An official visit to Captains Flat

This post records our visit to Captains Flat as part of our plan to visit all towns in NSW.  We have visited The Flat unofficially many times but this was the official visit with photographs.  We followed the Heritage Trail (aka the Pathway to Gold) described in this page: many of the facts come from the Fact Sheet element of the brochure.

Let us commence with a discussion of the name of the place.  The accepted version is that Captain was the name given to a bullock which escaped from Foxlow Station (about 12km towards Beautiful Downtown Carwoola) and wandered up the Molonglo to the flats in the valley where the village is now located.

Boom times for the town were when the mine was in full operation, producing gold, copper, lead and silver.  There will be more of this later.

Here is an overview of the village from the lookout by the mine.
 The war memorial is perhaps a bit understated with no list of the fallen, but nicely designed and situated.

 This memorial to the miners includes the Jenny Wheel which was taken to Cobar when the mine closed but subsequently returned.  (The term Jenny Wheel appears to be simply another term for winding wheel according to  a NZ site about gold mining.)

This house was built by Jack Bollard using bricks from the mione smelter chimney, which he demolished.

Sometimes you think you are being watched closely.
Sometimes you are right!
On the subject of mutts we were surprised at the number around the Flat.  Most houses seemed to have one and several had 2 or 3.  This does not include the ute with a couple of very frisky-looking pig-dogs caged on the tray!

This is a truly excellent restaurant.  Called the Outsider it is run by an artist and his wife.  It is decorated with his work which i is a tad eclectic but the food is excellent in taste, serving size and price!  Very popular with people from Canberra.
 This is the ex-Post Office built in 1898.  Now a private residence
 During the floods in 2010 this bridge was under 50cm of water.  Fish were caught on the bowling green in the background!
 The old court house is now the Police Station.
The air vents on the Police Station still have the crest of Queen Victoria!
 Some of the older biuildings at the Northern end of the town/village.
 This shelter shed at the Public School shows some ingenuity in decoration.
 The Anglican church looks to have been converted to secular use these days.
At the mine site it was possible to get a snap of the sealed up adit of the Lake George mine.  The structure on the skyline in the background was the poppet head
Another view of the poppet head.

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