Jack Scott Reserve
This reserve serves as a memorial to this great and gentle man.
It is also a great free camping location on the banks of the Goulburn River on the outskirts of Woods Point.
Jack “Warrigul” Scott
After moving here as a youth of 16 in 1936, Jack called Woods Point home for the next 68 years until his death in 2004.
Soon after his arrival here, Jack’s adopted town was all but wiped out in the 1939 Black Friday bushfires.
Renowned from the outset as “a man who got things done” Jack threw himself into the town’s reconstruction prior to then joining up for the war effort and serving in the 2/11 Commando Squadron in Borneo.
Upon his return, Jack Scott’s civic minded approach once again went to work to the benefit of the Woods Point community. At one stage Jack leased the Woods Point Commercial Hotel and the Kevington Hotel at the same time. He was an entrepreneur, but also a man who helped others and expected nothing in return.
He worked as a wood cutter, logger, gold miner, builder, plumber, publican and mechanic. In fact, he could turn his hand to nearly any job.
An enthusiastic member of the RSL and the Buffs and a Life Member of the Woods Point CFA and the Gun Club, he could always be found somewhere in the town doing something for someone who needed help.
A man with an immense dry humour, Jack was also an excellent raconteur and poet. People would sit with him in the local pub and listen for hours, as Jack relived his life and adventures with the occasional song or poem thrown in.
Jack was heavily involved in the Woods Point Rifle Club (now disbanded), and became one of the five founding members of the Woops Point Gun Club in 1970. The same club still competes every month. He was Honorary Treasurer for 34 years and the club’s first Life Member.
Jack was a keen live bird shooter in his younger years and an excellent clay target shot as well. He was a tireless worker and a driving force for change and improvement.
More than 200 friends and relatives from all over Australia attended his funeral in 2004. Gun Club members formed a guard of honour at the cemetery and fired a salute as he was lowered to his final resting place.
About Woods Point
In August of 1861, the mining registrar described Woods Point as a “collection of huts and a few stores”. This small mining village had quickly established once the alluvial gold found at Gooley’s Creek was traced to its origin, a quartz reef. In 1862 Mabille (Harry) Wood established a store near the river to service the miners of the Morning Star Reef. This location was known as Woods Junction, and eventually it became Woods Point.
At its peak, Woods Point was home to around 4000 people, and the town boasted four breweries, a court house, police station with lock up, churches, schools, a hospital, several doctors, chemist, six banks and a post and telegraph office as well as stores, livery stables, business offices, soap factory, abattoir and slaughterhouse, two local newspapers, 36 hotels and numerous accommodation houses and around 300 houses and nearly 400 tents. The initial boom however only lasted until the 1870’s but gold continued to be successfully mined at the Morning Star Gold Mine until its closure in 1972. Several attempts have been made to re-open the mine since then.
Unfortunately, the town of Woods Point was all but destroyed in the 1939 Black Friday bushfires. 1940 saw the rebuilding of a smaller settlement. Woods Point currently has approximately 40 permanent residents.
Information included from local notice boards with thanks to their creators.
