11 May 2010 Border Markers south of Mt Gingera
Map: Corin Dam 1:25000
Getting There
This walk was organised and led by me as an irregular CBC Tuesday walk:
Tuesday 11 May- Border Markers south of Mt Gingera - L/M-R,ptX. Go flat out like a lizard drinking up Stockyard Spur and along the Mt Franklin fire trail to south of Mt Gingera. Follow the border through Blackfellows Gap and 'Ginger Ale' maybe as far as Rolling Ground Gap. Return along the road and down before sunset. Around 28km and 1500m climb. Map: Corin Dam. Leader: John Evans - jevans@pcug.org.au, (h) 6288 7235. Transport: ~$10 per person.
5 of us met at Kambah at 6am and drove to Corin Dam. Around a 45min trip.
Further Information
We have been as far south as border marker O58 on the SE spur up to Mt Gingera. Civil twilight from GeoScience Australia is Rise 0621 Set 1738; Sunrise/sunset is Rise 0648 Set 1712.
Photographs
Access all primary pics here. All thumbnails in the walk report are active - click for a larger picture.
Walk
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| Track overview | Track a | Track b | Track c | Track profile |
This walk involved a quick insert to our previously southern-most border marker found on 19 May 09. It had many objectives - could we find the lost mobile phone; how much had our fitness deteriorated in a year; and, of course, could we find more border markers.
The first matter was dealt with summarily - the culprit responsible for the loss admitted finding it in a 'secret' compartment in his pack some months after the loss.
The second was a matter of much huffing and puffing as we toiled up the footpad from Corin Dam to Stockyard Spur - the 2.2km and 550m climb over in 52mins. Yes! 3mins quicker than a year ago. Like good wine, we're getting better with age.
We wandered on past the remains of the brumby yard at UTM 55H 662114-6064190 (GDA94), hit the Mt Franklin Road at the Stockyard Spur marker pole and went on to Pryors Hut. A very respectable 2hrs for the 7.5km and 800m total climb.
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| Brumby Yard remains |
The morning was blue-sky, but a strong, blustery and cold wind was blowing. That kept us going after our 10min morning tea. The next leg was a 4km trudge further south along the Mt Franklin Road/fire trail, past the turn off of the track to Mt Gingera and to a point just NE of SH1662. Here we headed SW up through the bush to the ridge-top, looking for our first border marker of the day. We found O58, P58 and Q58 as we came down the spur towards Blackfellows Gap:
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| O58 | P58 | Q58 |
I wasn't expecting too much at Blackfellows Gap. We'd been through here on 9-10 Jan 09, and the map recce showed at least two border markers in the middle of the road. However, approaching the road as we came to the bottom of the spur, a real gem was delivered. R58 was an original (now rotting and burnt) 8" Post. And on the nearby tree the survey blaze was obvious (but nearly closed over and unreadable). The post was surrounded by a ring of small rocks, flush with the ground. We added some side protection. A real find!
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| R58 | 1 R58 and survey blaze | R58 after conservation | Fungus on R58 blaze tree |
As suspected, S58 and T58 have been bulldozed. Here's a pic of T58, surrounded by glum and dissatisfied border marker hunters:
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| T58 is (not) here |
We could not find the 24 Mile marker (as I haven't worked out the exact location - just had a distance from T58 (which wasn't there)).
We had a better run up the spur towards 'Ginger Ale', finding U58, V58, W58, X58, Y58 and Z58:
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| U58 | V58 | W58 | X58 | Y58 | Z58 |
Y58 is an interesting presentation of a border marker. Monika stands at the border corner. With pink gloves she indicates the direction of the arms of the lockspit. Max and Eric stand at the extents of the arms of the lockspit. Very graphic.
We were getting a bit peck-ish by now, but decided to press on up the spur to the top. We found border markers A59, B59, a nice rock shelter just on from B59, (fairly sure we found C59, but it was substantially built up above ground level and we couldn't find the 1" Galv pipe, so I won't claim a bag), D59, E59 and F59:
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| A59 | B59 | Rock Shelter at UTM 55H 660525-6058807 (GDA94) | D59 | E59 | F59 |
We had a poke around F59, originally described as "1" Pipe and Cairn Station on Boulder", a quick look out to the W into NSW, then retreated out of the howling and cold wind to the E lee for lunch. Very welcome as it was now 12.15pm and we'd been at it for around 5 and a half hours.
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| View SW into NSW from near 'Ginger Ale' |
We set off to return at 12.40pm, couldn't find a lost map at C59, then trundled vaugely down NE to the Mt Franklin fire trail just S of Blackfellows Gap. Golly the new Garmin Oregon 550 GPS is accurate - both for border marker hunting and also showing where the owner heads a little S to water a tree then back.
It just remained for us to retrace our steps. Some interesting bits of macro life as we headed N:
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| 2 Mountain grasshopper on Mt Franklin Road | 3 Mt Franklin Road-side community |
Excellent info via Richard from one of Australia's leading grasshopper experts, David R: "That is a great shot of the Mountain Katydid, Acripeza reticulata. It’s a female. All that display is to warn potential predators that the beast is distasteful or downright poisonous. There is no other katydid species quite like that. The males are long and slender and can fly, but they have the same colour pattern."
Views from and on the Mt Franklin Road:
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| Mt Namadgi, Mt Kelly and the Kelly Spur from the Mt Franklin Road | Mountain Ash through to Mt McKeahnie from the Mt Franklin Road | Trudging the Mt Franklin Road | Good water crosses the Mt Franklin Road SE of Mt Gingera |
For an hour or so as we tromped around Mt Gingera, it looked as though we'd get very wet. But the sky cleared (the cold wind didn't cease) back to its blue-sky start. A 5min break at Pryors Hut, then the final leg. I tossed up the safety of having a spare 1+hrs (we arrived back at Corin Dam at 4.05pm and sunset was at 5.12pm with civil sunset at 5.38pm) versus searching for further border markers for another 30mins or so, but decided the former was the better option.
So the day's bag was 15 border markers found, plus 1 possible. 2 border markers are not extant and the 24 Mile marker was missed.
A great party consisting of Eric G, Karen C, Monika G, Max S and me.
Distance: 31.1km Climb: 1300m. Time: 6.50am - 4.05pm (9hrs 15mins), with 40mins of stops.
Grading: L/M-R,ptX; H(14)
KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: Border Markers S of Mt Gingera
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This page last updated 16Aug22