Gold Escort Route Westprint

Gold Escort Route Westprint Edition 2

The Gold Escort Route between Adelaide and Castlemaine is amongst the oldest interstate roads in Australia and possibly the oldest and most original that can still be travelled. Following the Gold Escort Route introduces travellers to the first direct route between Adelaide and Melbourne.

The route follows station tracks used by pioneer settlers in the mid-1840s when there were no maps, few sign posts and water was unreliable. The huge Mount Alexander gold rush in Victoria resulted in the establishment of the South Australian Gold Escort Route used to transport miners’ gold back to Adelaide.This track was used by the Gold Escort Service for two years but continued to be used as the Adelaide-Melbourne Road for another 70 years. Some of the tracks in the Little Desert date from 1845 for European use and may well date back for thousands of years for Aboriginal use. Parts have never been maintained by tractor or grader.
Road surfaces vary from bitumen highways to deep sandy tracks suitable only for high clearance 4wd vehicles. Maps show alternative tracks for use where the original Gold Escort Route no longer exists as well as options and warnings for wet weather use.

The Gold Escort Service used different tracks depending on the weather and risk of bushrangers. These are shown so that modern travellers can vary their trips between Wellington and Castlemaine exploring different sections of the Gold Escort Route each time.

This revised second edition now includes additional information and maps showing the routes taken by Chinese people as they walked overland from Robe in South Australia to the Victorian goldfields.

• 2nd Edition
• Publishing January 2024
• Nine Maps from Adelaide to Melbourne
• Field Checked with GPS
• Detail roads and tracks
• National Parks and Reserves
• Heritage and tourist information
• Informative text about the route
• New information and maps on Chinese travellers to the goldfields
• ISBN 9781875608416