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We had a permit and a key to access this fascinating region of Southwest Tasmania
but without a 4WD we soon found ourselves on shanks' pony for a three hour trek to Adamsfield
We had a permit, we had a key to access this remarkable region.
The Adams Valley osmiridium rush began in 1925. At the time the metal used for
tipping fountain pen nibs was worth around £30 per ounce - about seven times more than gold.
Sandra, the navigator
, studies the 1:100,000 map to get us to the derelict abandoned town Mining operations continued until the late 1930s and the outbreak of WWII
after which few people lived in the town which at its peak numbered about 1,000.
Access to the remote town was via pack tracks through rugged and difficult terrain, often in icy cold foul weather.
Of course it made hard men out of these early miners and their women whose sons and grandsons sired the most formidable breed of cricketers in the world ...
Sandra marches on undeterred by pristine streams and the constant glint of alluvial gold
Two hours into the bush among towering eucalypts we make our first discovery of
the once precious metal in a piece of rock embedded in the track which proved inextricable
to unpractised hands, it was very bright like mercury. It would have been illegal to remove it.
There was nothing much left to welcome us to this once booming town,
just a few relics and a weathered old sign a few hundred metres before we trudged into downtown Adamsfield!
And there it stands what was once the post office and the remotest branch of the ANZ Bank in Oz where Head Office sent some of their most able and ambitious managers,
who on retirement returned to the bush in air conditioned 4WDs and camper trailers laden with creature comforts.
This set wasn't descended from hardy miners but evolved from the progeny of decadent stock brokers and merchant bankers.
After its closure in the 1960s and the complete desertion of the town, the place was taken over by Greenies and the
bushwalking class and eventually became known as the Adamsfield Hilton where the only tariff is the pain of reaching it.
The decor inside is very interesting and features magnificent murals and calligraphy by some talented artists
Foot sore and weary we waited and waited but no one came to offer us a lift back to town.
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