Welcome to the Chinese Miners- Guildford geocache. This cache was created to help cachers earn souvenirs during the 2018 Hidden Creatures adventure, and to show cachers an interesting part of Guildford's history just north of the village.
Guildford and its environs is a quiet place. The population recorded at the 2016 census was only 333. Guildford was a very different place during the Mount Alexander Gold Rush of the 1850s. As you're standing at GZ take some time to look west. You'll see a farmer's paddock and the Guildford Plateau. The line of old gum trees at the base of the plateau marks Campbells Creek. Its junction with the Loddon River is to your left near the poplar trees.
This area was the location of the largest encampment of Chinese miners in Victoria. Estimates vary from 5000-6000 miners plus others necessary for a functioning town. Most of the Chinese miners lived in calico tents along narrow, unplanned thoroughfares dotted with joss houses, tea-houses, boarding houses, tailors, apothecaries, gambling establishments, opium dens, herbalists, barbers, theatres, and even a circus. It was a town that came and went with the miners.
All along Campbells Creek the Chinese worked in a type of co-operative, not as individuals, using a system of open-cut alluvial mining. In 1866 most of the Chinese miners had left and moved on to other diggings to the north of Guildford.
The land has long since been turned over to agriculture and nothing remains of the Chinese encampment. Can you imagine the scene back in the 1850s and 60s?
GZ is located near a convenient service road at the west of the Midland Hwy. You can park in the service road then hunt for GZ. N.B. There are double white lines along the centre of the Midland Hwy except for a gap that allows you to turn into and out of the service road. Please don't drive across the double white lines. There's no need for it, and it's probably dangerous.
The cache contains a log, a pen and a pencil, and some swag. Please remember the geocaching rule: Only take swag if you swap it for something of equal or greater value.
I've rated the Difficulty as 1.5 because I expect you'll find GZ within 15 minutes. I've rated the Terrain as 2.5 because you'll be walking over remnants of road construction materials and the small changes in elevation enroute to GZ might be difficult for some people. There is long grass here too, so one cannot ignore the possibility of snakes being in the vicinity when the weather is warm. Please dress appropriately and be careful. Please return the cache to its hiding place as you found it. This cache has a volume of only 2 L so is classified as a Regular (M)* size. Happy geocaching!
Sources:
Wikipedia
theage.com.au/news/Victoria/Guildford/2005/02/17/1108500206491.html
campbellscreek.org/the-gold-rush-in-campbells-creek/
*Regular (M) containers are 1 – 20 L in volume, so this 2 L cache is on the lower end of the scale for a Regular (M) sized cache.