The Lake Mac Heritage Series was placed to pay homage to the people, places and events that contributed to building and pioneering the Lake Macquarie region. The pick and shovel were chosen in this geoart series to symbolise the hard work the people of Lake Macquarie put forth into the region.

Fernleigh Track Part 2

Fernleigh Track derived it's name from an area of the former Adamstown-Belmont rail line. This area is the valley which lies below the elevated suburb of Highfields, to the south of the Pacific Highway. It is believed that this area became known as Fernleigh around 1922, when a coalmine was established in the locality. Although the Fernleigh Colliery was short lived - operating intermittently between 1922 and 1932 - it seems that it was a relatively substantial undertaking at the time.

The Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, Monday 1 December 1924 reported:

"A letter was received through the inter-progress association, from Mr. Harris, managing director Redhead Coal Company, stating that a goods siding was being put in at Fernleigh Colliery. It was resolved to write Mr. Harris, asking him to receive a deputation, as the Government roads mentioned in the letter were not traficable to a siding. A seam of coal is now being worked at Kahibah by Messrs. Sharp Brothers, and D Inkster. It is called the Fernleigh Colliery. The seam is 5 feet 3 inches high, and the coal is of good quality. Five men are employed at the present, and the output is 30 tons per day. The coal is taken to different parts of the suburbs by motor transit. The Redhead Company are putting in a siding for the convenience of the colliery. A large screen is being erected over the siding and the coal will be taken away by rail, when the output will be increased. A sawmill will be erected at the pit. The mill logs will come from the North Coast."

There are a few possibilities as to where the colliery name originated.

The Fernleigh Colliery mined the Fern Valley coal seam
Fernleigh is a common word used for various locations around Australia, and has it's basis in the vegetation of the area. 'Fern' - after the plant and 'Leigh' - (derived from Old English leah) meaning a meadow or forest clearing. The natural landscape of this area of the Adamstown-Belmont rail corridor features many ferns.
Fernleigh is an old name for South Wallsend, and the Newcastle Herald records that many sporting teams from that area incorporated the name Fernleigh.

Oops looks like there are some bugs in the code below, make the corrections and then run it using a suitable tool.

Imports System

Public Class Test
 Public Shared Sub Main()
  Dim puzzle As Lng = 330312927059240

  Dim sum As Integer = geocaching 'Decryption Key
  Dim c As Integer
  For c = 1 To sum
   'Decryption Formula
   puzzle = puzzle + (c * 2) - (2 * c * 100000) / 44
  Next

  Dim GZ As Long = puzzl
  'Display the Coordinates
  System.Console.WriteLine("GZ @ S" & Left(GZ, 2) & " " & Mid(GZ.ToString, 3, 2) & "."
                 & Mid(GZ.ToString, 5, 3 & " E" & Mid(GZ.ToString, 8, 3) & _
                 " " & Mid(GZ.ToString, 11, 2) & "." & Mid(GZ.ToString, 13, 3))
 End Sub
End Clas

The puzzle

All historical and heritage information courtesy of Lake Mac Libraries

Any questions regarding this puzzle cache or the LMHS geoart series will be answered by clicking HERE

*** The LMHS geoart was placed in conjunction with the OzGeoMuster 2018 mega event. The OzGeoMuster 2018 committee would like to thank the following people for their contribution to this series. ahomburg, day1976, sedgwickDave, The Morris, bobbiesgirl, and the_garbageman.***

Enjoy!

Marcus Vitruvius