20 July 2010 More Border Marker Hunting on the Boboyan Divide

Maps: Shannons Flat and Yaouk 1:25000

Getting There

This walk was organised and led by me as an irregular CBC Tuesday walk:

Tuesday 20 July - More Border Marker Hunting on the Boboyan Divide and Scabby Range- L/M-R,ptX. (Rescheduled from 8 June.) Quickly insert to the 112 Mile marker via the Grassy Creek fire trail and a bit of scrub. Follow the border NE through the area where Mouat's and Johnston's surveying parties met in late April 1915 (enjoying a special dessert - half oranges hollowed out and filled with jelly (see p122 of Matthew Higgins' Rugged Beyond Imagination)). Continue on towards marker A86 on the steep SE slopes of Sentry Box Mountain. Exit down Grassy Creek to the Grassy Creek fire trail and so back. Around 21km and 300m climb. Maps: Shannons Flat and Yaouk. Leader: John Evans - jevans@pcug.org.au, (h) 6288 7235. Transport: ~$30 per person.

Further Information

We'll start at the fabulous 112 Mile marker, then follow the border NE onto the Scabby Range.

There is a KHA brochure here. There is an ACT Government brochure here.

Photographs

Access all primary pics here. All thumbnails in the walk report are active - click for a larger picture.

Walk

Track overview	Track a	Track b

A quite successful day, although enthusiasm waned towards the end of the hunt. In all, 12 border markers (Y42, Z42, A43, B43, R87, O87, N87, M87, L87, H87, F87 and B87) and 6 blazes (B43, M87, L87, H87, F87, C87) found; plus 2 possible border markers (P87, K87) and 2 possible blazes (P87, B87); plus 2 other markers found (Parish boundary?, Pipe). We also revisited 1 border marker (W42) and 2 blazes (112M, W42); and revisited the NSW Portion survey blaze. Passed some of the drop log fencing on the border.

In addition, the new Settlers Trail is absolutely wonderful! In particular, the guide posts are most sympathetic - whoever designed them deserves a medal!

A beautiful blue-sky Winter's day as we drove down. A little frosty as we alighted at Brayshaws car park and, with an advance copy of The Settlers Trail brochure, headed over to the new signage. The excellent guide posts marched off to the west. We quickly trod the track round the S flank of Pheasant Hill, passing further signage and another frosted sign uphill from the Grassy Creek sheep yards. Just prior to that was a guide post indicating the 9km and 6km loops of The Settlers Track. Coming out into the open at Grassy Creek (and into the welcome sunshine), another sign pointed out the remnant drop log fencing, a little bridge took us across Grassy Creek, then the track went to Waterhole Hut. A local was reading the signage. 3.9km in 55mins.

Frosted signage for The Settlers Track near Brayshaws Hut	Signage on The Settlers Track and Grassy Creek sheep yards	1 Guide post on The Settlers Track	A local reading the signage for Waterhole Hut

After a brief pause, we headed S from Waterhole Hut to cross the valley floor, then SW up a feeder creek and open lead to hit the border at the 112 Mile survey blaze. Morning tea taken, sitting on the main trunk fallen from above the blaze. Turning NW up the border, we visited W42 and the wonderful W42 blaze (which we'd seen previously on 13 Apr 10.) Now the hunt could begin, in virgin territory.

No joy with X42, but we found Y42 and Z42.

Next came an interesting area which deserves some further investigation. The first marker, a handome (loose) peg remnant propped up in a small cairn, was definitely not A43. This marker, A43, we found a few metres further on, as the photo of both of them show. A43 had a remnant stump of a wooden peg at the centre of the cairn. I'd remembered from the original field note book that there had been a significant degree of prior survey work in this area, so took a guess that this first marker may well be a parish or portion survey marker. There is certainly a marked County border running SW along the Yaouk Bill Range from this point on the Yaouk 1:25000 topo map. 47m on from A43 was a 1" galvinised iron pipe in a cairn. Again, I need to check the survey note book to try to identify this, as there were sometimes intermediate marks. (Yup, a G.I. Pipe at Intersection is noted on page 14 of the field notebook A 1059 - R85 to R87 - FC18 sheet 10 - (PDF 13.7 MB)).

