The Coliban Main Channel: Flume 9

On page 124 of  'The Coliban Main Channel: A Walking Guide' I speculated that Flume 9 at Wellington Flat (refer map page 105) appeared to be the shortest flume along that part of the walk. I came to this conclusion because although I was confident that I'd found the location of the old flume I knew to be in this section, the gully being crossed was very small, almost inconsequential. The photo included in the book shows an old granite pier being reutilised (left hand side).

  Further investigation led me to conclude that there were at least two tributaries that needed to be bridged at this point and that the flume would have been considerably longer than I'd originally thought. When I looked at an aerial photo taken in 1945 I felt sure that I could see that part of the original flume was still standing at that time, perhaps the very last flume to be demolished. In the photo below you might be able to see a dark line straddling the gully. The southern most section seems to have been washed away with the new concrete flume having taken its place.

  Compare the above photo with a present day view of the same area, courtesy of Google Earth. The yellow dotted line seems to have been the path (and length) of the original flume.