Category: News

This special event (Low Altitude Winter Event) served 3 objectives. Firstly, an opportunity for newcomers to gain a more detailed introduction to track clearing than what is offered on a regular event. For those that have been on previous BTAC events, they were able to fine tune skills. Secondly, for BTAC volunteers to obtain a better understanding of the methodology and equipment used. Finally, to clear two different tracks for Parks Victoria over the course of the weekend. 

People assembled from Friday afternoon at the Mortimer Picnic and Camping ground. As expected, temperatures were a bit chilly overnight for campers. Some of the 19 volunteers involved over the weekend wisely chose to arrive Saturday morning! Overall, the weather was dry over the weekend, even though light rain had been forecast. 

The weekend was split into 3 main activities: a theory session, tidying up Ferris Track and clearing Russells Track. 

The theory session on Saturday morning which was held in the comfort of the Gembrook CFA station included:  

• Session 1 Safety considerations: By Andy Musgrove, Parks Victoria Senior Ranger in Charge,  – risks, hazards, controls, JSAs, SWPs, PPE, span of control, etc.
• Session 2 Considerations when track clearing: By Joe van Beek: – environmental impacts, asset preservation, keeping on alignment, standards, dimensions, maintenance return periods, trip hazard free.
• Session 3 Methodology: By Joe van Beek in John Green’s absence – the various operations, order of operations, cutting the material, where and how to place the cut material, removal of trip hazards. 
• Session 4. Equipment use: By Patrick Platt: -the right tools for the right job: battery or petrol, hints on operation. 
• Session 5. Equipment care and maintenance: By Patrick Platt- Theory session on brush cutter and hedge trimmer. Correct PPE, fitting, equipment start up and shut down. Fuels, storage, cleaning and troubleshooting. 

There were good discussions and questions across all the topics from participants, with a wonderful selection of Meredith Quick’s wonderful home baked fruit cake and biscuits to keep us well focused. Thank you to Andrew Musgrove for arrangements with the good people at Gembrook CFA. It would’ve been rather uncomfortable standing around in the outdoors for 3 hours going over theory at that time of the year.

Lunch was held back at the Mortimer Campsite, followed by Patrick Platt’s demonstrations on how to best set up the brush cutter and hedge trimmer for safe and effective use. Saturday afternoon, participants were able to put their knowledge to practice clearing the 3km Ferris Track adjacent to the picnic ground. The group was split into two with a group starting at either end, and meeting in the middle. The track didn’t need a lot of heavy work and was easily cleared during the afternoon, allowing time for the evening BBQ preparations and wonderfully hot fire to keep warm by. 

Sunday morning, we vacated Mortimer Campsite at 8.30am and were escorted by Andy Musgrove to the Dyer Creek Picnic and Campsite, about a 30-minute drive to the north. The task for the day was to clear the Russells Track. A more challenging track with heavier fire regrowth requiring substantial brush cutting, hedge trimming as well as chain sawing at the Dyer Creek end of the track. Again, two teams were formed working from each end of the track. All volunteers did a great job and demonstrated safe technical skills in a more challenging environment. We returned to Dyer Creek Picnic and Campsite at 3.30pm.

One volunteer was unfortunate to get a leech on his eye which was removed onsite. Treatment was later taken at the Eye and Ear Hospital. The ranger was notified, and a medical incident recorded against the event on Park Connect. 

Overall, the event was successful. Thanks to all who attended and to Andy Musgrove, Parks Vic Senior Ranger for his wonderful support with arrangements and contribution to the theory session.

Owen Morris & Joe van Beek

BTAC Project Managers

In the week leading up to Easter, members of the Koonung Bushwalking Club (KBC) enjoyed spectacular walks in Sydney and the Blue Mountains. For many years, on a bi-annual basis, KBC have conducted base camps in Sydney. This year, led by Anne Fyffe ably assisted by Wayne Fyffe, Karen Sheedy, Wilma Waters and experienced “whips”, the base camp was located at the YHA in the Rocks, a great place to stay, with stunning views of the harbour from the roof-top terrace.

All walks were carefully planned and organised to cater for the varying hiking capabilities of walkers. The weather was perfect on all days.

