The Ghost @ Devlin's Pound....
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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The location this cache is hidden at is shrouded in mystery; stock
rustlers, wine shanties, murders, ghosts and Devlin’s Pound.
A Wine Shanty was located here from as early as 1846 (see the lined
tank etc near GZ) servicing the overlanders involved in the droving
of stock from NSW to Adelaide. The story goes that the publican of
the illegal operation was a crafty fellow, Patrick Devlin, who
encouraged drovers of stock to seek refreshments and respite over
night.
Devlin, said to be tired of a diet of fish and hankering for some
beef, in the cover of darkness began helping himself to the drovers
stock….. and hiding them in the surrounding cliffs at Devlin’s
Pound.
Drovers would search long and hard along the track but never found
any sign of the missing stock. The story has a few endings, one is
expressed in the poem below, another is that one drover caught him
in the act and shot him on the spot, then helped himself to the
profits of the Wine Shanty (near GZ) in the form of sovereigns
buried in a cache under the shanty floor.
Legend has it that on dark, stormy nights the Ghost of Devlin can
be seen galloping on a white horse with his red beard and locks
blowing in the breeze around Devlin’s Pound seeking the drover
responsible for his demise.
Another version suggests it was a Jim Devlin that was murdered by
overlanders who knew of his treasure with a similar Ghost riding a
white horse around the pound seeking revenge.
The cache is a regular size container hidden just south of where
the remains of the shanty are located, a little to the NNE lies
what is thought to be the remains of a lime kiln, while shattered
glass and the like can be found to the east.
The road to this cache is not recommended for 2WD though those with
a high ground clearance can get through if careful (a 2WD was used
when planting the cache). The terrain of both the track and the
small hill to the shanty (and cache location) are graded as 3 on
the terrain scale and it is not recommended that you chase this
cache via the track to the river in times of wet weather, please
take care.
Access to the cache can alternatively be gained by a few hundred
metres of walking from the main highway or about the same up from
the river (if travelling by boat) where camping is allowed and a
crude boat ramp exists.
If you have the time take a walk from GZ south to the cliff
overlooking the river... it's something Europeans would have been
doing at this location in the 1840's & 50's, the hey-day of
droving stock overland .....
DEVLIN’S GHOST
He’d travelled from auld Ireland’s shores no one knew when or
why,
and wandered through Australia’s lands, beneath the southern
sky.
But finally he settled down, and with grog he did some
peddling,
And thus began the legend of the man called ‘Paddy Devlin’.
His shanty, made from river gums, was on the stock route
track,
and cattleman would stop for grog and rest their aching back.
The cattle too, would quench their thirst down at the Mighty
Murray
for drovers back in those old days were never in a hurray.
They brought their herds from NSW, headed for Adelaide town,
And the word soon spread that Devlin’s shack, was the place to bed
them down.
But ‘Paddy’, sick of eating fish, hungered for some beef,
And soon one dark and moonless night he turned into a thief.
It started with a single beast, that from the herd did
stray,
But soon it grew to several head that vanished every day.
The drovers searched along the track, but never one was
found,
For they were hid below the cliff, all safe in ‘Devlin’s
Pound’.
But Devlin made one big mistake, he preyed upon his
neighbour,
A thing that simply was not done, in this land they call
Australia.
He disappeared from the scene and nothing more was heard,
Some said he’d simply packed his swag and flown off like a
bird.
The years passed by and then one day a shallow grave was
found,
The bones and skull, with a bullet hole, were just below the
ground.
A long red beard was proof enough that this was ‘Paddy
Devlin’,
And that he’d met his just deserts because of his foolish
meddling.
Soon tales were told of ghostly deeds along the old cliff
top,
And drovers would avoid the place, no longer would they stop.
For it was said that ‘Devlin’s Ghost’ astride a now white
steed,
Would still be driving cattle off to satisfy his greed.
So if by chance you pass that way on a lonely moonless
night,
Maybe you’ll be rewarded by this chilling fearful sight.
Be not dismayed, just pour a glass and raise it in a toast,
Then you may brag in every bar, that you drank with Devlin’s
Ghost.
– Author: John Gordon.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
onfr bs gerr