Tucked behind a quiet street in Harrietville lies a fascinating and unlikely gem—a tranquil swimming hole surrounded by native bush, walking tracks and gold mining history. The Tronoh Dredge Hole is an absolute favourite with anyone who goes there and it’s just received a little makeover for summer.
“We love to walk in the reserve and swim and kayak and fish and it’s a great place to start those longer walks into the national park,” says local Eleanor Hoy, an environmental scientist and chair of the reserve’s committee of management.
“It’s really transformed under the community’s guidance and volunteer efforts from a place that was an abandoned and unrehabilitated mining site into a great recreational reserve that is much more nature-oriented now,” she says.
It’s hard picture it today, but this beautiful reserve was once the site of the largest gold mining dredge in the entire Southern Hemisphere; a huge 167 metre boat-like chunk of metal that weighed 4,813 tonnes and could dig up gold from the riverbed from as deep as 41 metres. The dredge would move up and down a 7-kilometre section of the Ovens River, extracting gold, and turn around in the site of today’s Dredge Hole. The operation, which ran between 1942 and 1954, produced more than 1,530 kilograms of gold and was so big it changed the course of the Ovens River. That said, the size of what you see today is just a fraction of what once stood there, with much of the hole filled in during restoration. The change is remarkable.
“It provides a lot of habitats for flora and fauna,” says Eleanor. “So it’s very natural and it was done entirely by the community. It’s so well loved because of that.”
Volunteers in the small community have spent decades restoring the reserve and its alpine creek-fed waterhole. It’s a wonderful place for swimming, paddleboarding, trout fishing, picnics and BBQs. An easy 1.5 kilometre walking track takes you around the water’s edge and through tranquil bushland. It’s also the base for visiting the nearby gold diggings walks on the southern side of the waterhole, as well as the bucket-list hikes of Bungalow Spur Track (which leads to the 1,922 metre summit of Alpine National Park’s Mount Feathertop) and Bon Accord Spur Track (which cuts up to the stunning Razorback Ridge that connects Mount Feathertop and Mount Hotham).
To better service the many activities in the area, the Tronoh Dredge Hole Precinct has just received an upgrade that houses a new car park and picnic shelter. You’ll find it on Feathertop Track, Harrietville. Trailheads have also been improved and a footbridge over the Ovens River now allows walkers to access the Bon Accord Track directly from the Dredge Hole.
For those wanting to delve deeper into the fascinating mining history of Harrietville, which dates back to 1852, the Harrietville Museum on the Great Alpine Road has a great display of original artefacts. The museum is housed in Barker’s Cottage, an original miner’s cottage, and this summer the display is about to get even larger, with the reopening of the museum’s Gold Shed on Saturday 6 December 2025.
The museum is conveniently located next to the Harrietville Bakery, right between the town’s two pubs, two coffee shops and Mexican restaurant, making a trip to the museum and Tronoh Dredge Hole a lovely day out.
December 2025