RV TRAVEL
Inside the old shed at Mt Britton .
Alluvial gold was found in Oaky Creek in the early 1880s . Of course , when word got out , the rush was on . Within a very short time , nearly 1500 people were in the area . Soon , there were six hotels , stores , a bee-keeper , a school of arts and even a photographic studio . But the gold was short-lived – it was gone by 1900 . Most people moved on , but one old miner , Anthony Turner , stayed in the area until his death in 1919 .
Today , a lot of the old mining gear has been relocated to where the town used to be . There ’ s a selfguided walking trail to signage highlighting what was there , there ’ s Anthony Turner ’ s corrugated iron hut , which has fragments of gear , old bottles and written history on the hardships of back in the day , plus the 150- year-old fig tree that was planted by John and Mary Ann Mills when their first child was born .
The ‘ town ’ of Mount Britton is surrounded by mountain peaks , including Mt Britton , the Marling Spikes , Boundary Fap Mountain , Mt Adder and Sydney Heads , which is the tallest peak at 915m high .
It ’ s an interesting area to discover . You will learn of the hardships that these people faced just trying to make a living and hoping they would be successful one day , but they endured more than what we could ever imagine . At the little nearby cemetery there ’ s only a handful of graves , some marked and others just a lump in the ground .
There was also difficulty in transporting the heavy ore across town to a crusher , but then in 1898 , Cyclone Eline cause extensive damage to the area , wiping out crops and causing mass destruction .
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