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Earthcache - Rock Bolting EarthCache

Hidden : 1/4/2011
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   other (other)

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Geocache Description:

Please email to the owner first before log. Thanks.

The Coordinates will be hold at the sign post - there have information - you can walk along to the Rock Bolting.

Cooma’s Lambie Gorge is a site of cultural significance to the Ngarigo Aboriginal community. The local Reconciliation Group received an Environmental Trust grant in 2004 to develop a walking trail in the Gorge so its significance could be shared with the wider community. The Gorge is also of historical and technological significance in the European settlement of Cooma and in the development of the Snowy Mountains Scheme. It was where Snowy engineers conducted experiments to develop rock-bolting technology from an empirical and temporary technique to a permanent one, founded in structural design and rock mechanics. This enabled the conversion of freshly exposed unstable rock faces of caverns and tunnels, into a structural mass that required no external support. In addition to laboratory testing, early field tests and in situ experimental work was done in Lambie Gorge adjacent to the Authority’s Scientific Services testing laboratories in Cooma up until June 1962. The site is still accessible and shows the remnants of a succession of experiments, with a variety of bolt types. At the test site there are 50 or so holes drilled into rock faces, where rock bolt pull-out tests were conducted. Some of the holes still contain rock bolts, some bolts are cut off and some are partly separated from the vertical rock face. There was a succession of vertical faces into which holes were drilled for the insertion of the bolts to be tested. When the surface of each face had been fully used the cliff was blasted back to expose a fresh face for another set of tests. This can be seen, and explains the broken rock in front of the test site, with some of the rocks showing drill holes. (Source - www.engineersaustralia.org.au)

       

To get a smiley you must answer 3 questions – all answers are found on site.

Question 1 : How many holes in rock (only left side) not the wall.

Question 2 : In what year were the rock bolting experiments carried out here?

Question 3 : Why was the rock bolting technique used?


Take some photo at the Rock Bolting in the background if you like.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Qba'g sbetrg oevat pnzren naq pbhag gur ubyrf.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)