MORE DAMS

Another morning with a dodgy internet connection, so I'll briefly 
write up yesterday's dam adventures instead of doing my morning 
browsing. Unfortunately I still can't recover from such excitements 
anymore so I'm left tired and with a headache, which would've been 
alright if I'd gone on Saturday as originally intended but now 
Monday's work is going to be hard.

I left it a bit late to set off, so skipped the twisty route via 
Elane to get past the Lal Lal reservoir, and I also skipped the 
nearby Moorabool falls for about the third time, maybe I'll get to 
them one day. I did stop by the long one-lane bridge on the road 
from Mount Mercer to Meredith which is a really pretty, quiet, spot 
overlooked by a tall, imposing, rock cliff face. Last time I walked 
up to the top of the valley and explored some old mine workings, 
though there was too much water running over the forward through 
the river to walk over there again even if I'd had the time. Along 
with my new gemstone fossicking interest noted in my last post, I 
dug up my father's old 1970s "White's Coinmaster 5000/D" metal
detector last week and took another look at it. It could be a good 
place to try out metal detecting for gold one day.

Beale dam is just next to the Western Freeway but there's no exit 
nearby. That's fine by me since I avoid freeways like the plague, 
and instead enjoy flying over them on one of those little 
country-road overpasses that you never see anyone driving over. 
Unfortunately the reservoir is gated off, but there's a good view 
of the well-maintained earth-wall dam from the gateway. The level 
looked quite high even though rainfall has generally been below 
average, and especially back around home. It's surrounded by a pine 
plantation, which seems to be a trait of most of the reservoirs 
supplying Ballarat.

Wilson's Reservoir is nearby, and hidden behind an even deeper 
forest of pine, but some fancy old entrance gates highlight where 
you can glimpse the dam. This reservoir is larger than Beale but 
still quite modest. Judging by the old entranceway, public access 
was probably once encouraged, but now "no entry" signs are in 
abundance.

Kirk's Reservoir is right at the outer edge of Ballarat today, 
alongside Gong Gong reservoir which I visited a few years ago, and 
White Swan Reservoir which I tried to visit before but found gated 
off. Built in the 1860s, the reservoir has some old gardens, mainly 
of trees and ferns, and lots of facilities for picnics during its 
daylight opening hours. The dam is fairly modest and unlike the 
Gong Gong dam there aren't many period features visible except 
those associated with the gardens. There is however a very well 
constructed bluestone channel leading to the reservoir, which runs 
past another pine plantation and one of the standard 1970s/80s 
house for the dam/garden keeper. At this time of year you usually 
see a good tower of smoke from the chimney of these houses, which 
makes you wonder just how much time these dam workers spend just 
sitting by the fire. With the house, water-company ute, and free 
firewood, it seems like a pretty cruisey job.

Kirk's water level was lower than the others, but they seem to have 
a strong incentive not to let it get too high because the spillway 
washes straight through the park! I expect there's another smaller 
spillway hidden somewhere.

A pretty nice trip back. I got back onto roads I knew before it got 
dark. In fact I managed not to get lost or even miss any turns, 
going by my hand-written instructions and map book, though as usual 
only because I spent a long time studying the maps before I set 
off. Locals do give you some strange looks seeing a 1980s Jaguar 
appear on these back roads leading to dams, which probably nobody 
except other locals ever go down. On this trip those were often the 
best roads though, so far as condition goes. On the busier roads 
the tarmac is breaking up all over the place.

Photos here:
gopher://aussies.space/1/~freet/photos/dams_east_of_Ballarat_July_2026/

 - The Free Thinker