall tree ferns, Pencil Cedars, Sasafras trees, pools of water, even a water fall. We followed along until we could go no further, then scrambled up out of the creek back to the Bulldozer track which I must say was very overgrown with new growth. Here we had lunch, our leader Rob went down to an old stamper site or tried to while we rested however he said the undergrowth was to thick, so we made our way back up to Comerang Forest Road, tired and weary, but what a day of adventure we all had.
A big thank you to Rob for taking us to this remote spot and with his excellent navigating and knowledge of the mine was all a bonus to us. A great day was had by all.
Walkers were: Rob Lees, Amanda Marsh, Donna Garten, Jan Thomas, Steve Deck, Wendy Selby, Jan Smith, Miriam Wong, Barry
