Alone or Lonely (Comstock) Traditional Cache
Alone or Lonely (Comstock)
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
The “ALONE OR LONELY” series of Bowz2 caches acknowledges the extreme feats of endurance and hardship encountered by the pioneers of our country.
Our pioneers lived and worked without the advantages of modern communications or medical knowledge and skills, in remote and isolated locations where help was often days away by horseback or horse and cart. Consequently the want to succeed in this harsh country was often paid with a high price by young and old, male and female alike...
Added to this, When civil registration (i.e. death certificates) was introduced to the Australian colonies in the 1840s and 1850s, the models used were from Britain. Whilst the intentions were admirable, the tyranny of distance and the climate meant that practice was often very different to the required procedure. This was evident with remote deaths. To strictly follow the processes in the heat of summer was quite impractical when faced with the disposal of a rapidly decaying body, let alone considering those unexpected deaths many miles from the nearest community.
A lonely grave could be considered to be a single or small group of graves outside a recognised / currently used cemetery that never had more than twenty graves.
You can often find very isolated single burials through to the small collections at disused railway sidings, rural homesteads and long forgotten chapel sites. Whilst many sites have no headstone, some are no more than rumoured graves but others are well documented, some are unknown identities (I.e. unknown stockman) but ALL have a story to be told.
Visiting these sites can provide insight into past history, a way to remember those before us, as they shouldn’t be forgotten and it might help us to remember just how easy we have it in this day and age!
NOTE: Lonely, does not always mean remote!. Colonel William Light the founder of Adelaide is buried in a city square but his grave is lonely in the fact that it is outside a regular cemetery.
About this cache location:
Situated not far from the entrance to Willis Gorge there were a number of burials here. There are only 2 discernible graves remaining.
The area is known as Comstock named after the “Comstock mine” to the south of here, (in the middle of the mini pound, on private land with no access allowed) it was mined many years ago for a flux material used in the making of steel. Small amounts of gold were present and many shafts and tunnels still remain today, and occasional local rumours surface of further attempts to mine it again but it hasn’t happened.
Not far away on the opposite side of the road there was also a small copper mine, and other unsuccessful small diggings are scattered around the broader vicinity.
NOTE to access this area Turn off road at
S 32 10.1082 E 138 01.6518
Park at gate
S 32 10.1172 E 138 01.7298
and follow fence / track / GPS NNE to Cache
Access is only to visit graves nowhere else!
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures