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Many hills and mountains in and around Canberra have caches on them! – However, until now, there has been one predominant mountain that was cacheless. Mt Tennent is 1384m high, and the first mountain you come by when heading south toward Namadgi NP. You can’t miss it!
On top of Mt Tennent there is a lookout tower. – From there, you will get fantastic views! You will have to travel a long way to get better views than this! You can see nearly all of Canberra, (including lake Tuggeranong, lake Burley Griffin, Black Mt Tower, Woden, North Canberra), the Murrumbidgee, the Brindabellas, the Snowy mountains, and a great deal of Namadgi national park. Deadman’s Hill and Booroomba Rocks to the West are very impressive from here!
There are two ways to get there, and two ways of travelling - by bike, or on foot. If you choose to go by bike, you should start at the south side of the mountain at 35º 34.765 S, 149º 01.670 E, (although you will need to park the car a little further up the road). If you are walking, you can start at 35º 32.068 S, 149º 03.744 E. This is the beginning of the Australian Alps walking trail. Make sure you have a map showing the trail, – it is a very nice track!. This time I chose the bike option – the fire trail is currently nice and smooth, which makes for great riding! (well downhill anyway). It took me 1¾ hours to get up, (Puff Puff) and ½ an hour to get down again! (Choo oooo) But allow at least 4 hours to complete this if walking.
Bring plenty of water, pack a lunch, a spare set of brake pads for the bike, a camera, binoculars, and allow for all weather conditions! The wind up here was very cold, and I expect there would be snow up here in Winter!
Thanks to Mtbikeroz for the following information:
Mt. Tennent is named after John Tennant, born in Belfast, and transported out to Australia in about 1810-1820 as a convict. He joined a group of people in 1824 who explored the now Canberra region to claim sheep grazing land for Joshua Moore, a settler to whom Tennant had been assigned on arrival in Australia.
Apparently, Tennant soon tired of pioneering life and he took to the bush. He had no trouble forming a gang, and soon became known as the local bushranger, the Canberra region's first bushranger. On the side of his pistol were carved the words "Liberty is sweet" and on the other side "Death or Liberty". He was captured and convicted in late 1826, escaped almost immediately and a reward of 20 pounds was posted for information leading to his capture.
He formed another group of bushrangers, three Irishmen and one Frenchman. Their principle base was a mountain, south of what is now called Tuggeranong, known to the natives as "Tharwa" (meaning Thunder mountain) (As an aside - I've lived down this way for 25 years, and been up this mountain many times over the years, and it seems to attract thunderstorms).
While retaining the name of the nearby village as Tharwa, the mountain quickly became known as Mt. Tennent.
The gang was captured in 1828 and the gang was transported to Sydney by cart. Tennant was eventually sent to Norfolk Island in late 1829. In 1836 he returned to Sydney "a broken man" and died less than a year later in a Windsor hospital.
I am unsure how the "a" came to be in the name Tennant/Tennent.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Va gur ovt oheag fghzc haqre n ebpx