Located just off the Omeo Highway, a couple of kilometres north
of the site of the remains of the gold mining town of Sunnyside,
this cache gives you the opportunity to travel through historic and
beautiful alpine country on the first 'declared highway' in
Victoria
Gold reefs were worked in the Sunnyside area from 1891, and the
reefs there were the main focus of activity during the first phase
of quartz mining in the Mt Wills area (the second phase beginning
in 1931 at Glen Wills). By 1893, Sunnyside township (originally
known as the Slope), on the north-facing southern slopes of Mount
Wills, in its heyday had a population of around 600. The town had a
store and post office, two billiard saloons, a hotel, an
accommodation house, a Mechanics Institute, numerous huts, and 37
'habitations' at the end of 1894, and a school was established soon
after
Sunnyside was reached by a rough bush track from Omeo known as
the Knocker Track (some might say that the Omeo Highway,
particularly between Glen Wills and Mitta Mitta is still a rough
bush track). Mail was delivered by coach and heavy goods by
Bullock Wagon. Farmers from Benambra would make trips to the
township with fresh meat, vegetables, butter and other produce
The township was surveyed in 1896. The Sunnyside store burned
down in 1906, beginning the gradual decline of the town. As time
went on, Sunnyside's sole reason for existence was to service the
United Brothers mine which was worked from two major adits and
several smaller tunnels and stopes to the surface producing 23,214
oz of gold between 1894 and 1918. Following the closure of the mine
the future of Sunnyside was doomed. The last house was removed from
Sunnyside in about 1920
All that now remains of the township of Sunnyside is a few fruit
trees, old rubbish dumps opened up by bottle collectors, and a few
foundations. Its site is one of isolation and grandeur, nestling on
the southern slopes of Mt Wills beneath the spectacular granite
masses near the summit
BYO pen as I managed to forget to leave one in the
cache