One morning while I was zooming down Clear Mountain Road on my bicycle at about 70km/h this strange looking tree caught my attention. The next day I came back to have a closer look and discovered it had been “blazed” by a surveyor. Surveyors often used to mark survey points by cutting out a semi-circular patch on the bark, and emblazoning it with survey symbol.
My friend, and local historian, Leith Barter informed me that the tree was recorded on a survey by Gavan Newman in 1938. It was either blazed by him then, or during an earlier survey in 1920.
Gavan Newman was born in Caboolture in 1888 and was registered as a surveyor from 1914 to 1970. In other words he was a surveyor for 56 years.
If you’re interested there’s a copy of part of his original survey plan here:
In history we often think of explorers embarking on exciting voyages of discovery, but in Australia’s past, much of the “exploration” was done by men of maps – surveyors like Newman:
John Oxley was a surveyor in the Royal Navy. James Cook and Matthew Flinders were arguably the best cartographers of their age.
But if you ever stumble across a blazed survey tree, spare a thought for the unsung explorers like Gavan Newman.
Total climbing: 474 m
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Total time: 01:38:21
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Great piece of spotting. We have a share in a rural property in NSW. I tracked down the original (about 1910 as I recall) survey maps and noted the reference to marks on trees, but I never managed to come across one of the trees.
Thanks for sharing your find.
Cheers
Thank you. Very interesting. I can point to another ‘Gavan Newman’ survey, Sl.582 undertaken on Mount Mee on 31-08-1915, one of his early ones.
The survey created four Portions of land, including the Mount Mee Sports Reserve.
The beauty in the Survey is that he marked, with a dotted line, the timber getter’s tracks.