Yesterday's fortune

Drove out through the hilly country towards the north west of Orange - scrubby, dry sclerophyl land mostly, steep in parts. One of its treasures is Ophir, where the first saleable gold was discovered in 1851 - now deserted, although you can still try panning in the streams. We looked, dreamed....and marvelled at the hopes, the loneliness and the fluctuations in the lives of the early folk who staked so much on these areas.