Tallaganda National Park: South Black Range Trig

General Information

Grading:  easy

Distance:   7 kilometers

Total climb:   250 meters

Time taken:   1 hour 45 minutes

Maps:   Bombay 8827-3S 1:25 000

Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO:   50 kilometers

Start point map grid reference:  55H GA 30854 74319

Destination map grid reference:   55H GA 29995 76996

End point:  Same as start

Route

http://maps.six.nsw.gov.au/

Description

This walk was a bit of an afterthought following a tour of the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope at Hoskinstown. This is well worth a look if you are lucky enough to find a tour operating.

To reach the starting point for this walk we drove to Hoskinstown and turned left on to Forbes Creek Road until its intersection with the North Black Range Fire Trail, not far past the National Park border. While there is a parking area at the intersection, we were a bit pressed for time and drove part way up North Black Range Fire Trail and parked there.

The native forest in this part of Tallaganda National Park is particularly striking.

We followed the fire trail north, a mostly gentle uphill climb. At one point we diverted off the trail into the bush, partly to better enjoy the forest and partly to take a shortcut to the South Black Range Trig (1262 metres). As with many shortcuts this proved a lot more difficult than it looked, and after my co-hiker took a nasty fall we decided to get back on to the fire trail. Around map reference 55H GA 30300 76900 there is a walking track off to the left which leads up to South Black Range Trig. We followed this track until we found the Trig on top of a huge boulder.

There were the remains of a wooden extension ladder near the boulder, half of which was quietly decaying on the ground and the remainder was propped up against the tree to the right of the picture above.

I suppose this must have been used by thrill seekers to shimmy across a tree branch to the top of the boulder, but neither of us thought it worth the risk. Sadly there is no clear view in any direction from South Black Range due to the forest all around.

We returned to our car by the same route, but this time avoiding false shortcuts through the bush.