Mount Beauty's Cranky Charlie Traditional Cache
Mount Beauty's Cranky Charlie
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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A 200mL sistema container, left with a log book and motor bike eraser
The 'island' was the name of that piece of land between the West and East Kiewa rivers on which now stands the township of Mount Beauty.
This land was initially owned by the Briggs family before being cut into three with the Maddisons, Hollonds and Charlie Richardson each taking a part.
Charlie Richardson farmed a block of 320 acres that had the Southern boundary following a line from the top of Mount Beauty(the hill behind the township of that name) down a spur Eastwards to the East Kiewa river. This line passed through the saddle now known as CRANKY CHARLIE that the Bogong High Plains road passes over. It was Charlie who named that hill Mount Beauty and this name was subsequently used for the new township that was built by the SEC during the 1950’s on the ‘island’.
Charlie, together with the Hollonds and Maddisons did not live on the 'island', although Maddisons did build there later, instead each had a homestead on the West side of the valley. Charlie lived in a corrugated iron hut in what is now known as Simmonds Creek, it is possible that the hut is still in existence.
There are many stories told about Charlie ... the 'cranky' label appears to have come about due to his single lifestyle and eccentric nature. It is part of local lore that at one stage Charlie erected a fence on the Southern boundary and managed to place a large number of fence posts but did not run the fencing wire, he received much wry comment about the effectiveness of this fence!
It seems appropriate that this pioneer of the area should be remembered in what some may consider to be an eccentric manner, by the creation of a cache bearing his name. Perhaps a few of the thousands of people who travel the Bogong High Plains road will stop as they pass over CRANKY CHARLIE and take the time to remember this colourful character.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Haqre n ebpx ng gur onfr bs n gerr jvgu gjva gehaxf.