McIvor Times Series, Mundy Gully Flume, Tooborac, (Robinson, George William, photographer. State Library) 1906
Photos like this are catnip for an inveterate field rambler like me. 'Where was it taken?', and, 'What remains of this flume?' are the first questions which come to mind. In 1906, George Robinson took a series of photos, which, while not of the highest resolution, certainly provide a snapshot of the features in the Heathcote and Tooborac area that the McIvor Times newspaper felt would be of interest to their readers (available for purchase through their office).
Unable to resist the challenge I set off to research the Heathcote water channel of which this flume forms part. Readers of this blog will know that I have a thing for gravity fed water channels. It still seems remarkable to me that engineers could design what were generally hand dug races that stretched, sloping gently downwards, to an end point many kilometres away.
The Heathcote water race was constructed in 1874 by Thomas Hedley and begins about 4 km south west of Tooborac at a weir on McIvor Creek and finishes at Red Hill (now a highly eroded, if strangely picturesque, gully north west of the Heathcote township). Some work had previously been done and Hedley had taken advantage of this pre-existing race for part of the journey.
By the late 1880's the protests of farmers angered by the activities of Hedley's sluicers, were finding the ear of the government. Sluicing not only consumed vast quantities of precious water, but generated enormous quantities of sludge which filled the creek beds, overflowing on to, and despoiling surrounding farmland. By the turn of the century the Heathcote Water Trust had taken over the race and constructed the large Caledonia Gully Reservoir to provide water for domestic purposes.
Nevertheless, Hedley's channel was an impressive achievement. It was over 30 km long and comprised 4 or 5 tunnels (depending on which engineer's report you read) as well as 8 flumes (some over 100 metres long) that spanned the larger gullies. Over time, the flumes were replaced by siphons, and finally the channel was decommissioned in the 1990's.
Because the weir on McIvor Creek (see above photo) is on freehold land and inaccessible, I took up the journey a short distance from the Tooborac Reservoir. Photos 1 to 4 are marked on this second Google Earth image.
Here, a little to the north of the second of four tunnels, are the remains of an old flume inlet (Photo 1). You can see that, like all the flumes along the channel, it seems to have been triangular shaped and made from galvanised metal.
Photo 1: Remains of flume inlet, Rungers Lane, Tooborac
From here, I walked up to the Tooborac Reservoir. Apparently the town had had to fight hard to get this reservoir built. The Heathcote water trust claimed that the town was too small (Tooborac boasted 30 residents at the time) to have their own water supply. To the left of the photo (Photo 2) you can see the old channel wedged between the road (on the left) and the reservoir.
Photo 2: Heathcote channel with Tooborac Reservoir behind
Further up Middle Springs Road, the gate to the reservoir is reached but no access is allowed. A local resident told me that the reservoir was drained when it was decommissioned and the fish and other aquatic creatures perished. As a result of the combined efforts of the local community, the reservoir was allowed to fill again. It's unclear why the reservoir is out of bounds if the town now gets its water from Lake Eppalock.
Photo 3: Tooborac Reservoir looking south east
Perhaps these days the reservoir acts as a settling pond for Eppalock water which is treated, for local supply, in the tanks on the hill just above the reservoir.
Photo 4: Coliban Water tanks, Tooborac
After inspecting the channel within the Tooborac Bushland Reserve I drove up Hardings Lane and turned on to Mundy Gully Track to see if I could pick up the channel as it crossed back into the southern section of the Spring Plains Nature Conservation Reserve. Within this section there were once two huge flumes, one crossing Hayes Gully near Hayes Gully Road and another, further north at Ford Gully. Once again, siphons later replaced these flumes. The advantage of siphons (buried concrete pipes spanning a gully or depression) is that they require less maintenance and are well able to withstand bushfires.
The Mundy Gully siphon which replaced the flume (see photo top of the page) is on freehold land. This is as close a match as I could get to the 1906 photo, the siphon outlet looking south across Mundy Gully.
Mundy Gully siphon
From this point the water race enters the Conservation Reserve. Higher up Mundy Gully there are a number of mining relics worth visiting, it being a particularly well preserved gold mining site.
Cyanide tank, Mundy Gully
Not far past Mundy Gully you encounter No 3. Tunnel. One wonders why they simply didn't excavate a cutting.
Within a short distance the water race crosses Mundy Gully Track and then crosses over into freehold land again. Another smaller flume once spanned Newlan (sometimes spelt Newlyn) Gully. These days the race meanders far up the head of the gully to wind back on the other side where it enters No. 4 Tunnel.
No. 4 Tunnel inlet
No. 4 tunnel outlet
Continuing on within the Conservation Reserve I encountered a number of reptiles. Red-bellied black snakes seemed to be enjoying the warm sun as was this Stumpy tailed lizard.
Stumpy tailed lizard, Heathcote water channel
Not far past No. 4 tunnel, Peter Gully is met. Here, not only is the more modern concrete siphon visible, so are the remains of a galvanised iron flume, the only substantial remnants of the old flumes I encountered along the channel. Note the triangular shape of the flume iron, quite different to other flume types along other channel systems in Victoria.
Peter Gully Flume iron
Once again the channel ventures into freehold land before emerging back into the Spring Plains Nature Conservation Reserve before finally disappearing behind the fence which rings the Caledonian Gully Reservoir. The reservoir has prohibited entry so I'll leave you with these photos, first, another one taken by George Robinson in 1906 for the McIvor Times newspaper.
Caledonian Gully Reservoir, 1906, George Robinson, State Library
And another of how it looks today.
CODA
In actual fact Hedley's channel continues past the Caledonian Gully reservoir as it predates the construction of the reservoir. If you cross Dairy Flat Road, approximately level with the reservoir embankment you will find the continuation of the channel.
As it hasn't been utilised for many years it barely exists in places but can still be followed all the way to Hedley's original dam. At one stage it disappears inside private property but by following the fence line west and then north you soon meet it again.
At various points the channel seems to form part of a mountain bike path.
Not far from Hedley's Dam the channel splits in two, a northern branch leads to some old diggings east of Hedley Dam, while the western branch continues on and once emptied into the now very beautiful dam.
Apparently at one stage there was a problem with a serious leakage problem at the Caledonian Gully Reservoir and, temporarily, the Heathcote Water Trust took Heathcote's town water supply from Hedley Dam.
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