Steam Era

Timber workers in the forests to the east of Melbourne built a huge network of timber tram lines before the 1940's.  This walk from Starling's Gap to the Bump follows the route of the Ada mills tram line. 

timber workers contruscted cuttings through tough granite spurs 17 kilometres of tram track wind through the tall forest ferns of all varieties cover both sides of the tram line
Everywhere the forest reclaims the works abandoned after the 1939 bushfires 60 years later the steam engine lies silently amongst the forest it once cut fish bone ferns cover the embankments and the decaying timber works
rotting timber construction succumbs to water and fire Correa lawrenciana dominates the understory of the regrowing forest Even the ancient granite bedrock is colonized and dissolved by the pervasive forest moss

This 20 walk was completed on the 8th of August 1999.  It took 7 hours.