Cross of Gold

The section of road between Hotham and Dinner Plain was the last to be sealed back in April 1998, at which point the Great Alpine Road moniker was struck. The dirt track across the top of Hotham had previously been traversed by gold miners, the Mount Baldy shaft within 100m of the Hotham summit being the country’s highest gold mine. Rocks had to be carted 30km to Harrietville for crushing, though, an activity which soon proved uneconomical as the 75cm-wide reef’s 28g-per-tonne yield withered.