Hindmarsh Pioneer Grave Rainbow, Victoria, Australia
By tackle_head on 29-Apr-13. Waypoint GC4AXZ8

Thanks for hide and history lesson.. container might need some attention

Quick easy find, the container needs replacing though

Always makes me wonder if family of these pioneers still come to visit their forefathers. Without cache's like these I think maybe no-one would come visit.

Find # 13091Off on a full days solo Caching adventure around the Western Vic area.I've had a half baked plan around the area and it was time to go for it. Horsham, Dimboola, Jeparit, Rainbow and then follow a Silos Art Ad Lab heading home.A great (top of) 20deg day, to be out n about. With a bit of wind to kick the dust n sand.Pity there not more sinage around pointing the area out. Thanks for putting it on the map. Always interesting to see the pioneer stories.TFTC tackle_head

I could feel the past oozing through my bones here. What a spot to be remembered. Respect. Such a tragic story. Oh for 4wd and phones now!

Found out and about during a quick trip to the southern deserts where the stars shine so bright!

Thanks tackle_head and clear skies from TeamAstro. ️ Cache the planet!

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SA’s Leap Year Event - GCA1DNA - keep the date free - 29th February 2024. Keep looking up!

Thanks tackle_head These lonely graves are somber reminders of the deprivation and hardship early pioneer women endured. How poignant was the story and the heartache of her husband to have to bury both wife and child on the side of the road. Thank you so much for sharing this story and bringing me here. Happy trails from Deanside

Found it. A
Sad story about the pioneer

Enjoying the drive and exploring this area today. This was a nice quick find. TFTC!
Cheers,
The Hancock Clan

Checked and replaced as required

Found by Rebel Acts in the company of the Crew

A four day weekend gave us the opportunity to catch up with the rest of the Crew and head to South Australia to do the Border track and caches in the Big Dessert area, lots of laughs and good times were had over the weekend. There were plenty of good quality caches to be found along the way.

Today we did a few tracks around the Wyperfeld Park and Big Desert area, led by our tour guide tackle_head.

This is one of the caches found today. Nice piece of history.


Thanks tackle_head for the cache.

**Stayed in Horsham overnight - today we headed for Murrayville**

Thanks for sharing this interesting location and the local history.
A nice early start this morning. After meeting up with The Empire & H, omegaman1971, Rebel Acts and tackle_head in Dimboola this morning headed off in convoy heading towards Murrayville before tackling the Border Track. Missing Happy Feet from our usual crew.
With the UHF in full swing, a full 4WD, the laughs were many and memories made. There had been quite a bit of rain about in previous days and that kind of dictated what caches we ventured for and which we passed up for another time. With Happy pants driving, we were happy to follow tackle-head as he has been coming this area for **35 years** [:o)]
Didn't take long to make a straight forward find here with so many pairs of eyes searching. Cache and contents are in good order.
The geocaches are a great bonus of my travels. It's amazing to see the country in the eyes of a Geocacher.
Thank you tackle_head for highlighting this area and for adding this cache to our real-life treasure hunt. Appreciate your efforts.
- P

*Took*: Nothing
*Left*: Nothing

**Warning**, this hobby can be addictive. It can lead to learning new things and finding interesting places you might not have known existed otherwise.

Cache on!
**#17582**

Out in the area with the Crew for some caching fun and to tackle the border track for a few days.
We don’t often get together these days but when we do, we certainly have fun and many laughs.
This is one trip that I will never forget and would definitely recommend it if you are a 4WD enthusiast. Just be prepared for the hrs of bumps and pain!

Cheers for the cache.

Found by The Empire + H
Meeting up with 'The Crew', it was time for a bit of bush bashing and geocaching! Awesome history here. Thanks for the cache tackle_head, favourite point added!
- M

Such a devastating story to learn about from the past. Wouldn’t have known about this piece of history if it wasn’t for this cache! Thank you

We searched for this one back in 2017 without success however this time we were able to locate the cache quickly. Looking back at the logs I can only assume the cache had gone AWOL at that time but fortunately the CO "stepped up" with a maintenance check/replacement when able to do so.

We reread the description and again were moved by the hardships people back then endured. It's a pity such things are not taught in school as part of our history. Maybe it would give some of those entitled prats that are emerging from our school system bemoaning how hard their life is a sense of perspective. Maybe!

Thanks "tackle_head" for placing the cache that brought us here! I'm gonna flag this one as one of my "faves"!
TFTC

PS: Not much fishun to be had in Lake Hindmarsh these days.

Second time lucky finding this one and thanks for the interesting history lesson.

TFTC TNLN

It seems we've been following The Tritonz for about 6 months now. Let's see if the trend continues. Thanks for the cache!

