Lerderderg Water Race — I Get to the End. #Lerderderg #VictorianHistory

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:08]Good day everyone.

[00:00:10]Uh just come off of McKenzie's track and uh I'm heading down to the the little gold mine and campsite area down at the river. I'm going to cross that then go up Clear Water Gully to hopefully find the end of the water race that I was looking for a few weeks ago.

[00:00:30]Thankfully, it's a beautiful day. It's going to be 25.

[00:00:36]Started off a bit chilly and I guess 9° it started off at when I got out the car.

[00:00:45]and uh walk along this little side track here that skirts around the side of the hill. And it'll only be maybe half an hour and I'll be down on the down crossing the river.

[00:01:31]I'm still on the old track here. And uh there there are some workings that way.

[00:01:41]It's down like another little kind of a not a saddle.

[00:01:50]We're going down the side of a spur now.

[00:01:52]You just need to go over the ridge of the spur and then you're down into like another valley maybe is the best way I could describe it. But there's some rather large workings in there which I'll have a look at. I'll come down and check them out one day.

[00:02:09]Now I'm back on the river and it's good to see that all the rocks are dry apart from the little uh the little holes here and there, but means I'm going to be able to get to where I want to go to and and a lot easier to get there. So, you're going to have to be careful just here cuz there's a it's a little bit river must have been up higher a couple of days ago, but it's dropped by I think roughly 4 in where I get the measurements from. And uh yeah. Oh, time to head across. just walked across and I'm happy to say that the waterproofing I did on the boots. Uh the left one was leaking and it's not leaking anymore. So, I'm fairly happy about that. That's the only reason I really wore the boots today was to to check it out going across the river.

[00:03:08]It's all right doing it in a bucket, but the the water's not moving.

[00:03:13]So now I just got to head up that way and I will unless I see anything flash.

[00:03:21]I'll catch up with you again when I get to that little encampment on the on the creek bend a little bit further up.

[00:03:34]I'm back a little bit before I get to the little camp spot. But up there is where the water race was and down that gully which you can see just coming down the middle there is where I had to shimmy down and then through those trees down that rock and into here. But it's a lot easier going this week than it was because of the the rocks are dry.

[00:04:02]I'm almost to the almost to the point where I want to be and it's only taken me maybe 15 minutes whereas last time given I did walk along the race and you know wander about up there. Uh probably took me about 2 hours to get to where I'm about to reach in 15. So that's good. Means I got time for other stuff if I can. Yeah, I'm just just looking closer to see if I can see the race. I think I can see it up there, but I don't know if I can get to it.

[00:04:43]Rather than think that uh that's all that's left of that little foundation, it goes back that way across and through here. So, I think that was a full hut.

[00:04:58]which if it had a fireplace, I guess that makes sense, doesn't it?

[00:05:05]And I'm about to drop back into there.

[00:05:10]You know, the creek.

[00:05:15]It's amazing.

[00:05:17]Almost vertical.

[00:05:42]little campsites just through there. We got another little flat area here.

[00:05:55]Yeah, it doesn't look like anything was in here.

[00:06:01]I think I can see the the race running along up there and possibly uh I might be able to get up to it.

[00:06:15]Do I want to hear that? That just means a lot of effort. Anyway, we'll give it a go.

[00:06:23]Just got to get up there a bit further.

[00:06:25]I think I think there's only 500 m further that way. And that's the start of it. This here, this bit here looks kind of uh kind of easy. So, I'm going to give it a go. At first glance, when I looked at it, I thought, "Oh, no way."

[00:06:41]But looking at it now, it's nothing I haven't been up before. It's actually looks easier than I've been up before.

[00:06:54]All right. Oh, let's get up here.

[00:07:03]Yeah, possibly the race might come through here.

[00:07:20]Is that a bit of a stacked wall over there? Maybe.

[00:07:30]Maybe.

[00:07:40]I reckon that's it. There.

[00:07:46]There it is.

[00:07:49]Bloody hell. Look what we did.

[00:07:54]There it is right there.

[00:07:56]right in front of us and heads that way.

