Merton - 15 Aug 2023

On today's walk we are going to inspect the remains of the old village of Merton which was in the valley around and behind Tolosa Park at Glenorchy.

The walk was not the most direct track to our objective but made for a good stretch of the legs.

The weather for today was perfect for this walk.

Leaving Tolosa Park we headed up the valley to inspect some of the water infrastructure constructed in the adjoining area.

Mendelt explaining about the works to the group.

A self explanatory sign as we walked up to the first dam wall.

This is the rock face of the dam.

As we could not proceed from the dam wall directly to our objective we returned to the intersection and turned right to find a spot for morning tea.

After locating a sunny spot there was then some discussion over maps about what route we would take next.

While others watched on and then went with the flow.

Up the first hill we then went.

The wattles were out in abundance.

Our next stop was at the top of the dam which the Water Board has recently stopped using as water storage.

The next stop was at the quarry where most of the material for the dam probably came from with our leader Mendelt providing more commentary to the group.

And we climbed further up.

Until at last we reached our lunch spot passing a view of Mt Wellington on the way.

The lunch view.

We then proceeded down to Humphrey's Creek.

Where our leader Mendelt helped a few of the group with the creek crossing.

 

 

Finally we reached the remains of the village of Merton or at least the ruins of one house.

Some architectural sculpture has been applied to a couple of tree stumps.

 

 

The view down through the trees to Mount Direction.

 

The front steps into the house.

The remains of the foundations.

Obviously is a bit early because this fellow was getting some sun but appears to be a bit on the thin side.

 

 

It is understood that a lot of the inhabitants of Merton worked in local orchards and a lime kiln quarry.

When looking at all the old foundations there was a considerable number of fossils within the rock and the mortar indicating that some of the foundation stone may have come from the lime quarry itself.

 

And the daffodils were just about to flower.

Heading back down the Tolosa Fire Trail to the end of the walk.

 

As can be seen from the map we covered quite a few track in our walk.

There were 13 walkers who covered just over 10kms in 3 hours  climbing 300 meters.

Thanks to Mendelt for his leadership and Ingrid and Chris for their additional photos.