What an incredibly sad story. It is hard to understand what the pioneers went through out here. The hardships would have been many and varied. GT37 has had children and cannot imagine how those that went before us managed childbirth on their own and in such primitive circumstances. Thank you for bringing us here where we could pay our respects.

Finally off on my 4 day weekend away to catch up with some fellow cachers and good friends around Wyperfeld National Park.
I headed up the Calder, turned west at Charlton and meandaring around the back roads to get to my destination for the night which is Lake Albacutya.
The weather is not being so kind to me today so it is a quick run and hopefully find and get back to the Geocruiser and on to the next one kind of day.
After visiting Rainbow I was heading towards Lake Albacutya but instead of turning right I turned left and decided to do a loop of Lake Hindmarsh instead as I had plenty of time.
Made my way in and the amount of rain that was about was not a problem on these tracks.
It would have been a very lonely and hard life living in these harsh conditions and might not have seen any one else for months.
Paid my respects to Margret then went off in search of the cache.

Thanks tackle_head TFTC.

After camping at Lake Hindmarsh over night we set off for a previous DNF and others along the top.
We stopped at the grave first to pay our respects before making an easy find at GZ.

Thanks tackle_head for the cache placement.

Nice quick find, interesting bit to, nice little spot

While walking up the track we spotted many different animal tracks! This story bought a tear to our eye. Such an important place to draw attention to. TFTC

Found it thanks you

Sad story - lonely grave. TFTC

Nice little track

Have been here once before and read the sign. Margaret had a very harsh life, being especially vulnerable when child bearing. Have to take your hat off to the early pioneers. Thanks for bringing me back here tackle_head.

06/03/2020 8:18:00 PM
Took a small detour while taking the scenic route to a couple of events in Murray Sunset NP.
Must have been unbelievably hard for the pioneers in this area
Thanks tackle_head

Found while exploring the area. Thanks.

Quick find today while passing through on a 4WD club trip.
Lonely but quiet spot to rest.
TNLNSL
TFTC
TTFN
Beaker

The stamina of these early settlers was amazing. There is a great book on it called 'Giants of the Mallee'. Well worth the read.

Took the time to read the sign here. 30km of walking at night for a stranger. A very tucked away place that not many would get to visit. A favorite from me.

TFTC

Mr Morris headed up to Rainbow for a few days of beer, blokes and bikes. The weather was good, the beer was cold and the caches were fun.

Cache has now been replaced with the permission of the owner. What a moving story - there should indeed be a cache here.
Thanks for adding to the fun tackle_head

Owner maintenance will be carried out ASAP .
Thank you for your patience.
Steve .

This geocacher reported that the cache might be missing.

Convinced AussieM&M to divert to this one to see the historic site …. and find the cache! The grave was certainly interesting but we were very disappointed not to find the cache after a very extensive search …. both at the GZ and further afield. Had seen the 2 previous DNFs but had hoped the green spanners might have indicated the cache was in place as well as providing historical information.

Well this was disappointing. We diverted out here and after looking far and wide it appears there is no cache here still.
After 4 dnf's in a row, it appears to need more than more information on the historical aspects.

After at least 4 dnf's in a row, this cache may be gone.

A LONELY GRAVE BY LAKE HINDMARSH, VICTORIA.
The pioneers of this country did it tough and none tougher than those that ventured into the desert country. This is a story of such hardship and the lengths that people went to in order to support each other. They worked hard for little return and suffered much. But would travel long distances in very tough conditions to help each other as can be seen by the efforts of Mrs Looney to rush to the aid of a girl in need. This is a story of the pioneers that settled the Mallee before towns like Rainbow, Jeparit, and Nhill existed. They lived a remote, lonely and vulnerable existence to make something out of nothing.

Around 1854 a young Irish girl Margaret Henry of about 17 years of age arrived in Victoria seeking a new start in a new land of promise. She had left her parents Francis and Margaret Henry and the farm in Ireland to seek a new life in the land of the gold rush. Her education was little or non-existent as she could neither read nor write but was evidently a capable cook and managed to get a job as a cook at a property called Maryvale which was about 20 miles to the north of Harrow the only town in the area although today Maryvale is located east of Edenhope. It was at Maryvale that she met a young Scotsman “James Jardine” about six years her senior, the son of a Scottish sailor George and his wife Margaret, James was a farm hand on the same property. They were married at Maryvale by the Reverend Mark Dixon of the Church of Scotland on 11th Feb 1861 and soon left for a new life together.

After some wanderings, crossing briefly over the South Australian border then returning to Victoria where they found themselves working for John Coppock as shepherds on Albacutya Run in the desert country of the north west of Victoria. They had two sons James and Francis but child birth was not easy for Margaret and she was living in a very remote and lonely part of the world. It was a tough area for these pioneers and help was not easy to get at the best of times.

