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THE APPROACH TO HEATHCOTE
The best approach to Heathcote from Melbourne is through Romsey and
Lancefield. On leaving Lancefield and crossing the Divide, you drive
through rugged scenic country dominated by huge granite rocks. Many
of these were dropped out of melting glaciers, and the striated pavements
scratched by the passing ice. As you approach the T-junction with the
Mclvor Highway at Tooborac, the country flattens out. The Mclvor creek
flows on the left hand (east) side of the highway to Heathcote. The
country you are now seeing is formed of sediments laid down on the floor
of a sea that covered the area in the Devonian period. It is estimated
that when the sea receded, about 7,000 metres of mud was left. Three
classes of events have occurred to modify the situation since.
THE GEOLOGICAL PROCESS
1. The first geological process,
which began the moment the surf receded over the horizon, was erosion.
Most of that seven kilometres of soft sediments began to wash down drainage
lines and was blown by the wind into the Murray basin, so forming the
flat country to the north and west. As the mud hardened, various forces
such as gravity, tectonic plate movements and volcanic pressures acted
on it to tilt and fold the flat sheets into a tangled complex form.
The results of these forces can be seen in road cuts along the Mclvor
and Northern Highway and on the Heathcote-Nagambie road.
2. The next process was the one
that subsequently had a key influence on the history and economy of
Heathcote from 1852 until today. This was the welling up of molten rock
and the eruption of volcanoes through the sediments. This puffing of
magma up into the sedimentary rocks baked or metamorphosed these into
harder minerals with changed chemistry, appearance and physical characters.
The igneous material intruding the sediments also brought solutions
of soluble metal compounds and these solidified and interacted with
the mixture of igneous and sedimentary rocks in complex ways to leave
deposits of insoluble compounds. The most important of these in economic
terms was gold, but ores of silver, copper, antimony etc were also laid
down, together with numerous minerals with a beautiful appearance such
as jasper, chert, selwynite, and corundum.
The main outcrop of igneous Cambrian rock, the Heathcote Greenstone
occurs in a strip running from the south end of Heathcote to the junction
of the Mclvor and Northern Highway at the north end of the town. The
outcrop then follows the west side of Mount Ida to become really impressive
as Mount Camel and Mount Pleasant, bare rolling hills to the west of
the Northern Highway towards Toolleen; this is said to be the largest
lump of Cambrian rock in Victoria, so enjoy it!
These Cambrian rocks burst onto the scene through two cracks, the Mclvor
fault which runs to the east of the creek and the Heathcote fault which
runs from the Argyle forest in the south through Red Hill and Bald Hill
to cross the Mclvor creek just north of the Bendigo to Elmore road junction.
These faults represent a very long split running throughout Victoria
and are even associated with changes in the course of the Murray.
The faults are cracks between two plates of sedimentary rock.
Did the faults result from tectonic movements of the plates or was it
split open by a volcanic hot spot pushing from below? Ask a geologist!
To the north the Mclvor fault becomes renamed as the Mt Ida fault and
passes to the west of Mt Ida. The Heathcote fault continues north to
the west of Mount Camel until we lose interest in it towards Elmore.
So the Heathcote area can be considered as two slabs of rolling, folded,
eroded sedimentary rocks separated by a strip of super complex minerals
formed by volcanoes, igneous intrusion and metamorphosed sediments with
all sorts of mineral lying around in the rubble. However there is another
complication...
3. Press on along the road to Eppalock
Bridge 6 km from town and you run into the residues of those ice sheets
that grooved the rocks south of Tooborac. The rolling country here is
made up of gravel dropped from the toe of an ice sheet or glacier flowing
north and west, off the dividing range. The rocks and gravel fragments
found in this tillite mostly came from miles away to the south. This
glacial tillite country starts at the north- west end of the One-eye
forest at Derrinal and runs south through the Spring Plains area and
far off to the north.
GOLD DEPOSITS FORMED
During the erosion/weathering process of the Cambrian intrusion lumps
of heavy gold were left behind in the creek beds and this alluvial gold
was easily discovered and extracted. When this gold was exhausted, methods
of mining deep leads of gravel were worked out. Subsequently gold locked
up in quartz outcrops was identified and extracted by crushing. Modern
methods have enabled stage four of gold extraction to be started, using
machinery to remove overburden and pick out mineralised rock patches
from more than 100 metres below the surface. The geology exposed by
this process is spectacular and the scars left on the country are horrific.
The sedimentary rocks to the east of the creek include Mt Ida and the
Range reserve and are Devonian in period; they are a mixture of sandstones,
silts, mudstones, shales and conglomerates. Some of these can be identified
by characteristic fossils, others are fossil free. As you drive towards
Costerfield you cross sequentially the Mt Ida, Dargile, Wapentake and
Costerfield series. Another fault occurs at Costerfield also running
north-south. This does not seem to be associated with outcrops of igneous
rocks, but the sedimentary rocks became metamorphosed and mineralised
along the fault lines and have been (and are being) mined for gold,
antimony etc.
The 'Pink
Cliffs' region, near Heathcote township.
To the west of the Heathcote fault the country is also sedimentary,
and looks similar to the Costerfield country but the sandstones and
mudstones are older, dating from the Ordovician period and known as
the Lancefieldian series. These sediments are partially covered by the
glacial gravels already mentioned, which stretch from north of Eppalock
to south of Spring Plains. The Lancefieldian sediments then continue
west to the Campaspe River.
The complex rocks in the fault system running through Heathcote are
known to geologists as the Heathcote Greenstone, though to a botanist
they mostly seem pink, red, white and brown! They include granodiorite,
volcanic ash, acid dykes dating from the Devonian and altered Cambrian
sediments such as Schistose Diabase and Agglomerates.
................................................................................................................
Source:- Geology Discovery Guide to Heathcote's
Forests, "Tracks & Trees", Heathcote Forest Ecotourism
Project.
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Sanguine
Estate’s inaugural vintage released in 2000 scored an amazing
98/100 (Vintage Direct Issue 49 September 2001 - see below). The wine
was described as a "fruit bomb" and according to one American
wine writer, “ finished with a 45 second residual sensation“
making him an instant fan. The word quickly spread and the entire
vintage sold out in less than one week.
Robert
Parker Junior Tasting Notes: 2001 Sanguine Estate Heathcote Shiraz
A dense opaque purple color is followed by complex aromatics of
smoke, blackberries, cassis and subtle wood. This opulently-textured,
full-bodied, rich, dense shiraz boasts great ripeness as well as purity.
Drink this impressive offering from Victoria over the next 10-15 years.
-The
Wine Advocate Issue 143 (30/10/2002)
Vintage
Direct Newsletter Issue 49
2000 Sanguine Estate Heathcote Shiraz
Opaque crimson
mauve colour. The nose is enormous and heralds the power of the palate
and aftertaste. Strong aroma of spice, blackpeppers, blackberry concentrate,
plum,spicy oak and liquorice fill the head with a wonderful aroma
of ripe shiraz. The palate is explosive- if the term fruit bomb was
to be applied to a wine, then this is it. Blackpepper, blackberry
and spice flavours encase every crevice of the palate. Fine grained
tannins, perfect balance, followed by an exceptionally long aftertaste
of blackberries, blackpepper, plum and spice. THE START OF A NEW AUSTRALIAN
CLASSIC.
RATING: 98/100 VALUE: XXXXX/5
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