October 15 Ah Fongs Loop

Why wouldn’t you want to discover more? So we pointed the beast towards Omeo along the Great Alpine Highway up into the foothill of the Great Divide. We found a backroad, a scenic route rather than sticking to the main road - as we like to do. And we’re so glad we did - it is magnificent countryside and we had a few stops to wander through roadside flowers. 

So Ah Fongs Loop. No mention of it anywhere other than in the ‘Inspiring Gippsland Walks’ booklet we’ve been working our way through - but which we forgot to pack that day! However .... we found a spot with a sign saying ‘Oriental Claims’ so up the track we went. The view was staggering! 

A mind boggling area of scoured, eroded land now Heritage listed. This was the site of one of the largest sluicing operations in the world. During the 30 years of operations they extracted 1600kg of gold! Staggering to contemplate. It seems that Ah Fong had the one of the most extensive and rich sites within the Oriental Claims area

Most of the tunnels are covered over so crazy people don’t attempt to enter them but we saw one which had been prised open. Some people scheeez!


Signage was not that good and we didn’t find Ah Fongs claim. 

Evidence of the sluicing trenches. 

The erosion was devastating and reminded me a little of Caranbirini NP in NT but that erosion was not man made and had happened over thousands of years. Such destruction here. But I did discover  Leopard orchids - similar to the Tiger orchids but with more colouring as well as dark maroon stems and clustered flowers. 

Diuris pardina - Leopard orchid