Margaret was pregnant with her third child but there were complications she suffered severe pains all day Thursday 2nd August 1866 and on Friday 3rd James decided to seek help as Margaret was in a lot of pain, in James’s words her previous confinements had been severe and tedious. So he sent a messenger to Dimboola some 40 miles away over sand tracks to get the doctor and also sent a messenger for the help of a midwife (or as he put it at the time the nearest useful woman) the closest being some 15 miles away, but the woman wasn’t there so the messenger went to find Mrs Looney four miles further away. The pains continued all day Friday and about 8 o’clock they stopped. Margaret told James that something was wrong as she felt something give. Mrs Looney arrived at three o’clock Sunday morning after travelling the 19 miles through semi desert in the dark to help, but on arrival she discovered that the womb had burst and there was nothing she could do to help other than comfort her and wait for the doctor. Mrs Looney sat with Margaret all day Sunday and at 8 o’clock that night Margaret passed away.

A messenger was sent to tell the doctor that it was too late, The messenger found the doctor traveling up the east side of lake Hindmarsh and delivered his message, but the doctor informed him that he was also the coroner so he would attend in order to do the coroner’s report so he continued to the shepherds hut. After completing his examination of Margaret and interviewing James he wrote his report and then gave James permission to take Margaret to Dimboola for Christian burial. James placed Margaret’s body in a dray and with his eldest son James accompanying him, set off for Dimboola the next day. But his misfortune was not at an end yet. Just three miles from the shepherds hut where Margaret died, while traveling along a sandy track on the east side of lake Hindmarsh the axle broke on the dray and James could go now further, so on the 8th August 1866 he dug a grave and buried his wife on the side of the track and returned to the hut.

James left the area after losing his wife and went to live in Dimboola where he raised his two sons and purchased 7 acres of land. He never remarried and when his sons were adults James and his eldest son James left the younger son Francis in Dimboola and went to Queensland to seek new lives but were never to return. The eldest son James was not heard of again and when James senior died in December 1899 his younger son Francis claimed the probate of his estate in 1900 reported that he had not heard from his brother and had not been able to locate him after months of searching.

Margaret’s grave is still there on the side of the sandy track that is now called pioneer lane in respect for the lonely grave by its side although the locals call it dead man’s lane and used to travel it regularly to a location on the lake they labelled Picnic Point. The plaque was changed on the grave in 1966 changing the inscription when a genealogical mistake was made and it was assumed that Margaret was the wife of a Joseph Jardine who was a co-owner of a lease for Outlet Run on the other side of the lake and a map of the holding was placed on the grave dated 1847 and the words stating Mrs Jardine and child with no other information. When Joseph owned the lease Margaret was only 10 years old and living on a farm in Ireland, so could not have been his wife. The information in this story comes from much research as well as their marriage register and the report from William Johnston Coroner dated 6th August 1866 at Lake Hindmarsh.

If you pass by this way. Pay Margaret a visit and look around the area. Crops are growing either side of the track today on what were sand dunes in 1866 with mallee scrub which can still be experienced around the lake and in places like Wyperfeld Park. If you visit these places stop to consider the environment they lived in and how remote it was and spare a thought for the effort that Catherine Looney went to in travelling 19 miles through this country at night to help a girl she didn’t even know. Would you walk 19 miles (32 Kilometres) through such inhospitable land to help a stranger?

Margaret’s story is an example of what it was to be a pioneer in this country, especially the land north of the netting fence that my own great grandfather John Burgin crossed looking for a selection and reported in his day book that he had crossed into land that was fit for neither man nor beast. He was actually camped close to where Margaret Jardine died when he made this observation some 25 years after her death.

Mrs Catherine Looney (also known as Loney) who endured the 38 mile round trip to assist a girl in trouble lost her husband a short time later in a tree felling accident and died eleven years later in Horsham in March 1877 at the home of her daughter Jane O’Donnell Her youngest daughter Bridget married John McPhee in 1864 and lived in Kenmare until her death in 1922 in Rainbow. She is buried in the Kenmare cemetery

Some photos of the Homestead attached to this page

Photos attached of the Homestead

Both Mrs B & myself had a good search for this cache and while we were fairly certain of where we suspected it would be hidden we couldn't find it. Regardless though I'm actually going to mark this down as one of my favourites because it was quite interesting to read about this specific tragic event in the areas pioneering history. Sort of puts things into a bit more perspective when I whinge about my perceived "hardships"!
TFTC

We couldn't locate this one but found the place very interesting so thanks anyway.

It shows how much we take for granted these days when you read the story.
Thanks tackle head

Another cache that hasn't seen anyone for a while - took nothing left a pink flamingo magnet, thanks for bringing us up here and tftc

Taking the geo kids caching during the school holidays, while towing a 24 foot caravan. We'll grab every opportunity to grab a cache. Love the old cemeteries to wander about but they must have had a hard life. It was an easy enough find.
Thanks tackle_head for placing & maintaining the cache for us to find.
#2339

Found after driving around the lake this morning with Moosetash, the cache was soon located and logged, thanks tackle head for the cache and for showing us this little piece of local history.

