In December 1820, when the first European explorers forged a route south from Sydney to present-day Canberra, they carried with them food, water and other essentials - and small bottles of acid.
The expedition party dispatched by governor Lachlan Macquarie and comprising Charles Throsby Smith, Joseph Wild and James Vaughan, weren't only in search of good pastures and water supply (specifically the Murrumbidgee River) to establish farms to feed the growing colony, they were also on the hunt for limestone.
