Wallace's steam traction engine

Just down below Hat Hill (down the road from my house) is 'Wallace Country', part of the World Heritage Blue Mountains National Park. In 1928, two brothers, Tim and Eric Wallace began coal mining exploration in the Grose Valley, bringing with them a steam traction engine, which was used to haul on the steel cables of an aerial ropeway they had constructed to haul coal and timber up from the base of the cliffs through the gully.

This is their steam engine. Lewis Hodgkinson, a neighbour and very interesting man (died about 5 years ago, after being the eldest person in the village for some years) remembers the brothers driving the steam engine very slowly, but with a great deal of fanfare down Hat Hill Road in 1928. It was an amazing sight for the young dairy farm boy at the time.

The engine lies well within the bush - you have to know where it is to find it - there are no tracks to it, the consequence of which, things still just lie where the brothers left them. It's pretty damn interesting.

As luck would have it, Alive to Look has today posted a photo of the Grose Valley. The engine is within 20 metres of so from the cliff edge into this valley - it's quite a view!