New blaze at H87, the Mouat Tree now at NVC

Saturday 7 October 2023: Settlers Track and beyond. Starting at Brayshaws Hut we’ll walk the first section of the Settlers Track to Waterhole Hut, then leave the track and make our way up Grassy Creek. We will get onto the Bobeyan Divide and see several of Harry Mouat’s border survey marks dating from 1915, then make our way back down the valley to Westermans Homestead, and back to Brayshaws.

Summary

From Garmin Connect (MAP66i) – Distance: 16.78km | Climb: 360vm (Elev Corrections Enabled) | Time: 4:10 moving + 1:29 of stops = 5:39 | Grading: M/E-M; M(10).

Photographs

View photographs here. There are more photos in the album.

gpx file

Download the gpx file here.

Track Map

Here’s where we went.

Track Settlers Track and beyond. Note: 2003 vintage map, so not all current fire trails shown

Trip Report

I was last on the Settlers Track and the Boboyan Divide on 8 Jul 14 and 30-31 Aug 14.

About 1 hour to drive from Conder to Brayshaws/Settlers Track car park. Toilet there.

Away at 9.10am and down to Brayshaws Hut. A tank there, as with Waterhole Hut and Westermans Homestead.

2023 10 07 Brayshaws Hut

I had a quick look at the Brayshaws Shearing Shed site, nothing recognisable now. Rejoined the others at the nearby Settlers track.

Starting out on the Settlers Track

It was lovely walking. This area, and the Boboyan (Bobeyan) Divide where we were heading, was unburnt in 2003 and 2019-20.

Lovely walking, unburnt country, 1280m contour on flank of Pheasant Hill

We stopped at the Grassy Creek Sheepyards and Dip, where Phillip explained the drop log fencing to us.

Our leader explains the drop log fencing at Grassy Creek Sheepyards

On to Waterhole Hut for smoko. It looked the same as three weeks ago.

We left near the nearby Waterhole Hut horse holding yard site and followed the track down to the Waterhole Stockyards.

Waterhole stockyards

We next visited the Crawford-Perry Hut site. As with many of these sites, only the granite rocks of the fireplace remain.

Crawford-Perry hut site

Next stop was the Burnt Camp site.

Burnt Camp site

Delightful walking after we left the Waterholes Fire Trail.

Open walking after leaving the Waterholes Fire Trail

 

We headed west-ish, then up to the border. Our first contact was at border marker H87.

Border marker H87 lockspit from the NSW side

I was a bit confused. Phillip and I thought this is where the Mouat Tree at the Namadgi Visitors Centre came from. Yet there was a blazed tree there.

New blaze at H87, the Mouat Tree now at NVC

It should have twigged with me at the time, or over lunch which we had there. The blaze and marking doesn’t quite look 100+ years old. It’s a new blaze to mark the area!

Here’s the original in place in 2010. It was dug out, helicoptered to NVC. ‘debugged’ and re-erected!

H87 blaze, now The Mouat Tree

Our leader indulged me with a visit to the 112 Mile marker. An analogy of my life! Fallen over, rotted, but saved.

112 Mile marker

Top left – 2010, standing | top right – 2012, fallen | bottom left – 2013, blaze on underside | middle right – 2014, tree rotting | bottom right – 2015, blaze rescued and in CMAG.

Not much left of it today.

112 Mile blaze tree gone

From here, we dropped down to the Grassy Creek FT. Phillip took us to ‘twin trees’, one Black Sallee, the other Blue Gum.

Phillip’s twin trees – a black sallee and a blue gum

Then it was an amble to Westermans Homestead and Westermans Sheep Dip.

Westermans Homestead (tank)

KHA do a fantastic job.

KHA signage at Westermans

Across the Settlers Track bridge over Grassy Creek and back to the cars.

We took a quick stroll across the road and up to the Tin Dish School site.

Tin Dish School site

A great trip! Thanks Phillip and all!

Party

10 walkers – Helen B, Jacquie B, Tam G, Roger H, Teresa H, Di McD, Graeme McD, Phillip S (leader), Sonja W, me.

AllTrails

The AllTrails map is here, where you can pan and zoom.

Johnny Boy’s Walkabout Blog FaceBook Page

I’ve started up a FaceBook page. Each trip report posts to it. It’s another way to get some info to get out and breathe a bit of fresh air. Why not pop over and Follow the page, or give a post a Like.