Hard yakka getting up here but stunning view on a good day from here, ranging from Mt Scabby to SW across Mts Kelly, Namadgi and Burbidge all the way around to The Fortress to SE.
Between 1910 and 1915 Commonwealth surveyors Percy Sheaffe, Harry Mouat and Freddie Johnston led teams that surveyed the border of the new Commonwealth Territory, later to become known as the Australian Capital Territory. As of late 2017 you can read fascinating interpretive signage about the survey and see an example of one of Mouat’s few remaining iconic border marker reference trees at Namadgi Visitor Centre at Tharwa.
At every point where the border turns, and otherwise at every quarter mile, the surveyors placed a border marker – often a square post, but sometimes just a nail driven into concrete set in a tin can. On the western side of the Territory the bends were typically marked by linear rock formations known as ‘lockspits’, showing the direction into and out of the bend. Many of these lockspits remain in existence – and are heritage listed, so when you visit these small slices of history please be sure not to dislodge the stones.
In October/November 2013 as part of the celebrations for the ACT's centenary, a small group of mainly State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers walked the border - like us on Facebook at ACTBorderTrek. We had intended to complete the circumnavigation in one continuous loop, and that's the sequence in which these geocaches are being posted, even though various events (incl. bushfire, total fire ban) ultimately caused us to tackle the journey in a series of smaller and less connected chunks than first planned.
Starting at the point where the Murrumbidgee River crosses the Territory's straight-line northern border and moving anti-clockwise, some of the geocache sites mark our campsites, others are in places that make for an interesting destination or a great view, and still other locations were selected just because they are not near other caches (I had to go back and move this last group, hence the extended delay in publishing the full series). Thanks to MtBikerOz for assistance with improving GC and cache rehabilitation.
BorderTrekker