This is a historical look at the property at Captains Flat where we lived for about 30 years  (1989 - 2017)
We lived on the family property, Mikulov, outside the village of Captains Flat, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) south east of Canberra, the capital city of Australia. The 100 acres is mostly forested, both with native eucalypts and planted Radiata pines (Pinus radiata). The bitumen road ends just past our house, and prospective visitors reached for a pen and paper when they phoned for directions to get to Mikulov.

In all our years there, we could count on the fingers of one hand the folks who arrived at our door saying “We were just passing by, so thought we would stop in and say Hello!”

There were many positive aspects to life away from the busy city of Canberra. Kangaroos and yellow tailed black cockatoos were abundant and the occasional wombat tried to settle in under the house, until we crated and relocated the indignant marsupial. Blue tongued lizards were active through summer, and a few echidnas were seen digging into the earth when startled.

The property was the former Lake George Mines Company site for underground mining of silver, lead and zinc. Mara's parents, Alois and Vanda Mikula purchased it after the Company was liquidated in 1963. The house we lived in had been converted from the Company’s office building, and we slowly rejuvenated a few rooms. The first room completed was a guest bedroom - we had our priorities right, as visitors often stayed overnight - of course their dogs were welcomed. The back part of the house was a series of workshops, much to Richard’s delight, as he crammed them full of all manner of tools, machinery and items of potential use. Mara used a spare room for her craft items, and spent many hours relaxing while producing knitted, cross stitched and (since mid 2012) patchwork items.

 

The large yards for the dogs were enclosed by 1.8 metre high cyclone wire cemented into the ground and which opened onto a grassed exercise area, similarly fenced.

Scenes of snow like this in June 2015 were a prime reason in our move to a warmer climate.

 

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An overview of the mine workings - which can be enlarged by clicking here

 

 
The entire Site is dominated by the remains of the Crusher, which has been slowly deteriorating since March 1963     Click for an enlargement

 

This view of a portion of the disused Mine shows the lookout above the village, as well as the grassed and re-generated tailings dump, seen as the green terraced slope at the left.  Click for an enlargement

 
A closer view of the rolling crushers which broke up the ore into manageable pieces for processing

 

A row of 4 settling tanks dominates the former Lake George Mine works, and adds a historical flavour to the view over our back fence.
Built above the railhead, ore dropped through the floor of this weigh station into train trucks, for transport to Wollongong / Port Kembla for export

 

6  April 2006    ~         a BIG LETTER day here

The unearthing of the original facade for the Lake George Mines main entrance

 

This was done to highlight the history of the Mines and as part of the reclamation work, which seemed to go on all around us as we continued through the year.

 

Concrete and etched with the Mine name and the year it was opened - 1937 this entrance had remained buried since it was bulldozed shut back in 1963

 

 

Mulligan shared the occasion with me and we waited for our turn to get a picture.

 

 Click here to go to Mara's record of the work at it progressed

 

St Luke's Church

In 2001, the Centenary of Federation Year, Mara's father, Alois Mikula OAM designed, constructed and fitted five stained glass picture windows for St Luke's Anglican Church in Captains Flat. These were to replace the originals which had been broken over the years and which needed restoration.   Click here to see the windows and read more about them.

Captains Flat

 

Mills Cross Radio Telescope

Of interest locally is the Mills Cross Radio Telescope, operated by the University of Sydney.

Here are links to some articles about this radio telescope.

http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/astrop/most/

http://www.atnf.csiro.au/news/newsletter/oct01/focus_hist.htm

http://www.tip.csiro.au/History/PottsHill.htm

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Mills.html