It's a viewpoint I've treasured for decades - perched atop Shepherd's Lookout near Strathnairn where the peregrine falcons soar and the Murrumbidgee meanders majestically through the valley down below. If there's a better view from the fringe of suburban Canberra, then I don't know about it.
Fifteen years ago, it was rare to encounter anyone else here. Then social media arrived, fast followed by the ever-expanding suburbs of west Belconnen. Now it's like Lonsdale Street on a busy Friday night. In fact, on Mother's Day at sunset, I shared the cantilevered platform with more than 30 other smart-phone wielding Canberrans. All after that Insta-worthy shot.
Despite the crowds, I still love it here for the drool-worthy views. Sunset always delivers, so too after heavy rain when the 'bidgee runs a banker. Magic!
But I've long wondered about the reverse perspective - what it's like looking back up at the lookout from the river. This week I finally had that chance, with a sneak peek at a new network of walking tracks set to open next week along the Ginninderry Conservation Corridor.
Regular readers will recall in 2021, I waxed and waned when the Shepherd's Lookout Loop walk opened. That track leads right past "Gruner's View" - a glimpse of the very vista (or close enough) that 20th-century landscape artist Elioth Gruner painted in his famous Weetangera, Canberra for which he picked up several gongs including the prestigious Wynne Prize for its depiction of the Australian landscape.
What I love about Weetangera, Canberra isn't Gruner's exceptional ability to capture the ephemeral effects of light, but his depiction of the soft folds within the landscape, especially in the foreground. Back in 2021, I wanted to explore those folds, but with no official tracks it was off-limits.
My guide along the 10 kilometres of new walking tracks that lead down through a treasure trove of grassy glens, hidden gullies, rocky outcrops, and those folds that Gruner captured so brilliantly back in 1937, is Garreth Paton. He's the head honcho from Iconic Trails, the local trail buildering outfit responsible for carving out the tracks. It's not the first time I've walked one of Garreth's tracks.
A few years back, I huffed and puffed up the new Mt Tennant Trail and after hobbling back to the Yowie bunker needed three baths full of Epsom salts just to walk again. But it wasn't Garreth's fault - with an elevation of more than 800 metres, Mt Tennent is an arduous climb for the occasional hiker.
In comparison, stepping out along this new network of trails in the Ginninderry Conservation Corridor is the polar opposite. It's a walk in the park. Following contours of Gruner's folds, the track - expertly laid into the natural surface and complemented with stone stairs - is a delight. You'll only get a sweat up if, like me, you love it so much that you want to complete the circuit again before the sun sets.
What's more, there won't be any desire lines created by impatient wakers here, as the tracks take you where you want to go. What's around the next bend? Will it be a wallaroo bounding through a tea tree tunnel, a hidden Callitris forest or a seat with a that much anticipated view looking up at the rocky face of Shepherd's Lookout? Divine!
You'd think lugging in 180 tonne of material or having to walk several kilometres to and from the site every day would have been the biggest challenge for Garreth and his crew who toiled here for the best part of eight months. However, for Garreth the biggest hurdle was working around the cattle which according to the sign as you enter the corridor "are here to help with sustainable agriculture practices - rotating through the paddock to keep the grass down while helping to regenerate the soil with organic manure".
"They've created a few little hiccups for us, especially after rain when they'd cavort through our freshly constructed track," he explains.
Then there are the walk-through wooden stiles designed for hikers - not cows - to traverse fence lines. Apparently, a few bright bovines learnt to navigate (squish) through them, so Garreth had to adjust the design.
Apart from the viewpoints and the undulating nature of the walk (did I mention those folds), what many will love are two swinging bridges. Sure, they aren't on the grand scale of those that traverse the Snowy River, but two spanning a creek near an area known as Nguurung Bila (river campsite), part of the route that celebrates the corridor's rich Indigenous history, will enamour kids and big kids alike.
"It was a campground, a meeting point for a lot of different mobs coming through," explains Tyson Powell, Caring for Country team leader at the Ginninderry Conservation Trust. "Archaeological digs have uncovered many artefacts here including stone tools... it's a special spot.
"With a bit of imagination, you can imagine people stopping here before heading up into the mountains for ceremony and bogong feasts. Seasonally, over thousands of years, it would been a hive of activity, the river flats dotted with campfires and stringybark huts," he reveals.
