Our second cache at Old Adaminaby on the shore of Lake Eucumbene. The town began as a group of slab and bark buildings at the Eucumbene river crossing, serving as a staging post for travellers during the Kiandra gold rush beginning in 1859. It quickly grew into a village and was surveyed in 1861. Powered by Kiandra gold and later by the nearby Kyloe copper mine, it expanded to a population of 400 by 1877. By the 1940s, it had become a rural centre of 750 people with several hundreds more in the surrounding area.
In 1949, the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric scheme began, which included a plan to dam the Eucumbene River where the dam waters were expected to rise to just below the town, leaving it sited at the edge of a large and attractive lake. But the plan changed when the dam volume was found to be able to be significantly increased by building the wall 6 kms further down the valley. The revised new dam meant that over 24,000 hectares would be flooded, including the Eucumbene valley, the Adaminaby Plain and most of the town.
Adaminaby was offered three new locations, including a higher one to overlook the new lake, but the residents chose a warmer and more sheltered site on the main road at the current site of Adaminaby today. A new township was built, including 102 relocated buildings, and a new shopping centre, hotel, theatre, two schools, sporting facilities, a race course, a show ground, and thousands of planted trees. By 1967 the new dam was completed, and inundation began.
This cache is located at the Methodist Church of Old Adaminaby, one of only four buildings of the old township to remain. The foundation stone was laid in 1906.
It’s a simple hide – please replace with care to prevent muggles finding it.