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Australian Capital Territory Border SurveyPrint Page 
The plaques commemorate the surveying professionals, who surveyed the border of the Federal Capital Territory, later (1938) to be known as the Australian Capital Territory. The plaque was unveiled in the centenary year of the commencement of the Australian Capital Territory Border Survey.
The plaques offer a glimpse of the days when the first European pastoralists arrived in the region, the early surveys of Robert Dixon (in 1829) and Robert Hoddle (in 1832) and the Big Border Survey led by Charles Scrivener, which used One Tree Hill as a central point – both then, and for the surveying profession of today. The plaques provide a fascinating fragment of Canberra's history in the lead-up to the Centenary of Canberra in 2013.
Location
| Address: | Percy Begg Circuit, Parkland opposite Koerstz Street, Dunlop, 2615 |
|---|---|
| State: | ACT |
| Area: | AUS |
| GPS Coordinates: | Lat: -35.188611 Long: 149.017778 Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate. |
Details
| Monument Type: | Plaque |
|---|---|
| Monument Theme: | Government |
| Sub-Theme: | Federal |
| Approx. Event Start Date: | 1910 |
| Approx. Event End Date: | 2010 |
Dedication
| Actual Monument Dedication Date: | Thursday 8th April, 2010 |
|---|
Australian Government
ACT Government
100
Canberra
1913 - 2013
SSS Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute
ISNSW The Institution of Surveyors NSW Inc Southern Group
Surveyors of One Tree Hill
The rich early history of Australian's national capital is in part a story about surveyors and surveying.
One Tree Hill, three kilometres north of the village of Hall and visible from this spot, played a vital role in the first surveys of the Canberra area, by Robert Dixon in 1829 and Robert Hoddle in 1832, and by Charles Scrivener in an even more important survey many decades later.
Scrivener was chosen by the Commonwealth Government in late 1908 to make 'a thorough topographical investigation of the Yass-Canberra district' in order to establish the best site for the nation's capital city. Minister for Home Affairs, Hugh Mahon, instructed Scrivener to 'bear in mind that the Federal Capital should be a beautiful city ... embracing distinctive features which will lend themselves to the design worthy of the object, not only for the present, but for all time ...'
Scrivener`s 'commencement point' for his milestone survey was One Tree Hill, as it appears to have been for Dixon and Hoddle 75 years earlier. Peter Scheaffe, one of the surveyors appointed by Scrivener to survey the border, started from Mt Coree in May 1910 and took several months to mark the straight line betwen there and One Tree Hill.
In this centenary year of the beginning of the Australian Capital Territory border survey, the surveying profession of Australia pays tribute to its illustrious predecessors and their compelling story of courage, committment, dedication and high adventure.
Act Chief Minister Jon Stanhope MLA unveiled this
commemorative plaque on 8 April 2010.
(photos of surveyors Robert Hoddle, Robert Dixon, Charles Scrivener and Percy Sheaffe)
