Fountain Springs.

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Well after leaving the old town of Ballara we wanted to travel onto Fountain Springs as this was the place miners and Thier families would go for a picnic in the early day after working at the Wee MacGregor Mine.

From the Barley Hwy it is about 27klm heading south, not that far from the township of Ballara. Beautiful Vista views of mountains and the volcanic peaks of how the Fountain Range is shaped and the quartzite colours make the Fountain Range standout.

The Fountain Range has a large V split in the range and this marks the entrance to the big waterhole one when raining also creates a waterfall effect flowing into the waterhole. The waterhole is quite deep and cold because it is in like a rainforest effect.

Fountain Springs was the water supply for the nearby town of Ballara from 1913 through to 1927, and is one of the only permanent water sources in the area.

Well the rest area very primitive no facilities but you can camp there. I have lots of pictures. The entrance to the area reminds me of a rainforest.

Walking through a heavily dense rainforest track the Fountain Springs waterhole present itself.

A quartz band of rock just above the waterline shaping the split in the Fountain Range.

Just at the right time as the sun shines through the V shaped structure. Some nice photo opportunities.

We could hear water running and went to investigate. Graeme found a metal rail channeling the water from the rocks back into the waterhole. Graeme tasted the water and said it tasted like artesian bore water.

Well what a pleasant find and yes I can see how the miner's and families would have enjoyed their time having picnics by the waterhole more than 100yrs ago. There is a lot of history in this area. All the adventure from the Rosebud Mine to here makes up the heritage trail from the Queensland State Government.

It is ashame that this was not taught to us at school. It is apart of Australia history and without the copper mines the World War 1 may have been different. This was hard times and alot of manual labour to achieve what they did speaks proud of the achievements that these pioneers had created.

For me and Graeme to see what they achieved more than 106yrs ago with steam power and only the tools of the day, we found ourselves in disbelief say how did they achieve this. Hope you enjoyed the journey.











































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