The cache is a simple bison tube.
A lovely park along a nice drive. But it hasn't always been a park. This was the original site of the Emerald Diggings. In 1851 a party known only as the "Lucky Germans" returned from this area to Melbourne where they cashed in gold to the approximate value of 2,000 pounds! before returning back to Germany. On the 14th of October, 1851, the Herald newspaper had an uncofirmed report that the Lucky Germans had come from the junction of Menzies Creek and Woori Yallock Creek, which is in the Butterfield Reserve, adjacent to here.
From then until 1858 the area was mined by solitary miners like Jack "Parson" Emerald, an Irishman whom the nearby creek was named after. It is thought that Jack also struck it rich, but he wasn't as lucky as the Germans before him, he was found dead in his hut, shot through the heart.
In 1858, a successful Ballarat miner, William McCrea assembled a party of miners to prospect "The ranges of the Yarra". It was Patrick O'Hannigan (Big Pat) and Peter Peterson who finally cut their way through from the north, approximately along the road that is now Old Emerald Road.
The area again became a success with large numbers of miners getting quite a lot of gold by methods of sluicing, which involves diverting the creek through sluices. The Chinese miners prefered digging into the old creek beds, creating deep, circular mine shafts. This form of mining was dangerous because if not constructed properly, the whole mine shaft could collapse, killing the miner inside. Mine shafts in this area were also not as successful as they had been in other goldfields, like Ballarat.
Unfortunately, the mine shaft method was predominantly used in later fossicking, particularly during the depressions of 1890s and 1930s. Most of these old shafts were not filled in, they were usually covered with wood. Over time the earth builds up over the wood and the wood below it rots, leaving a death trap for any animal or human who walks over the top. If you are walking the nearby walking tracks, please take heed of the signs advising you to stay to the paths.
Watch out for snakes. Do not attempt on days of extreme bushfire risk.