Tharwa Sandwash

["Peter Ormay" <>]

For the latecomers to Canberra the 'sandwash' was where they used to extract coarse siver sand for building purposes and 'wash' the silt out of it on the site. The silt used to flow back into the river making the river constantly murky downstream.  This offended some people who liked to swim in the river downstream and it (the sandwash) was moved down to below the juction with the Molonglo. This caused problems for people swimming at Uriarre Crossing and the sandwash was moved further downstream into NSW. At one stage, perhaps between it being near the Molonglo junction and below Uriarra Crossing there wash a sandwash operating near Bredbo. It is curious that none of these other sites is ever referred to although they operated more recently than the one near Tharwa. Perhaps it persist mainly in COG circles because it is a good birding spot and other old Canberrans would wonder which site is meant when the 'sandwash' is mentioned.

Cheers

Peter Ormay