volume 34 issue 2 autumn 2009 - bushwalkermagazine.org quartelys/bushwalker342.pdf · the official...

Volume 34Issue 2

Autumn 2009

Ironstone formations,Koorowall Knife Edge,Blue Mountains NP

Photo: Graham Wright

Contributions of interesting, especially typical and spectacular bushwalking photos are sought.you don’t want the same photographers all the time, do you?

Photo: Peter VaughanSea cliffs near The Waterrun,

Royal National Park

The old Four Mile Hut,KNP

The Bushwalker | 3

Walk Safely—Walk with a Club

Bushwalker T he

The Official Publication of theConfederation of Bushwalking Clubs NSW

Volume 34, Issue 2, Autumn 2009


ISSN 0313 2684

Editor: Roger Caffin [email protected] Design & Assembly: Barry Hanlon

Confederation Officers:President: Wilf HilderAdministration Officer:

[email protected]

Website: www.bushwalking.org.au

Address all correspondence to:PO Box 119, Newtown, NSW 2042

The Confederation of BushwalkingClubs NSW Inc representsapproximately 66 Clubs with a totalmembership of about 8,700bushwalkers.

Formed in 1932, the Confederationprovides a united voice on behalf of allbushwalkers on conservation, accessand other issues.

People interested in joining a bush-walking club may write to theConfederation [email protected] a list of Clubs, but a far moreuseful on-line list is available at theConfederation websitewww.bushwalking.org.au,broken up into areas. There’s lots ofother good stuff there too, includingthe bushwalking FAQ.

Subscribe to The Bushwalker

Keep up with all the news and developmentshappening in the NSW bushwalking scene foronly $10 per year. This is to cover posting andhandling: the magazine itself is free.

Send your name and address and cheque ormoney order to the Confederation of Bush-walking Clubs NSW Inc, PO Box 119, New-town NSW 2042. The new phone number is9565 4005. Make the cheque or money orderpayable to the Confederation of Bushwalk-ing Clubs NSW Inc as well: please do not ab-breviate the name!

Please indicate which issue you want your sub-scription to start with. We don’t want to dupli-cate copies you already have.

From theeditor’s desk. . .

Index

Don’t you wish you were here? 2From the Editor’s Desk 3Wave Hill Station Weekend 4Wet Wild Wilderness 5Kosciusko National Park—The Northern Half 8A Looming Nightmare—Adventure Activity Standards 13Navshield 2008—Nerriga 14Errata and Omissions 15

The last issue featured a photo-essay on Barrington Tops, andfeedback was good. So this issue features two photo essays.However, I have to sound a note of warning to all confederation

members. We are getting very short on contributions! If you don’t wantThe Bushwalker to be just a Keats/Caffin effort, then YOU are going tohave to contribute some more articles, trip reports and photos!Get with it!

Articles for PublicationClubs and members are encouraged to submit relevant articles, with avery strong preference for those with good pictures. Both the author andthe author’s club will feature in the Byline - this is a good way toadvertise YOUR club. We will also accept articles from outside bodieswhere the articles seem relevant to members.

Articles may be edited for length and content to help fit into our pagelimit. Pictures should be sent at maximum available resolution: at least300 dpi, preferably in their original unedited form. JPG, PDF or TIFFformats are preferred. The text should be sent as a plain text file(*.txt), NOT as a Word file (*.doc). I repeat, please send the picturesseparate from the text file; do NOT send them embedded in a Word docfile. Pictures taken from a Word doc file are simply not good enough andwon’t be published. And, of course, the Editor is always interested inreceiving bushwalking books and maps for review. All enquiries shouldbe sent to [email protected] .Please note that opinions expressed by authors may not represent theofficial opinions of the Confederation or any Club. The Editor’s opinionsare his own.

Roger CaffinEditor

4 | The Bushwalker Volume 34, Issue 2, Autumn 2009


Gaping Gill,November 2007

Wave Hill StationWeekend Anne Falkner

Bushwalking at the Clarence RiverGorge and at Mt Carnham whilecamping at Wave Hill Station is

certainly to be recommended. OurClarence Valley Bushwalkers group choseto camp at the upriver Back Channelcampsite north-east of the Gorge, a 45

minute 4WD from the homestead. Thisgrassy site offered a number of possibletent sites and a timber-stocked campfireplace, a long drop toilet and river access,although the vegetation limits the view.