Not since the construction of part of the Canberra Centenary Trail in the lead-up to 2013 has there been such a substantial and welcome addition to our suburban bush tracks. So, what are your waiting for? Strap on your hiking boots before the rest of Canberra does.
For more information and maps (after the track launch next week), check out www.ginninderry.org/
Dishing up more memories of demolished theatre
Discussion about the Manuka's 1927 Capitol Theatre in last week's column prompted a bulging mailbag.
Barry Snelson of Calwell reports many years ago he bought a small dish with the words 'The Capitol Canberra' baked on it from Jamison Trash n Treasure.
"The chap I bought it off found it at a local garage sale," reports Barry. "On the back its states "Grindley Hotel Ware England. For Gibsons and Paterson Limited. Sydney Australia."
Although he has no proof (yet), Barry suspects the crockery is connected to Manuka's Capitol Theatre which as many readers - including John McKenzie of Evatt - pointed out "was controversially demolished in 1980". Greg Pfeiffer went one step further. "Pulling that down was the greatest crime in Canberran history," he exclaims.
While the stately building is long gone, Barry's plate may not be the only tangible reminder of the theatre still in Canberra. Ian Thompson suspects "many bricks from The Capitol ended up as pavers in the inner south".
"In those days many uncleaned bricks went to landfill or construction waste dump. Apparently, the trucks were happy to do a local drop for nothing," Ian says.
Several readers reminisced about the last films they watched at the much-loved theatre. "Watching Star Wars there in 1977 took me down a sci-fi littered road that I've never stopped following," confesses Dave Scorpecci. Meanwhile, the fondest memories of The Capitol for Rosemary Hollow of Barton were "Saturday afternoon matinees as a child, seeing Gone with the Wind in the 60s and in the early 70s Cabaret and Deliverance".
Finally, there was no shortage of correspondence about rolling Jaffas and Kool Mints down the aisles at the landmark theatre. "They'd ding on cast seat supports as they rolled down the timber floor," reports self-confessed serial Jaffa-roller Graham 'Willow' Williams of Burra.
WHERE IN CANBERRA?
Rating: Easy - Medium
Cryptic Clue: Not a red herring
How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to tym@iinet.net.au. The first correct email sent after 10am, Saturday May 18 wins a double pass to Dendy, the Home of Quality Cinema.
Last week: Congratulations to Darryl Hart of Nicholls who was the first reader to identify last week's photo as a mobile boat jetty on the shores of Lake Eucumbene near Old Adaminaby. Darryl just beat Dianne Prime of Taylor and Linda Mackay of Kambah to the prize. Special note to Colin Smeal of Holder who only recently "stumbled upon this jetty for the first time and presume it was designed to cater for the rise and fall of the lake, but looks like it's been inactive for quite a while".
Bruce White of Bungendore, who submitted the photo, confirms "as the lake levels go up and down, the jetty is supposed to be moved. Trouble is there is no one responsible for this bit of what I describe as "community engineering". So, when the water level drops, no one moves the jetty. For many years the jetty has sat high and dry far from the water. Not so strangely, when the water rises, and the jetty could become a boating hazard, it moves."
'Rare and funky'
While recently exploring the wilds of Tallaganda State Forest, near Captains Flat, ecologist Christina Steele was delighted to stumble upon this eye-catching scene.
"It's a root mat which uplifted when the pine tree was downed in summer storms, taking a network of fungal threads with it," she explains. "Rare and funky, and producing an incredible display of vertical amanita mushrooms, the iconic fairy toadstool."
You won't see this again!
While it may not look as spectacular as Christina's mushroom mound, Michael Calkovics of Lyons has submitted a photo of flowering Black bamboo is his garden. "The first indication of flowering is that the grove starts losing lots of leaves to the point of being very messy," explains Michael, who adds "remarkably, this species of bamboo won't flower again for over a century".
"Following the flowering, the bamboo, native to Japan, will set seed and then die," he explains. "The seeds will germinate and the next flowering event will occur around year 2140."
- CONTACT TIM: Email: tym@iinet.net.au or Twitter: @TimYowie or write c/- The Canberra Times, GPO Box 606, Civic, ACT, 2601
