On Tuesday the 8th September I made a day trip to Chillagoe, some 98km to the west of Dimbulah.
The road as far as Almaden is all bitumen. Between Almaden and Chillagoe there are four sections of gravel, the longest being 6km.
Between Chillagoe and Almaden there are a number of holes like this beside the road where they use small tractor like machines with very long chainsaws attached to carve out blocks up to five feet cubed of what appears to be compacted quartz stone. It is mostly shallow and at the surface barely covered with little soil.
In Chillagoe there is what remains of one big mining operation which was at its' peak around 1900.
A large portion of this mine is fenced off because of hazardous waste including asbestos.
Not much remains, and that which is still standing is also crumbling.
West of Chillagoe there is over 500km of gravel road to Normanton.
No comments:
Post a Comment