After leaving Castlemaine, Marija and I headed to our next park activation for the World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program, the Muckleford I135 Bushland Reserve VKFF-4281. The park is located about 7 km west of Castlemaine and about 128 km northwest of Melbourne.
Above:- Map showing the location of the Muckleford I135 Bushland Reserve. Map c/o Google Maps.
Along the way, we stopped to look at the ruins of the Orville Hotel on the Castlemaine-Maldon Road, Muckleford. The hotel was built c. 1855 and is a small brick and stone building.
The opening of the hotel was a highly anticipated event and a public announcement appeared in the Mount Alexander Mail. The hotel remained in use until c. 1890.
Above:- Advertisement from the Mount Alexander Mail, Fri 31 Aug 1855. Image c/o Trove.
The original inhabitants of the area were the Dja Dja Wurrung aboriginal people. The first European to pass through the area was explorer Major Thomas Mitchell who passed through the area in the spring of 1836 during his Australia Felix journey.
Muckleford was named after a pastoral run taken up in the district in 1840. In 1854 gold was discovered in the Muckleford district and in that same year a speculative township was put up for sale.
Above:- part of an article from the Mount Alexander Mail, Fri 25 May 1855. Image c/o Trove.
In 1855 an Anglican school was opened and remained in use until 1877. A government primary school replaced the Anglican school in 1871. Within a few years, there were several hotels in the district including the Orville Hotel, Monk’s Hotel and Simson’s Hotel. The Muckleford Post Office opened on the 1st day of August 1857 and closed in 1966. The town served the needs of the gold diggers of the area and soon had a population of over 2000 people. (Phoenix 2022) (Victorian Places 2024)
The reserve is located on the southern side of Muckleford School Road.
Above:- An aerial view of the Muckleford I135 Bushland Reserve. Image c/o Google Earth.
The reserve is about 19 hectares in size and was established on the 24th day of August 1982. (CAPAD 2022)
Sadly the band conditions had not improved. Marija and I made the decision that we would try to activate as many parks as we could with 10 QSOs for VKFF qualification, as the 44 QSOs required for the global WWFF program would probably not be achievable.
We ran the Yaesu FT857, 40 watts, and the 20/40/80m linked dipole. I used the special call of VI10VKFF to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the VKFF program.
It was pleasing to get a few Park to Park contacts in the log, with other activators out and about battling the very poor band conditions.
Marija worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-
- VK7XX
- VK5LA
- VK5KAW
- VK3PF
- VK3KAI
- VK3TKK/p (Organ Pipes National Park VKFF-0627)
- VK2EG/p (Watagans National Park VKFF-0522)
- VK1AAF
- VK5AKB/p (Monarto Conservation Park VKFF-0828)
Marija worked the following stations on 80m SSB:-
- VK3PF
- VK3KAI
- VK3MCA/p (Gallaghers Ford Streamside Reserve VKFF-3693)
I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-
- VK7XX
- VK5LA
- VK5KAW
- VK3PF
- VK3KAI
- VK3TKK/p (Organ Pipes National Park VKFF-0627)
- VK2EG/p (Watagans National Park VKFF-0522)
- VK1AAF
- VK5AKB/p (Monarto Conservation Park VKFF-0828)
I worked the following stations on 80m SSB:-
- VK3PF
- VK3KAI
- VK3MCA/p (Gallaghers Ford Streamside Reserve VKFF-3693)
- VK3APJ
I worked the following stations on 20m SSB:-
- VK4HRE/p
- VK4NH
- VK4DXA
- VK4FDX
References.
- Dcceew.gov.au. (2023). Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database (CAPAD) 2022 – DCCEEW. [online] Available at: https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/land/nrs/science/capad/2022 [Accessed 1 Apr. 2024].
- Phoenixauctions.com.au. (2022). Post Office List – Phoenix. [online] Available at: https://www.phoenixauctions.com.au/cgi-bin/wsPhoenix.sh/Viewpocdwrapper.p?SortBy=VIC&filter= [Accessed 5 Apr. 2024].
- http://www.victorianplaces.com.au. (n.d.). Muckleford | Victorian Places. [online] Available at: https://www.victorianplaces.com.au/muckleford [Accessed 5 Apr. 2024].
VK5PAS 