Hidden Valley is 456 acres. It has approximately 180 acres cleared and the rest is lightly timbered bush country. It is a very quiet and private property - high valleys to hill country which borders State Forest and has a hill/bush backdrop. There is mains power available through the property traversing west to east to the back boundary. Originally part of the homestead property, it was subdivided off to make sense of the terrain. It is in the higher country at the southern end and most conveniently accessed via Tatong.
Much of the cleared land was ringbarked in the late 1800's and there are still the remains of a stone hut. The hut was listed as "an old stone hut" on a surveyors map in the early 1900's but there is no true knowledge of who built it. It was used in the early 1900's by someone growing potatoes and also by rabbit trappers a little later. In the 1960's much of the stone was removed by timber cutters to provide a solid surface when their vehicles got bogged. We still refer to the surrounding paddock as "the stone hut paddock". Janette recalls the building in the 1950's as having very, very small openings for windows and a timber and bark roof. We have another paddock on this property which we refer to as the "tin shed paddock". There was a tin shed at the Tatong gate entrance which was used by some prison escapees in the 1960's. This made Lex a little nervous so he and John eventually pulled it down and used the tin elsewhere. |