Hastily we partook of morning tea,then lazily carpooled back up to thesaddle adjacent to the easiest Mt Carnhamascent where a side track afforded usconvenient parking space on thisotherwise steeply graded country. Startingat 200 m we quickly ascended, beginningalong a fence line then following anatural ridge. Views to the south of theClarence River Gorge country werequickly obvious, allowing a good excusefor numerous breathers and photoopportunities. The climb was rocky inplaces but not dangerous. A range ofvegetation including an attractive yellowpea flowered medium shrub added colourto the landscape. The Mt Carnham trigwas an obvious first destination at 531 m.This offered no views, being well coveredby tall eucalypts.

We headed north-west down a smallridge to a saddle and over a small hilluntil the upper Clarence River openeditself to viewing. A magnificent vista. Wereturned via the trig and then deviatedslightly to the east of our ascent and into

a small rocky gullyterminating in acliff edge. There

were small pools with pink orchidsflowering. From there we traversedwesterly back to our ascent ridge andreturned down towards our vehicles,deviating a little to the east whenpractical to view into the lightly forestedgully. It was a comfortable 5 hour hike.Evidence of some earlier gold miningefforts were viewed down near thevehicles before returning to set up campand enjoy campfire meals and yarns.

Our Sunday walk was southeasterlyvia an alternative smaller campsite withwonderful views of the upper ClarenceGorge. From there we ascended along theobvious ridge with numerous photoopportunities, this time of a number ofwaterfalls between foreground trees.After reaching the summit at 260 m weheaded south and then towards the lowerend of the Gorge. This involved somesteep lantana scrambling back down agully to the river. Lunch was eaten whileclosely observing the river views and anumber of sizeable cod fish; it was greatlyappreciated. A little further to the northwas a natural sandy beach offeringtempting swimming opportunities whichnone of our group could resist. Perfect!

The return from there was a rockscrambling maze with river and closewaterfall observations, imaginings of thepower of water flowing through here atflood times and the hardiness of theclinging clusters of vegetation. Beyondthe last of the waterfalls anotherswimming pool beckoned, this with itsown natural spa. This was enjoyed alongwith afternoon tea, then we returned topack up camp. t

Scenes along the walk at Wave Hill Station

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Wet Wild Wilderness Michael Keats The Bush Club

The Australian bush is re-nowned for being dry, harsh anduncompromising. This abridgedcollection of three off-track, wet,wild, wilderness exploratorybushwalking trips is about avery different face of the bush inthe Greater Blue Mountains na-tional Park. It is all about water- lots of water. Rain, mist, rap-ids, waterfalls, wet walking -through canyons, dark pools,slippery cliffs, being totally wetand enjoying it all.

[Editor's Note: the country de-scribed here is not easy, andthe walkers involved have con-siderable experience. Muchcaution is advised before ven-turing into this region.]

Walk 1A tributary of theWollangambe River.

As frequent pilgrims to the shrineof Wollangambe know, it is a riverof sudden and unpredictablechanges. When the three of uswere together, our leader Tomshared his desk research on theproposed way of route - a detailedstudy of available aerial photos.Very tight, canyon-like sectionswere possible where the creek isconstricted. The variation in thecountry is amazing. Two almostparallel creeks not more than 200m apart can have very differentgeomorphology and implicationsfor would be explorers.

We came to a great overhang (onthe eastern side) where the creekhas cut deep into the rock strata.It had a sandy bed with scatteredsmall pebbles of red, orange andyellow sandstone. The waterspeed was racing and the volumehuge. I think we each did mentalcalculations about what the Wol-langambe experience would belike later on . . .The overhang continued for tens ofmetres. There were deeper sec-tions in the creek bed and therewere minor sand banks. An in-tense greenness was exhibited byall the ferns and other epiphytesadorning the walls. A really topquality section of the overhanghad a ceiling height approaching 2m. We sloshed our way throughthis. Towards the end of the over-hang the sound of water plungingover a drop was getting louder.

The loudness was due to the vol-ume of water – not the height ofthe drop, estimated as a mere 2-3m. We stopped to take a picture ortwo before negotiating a ledge tothe western side and then drop-ping back into the creek. A shortsection where ‘wet feet’ as adver-tised quickly moved up to beingwet family jewels. ReassuringlyTom volunteered that we were notreally equipped to go swimming(much).Next on the agenda was a bit ofhorizontal pole work to cross arather deeper hole than encoun-tered so far. Too slippery to walk,

the log was a ‘wet tails’ job. By nowI did not really care. I was fully wetfrom the waist down, valuablesthat needed to be dry were safe ina dry bag, the camera is water-proof to 10 m . . . Let’s go.

