Dandenong ranges gold/army tunnels? Kalorama/Olinda

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I've had quite a bit to do with excavations of old ww2 bunkers around Melbourne and I'm wondering if it's not this tunnel?
https://www.ozatwar.com/bunkers/dandenongstunnels.htm
There's a heap of old rumours around mt Dandenong having a bunker complex inside it somewhere.
There's also bunker entrance at Mt Evelyn I found the location of and was part of the team that dug out the northcote bunker off Merri creek in northcote.
If you get to the end of that tunnel and there's that date scratched into the wall then you know that you're in most probably a test shaft or an army storage tunnel. Lukep PM me if you want to cross check spots. (These tunnels are highly sketchy and I wouldn't want to give anyone the location of a potential death trap.
 
Nirvanadirt said:
I've had quite a bit to do with excavations of old ww2 bunkers around Melbourne and I'm wondering if it's not this tunnel?
https://www.ozatwar.com/bunkers/dandenongstunnels.htm
There's a heap of old rumours around mt Dandenong having a bunker complex inside it somewhere.
There's also bunker entrance at Mt Evelyn I found the location of and was part of the team that dug out the northcote bunker off Merri creek in northcote.
If you get to the end of that tunnel and there's that date scratched into the wall then you know that you're in most probably a test shaft or an army storage tunnel. Lukep PM me if you want to cross check spots. (These tunnels are highly sketchy and I wouldn't want to give anyone the location of a potential death trap.
Was it you who contacted me at CSIRO asking about the Northcote tunnel? I thought it was a lawyer.
 
Nirvanadirt said:
I've had quite a bit to do with excavations of old ww2 bunkers around Melbourne and I'm wondering if it's not this tunnel?
https://www.ozatwar.com/bunkers/dandenongstunnels.htm
There's a heap of old rumours around mt Dandenong having a bunker complex inside it somewhere.
There's also bunker entrance at Mt Evelyn I found the location of and was part of the team that dug out the northcote bunker off Merri creek in northcote.
If you get to the end of that tunnel and there's that date scratched into the wall then you know that you're in most probably a test shaft or an army storage tunnel. Lukep PM me if you want to cross check spots. (These tunnels are highly sketchy and I wouldn't want to give anyone the location of a potential death trap.

I Live in Mt Evelyn and rumor has it that there's an American bunker under the local footy oval, there was some Jank here years ago trying to get permission to dig up the field but no go, he claims is loaded with army vehicles and ammo...Sure would like to get my hands on an old Hummer for camping :D
 
I think the footy oval was an American camp. I'm a bit surprised that they would bother with tunnels as they were around for less than two years, But it is hard to think of any other explanation - definitely no mines there. There were some tunnels in the early days for getting water along an aqueduct but that is not likely - it would be large diameter and concrete. They are pretty pokey tunnels (by comparison that at Northcote was around 3 m x 3 m). Perhaps it was for training and served as a potential air-raid shelter.

Mt Evelyn history group No. 49 MARCH 2012: The aqueduct tunnel p1.
The aqueduct consisted of 23 miles (37km) of open or covered channels, three tunnels totalling just over half a mile, over 25 miles (40km) of steel pipes (up to 36 inches in diameter) and a water supply capacity of 20 million gallons (75.7 million litres) per day.
 
Goldirocks that would have been Mark Rawson who was the guy that led the dig at Merri creek and until we got to know each other was my rival in finding these bunkers. (I know that he dug in the wrong place at Merri creek as I've showed him but he had committed to the spot at Merri creek and couldn't change I with the council! There was usually him and an older fella who was a mining engineer and myself (sporadically) digging the "back door" of the 1st Merri creek bunker. one day while we were working a military historian showed up for a chat and I taken him to where there was an air vent poking out of the ground a flat spot with a ramp going up to the top of the hill and also an old railing from what would have been stairs and in the trees and uplifted piece of green corrugated iron just specks of paint at that stage but olive drab nonetheless. After examining the corrugated iron sheet but his story and said that it was definitely Yankee World war 2 era construction due to the way that they had a strip of tacky asphalt like blue the day used at the time along the edge where it would have joined another sheet.

Gravity the footy oval at mount Evelyn is an old tip where people used to dump the local household garbage and the council news to use it for that purpose for many years until it was covered over and turned into a footy oval however if you do want to know where the entrance is and have a go at getting to it id be more than happy to do your trade..... If you meet me there with a metal detector and give me a lesson on how to use the thing I will show you where it is and some old World war 2 era look out posts (or what's left of them) :argh: what you do from there is entirely up to you.
 
Nirvanadirt said:
Goldirocks that would have been Mark Rawson who was the guy that led the dig at Merri creek and until we got to know each other was my rival in finding these bunkers. (I know that he dug in the wrong place at Merri creek as I've showed him but he had committed to the spot at Merri creek and couldn't change I with the council! There was usually him and an older fella who was a mining engineer and myself (sporadically) digging the "back door" of the 1st Merri creek bunker. one day while we were working a military historian showed up for a chat and I taken him to where there was an air vent poking out of the ground a flat spot with a ramp going up to the top of the hill and also an old railing from what would have been stairs and in the trees and uplifted piece of green corrugated iron just specks of paint at that stage but olive drab nonetheless. After examining the corrugated iron sheet but his story and said that it was definitely Yankee World war 2 era construction due to the way that they had a strip of tacky asphalt like blue the day used at the time along the edge where it would have joined another sheet.

