Historic loss revisited: along the Old Rokeby Historic Trail

 

This cache was fascinating, and there also might be a mix-up with a waypoint (or when we originally did the cache the female slave was just too tired to do basic maths), so we decided to revisit the area to read more information as well as double check whether the problem with the penultimate waypoint was ours or the listing!

We parked near the start of the cache and headed off for the 2nd waypoint. The female slave was taking down the information required here, and attracted the attention of an old gent who was doing some maintenance of the area. He saw us taking an interest in the information and came over asking if we needed any help. After trying to explain geocaching to Cached’s granddad and him getting confused with metal detectors, the female slave just said a friend of ours, as a way of showing us the trail, had set a bit of a challenge for us and others to collect various bits of information from the signs along the walk. He was absolutely thrilled that people were taking an interest in the walk! He spent a lot of time talking to us, pointed out where you can see a little of the foundations of a chapel, explaining that the building ran parallel to the main road with the walls of the chapel approximately where the front fence is now and that the original fence was approximately where the edge of the bitumen is, what the site looked like when the group started cleaning it up, some history of the tomb stones, etc. Originally there were large farm gates, and carriages would be brought in and the horses grazed in the churchyard/cemetery during services. He told me what it was like the day of the bush fires; the area wasn’t on water mains, just tank water, and all anyone could do was just get out of their houses as quickly as possible and stand in the middle of the streets watching their homes burn. Etc – we spoke for a long while and were then running late to deliver children to various parties and pool events to had to get going. 

They have gotten funding to put out a book, so any of you cachers lived in this area or have relatives that live in this area and might have any info or photos that might be interesting for their book, please contact Wendy Andrew on 03 6247 6925.