Another rail-history themed cache from Radionut50
After the Main Trunk Railway was famously completed by on 6th November 1908 by the celebratory driving of the “Last Spike”, the rush was on to complete the works to a permanent standard.
A vital component was Ballast – the course stone material needed to provide a strong, yet porous base for the rail lines to sit on - so a quarry was set up very near the important busy rail station of Ohakune.
Sadly on 15 May 1916 the rushed works and tough deadlines brought about a disaster that few have heard about, with the death of 6 men and serious injury of 2 more in an explosion that is still not fully understood.
The later inquest found that the men were in a tunnel that had been driven into the centre of a quarry face that was 15m up and 15m from the top. The tunnel went 20m into the quarry face. An L was formed by a chamber, and it was in this chamber that 680kg of a gelignite mixture was placed. What caused its premature explosion was never resolved.
A monument was erected by officers and workmen of the Public Works Department in memory of those who died, curiously some 4.5 km from the site of the disaster, but on the hillside close to Ohakue Cemetery.
There have been calls for the memorial to be moved to a location closer to the disaster site, but nothing has been initiated, so come and find this cache, read the sobering list of victims, and look out to the North East to Ohakune town where the tragedy happened.
Logging Recommendations
This cache, (like most of Radionut50’s hides) is NOT meant to be hard to find – so logs saying ‘easy find’ are pretty meaningless. The reason for this hide is to introduce you to this piece of our country’s great history , so logs commenting on your experience are very welcome. You are also invited to crack the hint as you arrive, to reduce the chance of a prolonged search compromising the hide in this very public place.
You are looking for a 1litre click-clack box, please hide it well when you depart.