Boundaries

A mining rush began when Tin was discovered in this area in 1880. About a kilometer down river (below our place) a water powered mill was established in 1884. It operated until 1917. The block of land we live on was surveyed and named as a perpetual mining homestead lease. I don't know if this block was occupied at that time. There are no obvious remains of occupation before the 1970's.

When the mill closed in 1917, the mining stopped and the area became almost deserted until the 1970's when people moved back into the area. I would guess that our property was fenced in the 1950's or 60's from the style of the bits of remaining fence. Maybe someone ran cattle here for a while?

At some point the block was surveyed again and they used proper blazed trees to mark the corners of our boundaries. Some of the blazed trees still stand and some have fallen. Time takes its toll on trees also. The surveyor's records have handwritten notes jotted beside the mapped location of the blazed corner trees. The notes describe the distance and direction from the blazed tree that one can find iron pins driven below the ground. These iron pins are the actual survey markers.

The old perpetual mining homestead leases got converted into freehold title in the 1980's, just before we moved here. The survey work at that time changed a few boundaries and moved a few fences. The conflicts arising from those boundary shifts have subsided after 25 years.

When we had recent survey work done, the surveyor relocated the old iron pins and recorded all new data using digital theodolites and GPS mapping standards. Blazed trees mark the past. Boundaries join the digital world.

J of JaM