THE GEOCACHE IS NOT AT THE POSTED COORDINATES BUT IS IN THE VICINITY OF NEARBY SHEEP.
THIS PUZZLE IS SOLVED ONLY WITH THE INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON THE CACHE PAGE.
Early Settler's Prosperity:
The country about Smeaton and Coghill's Creek was taken up in 1838 by Captain Hepburn and Mr. David Coghill who came overland from New South Wales with sheep and cattle, following the route of Sir Thomas Mitchell in his expedition of exploration in Port Phillip in 1836. Besides the run at Coghill's Creek, taken up by Mr. Coghill for some others of his family. Cattle Station Hill was also taken by him. This run lay between Glendaruel and the Seven Hills, and was part of the purchased estate belonging to the Hepburns.
As a justice of the peace, the late Captain Hepburn was one of the squatters whom M'Combie mentions as having taken part in a meeting held on the 4th of June, 1844, in front of the Mechanics' Institute Melbourne, to protest against Sir G. Gipps' squatting policy, and to urge forward the movement for the separation of Port Phillip from New South Wales. The squatters mustered on horseback that day on Batman's Hill, and thence rode to the meeting in Collins street, the "equestrian order" thus giving an early example of the right freemen have, even in a Crown colony, to air public grievances publicly and fearlessly.
Source: From "The History of Ballarat, from the First Pastoral Settlement to the Present Time." Author: William Bramwell Withers. * A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook *
An Indigenous Calamity:
The local environment, on which Wadawurrung People depended, was irreversibly changed by European colonisation. The roots of the murnong daisy provided a staple food source for the Wadawurrung People. Unfortunately, introduced sheep ate the daisy leaves and roots, killing the entire plant.
Within three years of the introduction of sheep in the 1830s, most of the murnong daisies across Central Victoria was gone. This depletion of local food resources was intensified when the 1850s gold rush saw a huge influx of new settlers. The rapid population explosion and intensive and destructive mining methods created massive environmental change. For the Wadawurrung People, it became almost impossible to survive off the land as their ancestors had.
This inevitably meant that many Wadawurrung People became dependant on the poorly paid work on offer on the goldfields and surrounding sheep stations, and some even resorted to begging or stealing to stay alive. At the time, some Europeans understood that such desperate behaviour was a result of environmental change. Others thought however, that Wadawurrung People were struggling to survive because they were too lazy to work and were too easily drawn to alcoholism. Many Europeans believed they were a people destined for extinction due to their “natural” weaknesses. And some quoted Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution (outlined in his On the Origin of Species, published in 1859) as scientific evidence that this was an example of “survival of the fittest”.
Source: From "The fifth report published by the Central Board Appointed to Watch over the Interests of the Aborigines in the Colony of Victoria, 1866."
***Congratulations to boo09, chan02 and GemmaSistema on FTF***