[00:08:03]There's a creek down there and there's a race goes around the side and I'm not sure what good a quality it is over there, but it's definitely here.

[00:08:15]And let's see. As long as I don't slip down the flipping gully, I'll be right.

[00:08:36]Yep. And we're on the water race. Oh, look at this big bastard. I don't think I'm getting over that. It keeps going that way.

[00:08:47]He's a bit too big.

[00:08:49]this old girl.

[00:08:51]There it is. There the uh the camp area is straight through there and I can't climb over it and I can't climb around it and I can't climb under it.

[00:09:11]Well, I can't get that way which is a pity cuz I would have liked to have walked more of it.

[00:09:19]But you can see the you can see the the rock wall going along here clearly.

[00:09:30]I don't even I didn't even know if it was a race. Um realistically they never they wouldn't build a a base for something. They're just going to dig into the side of the hill. I think maybe this could have been a a flume base perhaps just a thought, but I really even even at the start on in the first video um there wasn't a channel dug into the ground until it left the actual well until it left the race. So maybe they did build on top of it, but we're definitely on it now. And if I can't get any further, I'm just going to have to go back down there if I get blocked off here. See, don't touch button. See you later.

[00:10:33]We're about to get the first rays of sunlight on us in this gully.

[00:10:41]It's going to be 24 today, so it's going to be a nice day, but maybe a bit too warm for walking out here in the end.

[00:10:47]But one of the reasons I wore Oh jeez, that's a hole there. warm me good boots was sticking me feet in places I can't see.

[00:11:16]You don't want to disturb any of the the snakes around the area.

[00:11:29]Still got a little bit of it.

[00:11:35]Just heard a kangaroo hop off.

[00:11:45]Jeez, just as bad when you think it's strong and it snaps on you.

[00:11:54]Here it is still.

[00:12:02]If I have to go back there, I have to go back there, but let's see how it goes.

[00:12:29]No, it's uh it's left the building washed away. I'd reckon now there's a little bit of it there, but then it just disappears over over there.

[00:12:45]So, I might go back go back along the creek. Actually, I'll put a GPS point here so I can see exactly how far I went on it and uh see if I can pick it up a bit later.

[00:12:59]We walked quite a way along there. Can't get any further behind me. So, I got to backtrack a little bit and go back downhill, which that area there looks better than nothing. Easier than anything really.

[00:13:23]To go ass over, but you know, what do you do? Oops. That'll do it. Oh, when you get those things caught around your boot. So, yeah. Very good. We made it.

[00:13:35]We made a little bit more of the race.

[00:13:38]Found some more of it.

[00:13:42]This could have been a little camp area.

[00:13:50]Oh jeez. Crap everywhere.

[00:13:53]I might wander a bit through here. And there's rocks all over the place.

[00:14:05]It's not like it's clear. There's no real flat area in here.

[00:14:14]Well, back into the creek. the while looking at the map, there's probably now only 300 meters to get to the end.

[00:14:26]But jeez, I'm glad I walked up there and had a look and at least got to walk some more of it.

[00:14:36]There might be more that we can walk soon, but for now, we got to get back down in here.

[00:14:46]Cies right along we go again. Every now and then you see a few little bits of quartz.

[00:14:57]There's one there, one over there, one there. There's quite a lot around here. But then have a look at this thing. It's bigger than me boot. Look at that. Massive. Just one full quartz boulder.

[00:15:16]Wonder where that come from.

[00:15:39]I kind of think used to be a track up the side of this.

[00:15:45]Maybe I'm looking at what's around.

[00:15:52]I got to get through all this rubbish.

[00:15:58]It's like a jigsaw puzzle sometimes.

[00:16:00]It's crap.

[00:16:19]So, what I'm looking for now is any bit of builtup ground.

[00:16:25]I think I can see it, but I'm not too sure.

[00:16:35]It's starting to get fairly low.

[00:16:38]Right in the middle of that picture, I reckon there's a flat area and that might be it. I might try to get to it and see if it is.

[00:17:02]I can't see the race up up there unfortunately. But how's this for a cool waterfall?

