I am enthusiastic about history and hope to enthuse others. I find sights like this stamper mill on the Little Wanderer mine at Mt Britten to be intriguing. But while I am anxious to advertise the presence of items such as this - I am also anxious that daytrippers not come to any harm. Please take care when visiting industrial sites.

While we historians are interested in these sites - we are also concerned for your well being.

Stunning views, like this one from the Little Wanderer Mine, can make one forget about the perils that lie near at hand. Parents might forget about a child for just a minute.

And it only takes a minute for a curious child to follow the old rail tracks up the hill.

And then disappear, forever, into the depths of an unmapped mine.

Old machinery, like this steam plant at Miclere, can be dangerous but is not intrinsically dangerous. Careful supervision and a little bit of common sense will obviate most of the hazards.

But shafts and open mine adits (tunnels) are a different thing entirely.

Whenever I lead a survey group onto a heritage gold field, like this one in 2003 on the Normanby, I am all aflutter. Although every member of the team has undergone a rigorous Health and Safety Induction before getting anywhere near the field, I am always on tenterhooks until everyone gets home safely.

For a number of years my consultancy worked with the Department of Natural Resources, identifying and mapping dangerous heritage sites that were being visited on a regular basis. When I descended into one of these pits I had a whole SES (State Emergency Squad) to make sure that I could get in and out safely.

Here a descent cage is hanging from an 'A' frame constructed over the head of a shaft on the Golden Orchid line of reef.

On a site that is of heritage significance - simply filling in a shaft is out of the question. In cases where a Hazard Mitigation Assessment has determined that there is an unacceptable risk, specially designed barriers have been installed in many shafts. These barriers are suspended from stainless steel  pins that extend into holes bored into the sides of the shaft.

Here I am in the Golden Orchid No1 South (the Hermits Shaft) drilling holes for a safety screen.

And here is the finished screen, I am suspended over fifty yards of nothing. (The beard is a result of four months in the hills. Banished as soon as I set foot in the door at home - my darling wife has a particular dislike for furry faces not attached to cats.)

You're wondering what is down below me?

The hermit shaft was worked over a hundred years ago and is full of 'ratters tunnels' like this. This piccie was taken while I was on my knees near the end of the long drive on level one (about sixty yards in). Here the adit splits. To the right is a dead end only a few yards distant, to the left? Nobody knows. I was at the end of my lifeline so I turned back.

Note the miners pick marks. I could almost hear the echo of their work in the deathly silence. These tiny tunnels were gouged out of a very hard granodiorite by men working alone and largely by candleleght.

Grey nose bats gave me the willies. (In fact, all bats give me the willies.)  I don't mind snakes. Spiders are a mere annoyance. Crocodiles and sharks can be avoided. But in a close and dark mine shaft, deep underground, bats cannot be avoided. They have taken several years off my life.

But despite the bats, few things in life compare to the thrill of being lowered in a cage down a shaft nobody has entered in living memory.

PLEASE TAKE CARE  ON OLD INDUSTRIAL SITES - WATCH YOUR CHILDREN LIKE HAWKS AND READ AND HEED ANY WARNING SIGNS THAT MIGHT BE POSTED - THESE ARE INTERESTING PLACES WORTHY OF OUR ATTENTION BUT THEY ARE ALSO DANGEROUS AND MUST BE TREATED WITH DUE CARE AND ATTENTION

NEVER ENTER A MINE SHAFT OR ADIT UNLESS ACCOMPANIED BY TRAINED AND QUALIFIED PERSONNEL

photos taken on the Miclere, Normanby, and Eungella Gold Fields, Central Queensland, Australia. (in the hills behind Mackay)