Moondarra State Park

November 5, 2015 Published by admin

Moondarra State Park is a lovely spot North of Yallourn North accessible from Moe-Walhalla Road.

The park is huge there are lots of four wheel drive tracks, in the drive car there was no possibility of taking those. A sign pointing to a bitumen road promised the Moondarra Reservoir (and the Moe Gun Club). This road led to a lovely reserve on the East side of the Moondarra Reservoir. This is a well maintained reserved with lovely grassy areas, a number of things to discover while strolling around. (If this blog doesn’t get the word out about the park it almost feels like it’s your own private gardens – that you don’t have to work to maintain.) There was also history to discover.

Gould

The town of Gould was formerly here, it could be said this town was dammed. This town seems to have slipped quietly into the Moondarra Dam. Different to other towns, it was never officially “crowned town”. The Brown’s, Siddle’s, Taylor’s and Master’s owned land on the edge of the Tyers River. There was land where a school was built, and a public hall. Even though it wasn’t officially a town the town had no problem with mail delivery.

The school built by the locals with some government assistance, opened in 1914 with Miss Gibbons and Miss Campey was the head teacher.

The Tyers river was a popular fishing spot on the weekend. The locals fed themselves by fishing, raising pork and growing tick beans. The locals also grew maize, although the parrots ate so much of it.

The public shelter at the Moondarra reservoir is said to be the Cecil Inn relocated when the town was moved on.

Morgan had sawmill at Jacobs Creek he used to take the wood into Moe via horse in the early days, when Gould’s railway was finished he linked a tramway to the railway making transport easier.

In 1959 the Moondarra reservoir commenced building, it took two years to build, taking away the entire township of Gould.