Ahead were more logs and water-falls- nothing too alarming and allvery pretty. Water volumes keptincreasing as side creeks and gul-lies added their contribution. Alarger side creek that joined fromthe west proved disappointing.Tom was hoping that it would alsohave ‘interesting’ features.

I have a picture of Tom and Chrispushing ahead of me, about todisappear into a green jungle. It isan exciting part of this canyon jour-ney that changes continuously. Webreak though the jungle and arriveat another small waterfall. This isnegotiated, and we walk the waterhighway a few more metres. Thisexperience was followed by morewading between dark and forbid-ding cliffs. Then, just as suddenlythe cliffs widen and we are in abroad gully still wading in waterbut through a tangled mess ofgreen jungle.Abruptly there is a change in watercolour as a side stream cuts in. Itis grey-black. This is no sidestream, it is the Wollangambe Riv-er charged with coal fines leachedfrom the dumps upstream and it isflowing very strongly.

We stop and ponder our options.Tom takes a step into the Wol-langambe proper. It is up to hiswaist and moving at great speed.To go upstream is to commit toswimming and we are notequipped to do that, at least notfor any distance. Tom is disap-pointed, as this is a section of theWollangambe that he (and indeedI want to explore).As we are climbing the cliffs insearch of other options to enter, Isuggest we could strip to ourjocks, leave our packs and go up-stream for say half an hour. Theidea was rated as too risky so wekeep climbing up the nose search-ing for a spot to look down intowhere the canyon should be. Theair is full of noise and we cannotsee more than just the occasionalglimpse of turbulent water move-ment between trees and near ver-tical cliffs.

I point the camera down and pressthe button. I am looking at thatpicture now. At my feet the rockface is glossy with water, shiftingone foot I confirm it is mighty slip-pery. Somewhere, perhaps 15 mbelow, and out of sight, the swol-len Wollangambe thunders its tor-tuous way. 50% of me wants to bedown in there testing it and photo-graphing it. The other 50% saysthat Tom has made the right deci-sion! We will be back under differ-ent circumstances.



Walk 2a tributary of theBungleboori Creek.

Initially the creek is a benign littlestream of pure clean water flowingthrough coral fern Gleichenia di-carpa on a rocky base, the occa-sional Grevillea acanthifolialending colour to the scene fromits pink toothbrush-like flowers. Allinterest in flowers soon disap-peared as we cross the creek andclimb a minor rock outcrop to theeast. Through the misting rain wecould see the ground droppingaway steeply. A user-friendly rampled down to the creek about 25 mfurther on.

0905 and the towering walls ofsandstone were already closingin on the creek. Between rain-drops I scrawled in the notebook‘suspect canyon ahead’. The penthen refused to write on the sod-den paper. I put it away andpressed on. The twists and turnsof the creek were amplified bysoaring tight cliff lines, great treeferns and tall eucalypts; waterwas now rushing faster over aperfect, smooth rocky bed.Then we entered ‘a room’, a sec-tion where the cliffs were widerapart. Amazingly a cut tree sec-tion, and then a cut stump con-fronted us! Who, why and how?There was no obvious way to ex-tract cut logs from this area. Wefound two more stumps and latermore cut logs – half a metre indiameter and up to 4m long.Great timber, well cut but impos-sible to extract. Planning wouldhave saved these former giants.

Next on the agenda was the nego-tiation of a small waterfall. One ofthe cut logs had jammed in thespace so it was a bit of fun clam-bering over it without getting total-ly wet. It was slippery andhand-holds – well what hand-holds? With wet tails and more wemoved on enjoying every piece ofscenery. It was stunning. Thecreek now had a sandy bottomand then sections with brightlycoloured sandstone pebbles. TheKing Fern Todea barbara was nowdominant in the creek. Ever largercoachwood trees kept the light outand the ground free of any but themost determined of ferns.It was now 0918 and we thoughtwe were making good progress.We had negotiated a right-angledbend and thought that we wereclose to joining another unnamedcreek from the north. It was wayout. We had made very small prog-ress. Even Ian’s privately commis-sioned 1:15,000 topographic mapdid not prepare us for the size andconstancy of the cliffs that sur-rounded us. They are truly awe-inspiring.

