NEFN outing to Griffin’s Tunnel

The June outing of the NEFN was a little different from the normal Saturday get-together. The 25 members who assembled at Poimena on the Blue Tier were equipped with gumboots, head-torches and even waders – not the usual attire for the usual bush walk through a rainforest. The destination for this particular day was below ground into an old tin miner’s tunnel.

Bartholomew Griffin was a miner and publican on the Blue Tier whose tunnel, known as Griffin’s Tunnel, was constructed in the 1920’s to extract tin from the granite rock. Griffin mined on the Tier and ran one of the two hotels at Poimena from 1907 until 1923. He died in the Scottsdale hospital in 1939 and is buried in the Ellesmere cemetery.

The tunnel is a short walk from the site of the township of Poimena and runs underneath the old Blue Tier road that leads to Weldborough.

Wading quietly in single file, probing the depth of water with walking poles, we saw numerous cave spiders, Hickmania troglodytes, along with their egg sacs and hordes of young.

(Click the images for a much better view)

Small numbers of glow worms with their glowing tails were also seen amongst the sticky strands of their curtain-like webs. The occasional Mole Creek cave cricket rounded out the collection of creatures living in the darkness in this long abandoned relic of the heyday of tin mining in north-east Tasmania.

As we explored further, we found a second entrance to the tunnel, two impressive air shafts and a large chamber that easily accommodated all members of the party for a group photo. Above ground, we located the air shafts and a large open cut section of the mine, along with some beautiful fungi and lichens before retracing our steps to the carpark and lunch.

The day was led by David Waldron whose passion for all things Blue Tier was evident. A short stop to inspect the original and extremely impressive old Crystal Creek bridge rounded out a fascinating and very different day.