Even in this day and age of modern convenience, this is an out of the way place. The hardships that people put themselves through to eke out a living back in the day is hard to comprehend. Thanks for showing us this, and for the sobering moment and reminder to live life to the full.

Wow. Certainly would never have ventured down this road if not for GeoCaching. Sad place, would've been a hard life for these people. TFTC SL

With thanks to my brother in law and sister for the gift of premium membership, I can finally log this one.

Found 20/6/15 with TKJL - Logged 20/3/16

Thank you for the cache, and the history lesson.

Actually spent some time when we got home researching the lady and child this grave belongs to, and it really is a fascinating story.

What a tough lot of people they must've been back then.

Thanks again.

What a hard life back then with great distances to medical help, paid my respects, found cache logged and headed to Jeparit

A few gravel and dirt tracks brings me to a rarely used road, but went slowly in my wagon and only weeds were brushing underneath the car. A quick find and log signed. Thanks for bringing me here.

Tftc. Out for the day with Muff1.

I just needed to find a little more history on Mrs Jardine, didn't come up with much. The following is what we found
A slight detour brought us up a lonely track to a grave of 'Mrs Jardine and child' of 1847. Jardine had a sheep run on the fringes of the Big Desert and his wife had died in childbirth. At that time, the nearest medical assistance would have been two weeks journey away in Melbourne.
I am sure there is much more out there somewhere.
T Photo's of area L N TFTC

In the area visiting family at Bordertown and my best mate Muff1 at Kaniva. Spending 2 days taking in some of the wonderful scenery and doing some caching at the same time. It always makes me sad to find that these issues have happened, a mother dying in childbirth in places where you had to have a true pioneering spirit to be. Thank you tackle head for placing the cache and Muff1 for the transport and company. SL TNLN TFTC.

On caching tour with nom234 and Geogran1937. 8th for the day.

With nom234 and dgfb33.

25/04/2014 - pm - 6th find for the day. Out site seeing/geocaching with nom234 & non-geo-son & non-geo-granddaughter while visiting Jeparit. GPS Instructions -- you press this, this, this, zoom in like this ... here you go (lucky it was as easy as that). Non-geo-grandaughter wanted to have ALL the treasures that we placed in the cache ... we managed to get them all back in again without too much crankyness!


This entry was edited by ceebee2013 on Monday, 28 April 2014 at 09:32:36 UTC.

On a tour with ceebee and thought I'd better sign the log too. Cache was a bit empty so I added a few swaps to jazz it up. I was always planning to put one here but am way too slack... so I'm really glad that someone else got around to doing it. It is a very nice spot and definitely deserves a cache. I like driving further down the track and doing a bit of birdwatching too (interestingly, the locals dont call it Pioneer Lane, they call it Deadman's Lane). Thanks very much.

Nice quick find thanks

Bush camped not far from this spot. Away from the motor bikes that had taken over most of the other camping sites around the lake. Very peaceful. Thank you for bring us to this spot and helping us learn some of the history of this remarkable place.

Bit of related history - Joseph Jardine held "The Outlet, Lake Hindmarsh" property with Robert Haverfield from 1846 to 1850.

This was certainly an interesting location
TFTC TN LN

As far as resting places go this was quiet a beautiful peaceful spot as the sun was setting today. No doubt this land can be harsh at times but today was picture perfect with ripening crops in the nearby paddock disguising the near desert conditions that were once here. SL TFTC

Great area been through here plenty of times and never thought of seeing if there were any caches around

TFTC

tnln

This was the 18th cache for the day. Nothing like taking off in the ute nice and early to take on some of the caches to the northwest of home.

Life would have been harsh back in the old days. An amazing location tackle_head, thanks for bringing me here.

TFTC

This entry was edited by strange quark1 on Sunday, 30 June 2013 at 12:10:50 UTC.

Sorry tackle_head for the generic log but I'm trying to catch up on my logging, I currently have over 1000 to log before hitting some powertrails in the US after the block party next week. As always I enjoy the hunt whether I'm solo or with some of my caching or muggle friends. Thanks to those who have accompanied me to make the day more pleasurable and many thanks tackle_head for placing this cache.

After a sojourn to Alice Springs to do the 2 millionth cache, I am now heading to the coast to attend a 21st this coming Friday. A couple of days in Mildura and then a slight detour to see if this cache was still undiscovered, to my surprise the log book was still clean. Thanks tacklehead for the cache, the area suggests it would have been tough out here in 1847. The pioneer grave is well maintained.

Published