18 January 2011 NE Border from the Kings Highway

Map: Bungendore 1:25000

Getting There

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

Tuesday 18 January- NE Border from the Kings Highway - L/E,X. Tromp boring fire trails in the Kowen forest to visit exciting border markers. We found excellent examples of 8" posts NW of here of a previous trip. Around 26km and 300m climb. Map: Bungendore. Leader: John Evans - jevans@pcug.org.au, (h) 6288 7235. Transport: ~$5 per person.

I picked up the 2 lads and we drove out the Kings Highway, parking at a suitable spot on the side of the road at the NSW-ACT border sign.

Further Information

An extension of the border covered on 9 Nov 10, where we found several excellent examples of extant 8" posts.

Photographs

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

Walk

Track overview	Track 1	Track 2

A successful day of hunting. Max reckons he can now retire from this type of activity. We found: 49 border markers (includes Bald trig), 2 possible border markers, 3 mile markers, 2 survey blazes, 1 possible mile marker blaze; 30 border corner sites visited but not found, 4 mile marker sites visited but not found. 1 border corner revisited.

We drove over the crest of the hill and down to Brooks Hill Reserve, but it was too far away to park. So we did a u-turn and parked off the side of the road by the border sign. The day's first location, C7, was right in the middle of the Kings Highway - obviously not there.

A road snaked up to the communication tower a couple of hundred metres W along the Highway, so we went down to it and quickly got through the strip of private property and into the Kowen Forest. No B7 on the way.

The border heads N, with a wiggle, to Bald trig. An adjacent fire trail/access road to the communications tower made for easy walking. Found A7, 36 Mile and Z6. Y6 and X6 were possibles, the ground being disturbed on the farmed E side of the fence.

A good string of finds followed, W6, V6, U6, T6 and S6 led to Bald trig. I snapped the lads at the trig, just to prove our 50 Peaks in 50 Weeks conquest (grin).

Just N of Bald trig, the border swings W. We found R6, Q6, 35 Mile and P6. Lovely views NE from this area, down onto the plain. No joy at O6. Found a further 3, being N6, M6 and L6. All lockspits so far, except P6 a surviving 8" post.

K6 was gone, its location in the middle of a large cleared area at the intersection of fire trails. J6 could not be found.

I6 was an angled lockspit. H6 provided not only a lockspit, but a nearby blaze (although no annotation was discernable). The 34 Mile marker was not identifiable, but a balze at the location was likely. There was a nearby scarred tree as well. G6 and F6 were found.

The border is interesting in places, in that a number of easements are nearby. From F6 the border turned S for 10m or so and the border markers were located on the S side of the easement. However, E6 and D6 could not be identified.

Another nice string of finds followed (except for the Mile markers). We found C6, B6 and its blaze, on a magnificent specimen of a gum tree towering over nearby pine trees. Next we found A6, Z5 (a lockspit an 8" post) and Y5 (also a lockspit and 8" post). There was no sight of the 33 Mile marker. (By this time we were just N of the Canberra Magnetic Observatory.) The next 9 border corners all had identifiable markers - X5, W5, V5, U5, T5, S5, R5, Q5 and P5. 6 of these were posts. No sight of the 32 Mile marker.

O5, N5 and M5 were 8" posts with lockspits. L5 could not be found. K5 was a lockspit and we propped nearby for morning tea.

J5, I5 and H5 were posts in various deteriorated forms. G5 was a huge cairn of rocks, which prompted me to go back to the original field notebook at A 315 - Cohen to railway - FC18 sheet 4 - (PDF 12.4 MB). But there was nothing special noted about G5, so maybe the extra large cairn was made with the help of various farmer Joes over the years.

F5 was a barely discernable lockspit and E5 a post. No sign of D5 of C5. B5 a post. No A5. The 31 Mile marker was found.

No Z4, Y4 a post. We then headed in along a track and then through the pine trees to visit Mt Cohen, a singularly unimpressive knoll with no view and the tin vanes from the old trig lying on the ground. But a '50 Peaks in 50 Weeks' bag is a bag.

Back out and continuing along the border, no W4. V4 was a post. No U4, T4, S4, R4 or 30 Mile marker. Q4 a post and P4 a lockspit. No O4 or N4. M4 a post. No L4. K4 a rotted piece of post on the ground.

Finally, a disappointing string of no finds, with J4, I4, H4, G4, F4, E4, D4, 29 Mile marker, C4 and B4 all gone. I knew we'd finish with A4, as we'd found it previously on 9 Nov 10.

Finished at last, except for the trot back, we went in to Amungula trig, then found a little shade (as it was warming up) for lunch.

From there, helter skelter down the hill along Fearnside Way, past a gigantic roller thing at a prominent corner, a chat with a ranger warning us that logging operations were ahead, back up to the border and along it for a few hunderd metres, cut the corner, then back onto Fearnside Way. A detour there and back near the border of the forest, as we ended up heading towards private property. Finally out onto the Kings Highway at Mill Post Road very near the HQJOC roundabout, then a bash back to the car.

Will Max retire from border marker hunting? Stay tuned for the next border marker hunting trip to see if he comes.

Thanks for your company and involvement, Max S and Phillip S.

Distance: 25.9km Climb: 550m. Time: 7.50am - 2.45pm (call it 7hrs), with 30mins of stops.
Grading: L/E,X; M(10)

KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: NE Border from the Kings Highway

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This page last updated 25Aug22