Buttlejorrk series - #7 State School No. 7 Traditional Cache

Seventh of eleven for the Buttlejorrk series placed to share the history of the area.

Parking is located on Nichol St, just after the intersection. From here, the cache is a short walk. Please don't drive to the end of Nichol St. as this may catch the attention of local muggles.

The cache doubles as a travel bug hotel and contains plenty of swaps. Would love to see swaps made that reflect the contents of childrens pencil cases.

Buttlejorrk is a parish of the County of Bourke located to the west of Sunbury, in Victoria, Australia and a neighbourhood within the locality of Diggers Rest. It was named in 1839 by the surveyor William Darke. A township developed and was initially known as Aitken's Gap, after settler and farmer John Aitken and was the first staging stop for miners on their way to the Bendigo gold fields.  Hotels (the Gap Inn, the Manchester Hotel and the Bald Hill Hotel) and stores were erected in the vicinity, and in 1854 the Government moved to formalise the township. The original Gap Inn and a store (in which a post office was established in 1856) were located in the middle of the main street of the Government’s later survey. Archaeological evidence remains of the Gap Inn and Bald Hill Hotel. By the 1890s it had commonly become known as Buttlejorrk. The present location of the Calder Freeway was once the main road (Victoria Street) through Aitken’s Gap with various smaller streets crossing it. This formed part of the main town with the remainder of the town stretching as far west as Koroit Creek. This area is now known as Digger’s Rest, the town’s name arising from the diggers (miners) who would rest here on their way to the gold fields.

This cache site brings you to the end of Nichol Street that was once a through road to Gap Road. To the left of this intersection was a Church of England school opened at the settlement in 1857, and later Aitken’s Gap state school that continued until 1900. My family tells a tale of a Mr Wilson who taught at the school and who’s family name is carried on in Wilsons Lane. Though I am still looking for records that could confirm this tale.

BYO pen.