Montezuma falls.

[tazz]

I visited Montezuma falls today ,fantastic walk, may have to try it on my MTB one day, it is a nice easy grade.I also took a side track to the right about twenty minutes before the falls. I came across a creek with a clearing on the other side ,may have been an old settlement site. further up the hill on the top of a ridge I came across an old garden shed in the middle of nowhere with a bunk bed and an old stove in it plus afew old tins and cutlary. Can any one elaborate a bit more on this area.

[tazz]

swinging bridge

[eggs]

Hi Tazz.

Nice photos - thanks for posting.
My introduction to Tasmania was working for 2 months in the Renison Bell mine just off the main road between Rosebury & Zeehan.
I was told at the time that you could see the falls from the top of one of the hills within the mine lease. They were quite close by.
However, I did walk to the falls at least 2 times while there.
The track in those days was undeveloped, just the remains of the old railway line - overgrown in parts & full of mud and pools of water particularly in the cuttings.
One time I went in gum boots to properly match the track conditions.

In the museum at Zeehan you can see a photo of the falls with a train right under it. People were commuting past it every day.
I also did some exploring with a student geologist looking around some of the back tracks for interesting mineral outcrops.
The whole of that part of the west coast is riddled with old train routes and mine works and town ruins. eg Crotty was a town of 10,000 people, but is now only highlighted by a level area where the works once stood. Nothing else remains to tell of the town that was.
We followed old roads around Mt Agnew - finding an old gold stamping battery near Trial Harbour and walking into Lake Cumberland (an old remnant reservoir built to serve a number of mines around its basin) - and some rough roads around the back of Mt Dundas, as well as roads in the area around the Montezuma falls.
There was an old mine shaft we climbed to just off the main road as it starts to climb up on the Zeehan side. But we were only scratching the surface of all the history buried in the forests and mountains - and we were doing this after hours and on weekends for just the 2 months and only when the notorious weather permitted.
It is not surprising that you found some forgotten history. There is an awful lot of it.
However, I suspect your shed belongs with much more recent mining activity/exploration, or maybe even someone wanting to get away from it all by using some of the old tracks and roads.

I have found some info on the west coast in old editions of the Tasmanian Tramp, and others have posted about some great histories written up about the West Coast area.

Cheers and Keep exploring
PS - A mountain bike would be useful in exploring some of those old tracks.
Brian

[tazz]

I think the battery At Mt Agnew is the Carn Brea battery as featured on the front of Railways, Mines, pubs and people book.There is also a new book out titled Farewell Heemskirk goodbye Dundas, author Patrick Howard.very interesting account of the area.

[tasadam]

I really like that first photo. It reminds me of an image a friend of mine took, here it is...
I like the colours in your image, the greens are more real.

Isn't it a wonderful place!

[tazz]

This is a fantastic area Tasadam, I will certainly will be going back in the future. Maybe to do a bit more off track scrambling. There are plenty of old mining sites etc that may be worth exploring.

[Buddy]

If you walked in from Melba Flats a track on your left part way in leads down to Ringville, a site of an old goldmining town on Baker's Ck. a tributary of the Ring R. Further in on your right, is a taped route which leads up to the Curtin-Davis mine, which is actually higher than Montezuma Falls. The track up is an old horse pad. A 4WD track leads off Melba Flats tk. back towards Rosebery Golf course. River crossing is hazardous when in flood. Much info. on this area cab be gleaned in charles Whitham's "Western Tasmania-a land of riches and splendour".

[tazz]

After studying the 1:25000 map I would say the clearing I was in was the former town of Ringville.

[Overlandman]

Walked into Ringville yesterday
Fairly overgrown with trees, ferns,
noted one brick, an old sign, stone foundations, stone walls.
Man made trenches & ditches.
Managed to catch a Ringville Tiger Snake sunning itself in a patch of sun light.
Will go back there again one day for more exploration.
Didn’t see the garden shed
Regards OLM