Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.
Located at Porcupine Flat which was once a flourishing area of the Maldon goldfields, the dredge and dragline represent that phase of gold mining in Maldon when technology enabled relatively large scale reworking of earlier deposits which had first been worked by thousands of individual prospectors in the gold rush of the 1850s.
Mr George Heywood commenced working the site at Porcupine Flat in 1958 where he developed the dredge operation on Porcupine Creek. He purchased the dredge sometime after 1958, and it may not have been fully operational until after 1973. Operations ceased in 1984, after moderate success. This dredge is a smaller reconstruction of the one that operated in the Jim Crowe Creek south of Newstead, from 1948 to 1954.
The gold dredge utilized large rotating steel buckets that could dig into the river bed. The buckets would bring up dirt and gravel onto a platform that could separate the gold from other materials. These would have originally been driven by steam, with electricity taking over in later years.
The dredge originally worked to the north of its current site, the existing dam being constructed when the Porcupine Flat Gold Treatment Works were constructed over the original workings. The dragline standing on the bank of the dam was brought from the Yallourn Coal Mine to assist in creating the initial dam and the ongoing operation. It proved to be of little value and was abandoned in its present position early in the operation.
Climb up inside the cabin area of the dredge to answer the following questions, (answers must be sent within 7 days):
Q1. Inside the cabin area, how many drums (with cables still attached) operate the big steel cables to lift and manoeuvre the dredge arm?
Q2. Which company manufactured the turbines located at the front and back of the cabin area?
Q3. On the big steel drum with the most cable on it (not the small drum), on the right hand side, what is the five digit and two letter serial number?
Q4. At the front of the cabin on the right hand side next to the levers, how many foot pedals are there?
Q5. Also you must include a photo of yourself/geocaching profile name or log showing part of the structure (photo can be in your log).
Answers can be emailed or messaged to me for checking WITHIN ONE WEEK otherwise they get deleted. Feel free to log at your leisure, but answers must show that you have been there otherwise the log gets deleted.