One in a series of caches to highlight the many towns, villages, hamlets, localities and crossroads around Victoria. Based on a series of caches in South Australia, started by local SA cacher adelaideram. adelaideram was contacted and is happy with the series spreading its wings into Victoria.
Yackandandah is a rural locality and former mining area in the north-east of Victoria.
Yackandandah, known to the locals as "Yack", is an attractive, beautifully preserved, historic village. It is largely unchanged from its heyday as a gold mining town. Today the district is predominantly devoted to dairy farming and forestry. Many of the buildings are historic and the entire commercial area has been classified by the National Trust.
Like so many Aboriginal names the meaning of Yackandandah is obscure. One source argues that it is Waveroo word meaning 'country of hills' while other sources argue that it is a combination of two words meaning 'water hole' and 'rocks'. This theory argues that there was a large rock on top of a smaller rock in the water course now known as Yackandandah Creek.
The discovery of gold late in 1852 began the rush of alluvial miners. Reef mining began in about 1860 but by the mid-1860’s easily won alluvial gold became scarcer and many small miners were forced out - some onto the land or to the services.
The historic stone bridge, just as you enter the main street, was the last bridge to be built on the then proposed main route between Sydney and Melbourne. Considering the Beechworth hills ahead, the route was changed to the flatter country to the west.
The find GZ for this cache, simply solve the jigsaw below.
A Jigidi for ... Yackandandah