Use of the Opal card (Sydney’s Myki) ensured easy access via public transport to walk starting and finishing points. Walks included:

• A lovely cliff walk following the coastline from Maroubra to LaPerouse
• An inner harbour walk involving ferry rides enabling walkers to enjoy views of the bridge, Opera House, Kirribilli House, Milson’s Point and Luna Park with lunch in the calm and refreshing oasis of Wendy Whiteley’s Secret Garden. Travelling by foot from Barangaroo to the Rocks via a new bathing area completed this walk
• A trip by train to the Hawkesbury River provided a relaxing option for the team. Members experienced the Hawkesbury River and History tour on the river leaving from the Brooklyn wharf
• A group of 12 members left Circular Quay for a walk around the Opera House, Mrs Macquarie’s Point (chair), past the Finger Wharf townhouses, to Elizabeth Bay and on to Rushcutters Bay, out to McKell Park at Darling Point then to Steyne Park at Double Bay where walkers caught the ferry back to Circular Quay
• 15 members headed to the Lower Blue Mountains to enjoy a beautiful walk from Springwood into Sassafras Gully. Lots of ups and downs, 20 creek crossings, waterfalls, and a bit of scrambling over rocks and trees. Dealing with leeches did provide some unanticipated and blood-letting experiences. Some thought they had escaped the leeches until socks were taken off that night!
• On the final day the walk started at Watsons Bay with 20 walking to Bondi and 10 finishing up at Bronte. This walk provided lots of lovely views once again, including some on the beach!

A special time for KBC members! Particular mention goes to Dougall Bruce who on the morning of his flight home, trained out to West Concord to participate in one of the 489 nationwide ParkRuns in Bicentennial  Park, achieving third place in his age group.

Article by Ross Kimber, Anne Fyffe, Wilma Waters

BTAC AAWT Low Saddle to Mt MacDonald 17-19 May 2024

The clearing of the AAWT from Low Saddle Road to the upper heights of Mt McDonald was high on the priority list of the Vic Parks Rangers based in Mansfield. Sixteen volunteers, including three for the first time, met at the Low Saddle campsite late on the Friday afternoon and thanks to the efforts of an enthusiastic advance party, found the site prepared and ready for occupation.

On the Saturday despite overnight rain, and the temperature just above freezing, our volunteers were all set to undertake safety inductions at 8:00am. On the way to work light snow started to fall and there was some initial concern regarding how this would hinder our work plans. Fortunately the snow shower did not last long.

Despite the bitter temperature and a lazy wind, the volunteers made very good progress, so much so that the fallen trees impacting the track alignment were all cleared along the spur on the first day. Saturday evening the volunteers participated in a BBQ cooked by Rangers Jim and Alex and the opportunity to sit around the campfire and have a long chat. It was agreed by the volunteers that Jim and Alex had set a new benchmark for BBQs.

On the Sunday, despite very low temperatures, the volunteers completed outstanding clearing by noon and after lunch returned to camp to prepare for the trip home. A total of 4.6km was cleared over an elevation ascent of 430 metres. The volunteers contributed over 250 hours of work and spent some 200 hours in travel, preparation and administration.

Overall, the event was considered excellent as the clearing objectives were met, the track alignment was improved in a number of places and three first time volunteers were successfully inducted into the BTAC team.

The high standard of leadership and participation by Rangers Jim and Alex was very much appreciated by all the volunteers.

Bob Edwards

BTAC Activity Leader

Thanks to the efforts of Kim Rosen, President of Melbourne Walking Club, we will soon have a new track to add to our walks programmes. We’ve all seen lots of tracks marked on maps, but when we try to walk them, it’s impossible because they are so overgrown. Most leaders just give up at that point and put on a different walk elsewhere. Not Kim however. She contacted ParksVic and eventually got this joint project up and running.

Volunteers from Melbourne Walking Club (the lead club for this effort), Boroondara Bushwalkers and Melbourne Women’s Walking Club have participated. 19 participants overall, gave a total of 59 volunteer working days. We usually had 3 ParksVic rangers managing the work each day.

We met the rangers at either the Mt Donna Buang car park or the Rainforest Gallery car park. They have the gate keys so we were able to drive to the start of the walking track, reducing the distance we had to carry all the heavy gear each day. The day began with a thorough safety briefing, training in the use of the brush cutters when required, collecting other gear such as loppers and rakehoes, then heading off to the target section of the track for that day. The rangers used the mini chain saws – surprisingly powerful for their size. The first 4 days we worked up hill from the Road 2 junction. It took us 4 days to clear up to the summit of Mt Boobyalla. We then began work from the other side via the reopened Acheron Way and Road 4.

