Family History Trails

Today’s travel around the high country is dominated by the McCormack Family History. Their family was in the area in the 1850s to 1870s. Karen has tracked the names of the individuals and has a map of the area. The names on the map from the time do not match in the slightest, so the name at the time was Begary Station, this does not exist any more as it was sold in the 1870s. So off to Biggara we go, as it has a close name and is the general vicinity.

After following the Murray River up to Damms Bridge until we are unable to go any further. Using trove we believe one of the McCormacks had a property at the highest point on the Indi River at the time in Victoria. The Indi River was later renamed the Murray River when they learnt it was the same river but had been a mistake in the cartography.

This Family history work sure helps you build an appetite, so it was time to stop and have some lunch. A little back tracking and we found the Indi Reserve. This looked like a place to have a spot of lunch. We decided that it being a nice warm day, that we would have lunch sitting in the Murray River, it is something that I think everyone should experience, probably best for the summer months though, as even on a high twenties day the water was still a little nippy to start.

Spot of lunch in the Murray River at Indi Reserve Biggera

So while I was making lunch Karen was busily tracking Google Earth looking for McCormacks Track. After 10 minutes of searching we found it and it was only 5kms down the road, back towards Bunroy. As we are heading up Bunroy Rd following McCormacks Creek we spot the sign for McCormacks Gap track and follow it to the end.  We reach the end it, its gated and we are not sure if it is right of way, so we turn around and go back to McCormacks track. Using Google Earth and our mapping software we can see that if we go to Thowgla we can see the other end of the track.

On our way back to the other end of the track at Thowgla, we stopped at the Toowong Racecourse to take some photos as the grandstand is beautiful. Once we got there we learnt some important details about the racecourse. Many moons ago Phar Lap ran at the race track and finished dead last for the country race, good to see if you keep trying you can become the best of your time. The other important thing to find out was that Phar Lap the movie was made at Toowong as the grandstand represented Melbourne of the time. As we were leaving the racecourse we went past the information board where we looked at the name of the big races. Karen then proudly states that her brother-in law Hectors family had won the Garyowen trophy on more than one occasion, this is a prestigious award named after the horse that came from the district and owned by the Muriels family.