[00:17:15]Still think the race is up there.

[00:17:23]I might have to I might have to go up and around this.

[00:17:28]I'm standing above those falls, which yeah, pretty hard to get up if you want to walk up them. And to be honest, I cannot see the race anymore unless it's right down low now.

[00:17:52]Yeah, I can't see where they've gone through anywhere.

[00:17:56]Thought I did, but no.

[00:17:59]So, it should be it should be getting close close to the bottom now.

[00:18:08]Possibly was down there, but I think I'm seeing something I want to see again.

[00:18:12]But anyway, here's a flat area.

[00:18:21]walk up this to go around those waterfalls.

[00:18:24]I wonder if there was any huts or if this was a camp at all.

[00:18:42]Jeez, there's some big trees that fall down around here.

[00:19:04]What have we got there?

[00:19:08]Oh, big rock.

[00:19:12]Big piece of bedrock way up high.

[00:19:25]I know. It might not be way up high.

[00:19:27]Anyway, thought it might have been stacked part of a wall, but it's not.

[00:19:37]Back into here again.

[00:19:41]And maybe the water race is in the middle there, but yeah, it's it's pretty much gone.

[00:19:54]I I'll still be able to see it on the on the LAR slightly cuz you can see it as it turns the corner up here.

[00:20:03]But I don't think there's any point hoping that it's down here now cuz it would have got washed away and flooded and what have you. So keep Oh, there it is.

[00:20:22]There's a wall right there.

[00:20:25]There's the race.

[00:20:30]Look at that.

[00:20:34]We found it again.

[00:20:37]First there was nothing and then we saw it.

[00:20:43]See if I can get a better look.

[00:20:47]Better back there.

[00:20:53]Yep.

[00:20:54]I should be able to climb up onto that.

[00:20:57]And that that goes around the bend. So hopefully that is the end of it.

[00:21:04]And hopefully I can do it. Or maybe maybe I'll go up the end and then walk along to here. But how good's that?

[00:21:09]That's proof that it's here. And that's the line that I thought it was on and most of it was washed away.

[00:21:27]Oh dear.

[00:21:31]There it is.

[00:21:35]There's the wall.

[00:21:38]And it keeps coming up.

[00:21:42]Got to be careful where when I step here. You can see it right there. Keeps going going.

[00:21:52]And because it's a it's not a vertical hill, just keeps on rolling down there.

[00:21:59]So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to go down the end, see if I can find exactly where it starts, and I'm going to walk the length up to here.

[00:22:12]We did it.

[00:22:14]Oh, goodness, mate. I'm pretty happy about that. That's another win.

[00:22:21]I'm so glad I came back.

[00:22:32]There it is. Still going.

[00:22:37]So, if you remember how high it was above the river at the end at the start, it's right here. So, I'm really hoping that there's a there's a dam somewhere that we can see that they've made. So, I'm going to go up now and have a look and see if I can find it. Well, I'm back on it.

[00:23:05]Look at the size of that thing. Holy cow.

[00:23:19]It comes around this corner on the LAR and then you lose it.

[00:23:26]Obviously, just up above here, there was some stuff happening. But look at all the trees that have fallen down there.

[00:23:35]I'm just going to keep walking this and see if I can get right down to the water. because you'd think the the dam was above it for sure. That's what I'm thinking.

[00:23:53]I might have to go back down into the creek to do this, which is just fantastic.

[00:24:01]Oh, too bad.

[00:24:05]Oh.

[00:24:16]There it is. There.

[00:24:21]Still going. I won't go that way. Go this way. It's prickly.

[00:24:41]Oh, pick your feet up.

[00:24:43]Amazing how many times I do that.

[00:24:56]I'm still on it. It's still going. It's only meter and a half off the bed of the creek now, but it's still there.

[00:25:12]There it is.

[00:25:26]Now, pretty soon I'm going to have to be looking in the side of the hill for whatever they used to dam it with. Damn this creek with remember when I when I did a map of this uh I put a waypoint right up the top here where I thought it started from and then I put a waypoint down the bottom.

