http://users.qldnet.com.au/~eachist/ The Eacham Historical Society Inc.
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RUSH TRACK PROJECT RECENT HISTORY & CURRENT CONDITIONS
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RECENT HISTORY The only person to regularly use the track during the last 25 years has been Max Enfield, a resident of Walsh River. Between 1985 and 2009 he made over 250 return trips over the track, with a pack donkey to bring in most of his supplies from Herberton. He no longer has a donkey, however he still continues to walk the track, making the return trip about once a month.
It is because of Mr. Enfield that we know the exact location of the track over virtually the entire section which it is intended to mark.
Mr. Enfield is keen to show the track to anyone who is interested and is the consultant to this project.
CONDITION OF THE TRACK
Over the years that the track was in use, the pack animals indelibly etched a pad into the hard and often stony ground that forms the high country between Walsh River and Herberton.
Within the floor of the Walsh River valley the combined forces of wind and water erosion have obliterated the track except for some short sections between the Bischoff Mill and Toy Creek and a section of several hundred metres between the “clay pan” and Surveyors Creek. However for the remaining 7 or so kilometres the track is for the most part intact except where it has been overlaid by more recently constructed roads.
These extant sections are however difficult to locate and follow except to the initiated. They are all located on publicly accessible land and are divided almost equally between the Herberton and Walsh River sides of the Great Dividing Range
The sections that have been lost lie almost totally on the Walsh River side. They have been "lost" in the sense that whilst we now know the path of the track in most cases to within a few metres there is no supporting evidence on the ground.
