7 May 2011 Cpt 99 Weir and old Cotter pump

Map: Cotter Dam 1:25000

Getting There

This walk was organised and led by me as a private walk:

Saturday 7 May am - Cpt 99 Weir and old Cotter pump - ride/walk - E-M. Drive in along Bullock Paddock Rd to near Padovans Crossing. Ride SE to the Cotter to find the weir. Search for other weirs. Ride forestry tracks around Condor Hill. Check out an old pump on the Cotter E of it. Around total 17km; perhaps 10km of it on bike. Map: Cotter Dam. Leader: John Evans - jevans@pcug.org.au, (h) 6288 7235.

Further Information

Further to the search for the remaining Brindabella weirs (Cpt 97 and Cpt 99), Neil C from ACT Parks and Conservation Service provided me with a map showing a V-notch weir on the Cotter River. After some thought I've decided that this can't be one of the CSIRO weirs (they wouldn't build a weir across the Cotter), but it's worth a look. But the map also shows forestry compartments, giving a clue to the location of Cpt 97 and Cpt 99.

I have to be home by lunch time, so a sparrow's tweet start.

Photographs

You can also access all photographs here.

Walk

Track map: thumbnail is active - click for a larger picture

Track

Armed with information from an old forestry map supplied by Neil C, the Manager Fire, Forest and Roads, ACT Parks and Conservation Service (whom I found via Canberra Connect), I went looking for a marked V-notch weir on the Cotter River and, possibly, Cpt 97 and Cpt 99 weirs. I can't imagine the CSIRO forestry research project of the late 1960s - early 1970s putting a weir across the Cotter River so, if it exists, it must be a 'Department of Works' one.

I drove in Bullock Paddock Rd and, just on the crest NE of Padovans Crossing, turned in to the left and headed SE to park the car on another crest before the forestry road dropped down and got a bit stony.

I biked a further 480m along the road to a closed access track which led down to near the Cotter River and the 'V-notch Weir' on the Cotter River at UTM 55H 672300-6088085 (MGA94) which Neil had sent me. The access track had been 'rehabilitated' with moguls and burnt pine trees laid across it. Blackberries were crowding in. It took 1hr 15mins to do a 750m loop down to the Cotter and back - near the river the blackberries were impenetrable, except for a handy wombat track.

Initially, I couldn't get to the Cotter at the weir-marked spot, so stumbled SE and parallel with the river to a dry gully. Looking about for how to move any further, I suddenly saw the cylindrical gauge protection and realised I was standing in/on (completely dry and silted up with earth) a weir! Only blackberries were flowing through the V-notch. From the marked forestry compartments on the map, this has to be Cpt 99 weir.

I eventually reached the Cotter River, around 50m downstream from the GR. I had an upstream view for 100+m and could see no weir. I'll have to investigate this further. Horrendous blackberries and log-jams of washed trees and shrubs.

Returned to my bike and rode S around the spur dropping off Condor Hill to another 'rehabilitated' forestry trail. I'd noticed on the 1st edn Cotter Dam 1:25000 map that there was a pump marked on the Cotter River E of Condor Hill (not on 2nd edn map). So I wandered down the track to the river and scouted around the abandoned pump site. I wonder what it was used for?

Having promised to be home by midday, I retraced my tracks and drove home. I'll have to return to search for Cpt 97 weir and the elusive Cotter River weir.

Distance: 6.7km Climb: 250m. Time: 8.15 - 11.05am (2hrs 50mins), with no breaks.
Grading: S/E-M,X; E(7)

KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: Cpt 99 Weir and old Cotter pump

Post Script - ActewAGL contacts (Norm M) confirm that there is no V-notch weir on the Cotter River ~2km downstream from Vanitys Crossing, at UTM 55H 672300-6088085 (MGA94). Their records note that their site identified as 'Forestry Compartment 99 on Cotter River' was used from 1/1/1972 - 25/12/1978 and the maximum water flow recorded for Comp.99 (site no. 410819) was 0.53m or 23ML/d peak flow, on 24 Oct 1975.

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This page last updated 26Aug22