Year 8 Dawn to Dusk Bushwalk Experience 

Exploring the Castlemaine Goldfields

Waking up at 6:00am and being too tired to actually get out of bed or eat anything definitely means something to a teenager. I was already tired from playing basketball the night before, so waking up early to walk through the bush made me feel even worse.

I’m going to be completely honest here… When my alarm went off, I didn’t want to go. I hate getting up super early. I hate walking. I hate when it rains on me. I hate not having my phone. Today I would be facing all of these things!

I persisted and went. And thankfully with a bit of help from my teachers, things were soon looking up. We met at 6:30am outside the school gym, checked our gear and then we hopped on the minibus. We stopped at Castlemaine, and the first task was to form small groups and manage our budget to plan our meals and snacks for the day. We wouldn’t arrive back until 8:00pm so naturally, there was a bit of planning involved – especially as we would be cooking dinner on a camp stove later that evening. 

My group included Emily Edwards, Maya Langdon, Jayda Lockwood and myself. We each had a budget of $25 to last through the day. We formed a syndicate and put our money together to plan together and buy a few things in bulk – we now had a full $100. 

Our meal plan for the day included a delicious Cesar Salad for lunch and Hamburgers for dinner. Plus enough snacks and lollies to keep us up and walking in the meanwhile. (Luckily Mr Crickmore was kind to us at checkout supervision)

We started at a place called Vaughan Springs which was just out the other side of Castlemaine. It was very pretty, but we didn’t get to stay for very long as we were soon off and walking! We were headed for a place called Fryerstown. Mr Crickmore told us that we would be walking along a track called the ‘Goldfields Track’. Many years ago a number of Italian and Chinese immigrants arrived in Australia for the Gold Rush. Unfortunately, they were dropped off in Adelaide and had to walk the whole way to the Victorian Goldfields. Most of these people walked along the exact track we would be walking on today. 

The scenery was quite pretty, the weather was ok, but the track was quite hilly. We stopped for lunch at Fryerstown. Whilst we were preparing our salad, unfortunately, Jayda had a little accident and cut her finger. Luckily we had Mrs Williams on hand to patch her up. Jayda was very brave. 

My group got to explore the old Fryerstown schoolhouse with Mr Williams, which was interesting. There were a number of personalized milk bottles in a fridge out back (supplied by local cows) and also a book exchange. 

In the afternoon, we walked back along the Goldfields Track and made our way back to Vaughan Springs. We were allowed to paddle in the stream and also enjoyed some ‘personal quiet time’ before dinner.

Mr Crickmore showed us how to use a Trangia (A special camping cooking tool) and I was a bit scared about getting it going, but luckily my group got it sorted and we went on to enjoy our hamburgers (washed down with a yummy milo) It rained on us nearly the whole time we were cooking dinner which wasn’t great, but luckily, we had special jackets and hoods provided by Mr Crickmore. 

After packing everything up, we were soon on our way back to school to wrap up a long and tiring day. After not being very keen when my alarm went off earlier that morning, I eventually enjoyed the day and was glad I went. I definitely pushed myself to do some things I wouldn’t have otherwise and had a lot of fun with my friends and teachers. 

Thank you to all the students and teachers that came along on the day. 

Zahli Nicholas (8 Millward)