Where shall we go? | photo Rudy

Tuesday 22 March 2022: Mt Ainslie Quarries and the Labyrinth ! S/E. Armed with a couple of locations from the great Mts Ainslie-Majura information on Greg’s website here, a little morning wander to the quarries.

Summary

Distance: 9.7km | Climb: 332m | Time: 2hrs 42mins moving plus 15mins of me sitting and puffing | Grading: M/E; M(8-).

Photographs

Photographs are available here.

gpx File

Download the gpx file recorded via AllTrails here (in AllTrails, activate …, Download Route, Select the file format GPX Track, OK).

Another version of the gpx file, recorded on my Garmin Oregon 650 GPSr, is available here. It has quite a few waypoints in it which the AllTrails version doesn’t.

Track Notes

AllTrails trip report.

Keeping away from the car parking chaos at the back of the War Memorial, we parked at the bottom Mt Ainslie Drive car park. The day was warming up to a forecast 29°C. Plenty of options on the handy map signage, but not as many as on Greg’s website.

Many more tracks than shown here, on Greg’s great website

Unfortunately neither helped me. I missed a right turn and Rudy and I walked all the way to the main Mt Ainslie track, then had to double back. We eventually got to the lower quarry.

Quarry 2

Was this a local?

Local inhabitant?

I see that even Parks and Conservation are asking folk not to move any timber in Reserves – they are the homes of many critters. But hard to get that message through to kids.

A great piece of art at the top of the quarry – a roo in a diver’s helmet!

Art at the top of Quarry 2

We continued up to the north, touching the main track on a couple of occasions. Once again I was on the incorrect track, with our next objective swinging towards the starboard beam. So a slither down through the bush on she-oak needles was required. Eventually picked up a track which, as Greg described, was an old tramway track coming down from the quarry. You could tell, because the track benching was super wide, more than required for just a walking track.

A bush track on Mt Ainslie – old tramway benching

It took us to the top quarry.

Quarry 1

A piece of old tram track nearby.

Old track at Quarry 1

Recovering from another navigational indiscretion (thankfully hidden under the ‘Tramway’ waypoint description in the map below), we made it to the top with a lot of puffing from me.

Made it | photo Rudy

Some new to me signage at the top.

No Drone Zone

A little later we ran into a couple of guys parked with a trailer containing a 3 meter high aerial and a generator. Asked what the device was – they were tracking drones!

As always, a lovely view from the top, including the fountain fount-ing.

Canberra, the national capital

Now on the flat and downhill, we made quicker time to the Labyrinth.

Made it to the end

We walked back round the west and south side of the hill, back to the car.

Track Map

The AllTrails recorded track map is here, where you can pan and zoom. And here’s the track laid out on an old TopoView 2006 map segment, but with the waypoints.

Track Mt Ainslie Quarries and the Labyrinth

Party

Rudy, me.