2 July 2013 Border Markers near Hall 136000 Seventeen Mile Concrete Block Map: Hall 1:25000 Walk Description This walk was organised and led by me as a CBC Tuesday walk: Tuesday 2 July: Border Markers near Hall - L/M,X. From Binns St Fraser and the Dunlop Grasslands Nature Reserve, follow the ACT border across Wallaroo Rd and the Barton Highway through private property to One Tree Hill and return. Permission has been obtained from relevant landholders. Bag One Tree and Baldy trigs. Check out the Crowajingalong site and osage-orange trees. Around 18km and 350m climb. Map: Hall. Limit: 8. Leader: John Evans - john@johnevans.id.au, 0417 436 877. Transport: ~$10 per person. Further Information The walk has been modified. Car shuffle, so the main walk ends at Hall. We'll then drive into Nichols via Barton Highway, Curran Drive, McClelland Ave and Fleetwood-Smith St and do Harcourt trig; then via Barton Highway, William Slim Dr, Ginninderra Dr to Lawson and do Reservoir trig; then via Ginninderra Dr, Mouat St, Northbourne Ave, Barton Highway, Randwick Rd by the racecourse and do Crace trig. Permission to walk on private property has been obtained:
The straight line of the ACT border runs at 42°M in a NE direction from Mt Coree to One Tree Hill and 222°M in a SW direction. Photographs Click here to access all walk photographs.Track Maps Track maps: thumbnails are active - click for a larger picture
Google Earth Track Notes An interesting day, taking a fair bit of organising. We passed through 3 private properties on the main walk and it's just not right to trespass. So thanks to the landowners for giving us the nod. One owner turned off his electric fences for us, but I forgot that, so we were extra careful there. We must have crossed at least 100 fences on the day and 5 of the party were bloodied on barbed wire before too long into the walk. One attended hospital afterwards to have a hand wound dressed and skin glued together, plus a precautionary tetanus shot. Great to have Matthew Higgins with us to spot certain features and share some border history. He is a preeminent historian, whereas a friend recently labelled me an "historian of a kind" (grin). Special features visited included a couple of blazes, a Federal Capital Territory marker post, and the 17 Mile marker concrete block (only the second I've seen). There was also dissension in the ranks. One walker, who will not be identified, questioned the blatant urban trig bagging seemingly gratuitously tacked on the end of the border walk. This walker even suggested that we "should be ashamed of ourselves". However, the two trig-giggers in the party freely admitted that "we have no scruples" when participating in the personal challenge of the CBC 'Stretch Your Legs' events. Walk 1 - Border Markers near Hall We gathered at Binns St Fraser, then placed 2 cars in the back streets of Hall. I had the presence of mind to mark the spot in my GPS. Back at Binns St we set off past the first signage that identified the first site as Crowajingalong (forgot to photograph it). Then onto the second site (which I always thought was Crowajingalong), nearby signage telling us the history of the Charnwood site. Down at the osage-orange tree on the corner of the fencing the fruit lay on the ground. Then generally NW to the border, crossing the first of many fences for the day. The rips and tears of clothing and hands began. Turning NE, we began our border marker hunting for the day. A new experience for Mark and he turned out to be very good at it. I will have to speak with my source, as we found quite a number of border markers not in the data given to me (no doubt the data set needs a tweak to update it). Open grazing country to nearly at the Barton Highway, then open eucalypt forest up to One Tree Hill. A cold and generally miserable day weather-wise, the sun appearing briefly around 3pm. We could not identify 122226.7 Cut on Bdy (Por 123 and Por 122). Next found the pair 124000 Gas Pipe covered by Mound - 124010; 125200.38 