However, the engineering facts indicate that one pipe is the Bendora gravity main pipe and its associate carries water pumped from the Cotter Dam. Both pipes culminate at Mt Stromlo, where an intricate network sends the water to reservoirs dotted across our city.  

Well over 100 years ago, this narrative of water shaped our border, and our city, in essence underpinning our way of life. 

In 1910 Surveyor-General Charles Scrivener tasked surveyor Percy Sheaffe with surveying the proposed national capital border. Scrivener’s instructions were straightforward. Follow the watershed to establish the border with NSW.  What Scrivener didn’t mention were the enormous challenges in navigating this rugged landscape. Few Europeans had set foot in this remote environment and the terrain was isolated. To complete this formidable task, surveyors Harry Mouat and Freddie Johnston were then assigned to lend a hand. 

The surveyors plotted much of their course along the mountain ridge tops. If you were a rain drop falling on the ridge towards the proposed city, you would be in the ACT. If you landed on the other side of the ridge, you were in NSW. Consequently, our water catchments, crucial to the foundations of life in the bush capital, were declared and a clean and reliable water source secured for the capital. 

Walk the Border is a brilliant fundraising event retracing the footsteps of these pioneering surveyors, astute bushmen that they were. President of the Conservation Council, Rod Griffiths, will lead this ambitious walk to raise funds and increase awareness for this wonderful community advocacy group. 

Rod will be joined throughout by keen bushwalkers. He will try to stay within a stone’s throw of the border. The 306 kilometre border crosses a variety of ecosystems, from majestic alpine forests to diverse grassy woodlands. The relevance of the border’s ecosystems will be a theme shared through social media. 

The anticipated 21 day walk is considerably quicker than the five years it took the surveyors to establish the border. Believed to be the first attempt to traverse the border in successive days, Rod’s detailed planning has drawn on the work of intrepid walkers who have completed the full circuit. 

To support this wonderful fundraising initiative   www.walktheborderact.wordpress.com