Bah Humbug Humbug Scrub, South Australia, Australia
By dezzabils on 19-Feb-17. Waypoint GA9924

Humbug Scrub  Nomenclature

According to Rodney Cockburn the name derived from a comment made by a Mrs Gavan, who suggested that to live at such a place was a 'humbug'. Mary Gavan was the wife of 'Paddy' Gavan described as 'a squatter at Humbug Scrub'; they apparently settled in the district about 1847.

When the Cornish miners settled in the gully they kept goats [which] strayed... and became lost in surrounding scrub. When the miners or members of their families went out in search of the goats they in turn became lost, and so in exasperation named the locality Humbug Scrub.

Humbug Scrub came to notice as early as the mid-1850s when Richard Nurse discovered a little gold there. In 1856 it was reported that escaped convicts were hiding there. Three years later it was bushfires which ravaged the area. In 1864 the area was visited by Edmund Hammond Hargraves who had started the original gold rushes in the eastern states. He reported that there was gold in the area but not enough to repay the cost of working the field. However, there was a rush in 1868 but conditions on the field were Spartan. Diggers lived in tents and there was not much water. Eventually a small township sprang up and slowly tents were replaced by wooden structures.

This cache is located in Humbug Scrub bushland and is a short walk from tha parking area at  S 34°43.480' E 138°49.579'.

You will need a writing geotool to sign the log.

Enjoy the beautiful bush area.

Hints