Impressive Beehive Cairn Paparoa Range
My photo doesn't do the cairn justice. This beehive shaped cairn is about 2 metres high. From the north it really stands out well as it sits atop a rock escarpment! The location is on the north side of point 1047m and overlooks the dip in the range where Seven Mile Creek and Paparoa Creek saddle. It's just under a km NW of Mt Davy.
This cairn is part of a chain of cairns and rocks layed in a continuous line to mark the route across the tops between Brunner and Blackball. It is on the Coolgardie Track and has a very early establishment date of the 1860's. It was in use before a dray road was constructed up the Grey valley to Blackball. The Grey County Council kept it maintained until at least the late 1800's. Volunteers do maintenance on the Brunner end of the Coolgardie Track from opposite the Brunner mine site up to the tops. You have to continue beyond Mt Davy and the turn off to Rewanui if you want to see the cairn in the photo but there are other beehive cairns further south.
Comments
-
glennj The northern end of the Coolgardie Track isn't usable anymore as it hits coal mining roads and an operational area that is still in use. I haven't tried getting permission off Roa Mining / Francis Mining who operate up there but hearsay is that it would be a H & S problem for them.
8 January 2016
-
matthew Cheers. I had a look on the WAMS site and wasn't sure. Need to check these out!
8 January 2016 -
glennj Dave Lyes made this interesting comment;
5:35pm Jan 6
I took some cool pics of Beehive cairns also on escarpments but in the Libyan Desert. Very robust structures and of course their shape means they can shed the brunt of a storm from any direction.
7 January 2016
-
glennj It's crown land. Maybe kept out of DOC because of the coal reserves?
7 January 2016
-
matthew That's fantastic. What's the land access beyond Paparoa Peak? It doesn't seem to be marked up as DOC land.
6 January 2016