13 April 2010 Border Marker Hunting on the Boboyan Divide

Maps: Shannons Flat and Yaouk 1:25000

Getting There

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

Tuesday 13 April – Border Marker Hunting on the Boboyan Divide and Scabby Range – L/M,ptX. Follow the ACT border west along the Boboyan Divide and onto the Scabby Range for as far as time permits. Return via the Grassy Creek fire trail. Around 21 km and 300 m climb. Maps: Shannons Flat and Yaouk 1:25,000. Leader: John Evans 6288 7235(h), jevans@pcug.org.au .

4 of us met at 6.30am in Tuggeranong and drove via the Boboyan Road to the ACT's southern border. Around 1hr and 60km. We (just) missed a big kanga, but saw a mighty wedge-tailed eagle taking off from the side of the road near the turn off to the Mt Clear camping ground.

Further Information

The aim of this walk is to see if the 112 Mile marker's reference tree is extant, plus find as many markers as possible.

So the reference tree is 36.85 links (= 7.4m) at 205°10' from the 112 Mile Marker.

Photographs

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

This is an approved CBC walk for party of 3 (or more).

Walk

Track a	Track b

This walk had everything - disappointment as early border markers could not be identified, joy as other border markers and lengths of drop-log fencing were found, ecstasy as survey blazes were seen - and lousy navigation on the return leg.

We found 20 border markers, revisited 1 survey marker (Site of Significance in the ACT G45), found 2 survey marker blazes and 1 additional blaze (see story below) and 1.6km of drop-log fencing. See the ACT-NSW Border Markers page for more information.

We started from where the Boboyan Road crosses the ACT southern border and went W and NW via Wrights Hill along the Boboyan Divide to near the intersection with Yaouk Bill Range. We could not see J41 (probably gone as its on the verge of the Boboyan Road); found K41 (marked with star picket and K41-stamped aluninium tag); could not locate/identify L41, M41, N41, O41, P41, Q41, R41, S41, T41; found U41; could not locate/identify V41, W41, X41, Y41, Z41; found A42 and its survey mark (SoS G45), B42; could not locate/identify C42, D42; found a large blaze just off the border line (see story below); found E42, F42, G42, H42, I42, J42, K42; found around 860m of drop-log fencing; could not locate/identify L42, M42; found N42, O42, P42, Q42, R42, S42, T42; found around 740m of drop-log fencing; could not locate/identify U42; found V42, W42 and its survey marker blaze; back-tracked to find survey marker blaze for 112 Mile; could not locate/identify 112 Mile marker.

K41	U41	A42	B42
E42	F42	G42	H42
I42	J42	K42	N42
O42	P42	Q42	R42
S42	T42	V42	W42
W42 survey blaze	112 Mile survey blaze

Survey mark for A42 - SoS42	1 NSW Portion Survey reference tree	2 Drop-log fence	3 Banksia	Modern rail gate
Waterhole Hut yards	Waterhole Hut	Pheasant Hill yards	Westermans Homestead

On the exit, I missed the intersection of the unmarked fire trail we were using with the Grassy Creek fire trail, in error took the party NW then NE (!) along the Grassy Creek fire trail towards Lone Pine Homestead ruin, recovered and went via Grassy Creek, Waterholes Hut stockyards, Waterholes Hut, Grassy Creek fire trail (now going SE towards the car!), past the Pheasant Hill stockyards, Westermans Homestead, some sort of recorder, to the car.

Thanks Garry, Max and Monika. Much success (and navigational error).

Distance: 20.2km Climb: 250m. Time: 7.25am - 4.25pm (9hrs), with 45mins of stops.
Grading: L/E-M,ptX; M(9)

KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: Border Markers on the Boboyan Divide

The story of the NSW Portion Survey Reference Tree

Thanks very much to Les G from the NSW Lands and Management Authority who provided the complete good oil on the non ACT border reference tree:

1 Les first plotted the location I'd recorded at the blaze on a NSW Portions map. It fell smack on the junction of portions 126 and 131 with the ACT border. (Not sure why the areas DP 717544 are not labelled 131, but they are in the second photo.)

2 The Plan of Portion 126 shows Portion 131 to the east. Click on the thumbnail and use the Picasa magnifying glass icon to see the magnified view. Note the reference B at the north end of the boundary between portions 126 and 131. Scroll to the bottom left hand corner and look at row Corner B in the Reference to Corners table. In the No on Tree entry it says F.89.126.131

3 Look at the blaze. It consists of a carved Broad Arrow - Les notes that all Commonwealth surveys are marked using a Broad Arrow with a bar below the arrow and as there is no bar below the arrow in this case it is a NSW arrow; he also provided the fact that all actual measurements involving the blaze (eg. it being 107.8 links at 188° 22' to the corner marker) are taken from the tip of the broad arrow. Then F, then 8?, then 12?, then 131. Pretty neat!

4 Les is not sure what the F and 8 signify. But he points out that Portions 126 and 131 are in the county of Beresford and the Portion 48 to their NE (now ACT) is in the county of Cowley. A 'feature survey' would have had to be done for the county border - that Feature Survey may have placed the “F” and “89”.

1 Locality of tree - Portion details	2 Plan of Portion 126	3 Blaze

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This page last updated 15Aug22