The Diggeress Chewton, Victoria, Australia
By Keeper of Time on 01-May-13. Waypoint GA6293

The story of women on the Victorian gold diggings is largely untold. Only rarely did women work as diggers (diggeresses) in their own right.

Towards the end of 1852, women were working side by side with a husband, brother or father and were an accepted part of the diggings scene. Writer-turned digger, William Howitt, was surprised at the number of `diggeresses' on the goldfields when he arrived­. He wrote ,"You see a good many women ... and some of them right handsome young girls. They all seem very cheerful and even merry, and the women seem to make themselves very much at home in this wild, nomadic life."

When Elizabeth Escott's husband died, she left England with her eleven children to make a new life in Australia as a diggeress on the Mt Alexander diggings. She was one of many who were beaten by the hardships of life on the diggings. Elizabeth's daughter Fanny was just fifteen when she died of consumption at Blacksmith's Gully near Fryerstown in 1855, Elizabeth herself died six months later. Another daughter, Mary, had also died in 1855.

The lonely grave of Elizabeth Escott and her daughter Fanny lies in bushland on the east side of the road from Chewton to Fryerstown, Elizabeth's descendants have carefully maintained this lonely grave in the bush.

AB = The day in June that Elizabeth died

C = The day in December that Fanny died

The cache is located at S37 6.4(C+2)9 E144 15.2(A+B+2)4

If you walk up the track a short distance and look to the right you will see a water race, walk along the race wall until you are close then head for the rocks.

The cache is an ammo can with a 2 litre sistemma in it and is hidden in a typical geocaching manner.

Please ensure that the cache is well hidden before you leave and I would ask that you help maintain the standard of the cache by placing quality swaps only. As always, be mindeful of the local wildlife both good and bad.