Back on track, B43 with a nice accompanying survey blaze turned up where expected. The last of Johnston's markers.

Y42	Z42	Parish boundary?	Parish boundary? and A43
A43	Pipe	B43	B43 blaze	Detail of 43 on B43 blaze

The next marker, R87, was the last of Moaut's markers. They must have been weary, as neither of these last markers are particularly spectacular. Q87 not found. P87 and a nearby blaze were not convincing - I'll need to look up the survey notebook to see if the blaze is at an expected distance. The ground was quite stony, so it was difficult to identify the border marks, and Q87 could not be found. But the next series of markers revived flagging interest - O87, N87, M87 and blaze (just the C of CT remains visible), L87 and blaze.

R87	P87 - maybe	possible blaze approx 20m from P87	O87	N87
N87	M87	M87 blaze	L87	L87 blaze

K87 was only a possible and J87 and I87 could not be sighted. I forgot to look, but in the survey diary there is reference to an 'Old Ref Tree 32 [State broad arrow]' at 10.4links on 212°09' from I37 - wonder if it's still there. H87 and blaze (CT and the Federal broad arrow visible) appeared on cue and Mike proposed a theory that we'd find every second border marker. The theory stuck for a little while, with G87 not to be found and F87 and blaze found. E87 not found, nor the 57 Mile marker, even though we restraced our steps between F87 and the location of E87. Lunch was called.

With attention flagging I guessed it was time to nearly finish. We could not find D87. The blaze for C87 was on the side of a fire trail at a corner - the border marker would have been smack in the middle of the road. B87 capped off a good day of hunting - the survey notebook described this one as 'Concrete Cylinder' and, indeed it was. In the photo you'll see an area of concrete with a concrete filled metal container in it. In the centre of the container is a small pin. We reconstructed the cairn. We'd seen a couple of blazes with possible small side blazes - there was a nearby tree exhibiting such features.

K87 - possible	H87	H87 blaze	F87	2 F87 blaze
2 F87 blaze	C87 blaze - no BM in middle of fire trail	3 B87 concrete cylinder uncovered	B87 covered	Detail of B87 possible blaze with side blaze

We retraced to the C87 blaze and headed down the fire trail a few tens of metres to join the Grassy Creek fire trail. The alignment of this fire trail fooled me on the last visit and here was an opportunity to wander back along it. Philip pointed out to me that it's been realigned and the other end comes out of the tree line up from Westermans Hut. A pleasant enough tromp back SE along the new Grassy Creek fire trail, passing the intersection with the old fire trail. We continued along the border on the new alignment, touching in one place on the drop log fencing which runs along a substantial part of the border. Skipped a few tens of metres up a link fire trail to the ft on the NSW side of the border, at the site of the NSW Portions survey reference tree. Back to new Grassy Creek ft, we followed it down the creek line towards Westermans, leaving it to go down via the graves.

Visited Westermans Hut area and the new signage. Surprised to see the sheep dip for the first time - I've visited Westermans on several occasions and never known it was there. Picked up the Settlers Trail, over the new bridge (a wedge-tailed eagle rose from a few metres away as we came over the small hill crest) and so back along it to Brayshaws. The signage had defrosted.

Old Grassy Creek ft junction with new Grassy Creek ft	Westermans Hut sheep dip	View to Westermans Hut and candlebark gum from the new seat	Brayshaws Hut over signage for The Settlers Track

Thanks for your company and hunting Jenny H, Mark B, Mike B, Philip G and Stephen M.

Distance: 20.2km Climb: 300m. Time: 8.05am - 3.25pm (7hrs 20mins), with 50mins of stops and slower going when border marker hunting.
Grading: L/M,ptX; M(10)

KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: More Border Marker Hunting on the Boboyan Divide

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This page last updated 20Aug22