Even with this number of people, we only managed to clear about 350 to 550 metres per day. We cleared about 2 metres in width. Once we got to our target section of track, the rangers and the brush cutter team head led off; chain sawing and slashing all the scrub. There is quite a range of plants; bitter pea, olearia, flax lilies, wattles, beech myrtle (which we leave) and lots of others we couldn’t identify. Following the brush cutters were the groomers. With the rakehoes – those heavy-duty tools you see fire fighters using to rake over smouldering embers – we raked up and cleared all the cut material and tossed it off to the side of the track. That exposed the remnants left behind by the brush cutters – the 5 to 10 cm of the base of the saplings that the brush cutters couldn’t always get. The final task was to use the loppers to cut as low to the ground as we could to eliminate those nasty trip hazards and those higher branches waiting to poke us in the eye. Some things we couldn’t clear. Storms dropped some quite large trees on the track which we had to detour around to continue our work. The rangers were able to call on the “firies” to cut through these obstacles.

Although this work has been mostly over summer, it has not been too hot to work as the temperature is much cooler up higher. The rangers are very safety conscious and have cut work short when the wind got too strong one day, and when the humidity was really high and we had some sort of pollen or spores in the air sending us all into coughing fits. The odd leech or two made their appearance.

The track is now clear and ready for you to walk. You would need to organise a car shuttle to make a 15 km one way walk. From Mt Donna Buang car park, you can walk down to the start of Road 2. The newly cleared Mt Boobyalla track branches off to the right after about 1.5 km. This continues up and over the top of Mt Boobyalla, for about 3.5km to join with Road 4 where you turn right again and head down Road 4 to the junction with the Acheron way.

The track needs lots of walkers to prevent it growing over again. Do it soon; it’s a great walk.

How often have you chosen to do a walk based on a beautiful Instagram reel, or an exciting TikTok?  Have you considered how fit/experienced/lucky with the weather the poster is?  Have you considered that when someone says “easy”, it might be easy for someone who has scaled Everest, or is an experienced mountaineer, not so easy for you in your shorts and tshirt, just carrying a bottle of water?

According to New Zealand media, online content is misleading tourists into attempting hikes they are ill-equipped for, leading to several rescues being mounted across the South Island.  (And its happening more and more here in Australia too!)

Read the Great Walks article here
(Image Brewster Track.  NZ Department of Conservation.)

BWV Board members and committee conveners got together earlier this month at the beautiful Baw Baw Village to kick off the strategy planning for 2024-2028.

Travelling from all over VIctoria, participants stretched their legs after the long drive with a walk, one group heading out for the Baw Baw Summit Loop, and the other across the plateau to Mt Saint Gwinear, before settling in to review the current strategy and look forward to the coming 4 years.

According to an ABC article earlier this month Squeaky Beach, near Tidal River at Wilsons Promontory was the first ever Victorian beach to claim the title of Australia’s best beach of the year.

Squeaky Beach came up trumps after investigation of 12,000 beaches around the mainland and surrounding islands conducted by Tourism Australia.

This is very timely as we are celebrating the much anticipated 90th anniversary of bushwalking clubs in Victoria at Fed Walks 24 at Tidal River on 11-13 October 2024.

Around a three-hour drive from Melbourne this coastal beauty is a source of pride enjoyed by locals as well as being discovered by international travellers.

You will be able to experience first-hand the pristine beaches, spectacular granite mountains and cliffs and wildlife including kangaroos, emus and wombats and a stunning variety of birdlife. Wilsons  Promontory is a bushwalkers paradise.

As part of the package, we are offering 20 unique walks ranging from easy to medium to hard – available over two days – with different styes of accommodation ranging from camping to glamping plus dinner and entertainment on the Saturday evening.

Get your walking buddies planning to attend this unique weekend experience. Bookings for members open Monday 3 June 2024.  More info on the Fed Walks website.

From a distance, the white flush looks almost like a line of snow, freshly settled on the mountain slopes.  But the white haze that covers these slopes is not snow, it’s dead trees. Dead snow gums, to be precise, Eucalyptus pauciflora.

Experts say snow gums have not evolved to cope with more frequent and more intense bushfires, caused by the global climate crisis.  This has resulted in the nature of Australia’s high mountain landscapes changing, and the ecological collapse of snow gum woodlands.  And the abrupt decline or change of this ecosystem is happening before our eyes.  Read More