CB; the pair 128000 Sixteen Mile CB - 128012; 128304.1 Railway white peg; 128429.22 Railway red peg; 128616.9 Ch 7051.41 C/L Yass Rly CB; 128804.58 Railway red peg; 128929.7 Railway white peg. Even by now we'd past additional border markers, new survey posts put in when the border was re-surveyed. So at last I started recording these extras. Next came Extra 01; Extra 02; Extra 03. No sign of ACT border at Wallaroo Rd. Then the pair 132000 Gas Pipe covered by Mound - 132010; Extra 04. At the dam near 'Homeleigh' was one of the finds of the day - the pair 136000 Seventeen Mile CB - 136010, with the concrete block standing proud between the high and low water marks of the dam. On towards the Barton Highway we found Extra 05. No sign of 137961 Bdy Cut (Por 122 and Por 164) nor 138325.85 Bdy Cut (Por 164 and Por 165). We stopped for morning tea in the wooded area prior to the highway. Setting off again we found Extra 06. No sign of the pair 140000 Gas Pipe covered by Cairn - 140010, right in the middle of the Barton Highway. But thanks to Matthew who pointed out the blaze for 140000 Gas Pipe covered by Cairn - rather obvious, as it's been painted yellow, but I'd never noticed it driving north along the highway.No 140388.9 Cut on Barton Hwy. A second find of the day then presented itself, a nice concrete post marked 'Federal Capital Territory' on one side and 'New South Wales' on the other. Not original border marking, but pre-1938 when the FCT changed to ACT. We'd never seen anything like this before. Continuing on, a DMR survey point was of some interest; then Extra 09 with a possible closed over survey blaze on a nearby tree (must check direction and distance from the original field survey note book); the pair 144000 Eighteen Mile CB - 144010; 144511.1 Bdy Cut (Por 208 and Por 225); 145880.2 Bdy Cut. (Por 225 and Por 51); Extra 10; Extra 11; Extra 12; the pair 148000 Gas Pipe covered by Cairn - 148010; Extra 13; Extra 14. 150903.9 Bdy cut. A141 p9 (Por 51 and 121) was another interesting item, an X-shaped lockspit. The pair 152000 Nineteen Mile CB - 152010 had a possible badly deteriorated blaze on a nearby fallen tree; Extra 15; 152588.6 Cut on res rd. See FB A141 p9; 152730.1 Cut on reserved rd; Extra 16; Extra 17; 155686.6 Cut on One Tree trig reserve + a burnt blaze; Extra 18; and finally One Tree. We had lunch, then walked down the track past the communications infrastructure; walked up to the crest of the spur and visited Baldy trig, then down across paddocks and past the Hall reservoirs to the cars. So one less day to do to complete the border. The border walks are here. Walk 2 - Harcourt trig Drove to Nicholls and parked in Fleetwood-Smith St. Accessed Harcourt trig via a walkway and stile. Nice limited views (still foggy) over some nice houses. Walk 3 - Reservoir trig Drove back to Binns St Fraser, where 3 of our party probably wisely called it a day. Then drove to Bingham Cct in Kaleen, walked across Baldwin Drive, closed our eyes as we crossed a fence, then walked up to Reservoir trig. Walk 4 - Crace trig Drove to Randwick Rd by the racecourse (first time I've ever been here). Based on the LPI TopoView 2006 digital maps I use, we crossed a fence into the Crace Grasslands Nature Reserve, but looking at the TAMS map at http://www.tams.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/390598/cnpmapcrace.pdf just now, we were not. Anyhow, we bagged Crace trig. So finished my event 2 in CBC's 'Stretch Your Legs' personal challenge to bag 40 ACT trigs in the Canberra Centenary year. Particular thanks to the member who wrote on 15/4/13 "No one, not even you, will visit 40 ACT trigs in one year"! Perhaps I should visit all 88. Summary Distance: 19.6km Climb: 600m. Time: 8.25am - 3.55pm (7hrs 30 mins), which included 5hrs 55mins of walking, 35mins of breaks and the rest driving between walks. Walk Participants 9 walkers - Chris F, Roger E, Eric G, John H, Matthew H, Mark R, Max S, Ian W, me. Back to Walks Index This page last updated 3Sep22 |