A deeply undercut cliff with a ceil-ing of about 5 m was a joy to walkthrough. Ferns bedecked the low-er slope and the creek curved ar-tistically in parallel to the mainwall. The water was about 20 cmdeep and moving fast. Small pro-trusions from the creek bed aerat-ed the water giving it a gleaming,solid white appearance.

At 0945 a dry overhang providedan ideal spot to have morning tea.It was good to stop and enjoy thesurroundings. The constant rain ofseveral days had translated intomany non-perennial waterfallscoming to life. Everywhere therewas water cascading down. Fortu-nately for us the air was still warmas we ended up spending a largepart of the day in water up to ourknees. Morning tea over it was timeto continue our exploring.

It was then we came to what I havedubbed ‘Thorpe’s Constriction’.This is a nice little challenge in-volving a 2+ m drop. A tumble ofhigh-speed white water passesthrough a narrow 50 mm wide slotand dumps into a pool of gloomy,uncertain depth. While Ian debat-ed about fixing a rope andchecked out suitable anchor trees(nil!) I found a dead tree that couldbe moved and used as a depthcheck. It seemed to be about waistdeep. I decided to see whether itwas now possible to climb down. Itwas. Several strategic hand andfootholds enabled the descent in-to the water without mishap. It wascool around the waist! A foot in thewrong spot and it would have beena different story.Safely below the waterfall we thenwent back to make sure of goodpictures of this spot. Shortly afterthis experience the creek turnsquickly from flowing NS to EW.That is not all. It becomes a can-yon. A magnificent canyon withtowering 20+m sculpted walls anda delightful light play deep downinto shallow water. The floor has ahard smooth rock bottom. Itstretches for about 100 m. Ian’smap did show that a constrictionwas likely in this area. Lots of pho-tos taken, but no good ones. Real-ly needs time exposure and atripod. Must come back.50m on and a branch creek fromthe north entered. The volume of

water doubled. At 1054 we took aGPS reading and found that goodprogress had been made and wecould identify our position. Thecreek was very pleasant and thecoachwood forest on each sidewas becoming more extensive.

Then in moment the creek disap-peared! We had an interestingchallenge climbing up onto a highdry ledge and over this small ob-stacle. On the other side of thisblock up the creek resumed itspace although it was a lot bigger.1118 and again the creek disap-peared, this time into a seeminglyblack hole.We scratched our heads for awhile. This was not just a smallblock up, this was major. The nar-row valley of the creek was filledby a huge wall of rock and earth,complete with very large well- es-tablished trees. We reckoned bythe size of the trees that this blockup had been in place for at least80 years.

From being in water often up toour waists we were suddenlyclimbing a 20 m tumble of rockand earth, but still 'in the creek'.The crest at the top gave goodviews back up stream. Down-stream, well where was our creek?Kept walking down and after atime we could hear water but notsee it. We pushed down further tobe confronted with a massive ver-tical drop.Gingerly we approached the edge.I had a 15 m rope. I figured per-haps 3 of these knotted togethermay have done the trick ... Wefound a rock ledge that went down

The Bushwalker | 7



The ledge we were on seemed tobe the best option so we kept fol-lowing it around a nose of rockbetween two creeks and then intoyet another side creek that waspart of the planed exit route.The master plan envisaged wewould travel a further kilometre orso downstream and have lunch ona pagoda with a view of the LittleArthurs. A nice idea, but back tothe ledge. Fortunately it droppedprogressively but still left an unac-ceptable drop to the bed of thecreek.

Ian pushed further west along theledge and located a concealedramp. This proved ideal, as it wasreversible in the event that wewere confronted by impossible wa-terfalls or drops later on. The de-scent was a good one. We werenow successfully below the verybig drop on our entry creek.It was now 1155 and time to re-view our position. Given our rate ofprogress and the constant rainthere was no way we couldachieve the planned lunch spot ina reasonable time so it was decid-ed to curtail the exploration andmake as much progress as possi-ble up this side creek.

Climbing rapidly we both com-mented on how different the ter-rain was in this creek (alsounnamed) from the two we hadalready descended. It was moreopen and the creek bed was filledwith boulders. It was equally beau-tiful but in a very different way. Awaterfall some 3 m in height wasnegotiated using a handy strongvine and some brute strength. Iwondered what lay ahead. It waseasier than I thought it would beand we made the junction of an-other north–south flowing creek at1205.As we were chilling down quite abit by now we decided that wewould exit at this creek, find a spotfor lunch and then seek a way outback to the vehicle.

