For most Kentish residents, the best view of Mt Gog Range is from Kentish Bridle Track Rd, 1 km past the Railton turnoff before you descend the hill into the Stoodley bush. Running eastward from the end of Mt Roland, Mt Gog Range sits neatly between the Minnow and Mersey Rivers. Mt Gog itself is at the extreme eastern end of the range where it overlooks Magog, on the opposite side of the Mersey River. Between these two biblically named mountainous knobs, the Mersey River twists through a timbered gorge. Compared with the rugged profile of majestic Mt Roland, the smooth profile of the Mt Gog Range is like viewing a long-trimmed hedge. Almost all of Gog Range today is covered by huge pine plantations. 

Historic significance of the Gog Range 

It was from the eastern end of Mt Gog on 9 Dec 1823 that Captain John Rolland of the 3rd Foot Regiment made the first ascent of the mountain that ever afterwards carried his name. Governor Sorell had sent Rolland to search for more fertile land along the unexplored NW coast. After several attempts to push west behind Mt Roland failed, he returned down the Mersey River and camped near the base of Mt Gog. Here he observed natives camped on the river flats collecting their precious red ochre from the slopes of Mt Gog. Next day, he led his party up the eastern end of Mt Roland to make its first ascent.

Just over two years later, in April 1826, the English-based Van Diemen’s Land Co gave its own surveyors a similar task: to search for good grazing country along the NW coast. From their base camp at Frogmore, near Latrobe, they followed the Mersey River up to the foothills of Gog Range and walked west through what later became Lower Beulah to discover the Minnow River and the Minnow Falls. This was 16 years before the Kentish Plains were discovered.

Next was George Robinson with his party of friendly Aboriginals, who arrived at Mt Gog in July 1834 to inspect the celebrated spot where the native tribes procured their favourite red-coloured ochre. After the Black War (1824–31), Robinson was made the ‘conciliator’ between European settlers and Aboriginal people. His mission was to befriend Aboriginal people, round up their severely diminished population and resettle them at camp Wybalenna on Flinders Island. Famous Aboriginal woman Truganini was an important member of Robinson’s group. 

Toolumbunner Ochre Mines

Robinson’s party found the very significant Aboriginal ochre mines known as Toolumbunner, which were regarded as the largest and best in the island. Natives from all over the northern half of the island regularly converged on Gog to replenish their supplies. Well-established tracks came from the North, East and West Coasts. One such track came along the front of Mt Roland and up through Paradise. Interestingly, the Aborigines showed no interest in the spectacular grandeur of Mt Roland; rather, their focus was totally riveted on obtaining the red-coloured ochre at Mt Gog. They dug out red clogs of soil with sticks, used two flat ballywinne stones to grind it to ochre, then carried it in kangaroo skin pouches specially made for this task. In the social life of the Tasmanian Aborigines, having their heads and bodies adorned with red ochre carried great prestige. Sadly within just a few years of George Robinson’s visit to the iconic ochre mines, all surviving Aboriginals were interned at Wybalenna.

Nearly 150 years later, searches began to rediscover the lost Toolumbunner mines. In Dec 1981, Lloyd Robson (University of Melb) and N Brian Plomley (Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston) were successful in finding two Aboriginal mines and their old campsites. These were investigated several times between 1982 and 1985 by teams from the archaeological department of Melbourne University. Research showed that these mines had been in active use for over 500 years. Some 1500 stone tools were sent in to the Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston. In 1994, a book entitled Bruising the Red Earth, edited by Antonio Sagona, was published detailing their research. All Aboriginal sites are protected by law, and it is general government policy not to publish grid co-ordinates for many significant locations. 

