17 January 2012 Border Markers on the railway at the back of Hume

Maps: Tuggeranong and Canberra 1:25000

Getting There

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

Tuesday 17 January - Border Markers on the railway at the back of Hume - M/E,X. Look for border markers on the Queanbeyan-Bombala railway line at the back of Hume. Early start, early finish. Around 14km and 150m climb. Maps: Tuggeranong and Canberra. Leader: John Evans - jevans@pcug.org.au, (h) 6288 7235. Transport: ~$5 per person.

Only 2 of us, so a private walk.

Photographs

You can access all photographs here.

Walk

Track maps: thumbnails are active - click for a larger picture
Track overview	Track 1	Track 2

We found 6 border markers (J18, C18, B18-2, Z17, E17 and C17). Max reckoned he only came to see the railway line rise 100+m. It does and we did a few more metres.

Enough border markers - all posts - to keep us interested and searching, but most have been destroyed by maintenance roads, telephone line easements, underground cables and various other earth works.

Starting from near Corbett Place in Gilmore (it's a very narrow road and the garbage bins were out, so we parked on Henry Melville Cres), we wandered up to the railway line and turned North.

No M18, N18 nor K18. A bit of a post at J18. (On reviewing the digitised original field book A 1017 - N15 to R18 - FC18 sheet 6 - (PDF 13.8 MB), J18 is described at a peg, not a post, hence it's "a bit of a post" - first peg I've found, I think.)

No I18, H18, G18, F18, E18 nor D18. Found C18 nestled in the grass with the old railway easement netting fence lying over it.

No B18 ('1'). Found B18 ('2'), again by the easement fence. It still had its survey point nail in it - I'd suspect that these nails were later additions. The nomenclature for these border markers come from ACTPLA Survey records as supplied to me. The original survey field notebooks are not extant.

No A18. Found Z17.

A long length of line followed with no extant border markers. However, the scenery was interesting (diffierent), both left into Hume and right into the Environa area. No Y17, 55 Mile marker, X17, W17, V17, U17, T17, GIP R17, R17, Q17 nor P17. Morning tea was called for, so we found some shade and had some munchies. Continuing on, no 54 Mile marker, O17, N17, L17, K17, J17 nor H17. An interesting area here - there are a few similar little outlying areas on various parts of the railway line - were they reserved at the time for sidings? Anyway, according to my GPS, a part of the corner factory building here was in NSW and the border marker location was a metre or two under its floor! Had to back track to the railway line to cross over a fetid Jerrabomberra Creek on the rail bridge. No G17, F17 nor 53 Mile marker. Found E17, in pretty poor nick.

No D17. Found C17 in the long grass. I was a bit wary of serpents - I think Max sensibly had his gaiters on by now.

The area around Lanyon Drive had away from rail line marker locations too. Max was keen to follow the railway line under Lanyon Drive, as he reckoned someone who knew us might spot us and consider us a little weird. No B17 nor A17. No Z16 nor Y16 - they were positioned in the middle of/under Lanyon Drive. No X16, W16, V16, U16, T16, S16, R16, Q16P16 nor O16. Woods Lane and new rail easement fencing have obliterated the border markers in this area. (Woods Lane will make a handy entry to finish off this section into Queanbeyan.)

Some ACT signage near an underpass (and burnt out car) telling a bit of the story of the border survey in this area. Max allowed me to go ahead to look for the 52 Mile marker - not found - and I ended up in mud up to my shins in a boggy area.

It being 11.35am, we turned around and walked the railway line back. So 4hrs 5mins out and 2hrs 5mins back. Max enjoyed dog (the bolt-like things that are driven through metal plates into the sleepers to secure the tracks) hunting on the way back.

Thanks for indulging me, Max. And thank you for your fine recording.

Distance: 17.2km Climb: 100m. Time: 7.30am - 1.40pm (6hrs 10mins), with 20mins of stops.
Grading: M/E,X; M(8)

KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: Border Markers at the back of Hume

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This page last updated 29Aug22