Hayes walk


Take the Hayes Walk over Foster’s Kaffir Hill for a glimpse of how the local district may have looked a little like in the days before “worthwhile” gold was discovered at Stockyard Creek in 1870.
Dense native forest once covered the entire district, but almost all was cleared in the search for alluvial gold and gold-bearing quartz reefs, and for use as building materials, firewood and for lining mineshafts during Foster’s gold rush period.
Nowadays, towering re-grown native and introduced trees, and lush shrubs and ground-covering plants are a feature of the Walk, and its higher sections offer a wonderful view across the township of Foster and of the Hoddle Ranges away to the south-west.
The Walk passes through what is now known as the Kaffir Hill Bushland Reserve.
The 900-metre Walk was sponsored by the Foster Rotary Club in memory of Yanakie dairy farmer and local historian the late Bill Crawford, who was a descendent of one of Stockyard Creek’s earliest gold miners.
The Walk is clearly marked with a green and cream sign at the southern end of the Foster public car park, near the rear entrance to the Exchange Hotel.
Ascend the rustic staircase made of railway sleepers at the beginning of the Walk and almost immediately you will find yourself enveloped in shady forest calm, where the sounds of the town and the traffic fade into the background.
Another series of wide steps edged with sleepers appears a few paces further along the Walk and then a leaf-strewn gravel and packed earth track continues wending its way up and over the Hill.
Along the way you will find a number of timber benches upon which you can sit and rest, or meditate, or ponder, or dream …
Kaffir Hill was named after a group of seven experienced African miners who in 1871 excavated a deep shaft that led to a gold-bearing reef running in a north-south line beneath the rapidly growing settlement of Stockyard Creek, which was later called Foster in honour of a visiting magistrate.
Once you have passed the crest of the Hill, look to your left and you will see the remnants of a shaft left behind from the Victory mine, which at 150 metres was the deepest mine in Foster.
The Victory operated between 1887 and 1908 and produced some 26,000 ounces of gold, with drives running under Kaffir Hill, the present day shops and Stockyard Creek.
The mine was worked 24 hours a day seven days a week during its life, and yielded about five ounces of gold per ton of quartz, which was brought to the surface and crushed in a battery like the one that can be seen outside the Foster Museum.
The mine was closed when the price of gold fell below the cost of recovering the precious metal, and when water seepage problems eventually became insurmountable.
More of Foster’s northern streets come into view as you pass down the other side of Kaffir Hill, and the trees gradually thin out, allowing areas of native grasses to thrive in the dappled sunlight.
Hayes Walk finishes at McDonald Street, though just across the way is the beginning of the 1.9-kilometre Brataualung Track, which includes the one-kilometre Cody Gully Walk and the 0.9-kilometre Ophir Hill Walk.
The Brataualung Track is named after the tribe of Aboriginal people who once inhabited the Promontory district.
The two Walks, which make up the Track, will take you through protected flora reserves and past more evidence of Foster’s gold history, as well as through lowland forest and swamp scrub.
Detailed notes about Foster’s flora reserves are available from Parks Victoria’s Foster office in the Stockyard Gallery complex in Main Street.