Johnny Boy's Walkabout Blog

Sunday 4 May 2025: Bendora Arboretum and Bendoura Hill * – M/M. Bendora Arboretum in the Brindabellas is the last remaining remote arboretum. Planted in 1940, it may well be showing off Autumn colours. We’ll walk the 1.5km along fire trail, visit Bendora Hut, then wander the trails through the different blocks of trees. We’ll next walk 3km along Chalet Road (the old route along the Brindabella Range crest) to pop out onto the Mt Franklin Road. This junction is an interesting area containing two old blaze trees. We will return to our vehicles off-track 3.5km along the ACT-NSW border, climbing first to a 1420+m high knoll, then down and up to Bendoura Hill at 1451m ASL. A northern spur descends to our start. This last leg may well be scrubby. Around 9km and 350vm.

Summary

From Garmin Connect (recorded on Epix Gen 2) – Distance: 9.04km | Climb: 310vm | Time: 2:26 moving + 2:48 of stops = 5:14 | Grading: M/M; M(8).

Photographs

View photographs here. There are more photos than those embedded.

gpx file

Download the gpx file here.

Track Map

Here’s where we went:

Trip Report

½I was last at Bendora Arboretum on 20 Jun 20, when my dear brother-in-law and his partner took me on a short stroll when I was crook. Last on Bendoura Hill on 16 Mar 19.

We met in Weston at 7.30am and took the 55km drive via Uriarra Crossing and Piccadilly Circus on sealed and dirt roads slowly. Shook out and walking by 8.40am.

It was a beautiful Autumn day, blue sky and no breeze. I was determined to enjoy this trip at an amble. We walked in Chalet Road towards the arboretum and stopped at Jim Andreson’s shower corner. As coincidence would have it, Tim the Yowie Man did a fantastic spread on Bendora Arboretum in this weekend’s Canberra Times (and, even more coincidentally, on Tim’s visit he met one of today’s walkers there!). TYM mentioned the corner site. So I took a ‘shower’.

This is, of course, a furphy, as Cla Allen writes in his Hiking from early Canberra, Cla Allen, Canberra, 1977, ISBN 0 9596981 0 8, pp 53-54:

 “Mal and Tim had been fishing well above Tops Flats on the Cotter River. Jim cycled to Bendora on the Franklin Road and descended towards Cow Flats higher on the Cotter. He camped on the slope and found the others next morning. On the return trip near Bendora, Jim took a shower in the water falling from a length of bark on the side of the eastern bulge of the Mt Franklin Road [Chalet Road was the original alignment of the Mt Franklin Road]. The bark trough had been planned to direct water from a small creek into the mobile tanks (furphies) used by the road gang. John Cumpston named the creek ‘Anderson’s Shower’. The name of the area was changed to Bendora much later when a forestry camp was established there.”

We walked on to Bendora Hut at the top of the arboretum.

Plenty of signage to inform us.

We had a look inside the hut at the NASA packing case wall linings.

And the fireplace, somewhat uniquely placed on the long wall.

We then took our time following the lovely wandering path through the arboretum.

The Mountain pepper shrubs were glossy leaved and a couple of us tasted the leaves. Aptly named.

I was most keen to see the colour of the European larch. Nice, but has been better in wetter years.

There are several more photos of arboretum trees in the photo album.

We stopped for morning tea at a convenient bench, with some choosing the ground in the sun.

Back up at the top of the arboretum (after a bit of a false start), we regained Chalet Road and ambled along it.

We had views to the Tidbinbilla Range that we climbed/descended on 19 Apr 25.

Passed the intersection with Parrot Road and popped out in the area of the intersection with the Mt Franklin Road.

Chalet Road was the original route from Piccadilly Circus, wholly within the ACT. But patched were boggy (when the climate was wetter), so the route along the top of the Brindabella Range was changed to the Mt Franklin Road. A lot of Mt Franklin Rd is actually in NSW. Anyway, we visited the 7½ Mile blaze tree.

The 11 Mile border marker was close by and it seemed a spot in the sun for an early lunch.

Our return leg took us back along the ACT-NSW border, up over a knoll, then up over Bendoura Hill. (Does anyone know why it is Bendora Arboretum but Bendoura Hill? Is it just a cartographer’s error or is there some significance?

My only slight disappointment of the day was that my companions were not as keen as I was to dart into the bush to find border markers.

Not wishing to bore fellow walkers, I skipped many border markers loaded in my GPS. But I couldn’t resist a few more 😊.

True to the general principle of damper South facing slopes and dryer North facing slopes, the gentle climb to the first knoll was quite scrubby (well, shrubby). But in most places there was a cleared route through the trees along the border, and in a few places signs of an old vehicle track. That’s except for the final part of the leg down to our cars, which was quite scrubby.

Like some other parts of the border up away from dry and uninteresting fire trails, there were some very pleasant bits.

No photo of Bendoura Hill, which is flat-ish and with little view. But it does have a border marker!

A final bush bash and we were out near the cars.

A most enjoyable trip. I trust everyone got something out of it.

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

Party

13 walkers – Cathie B, Anna G, Karina J, Can L, Lisa M, Stephen M, Jingjing P, Dana P, Wendy Q, Makenna S, Sandra T, Lelde V, me.