Gold Discovery in Minnow River 

Nearly 20 years after the first settlers began arriving on the Kentish Plains, traces of gold were found in the upper Minnow River in 1878. To white settlers, specks of yellow gold off the western end of Mt Gog were equivalent to the black man’s eagerly sought precious red ochre at the eastern end of Gog; it started a mini-gold rush. Though the rush wasn’t that successful and was quite short lived, it changed the future of the whole Kentish district. It kick-started the search for precious minerals across our backcountry, it brought scores of new settlers and opened roads to many new districts, including, in April 1912, the opening of the nearly 200ft long ‘Union Bridge’ that joined the two prosperous municipalities of Kentish and Deloraine, near Mole Creek. 

Early Selectors on Gog Range

On top of Gog Range were button-grass plains, an abundance of kangaroos and a permanent lagoon with smaller pools now known as Granta Pools. Along the northern slopes of Mt Gog were suitable bush blocks of land for clearing. First selectors included Wm Kenzie (99 & 105 acres), after whom Kenzie Hill was named, and George Gregory from Deloraine with more than a dozen blocks that he cleared and ran cattle on. Others included Ephraim Doe Jnr (200 acres), James Febey (31 & 104 acres) and Herb Sharman (46 & 60 acres). Dave Billing of Claude Rd had 100 acres on top of Gog, which produced well. During the week, Dave would live in hollow tree and return home for the weekend. Noble Kenzie, a trapper and prospector, was another who lived in a hollow tree to which he fitted a front door. Fred Duncan ran cattle up there on 50 acres where he lived in a timber shanty. As late as 1942, Tom Frankcombe had 2000 acres on Gog, and Trevor Von Steiglitz’s trapping and snaring got him about 3000 skins each year. 

Sawmillers With the Gog Range heavily timbered, it was inevitable that the sawmillers would come. The large trees on Gog became a major source of railway sleepers, supplying every railway line on the NW Coast. After the logs came off the Gog Range, wooden tramways pulled by horses carried them down through the bush to the sawmills built beside the Minnow River where there was an ample supply of water for the steam engines to drive the machinery. In 1888 Alf Jessop erected the first sawmill in the district on his selection of land to cut timber from his stringybark trees. The Jessop family were very clever mechanically, and before circular saws came in, Alf and Cecil had rigged up two vertical pit saws that operated by steam power. Dempster’s sawmill was at the junction of the Paradise/Mole Creek Road and the Beulah Road. In the 1920/30s this mill was purchased by Albert Abbott who owned the Sheffield Hotel. Joe Elliott used to pull logs with a team of eight bullocks into the mill where Hedley Bramich was engine-driver. Sam Hoare’s sawmill was on the Paradise side of Dempster’s mill and operated more recently than Dempster. In 1912 John Denney moved his mill from Spreyton back to the Minnow. By the winter of 1915, Beulah settlers complained that excessive cartage of heavy railway sleepers had destroyed their roads. In July 1916, John McNally of Barrington built near the site of Jessop’s original sawmill along the Lower Beulah Road. After Cummings & Co purchased the sawmill, in April 1920 Harold Scott (16) was killed when he became entangled in the belt and was pulled into the machinery. His body parts were collected up in a chaff bag. Alec J. Best of Sheffield operated a sawmill at Beulah in the 1940s. Blenhorn & Jordan of Railton ran a sawmill from about 1950 with Rolly McCarthy as their tree faller. Stewy Rouse with his two boys, Vic & Don, also leased land here from 1962–1992. They logged this bush for 30 years, carting logs to their sawmill near the Paradise corner with Claude Road. They were regular suppliers of sleepers and bridge timber to the Tasmanian Railways. As motorised transport developed, most sawmills moved closer to town, and the old bush mills became a feature of the past.

The Gog bush has produced some champion axemen. In 1922 George McCarthy won the big 15” block championship in Devonport. Others who won Henleys are Ernie MCarthy, Rolly McCarthy, Kevin von Steiglitz and Clarrie Milne. In Aug 1926, two teenage boys, Reg O’Garey (16) & Colin Campbell, went possuming up on Mt Gog. They had walked along the top and were about 10 miles from home. As they were descending a rockface, a large rock gave way, causing Reg to fall heavily before it landed on his head, crushing him to death. Colin had to run 10 miles home to raise the alarm. Constable Whitechurch came from Sheffield and a rescue party left Beulah at 3am, others at daylight. The country was rough and awkward, and it took 30 of them in turns to carry the boy’s body back. 

