Now that the Calder highway is complete between Melbourne and Bendigo it is time to share a little of the history of the actual route and how a dubious local identity Captain C.D. Mark HOKIN single handedly realigned the Calder in the 1870s. Things started off well enough during the goldrush period when the route between Melbourne and Bendigo was one that avoided the heartlands of the various aboriginal tribes by following a meanderous route along the boundaries of both the traditional owners and the newcomers. By sticking to the boundaries or no mans land conflicts were to a large extent avoided.
Enter Captain C.D. Mark Hokin, who as it turns out wasn't a real captain at all, he wasn't even really a man either he was in fact what was called back then a rather handsome woman. Marion Hokin chose to dress not just like a man but a man of some bearing and substance.
Coming from early settlers the Hokin family took up residence at the end of what is now Hokins Road at the foot of Mount Gaspard. There the family toiled with the deranged notion that sheep would one day be good for the Australian economy.
At the time the Hokin's holding was well off the main route north. However the increase in traffic to the goldfields resulted in an increase of sheep being 'duffed' from the slightly more remote properties such as Hokenville. This dismayed Marion who was by now a young women working the family holding single-handed as her parents seeing that sheep would never carry Australia into the future left to sell coat hanger repair kits to the people of the Tanami Desert. Marion however unlike her parents was no fool and hatched a plan that would prevent sheep from being duffed as well as ensure that there would always be a reliable to the entry of her holding.
By indulging her penchant for cross dressing clearly a notion not quite as well accepted as it is now Marion became Captain C.D. Mark Hokin. The moustache that became a prominent trademark of the Captain was made entirely of hair collected from the saddle blanket of the farm night horse “Dolly”.
The bald spot was created by using a rather toxic concoction of velvet soap, bicarbonate of soda, bluo, fryers balsam and creosote. By liberally applying the noxious smelling balm to an area where hair needed to be removed from, hair was quite simply eradicated, never to return. The recipe was actually located by a prominent pharmaceutical company many years later and became the precursor to some of the better known hair removal products in use today. I digress, many apologies.
Marion then set to work with a needle and threat, coloured ribbons some bits of muck metal and before you could say “What an attractive young lady!!” she presented herself at the Ravenswood Hotel on the night of the Barn Dance clad in full regalia. No-one had any idea where the good Captain had come from or in what war he had fought, but the military bearing, the twitching moustache, the shiny forehead, the large Cuban cigar and the brandy glass filled with crème de menthe had everyone believing they were truly in the company of greatness. There was at the barn dance a young would be Doctor named Alexander Bayne who after consuming a liberal amount of crème de menthe had an encounter that is best left out of this tale. Suffice to say however that this encounter left the young doctor so intrigued by the disorders of the mind and the effects of bad humours that he went on to establish one of the great research centres of its time: The Alexander Bayne Centre.
But I digress, back to our tale. Marion's plan was a simple one.
She spent her days and evenings riding 'Dolly' the wonder horse along the boundary that fronted what was soon to become the major route north to Bendigo. The dashing C.D. Mark Hokin became quite the celebrity among folk traversing this section of roadway. “Who was that dashing man on the horse?” “He must be important, look at the medals” “Doesn't he have a lovely seat!”
This gallivanting along the boundary had the desired affect drawing travellers toward the Hokin holding and establishing a more defined route thus ensuring that the wanton acts of sheep duffing would be perpetrated no more due simply to the numbers of potential witnesses nearby.
In actual fact the width of the road north shrunk from being some 44 chains wide to where the Calder Highway is today.
So if you are a horse riding woman with a good seat, who chooses to dress as a man of military bearing, smoke Havana cigars, drink crème de menthe and snog with the occasional intern then this cache is dedicated wholly and solely to you.
As you negotiate the relatively easy access to the cache you will be reminded of the family crest of the Hokin Clan. Here God is a rock.
Access will be easiest from the northbound lanes . Please leave the highway where the signs indicate.