One of the great things in life is working out the things that recharge your batteries. I’ve always known that alone time works well for me, but I’ve discovered something else – going for a drive.
Yesterday, I took the day off (well, almost – had to do the housework first) and with much excitement, grabbed a book and my camera, jumped in the car and headed off to Captain’s Flat.
Captain’s Flat (apparently named after a bullock called Captain who often escaped there) is now a tiny town of several hundred whose claim to fame is a couple of small galleries (one of which is a nice cafe) and the allegedly second longest bar in the Southern Hemisphere. Having lunched at the pub, I can confirm it’s a damn long bar. The longest in the Southern Hemisphere? I can’t say I’m experienced enough at pubs, particularly non-Australian ones, to make that call.
But once – Captain’s Flat was one of the richest towns in the area, due to the mine.
The first boom was 1881 to 1920, with gold and silver being the most sought after metals from the area. However, transporting the ore out was expensive and as the easiest to reach deposits starting to dwindle, so too did the mining.
In the 1930s, however, a railway was built out to the town and in 1937 the mine was opened up again. It continued until 1962, when it was closed.
It was accidental that I found the mine – I was driving into town when I noticed a sign for a lookout and decided to go look at it myself. To my surprise, the lookout was on the old mine site (the first pic was taken from the lookout – every day the miners would walk up the hill from the town to mine).
The company dismantled pretty much the entire mine complex and so all that’s left of the buildings are concrete slabs, bits of metal and some of the supports.
The town itself is quite a dishevelled looking little thing. It hasn’t really been discovered by the yuppies yet, so the houses are generally small and in some cases quite run down. It’s a cheap option for accommodation, being only about 45 minutes from Canberra but with housing at half the price.
I can really see myself living in a country town like that – close enough to the city to get the special things but in a quiet, peaceful place surrounded by mountains and history.
I smiled all the way on the drive out, and the drive back. There’s lots of little country towns to explore around Canberra (although choosing to start this in Winter may not be the smartest move I’ve made) but I’m going to go to one a month.