Good fishing in the Minnow River 

      From the earliest times, the Minnow and surrounding streams have been renowned for their good fishing, especially blackfish, eels and lobsters. George Stephens was one who took an interest in fishing these rivers, and several times after 1905 he obtained young trout to release into the Minnow and Mersey Rivers. The Minnow was known for its giant freshwater crayfish. These lobsters, the biggest in the world, love the gravelly bottoms of these mountain rivers. Lobsters taken from the Minnow were dark red; those from the Mersey were a light blue. Interestingly, they crawl forward and swim backwards. Three and four pounders were common, but up to eight pounders have been caught. When one Paradise settler was asked ‘Did he use bullocks or horses to plough the steep slopes of his farm?’ ‘No,’ he said. ‘I tamed a couple of those big lobsters from the Minnow River. When I harnessed them up, they worked “real well” in pairs.’ Their numbers have been so diminished that in 1998 a 14-year ban was placed on catching them.      

Minnow Falls  

After heavy rains, the almost invisible Minnow Falls turns into a spectacular raging and roaming torrent that rushes over the eastern end of Mt Roland in a grand display of short and long cascades that fall hundreds of metres into a rocky riverbed below. From earliest times, local settlers have had an interest in visiting these falls, which haven’t been that easy to reach nor easy to climb. After GW Stephens cut a track into the falls on New Year’s Day 1902, a large party of local ladies and gentlemen visited the falls, where ladies were successful in reaching the top for the first time. On 6 Dec 1914, a trip to the Minnow Falls by two friends, Oliver French of Barrington and Jacob Kenzie, ended in tragedy. About a mile up the track from where they left their horse and buggy, Oliver was severely injured by a falling tree. Kenzie dragged and half carried his unconscious mate some way down the track before leaving him to go fetch their horse. Once back to the buggy, they hastily rode to Lewis Newman’s house on Paradise Rd, where Oliver died 10 minutes after arrival. A popular Barrington farmer, Oliver French (40) left his wife, Georgina, with 10 children.

Forestry and the Pine Plantation 

Dutch-born forester Hans Dorgelo planted the first 100 acres of the quick-growing pinas radiate at Beulah in 1954, but it was local forester Neil Denney who was given the responsibility for the massive expansion of the forestry across the Gog Ranges when he took over in 1975. He was backed up by Selwyn & Mavis Oliver, who lived in the forestry house built on Paradise Rd close to the Minnow River. Now 97 miles of forestry roads service the plantations across the Gog Range. For years, during summer months, a fire tower was manned on top of Mt Gog, but today drones, planes and new fire detection technology have replaced them. Today, great swathes of eucalyptus, blackwood & pine plantations cover all parts of Beulah and Kentish – indeed, the whole state. Yet, the recent shortage of house framing timber has had our state and federal governments jointly announce their new national goal to plant one billion more trees by the end of this decade.

Recent Gold Discoveries on Mt Gog

What frustrated the early prospectors in the Minnow River Gold Rush of the late 1870s and the decades that followed was that although specks of gold were traced up several creeks coming off Mt Gog, the primary source of the gold lode could not be located to make mining payable. In recent years, global gold exploration companies using advanced techniques to penetrate far below the ground’s surface seem to have located the primary lode beneath Mt Gog. In 2018, UK-based Greatland Gold Co used sophisticated techniques, including 3DIP geophysics (three-dimensional mapping), and identified an exciting, large high-grade gold target near its Firetower Project on Mt Gog. Running east to west, it was estimated to be 1 km long, potentially containing 1 million ounces of gold worth, in March 2019, $1.8 billion. If these reports have any substance, they are now quietly sitting on this discovery. But should the company choose to develop their exciting find on Mt Gog, all Kentish will be agog.