Hi Susan

I've seen a variety of stone cairns that are lease or boundary markers.
These include:

Piles of stone from nothing much to about 60 cm high.  Occasionally one will
have a discernable squared post in the centre or even a stick, but you never
know if that isn't later stickage.  Just about any old stone will do.

Lines of stones [usually single stones] forming an L to indicate a lease
corner.  I have also seen similar but in the shape of T and X junctions.
They usually do not have a pile of stones at the line junctions, but
sometimes they do.  The arms on these boundary markers can be in excess of a
metre from the junction point.

There is also occasionally some busy little possum who seems to have tried
to create a mullock wall between themselves and the next person, and you
will get tailings, rocks etc piled in a conspicuous mouond along what is
probably the boundary lines.

I suspect that lease markers were probably deliberately kicked over a lot as
they would have added confusion to later miners and stopped them encroaching
on their neighbour.

Denis


----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Piddock" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2005 4:54 PM
Subject: stone cairns and miners


> Hi
>         In South Australia we have been told that miners marked their
> leases by using stone cairns, does anyone know what size these cairns
> would
> have been? We have Cornish and Welsh miners in the area.
>                                           cheers
>                                              Susan
> Dr Susan Piddock
>