This cache has been created to walk part of the Leanganook Tk,
enjoying the challenge of undulating terrain, the views of the
Mandurang Valley and features listed below. Therefore if you're
looking for a quick drive by or your only into numbers - find
another cache.
Background Info
In 1858 Bendigo had a population of 12,000, and to secure its
long-term future as an inland centre - far from any major rivers -
the city needed a safe and reliable water supply. So in April that
year a public meeting was held to 'establish an efficient water
supply'. This led to the formation of a private company called the
Bendigo Waterworks Company, which hired Joseph Brady as its
Engineer.
Brady would later be remembered as being 'probably the most
accomplished civil engineer to have worked in Australia,' but in
1858 his immediate task was to ease Bendigo's drastic water
shortage - especially in the wake of several very dry summers
across Central Victoria.
The ambitious scheme involved diverting the Coliban River, south
of Malmsbury, towards Bendigo via gravity-fed channels and
aqueducts. Brady's 64 mile long Coliban Main Channel featured a
fall of 2 feet every mile.
An engineering gem, the Coliban Water System includes over 20
reservoirs and more than 500km of open channels. Truly an amazing
surveying, construction and engineering feat for its time -
especially as this channel still capably supplies most of the water
for Bendigo and Castlemaine even today - (when water is
available).
North of the Cache along the trail are extraordinary granite
structures that are features of the Coliban Water System such as
‘the falls’ and ‘dissipators’. As the water drops from the plateau
to the plains, it passes over two artificial bluestone-block
waterfalls, set in the course of the channel, less than a kilometre
apart
This Cache is located near the remarkable Coliban Channel and
close by features the Wirths Tunnel (623m long) when the channel
isn’t flowing it may give the opportunity of a closer inspection
although you still may get your feet wet.
First WPT - Park car at 36° 54.185S 144° 17.483E Approx
700m from the Mandurang South Rd and Springs Rd T-intersection (its
in Bryden Rd which is a continuation of Springs Rd) Follow the
trail running next to the Coliban Channel in a SW direction towards
the cache. The trail you'll be on is (Public Access) the Leanganook
Tk, which is part of the Great Dividing Walking Trail with a
regular marked symbol on posts along the way, eg :-
Please note: shorter routes maybe accessable, however, that is not
the intent of the author this cache.