Almanac Poetry: Dredge Pond, Harrietville, Victoria
Kevin Densley, in flesh-coloured bathers, and a younger sister paddling in a small waterfall on the Ovens River, Harrietville, around 1970 – she looks very amused! The dredge pond mentioned in the poem below is close by. [Source: family photo album]
Dredge Pond, Harrietville, Victoria
Very still water,
emerald deep;
bottomless, my mother said.
A dredging operation
in days of gold
created this water-filled abyss.
I never wanted to swim here.
What if I got tired
and had to touch the bottom?
(Acknowledgements: this poem first appeared, in a slightly different form, in Space, 2004; then in my first poetry collection, Vigorous Vernacular, Picaro Press, 2008; reprinted by Ginninderra Press, 2018.)
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His sixth book-length poetry collection, Isle Full of Noises, was published in early 2026 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
Nice work Kevin. I’ve been going up to Harrietville regularly since the late 90s. Beautiful part of the world. I even proposed to my wife up there many moons ago – on the mountain overlooking Shady Brook Cottage.
We were up there as recently as late December. Are you talking about the Dredge Hole? Joops Jetty. Very popular spot these days. 40 feet deep I believe. Only place to cool down on a stinker of a day.
Thanks, DB.
I had family connections in the Harrietville area, and we went there a number of times when I was a kid – beautiful part of the world.
We used to call the place in my poem ‘the dredge pond’ – it’s otherwise called the The Tronoh Dredge Hole, Tronoh Dredge Pond etc … various names are given online. (The Tronoh bit comes from the name of the actual dredge used.)
One online source indicates a depth of 40 metres (in the deepest part) – the pond looks about that deep, too, judging by the emerald colour of parts of the surface. My mother somewhat exaggerated to us kids back in the day, when – according to my memory – she mentioned the word ‘bottomless’!
Nostalgic Kevin
We had annual holidays in Harrietville when my kids were growing up and if you weren’t floating in a tractor tube down the Ovens the Dredge Hole was the place to be on a hot day . I recall one summer we were surrounded by fires and the helicopters were filling up out of the dredge . Fires were close but we felt safe as the CFA blokes instilled confidence .
We still spend 2 weeks in Bright every November and a drive to Harrietville is compulsory . The Dredge Hole has been beautified over recent years by the hard working locals and is more popular than ever .
Great, Hayden!
Thanks for your comments – wonderful stuff! The area of north-eastern Victoria incorporating Harrietville, Bright, Porepunkah, Myrtleford and the connected alpine region is paradisal.
There’s a lovely story in my family of my great-uncle Colin, who lived in Harrietville (at the foot of Mt Hotham, as you’d know) – he wanted to get his motorbike licence (circa 1940) and rode his motorbike the sixteen miles from Harrietville to Bright, to the Bright Police Station. When he got there, he told a local copper that he wanted to get his licence – and the policeman asked him (knowing full well how he’d got there) how he’d manged to get to Bright. Uncle Colin, a very honest bloke, told him he’d ridden in from Harrietville – obviously without a licence. “Well, you can obviously ride a motorbike, then,” said the copper, and gave him the licence he wanted!