Gravity the footy oval at mount Evelyn is an old tip where people used to dump the local household garbage and the council news to use it for that purpose for many years until it was covered over and turned into a footy oval however if you do want to know where the entrance is and have a go at getting to it id be more than happy to do your trade..... If you meet me there with a metal detector and give me a lesson on how to use the thing I will show you where it is and some old World war 2 era look out posts (or what's left of them) :argh: what you do from there is entirely up to you.

Ok what your saying maybe true, I'm just going what was in the local paper years ago and be great to find it if it's there somewhere, the Yank involved knew an awful lot about it but lost his battle with the local council because of community uproar not digging up the footy field.
I've also seen local photo's of thousands of soldiers camped at the old Lilydale lake were they involved with the site who knows ???

P.S happy to take you out detecting :Y:
 
The camp you might be referring to might be mixed up with the shooting range which was a little ways away from the footy oval and perhaps there was a semi permanent camp set up on the Oval itself, however as the story goes Melbourne was the last line of defence if the Japanese were to invade Australia and they set up Cacias of supplies and stationed minor amounts of military investor amounts the further towards Melbourne they got these areas that you read about in Oz at war and basically storage bunkers for if we needed to fall back to the south end of the country being attacked from the north it was cheaper to fill up and forget about any gear that was brought over by the Yanks and I was then it was to get it back to the storage in warehouses and the like.
I'd be happy to show anyone who is interested the Merry Creek tunnel which actually Peters down into a fairly tight little tunnel towards the end further up Mary Creek where it has been concreted over there is an entrance to A bunker that has never been excavated and also Mount Evelyn just let me know who's keen and when for.
 
No Definitely not the shooting range but here you go; LILYDALE MILITIA CAMP

February 7th to 14th 1914
On Saturday February 7th, 1914 over 300 citizen soldiers of the 13th Infantry Brigade, who were part of the compulsory universal training scheme, arrived here for a week long 'camp of instruction'.

Units attending
46th Infantry (Brighton) 48th Infantry (Surrey Hills) 49th Infantry (Prahran)
51st Infantry (Albert Park) 52nd Infantry - Victorian Scottish Regiment (Hobson`s Bay)
13th Army Service Corps 13th Army Medical Corps The Automobile Corps

Before the Lilydale Lake was created the area below was all paddocks and in 1914 was part of David Mitchell`s `Cave Hill Estate``. The Commander for the camp was Colonel John Monash (later Lieutenant-General Sir John Monash). The camp is considered to be the most important event in his pre-war military career.

During their time here the 13th Infantry Brogade undertook company and battalion drill training, musketry practice and performed a mock battle at Mt Mary near Coldstream. On Friday February 13th, 1914 the camp was visited by the Inspector General of Overseas Forces, General Sir Ian Hamilton and the Governor-General Lord Denman.

Six months after this event the 1st AIF was formed and many of the men attending here ended up enlisting for active service and serving overseas with the AIF during the First World War.

This plaque was unveiled to mark the centenary of this camp.
A Centenary
 
Im pretty sure the footy oval was a run way for landing military aircrafts. Until one day they didnt stop and it went over the hill at the timethats what I was told from a local who is in his 60s.
 
The camp you might be referring to might be mixed up with the shooting range which was a little ways away from the footy oval and perhaps there was a semi permanent camp set up on the Oval itself, however as the story goes Melbourne was the last line of defence if the Japanese were to invade Australia and they set up Cacias of supplies and stationed minor amounts of military investor amounts the further towards Melbourne they got these areas that you read about in Oz at war and basically storage bunkers for if we needed to fall back to the south end of the country being attacked from the north it was cheaper to fill up and forget about any gear that was brought over by the Yanks and I was then it was to get it back to the storage in warehouses and the like.
I'd be happy to show anyone who is interested the Merry Creek tunnel which actually Peters down into a fairly tight little tunnel towards the end further up Mary Creek where it has been concreted over there is an entrance to A bunker that has never been excavated and also Mount Evelyn just let me know who's keen and when for.
The Merri Creek tunnel has been concreted up by the council now (was there two months ago). They claimed it was built to alleviate drainage problems above, and quoted someone who supposedly worked on the crew who dug it. Nothing to see any more.
 
Still trying to find the entrance to this tunnel @Nirvanadirt can you contact me? There is a few of us that have been trying to find this if it's not the old gold mine. I have also heard of a complex inside the mountains too.
 
Still trying to find the entrance to this tunnel @Nirvanadirt can you contact me? There is a few of us that have been trying to find this if it's not the old gold mine. I have also heard of a complex inside the mountains too.
Don't hold your breath waiting for a response, Scott. Unfortunately, Nirvanadirt hasn't been back to the forum since 17 February 2021.
 

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