[00:26:02]There was about oh there was about 2 m of fall maybe over the whole thing maybe 3 m and that was it.

[00:26:13]So yeah is this it now let's see in the side here.

[00:26:24]You would think if it was big enough it would definitely leave a the supports for their dam would have left a hole in the side.

[00:26:34]It definitely doesn't go any further.

[00:26:39]This is uh this is the end.

[00:26:47]Now, where is the dam?

[00:26:56]I really can't get past that without trying to bust me neck.

[00:27:05]I uh I'm wondering if it's bigger than what maybe I thought it might have been.

[00:27:34]I don't know. See that hollow up there?

[00:27:39]Is that where they had the damn wall up up that high? That's massive. If they did, unfortunately, that tree there has uh covered and ripped out anything that might have been there.

[00:28:00]cuz there's no there's no race cut into the side past that tree and I can't get past it in it kind of well I could but I don't think there's a point to get past it unless I just want to wander aimlessly but I can't see any more any more holes up there that might have done anything remembering that This this race or this dam uh collected water from nearly 22 km of catchment in in meters in length. 22 km if you add up all the gullies and the creeks and little waterways that rock through here. So, it would have been a pretty big would have been a pretty big um dam. And I reckon this might be where it was.

[00:29:01]I reckon I reckon that that hollow up there could have been where they had the the tree going across the top and then somehow they I don't know whatever. Got no idea how they would have done it, but it wouldn't have been a little wouldn't have been something little.

[00:29:22]That's what I'm thinking.

[00:29:24]Whether I'm right or not, I don't know.

[00:29:26]But what I have noticed up here, there's bugger all quartz in the in the river now. And there's a couple of still a couple of small ones, but not like there was. And then when I say there's none, I see heaps.

[00:29:38]Yeah, maybe maybe that tree there was part of the maybe that was part of the the damn wall.

[00:29:50]And you know what I what I reckon they could have done was dropped a big tree straight across it and maybe maybe that hollow up there was where they did it. That's what I'll go with. But who knows? But we found it.

[00:30:09]We uh we got to the end of the clear water gully water race.

[00:30:20]Got a spider hanging off me hat.

[00:30:26]Anyway there. I think that's what must have happened. Anyway, all done.

[00:30:37]Now I'll uh I'll walk back along some of it and see what the go is.

[00:31:43]Okay.

[00:31:54]Oh my.

[00:32:50]The other idea I've got is that the race was damned across here because if they if they damned it further up, they would have lost I reckon about 5 km of of gully from up that way.

[00:33:11]that you know there is a hollow in the in the rocks back there that you can see. Not sure whether that would have held a held a uh a tree trunk to hold a dam, but you never know. And this is a flat area here up on top.

[00:33:33]I don't think you can see much of because of all these trees falling across it, which is a pity.

[00:33:53]Yeah, it could have been someone's fire pit from one stage before before this disaster.

[00:33:59]Look at the trees all through here.

[00:34:01]Bloody hell.

[00:34:08]It's probably one big tree. Probably that bugger right there dropped all it crap one summer. This could have been a camp. This could have been where they ran the race from.

[00:34:42]Walk back. Walk as far as I can now along this one that hole Maybe.

[00:35:40]It's about as far as I can walk it. I think wombats and what have you have have done it. But yeah, it keeps going through that way. Getting higher and higher as it goes. And that's that.

[00:35:58]That's amazing.

[00:36:00]Anyway, oh, now that we found that, there's only one more one more to find. Well, we found it, but just have to get to the end of it. So, what I'm going to do now is I'll walk back this way and uh that's the end of this video pretty much.

[00:36:24]The clear water gully water race.

[00:36:28]We found it. We made it to the end and we proved it was there.

[00:36:33]Fantastic. Well, thanks so much for watching. I'll uh catch you later in Uru. Look after yourself.

[00:37:05]Oh. Oh, you love Heat. Heat.

[00:37:53]Oh, hey.

[00:38:40]Heat. Heat.

[00:38:45]Heat.

[00:39:06]Heat.