Cut Rock Road Multi-cache
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A 3 part multi-cache that takes you on a forest drive from the bottom to the top of an old, lost timber trail up the side of the Watagans. Intended for car or 4WD between WPs but the middle to top leg is a great walk too. In 2WD car, the round trip takes ~1:40 driving and ~20min walking.
- New cache container and log on 30-DEC-2012 as original is missing.
- Changed initial WP coordinates and clue on 26-AUG-2019 as there is now a new gate.
In our youth, my mates and I spent a lot of time exploring the 4WD tracks of the Watagans and this area was a favourite. Names like Burnt Bridge and Cut Rock conjured great images. It took us a long time, however, to stumble on to the original Cut Rock Road and find the rock after which, we assume, it was named. This is a great piece of timber industry history lying lost alongside the current logging trails. The original road, as best as we could trace it, follows the ridge line down from Muirs Lookout to Martinsville Valley and has little in common with the current road.
The first WP is at the bottom of the original road, where it comes off the ridge and joins the valley floor. The trail from here to the 2nd WP was once 4WD-able but is now locked off. You need to start here to find info for the co-ords of the 2nd WP but there is no container. From the WP it is about a 20min drive back out to Cooranbong, south toward Mandalong and then up Sauls Road - an all weather, 2WD road.
The second WP is above where a sandstone jump-up prevented the logging bullock drays from passing up/down and the loggers used a straight forward solution: they cut the road through the rock. If you look you can see deep grooves cut into the sandstone at either side where (again, all this is our assumption) the iron shod wheels cut through the soft sandstone as the wagons were lowered down with locked brakes. You can/could also see a smaller groove in the middle of the cut which we guess was made by a wire rope that was used to lower the laden wagons.
The beautifully hidden Stairway to Heaven cache is right by the cut rock. Slightly up the trail from the cut rock we have hidden a bullocky having cross words with his horse. Their 'log' contains the clue to work out his words and then the coordinates of the final cache.
If you feel like a walk, you can continue up the old road all the way to Muirs Lookout. It meets and follows Burnt Bridge for a way, then takes to the bush at the intersection with Planks Road, again following the ridge line while the modern roads follow the contours. The original then meets up with the current Cut Rock Rd before a final dive into the bush near Team Yota's Oh WOTA Feeling cache, and straight up to Muir Lookout. Or you can drive up to the top by either following the new Cut Rock Rd (for 4WDs) or going back down Sauls Rd, and then north to Martinsville (20min) and up via the Martinsville Hill Rd to Muirs Lookout (30min)
Brief history of Cooranbong around this era c/- the Lake Macquarie Council website:
- 1826-28 Simpson operated a cattle and dairy farm.
- By October 1833 Mr Manning was operating a dairy.
- In the late 1850's swans were hunted so that their down could be sold in the Sydney markets.
- From the 1860's Cooranbong exported timber products:
- William Martin a timber getter and his wife Sarah with their children were the first settlers. They originally came from Ireland and settled in Martinsville area sometime between 1861 and 1866
- July 5, 1874, Robert King's sawmill exported its first cargo of timber.
- In 1875 Kennah and Braid built four vessels for the lake trade
- Two more sawmills - Moon's Mill and Steel's Mill were operational prior to 1877.
- Only small saw mills existed at Martinsville area: Bamiers' Mill was at the top of Mount Falk, Mullards' at the foot of the Wattagan Road and Espleys' near the crossing of Blarney Grove Creek.
- In the 1890's, the end of railway contracts combined with a national economic depression to curtail the timber market.
Thanks to Lodessa for the GPS coordinate surveying and 'the early years' :)
FTF honours: Team Unibolt - published at around 4pm in spring and Team UniBolt got to the top that evening! Must have been near dark for the final cache. Very impressive! And major points to Marcus Vitruvius who did 10km on foot with an in-dark return run and drive down Watagan trails in a 2WD. Maaaaate!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Zvq: fnaqfgbar jvaq pnir bss gb gur evtug (ba jnl hc) bs genpx;
Gbc: ba gbc bs na byq ybttvat fghzc, pbzcyrgr jvgu fcevatobneq abgpu.