This walk was organised and led by Max S as an ad-hoc FBI Tuesday walk:

Tidbinbilla Area – SH 1409 Rocky outcrop with view expected. From Square Rock carpark, Nth West to ridge Sth of Billy Billy Rocks, then West to SH 1409 (approx 688/683 on Corin Dam). Distance about 10 km, 500 m climb. Plenty of scrub, regrowth and rocks etc Weather fine 7 to 21 C Meet at Kambah at 8.00 am As normal, 4 walkers are required for FBI sanction, otherwise a private walk.

8 of us met and drove to the Smokers Gap (Square Rock) car park. NB The road through to Corin Dam is reopened since the rock fall.

Next Tuesday’s walk will be a repeat of an earlier walk although on that occasion the target was not achieved due to uncomfortable weather.

The White Sands Creek Ridge area is Site of Significance in the ACT UC7:

Extending W from Billy Billy Rocks is a narrow ridge that terminates as high bluffs and escarpments above White Sands Creek and the Cotter River. In its E section this ridge consists of massive outcrops of Shannons Flat Adamellite and there are a number of boulder piles that form three distinct summits  - the largest boulders being similar in size to those at Billy Billy Rocks. A narrow saddle at GR69146822 (MGA94) marks the intrusive contact of the adamellite with the sediments of the Adaminaby Beds, the contact zone trending N-S but obscured here by screes. The terrain to the W of the contact (in the sedimentary rocks) is much steeper and more dissected than in the adamellite. The prominence of the summit at GR68846828 (SH1409) and the development of the escarpments around this peak is due to thermal metamorphic hardening of the sandstones of the Adaminaby Beds. Major scree slopes lie on the N facing slopes of this peak and screes also occur above White Sands Creek. The Cotter River follows a deeply incised course in the W of the site and includes entrenched meanders 2 km N of Corin Dam.

Walk

A quite different approach to climbing onto the ridge top than I'm used to. Instead of straight up NW to the knoll then following the border of TNR to the second knoll with the interesting feature, we headed nearly N, across Gibraltar Creek and climbed onto the ridge from the E end. Then W-ish, passing about 200m to the N of the special feature. This route a little longer, but certainly quite pleasant going. The going remained relatively ok until we hit around GR707682. Here we hit the stands of gaunt, dead Mountain Ash (see pic 1) which one sees in this area from Square Rock. We could see across Kangaroo Creek and Corin Dam Road to Square Rock. Plenty of pea in flower.

The going got a little tighter (I've already forgotten after a mere 12 hours where we had morning tea!) and, just for the fun of it, we took a 150m plunge down into the feeding streams of White Sands Creek. We crossed one rill which was flowing merrily. That cost a little and we bashed along the 1250m contour, then back up to the saddle at 1300m just to the E of SH1409. A 100m climb up through a little vegetation covered scree brought us to our objective. We pushed through to the W side of the top for lunch.

Grand views, if a little restricted by the vegetation, to the SW through NW, including down to Corin Dam and several of the Brindabella tops (see pic 2). Some wild country down there.

Retracing our steps after munching was completed, we spent a little time on the scree spur coming off the E side of the SH. This area afforded clearer views. To the N lay the Tidbinbilla Ridge (see pic 3) and, sweeping E, views down to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve and the knolls on its S rim which march all the way down to Gibraltar Peak (there's a pic called '2008 11 04 S rim of TNR from near SH1409' on my publically accessible Facebook photo album here).

Our route home was directly up and along the ridge, after initially skirting to the N of a large boulder pile. A different world to our outward leg, this side of the ridge being open, rocky and more sparsely vegetated. We eventually found ourselves back at the knoll S of Billy Billy Rocks and visited the feature there - additional material available via password.

We then wandered E towards the end of the ridge and turned S back down to the cars.

I'd been half way along this ridge, to near the boulder * on the map, on Fishing Gap to Smokers Gap crossovers on 10 Mar 07 and 21 May 05, but never further W. Nice walking, interesting geological feature and great views down to the Cotter, N along the Tidbinbilla Ridge and up the S rim of TNR. A great day, thank you Max, and excellent company from David and Meredith H, Dick M, Henry H, Karen C and Mike B.

Distance: 12km  Climb: 700m.  Time: 8.35am - 4.30pm (call it 8hrs), with 45mins of stops.
Grading: M/R; H(12)

KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: White Sands Creek Ridge