Mount disappointment

Mount disappointment
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height	800 m
location	Victoria , Australia
Mountains	Great Dividing Range , Hume Range
Coordinates	37 ° 23 ′ 0 ″ S , 145 ° 11 ′ 0 ″ E Coordinates: 37 ° 23 ′ 0 ″ S , 145 ° 11 ′ 0 ″ E
First ascent	1824 by the Hume and Hovell expedition

The 800 meter high Mount Disappointment ( Mountain of Disappointment ) is located at the southern end of the Great Dividing Range , about 60 km north of Melbourne in Victoria , Australia . The first whites to climb this mountain were members of the Hume and Hovell expedition in 1824. Today the mountain is a popular destination for mountain hikers.

The mountain got its name from the first climbers who hoped for a good view of their expedition destination Western Port , but could not see anything due to the thick forest.

history

Before the European settlement, Aborigines lived in the area of this mountain. Although little is known about their life in the forest, their presence is documented by finds of stone weapons on Drag Hill near Sunday Creeks. After the mountain was discovered in 1824, settlers looked for gold there. In 1880 the Australian Seasoned Timber Company started cutting wood and setting up sawmills . This drew an influx of workers and places like Clonbinane , Reedy Creek and Strath Creek were established. The company operated two mills, the Comet Mill and Planet Mill , which were located in the middle of the forest. A network of rails and railways ensured that the mills received supplies of wood. The rail vehicles were ironically called The Bump . In the 1890s, the Comet Mill was processing 800 logs a month.

The Australian Seasoned Timber Company , which processed wood for furniture, was located in Wandong , north of Melbourne at the end of the Mount Disappointment Forest . The Wandong seasoning works was founded by another company in 1889 and was one of the first companies to process hardwood in Australia .

At peak times, the wood industry employed up to 420 woodworkers. The sawmills stopped operating in 1939, but timber is still felled in the Mount Disappointment area to this day, paying attention to the sustainability of the tree population.

On August 5, 1942, a Bristol Beaufighter IC crashed three hundred meters north of the mountaintop, killing two soldiers from the 30th Squadron of the RAAF .

Flora and fauna

Mountain ash dominate the mountain and their fruits cover the granite floor . Eucalyptus grow in the drier niches of the mountain. Red stringybarks, narrow-leaved peppermint plants, long-leaf box, and candlebarks ( Eucalyptus rubida ) can grow along the watercourses.

In addition to numerous birds, there are wombats and wallabies in this forest.