4 January 2011 A search for Pago Weir

Maps: Tidbinbilla and Cotter Dam 1:25000

Getting There

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

Tuesday 4 January - A search for Pago Weir - M/M, ptX. Descend 250m from Bulls Head to search for Pago weir. Return via Old Mill Road. Around 8km and 500m climb. Maps: Tidbinbilla and Cotter Dam. Leader: John Evans - jevans@pcug.org.au, (h) 6288 7235. Transport: ~$10 per person.

5 of us met at my place and squashed into one car. A slow trip once we hit the dirt.

Further Information

1. Stop and have a look at the Piccadilly arboretum (KHA 275) - Piccadilly Circus Arboretum: 1 ha at 1204m, established in 1932.
2. Reids Pinch arboretum (KHA 765) - Destroyed Jan 2003 bushfire.
3. At Bulls Head, ground-truth the Communications Tower (KHA 878)
4. At Bulls Head area, check out the Bulls Head Forestry Settlement site (KHA 186), Pine Windbreak (Bulls Head) (KHA 180), Bulls Head Picnic Area (KHA 887) and Bulls Head Fire Tower (KHA 756).
5. Visit the 6 Mile marker.

Photographs

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

Walk

Track Reids Pinch arboretum and Piccadilly Circus arboretum	Track A search for Pago weir and Bulls Head area

First stop was at Reid Pinch, parking off the road behind the Namadgi National Park sign. We took a short wander up the blocked out fire trail (which has new planting in it) to ground-truth the Reid Pinch arboretum on the S side of Brindabella Rd. Met a guy looking for his dog that he'd lost a few days previously. As expected, the arboretum is burned out. Back to the car.

Drove on to park at the Bulls Head recreation area. We wandered back along the Mt Franklin Rd a few tens of metres, visited border marker D52, turned off right onto the border fire break, visited border markers C52 and B52. These three I'd seen before, but last time through the area on 2 Feb 10, I'd not had the calculated location of the 6 Mile marker. Found it, up the border fire break/power line maintenance track.

About turn and back to the Bulls Head signpost and track. I was looking for the survey markers into Bulls Head, A52a, A52b, A52c, A52d. I'd calculated the locations and in the original survey notebook they are described as 4" posts and blazes, but we found nothing at the locations.

At Bulls Head, we ground-truthed the communication tower(s) for KHA and made sure we had a photo of the party at the Bulls Head trig for our entry in the CBC 50 Peaks in 50 Weeks event (grin).

Setting the compass to 67°M, we dropped ~200m over ~900m down to meet Old Mill Road at a point where we could begin the search for Pago weir. The going was, surprisingly, relatively open, until we neared the creek line. Here we struck dense growth. Morning tea delayed us for a bit.

The creek line below the road was steep and dense, so we headed N for a nearby ridge to gain access. Plunging in, we battled down to the creek, then continued to battle harder down it. Actually, lovely close, wet vegetation, but very slow and no Pago weir. We battled down a few hundred metres to a joining creek line. This one actually had more water flowing, so we continued up it for a while, but with no joy. Defeated, we climbed back out to the road.

Some of the party had not previously been weir hunting, so 2.6km back N along Old Mill Rd we came to Bulls Head weir and had a poke around.

A further 1.1km found us at Ferny weir and back up on the fire trail we had lunch.

3.6km took us further along Old Mill Rd, then up to the Mt Franklin Rd and back S to Bulls Head.

Here, I checked out a few KHA locations, as listed in item 4, Further Information, above.

Wandering back through the picnic area, we met the local Ranger, Christian W. As with searching for Pago weir (and in the rest of life), I've learned that it's not what you know but who you know, so he will be an excellent contact. I'll bombard him with questions; he offered to investigate the location of Pago weir for me. He then thanked us for visiting his area - now that's a first!

Back to the car and a slow drive home.

A varied day, with arboreta, border markers, scrub and creek bashing, weirs (not Pago!) and sites of historical interest. Thanks Henry H, Mike B, Stephen M and Phillip S.

Distance: 13.0km Climb: 400m. Time: (the main walk) 8.50am - 2.00pm (5hrs 10mins), with 35mins of stops.
Grading: M/E-R, ptX; M(9)

KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: A search for Pago weir

Postscript

Ground-truthing for KHA first got me on this weir kick. They list Piccadilly, Ferny, Warks, Lees Central, Bushranger, Bulls Head and Pago. On the first weir-d day, on 16 Nov 10, we visited Piccadilly, Ferny, Bulls Head, Warks and Lees Central. Yet to visit Bushranger. After that, I tried some contacts in the water industry and that turned up a list of 15 weirs and the 1982 paper Stream Water Quality of Forest Catchments in the Cotter Valley, ACT by Talsma and Hallam.

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This page last updated 25Aug22