During a recent tour around the golden triangle of Victoria I discovered a new campsite that I would like to share with you all called Melville caves camp ground. It stands close to the top of an interesting hill between Bendigo and Wedderburn and is named after Captain Melville a highwayman who used to hold up the gold shipments travelling from Wedderburn to Melbourne and used the hill top as his hide out and vantage point.
The area of the hill features huge boulders of crumbly and apparently easily weathered rock and it is between these boulders that the 'caves' are to be found.
According to Parks Victoria searching for minerals is allowed within 200m of the white swan mine located nearby so I picked up a likely looking rock for later inspection during my walkabout of the area. Sure enough when I later crushed it and panned the resulting gravel there was a small gold flake to be found!
About 400m from the camp ground is this beautiful viewpoint
The campsite is a real gem and I was treated to a night without flies or mosquitoes and clear skies with excellent stargazing. There is plenty of space in the camp and some long drop toilets but no other facilities (it is free after all!).
The campsite is quite large and can accomodate many campers. There was a school trip at the other end of the camp and I could barely hear them they were so far away.
There are some walks that start and finish at the campsite and plenty of local wildlife. I was fortunate enough to see two huge wedge tailed eagles take off from a tree at the roadside as I drove in. The views from the viewpoint at the top of the hill are absolutely stunning.
Happy camping guys!