Walk 3a section of Rocky Creek.

Knowing the way made for goodprogress and at 0953 we arrivedat the rock face descent that leadsdown into a side canyon and intoRocky Creek. The rock face waswet. Very wet. An exploratory testdescent and ascent of the first 5 mwas pronounced ‘OK.’ The partythen descended one at a time.Steve went first enjoying his selfstyled role as guide. I descendedlast to prevent anyone from chick-ening out.Geoff stopped at a couple of keyspots on the way down to takephotos as we negotiated our way.Hopefully there will be some ex-traordinary action shots of each ofus clinging limpet like during thedescent. On one tiny rock shelf I

Below the cliff face the next sec-tion of the descent was fun. A lotof slippery black mud sections al-ternate with glorious rainforestand the occasional challengingrock crevice where chimneyingskills were handy. I give MotherNature top marks for the provisionof convenient exposed tree rootsin so many spots. The recent rainhad given a new life to the mosscovered rocks and in the soft lightthe pictures were extra special.Emerged on the bank of RockyCreek above a half metre deeppool. Fortunately even with the re-cent rains Rocky Creek had notrisen. I was rather wet already, soa splash entry was not a problem.The others were sensible enoughto go looking for a somewhat moredignified entry. They even claimeddry feet! I just laughed because Iknew what was ahead.

a bit, and then a bit more. Fromour position we could now see highvertical cliffs a good 200 m awayand guessed the position of anoth-er major constriction where yet an-other unnamed creek cut in. Ourimmediate problem was to getdown and in there.

took the opportunity to stop andlook across the gorge that hidesRocky Creek deep, deep down.Swirling misty clouds filled the sky.Would we get to the bottom andfind the creek so high to forceabandonment of the enterprise?

We pushed on down-stream mak-ing good progress and thoroughlyenjoying the beauty of the place.At the big bend there were greatundercuts and overhangs. Themagic of raw wilderness was ev-erywhere. Further on we encoun-tered a small set of rapids thatwere easy to negotiate. Out spiritswere high. Then we came to ablock up, only a small one anddoable with the tape I carried, butit was irreversible unless we leftthe tape set. As we had no ideawhether the next exit down streamwas within our capability, orwhether we could find it we wereforced to turn back. t

Here Rocky Creek is truly magnifi-cent – lots of clean sandy beach-es, clear pools, great fernseverywhere, (at least 4 species)and of course those canyon walls.The canyon walls, well, they arespecial. Of wonderful ochrecolours, they rise to varyingheights and probably average 30m. They are pocked with cavesand overhangs all begging for at-tention in a canyon that has thesame claim everywhere.On the downside, (if it is one) thereare lots of fallen trees and in spotsheaps of debris. It is in these plac-es that food resources exist forcrayfish and other invertebrates.We had an encounter with a ma-ture blue crayfish Euasticus spini-fer. I am sure lots of his mateswere watching on. We were justnot clever enough to look in theright places.

8 | The Bushwalker

Roger Caffin

Everyone knows about the middlepart of Kosciusko National Park(KNP), from Mt Kosciusko to Mt

Jagungal, but it seems not so many know

about the northern end. The Wombatrecently did a 11 day loop around thenorthern end, mainly on old tracks and'management trails', and took a lot of

photos. It is much more varied country,with a lot of that awful stuff calledheight-change. The country was prettydry in places, even dusty.

A start was made near Cesjacks Hutand the back way was taken to thesaddle at the headwaters of theGungarlin, where THE tree is stillstanding after the fires. It was crossedand the wombat headed out onto theplains to the north.

This time the plains were dry and easy travelling, but the wombat was reminded ofa previous trip in the same month of another year when the weather had turned ashade less clement. The moral is you always take some snow gear up here.

The horrible Happy Jacks Road was crossed and the wombat headed north to thenew Brooks Hut. The new version looks a bit neater and trimmer on the outside,although the inside is rather bare, even spartan, with just a small table. The toiletarrangements seemed a shade primitive compared to the normal NPWS loo.

The wombat went up Arsenic Spur,but the old walking track hascompletely disappeared after the fires,which is a great pity as it was the oldLigars Route from the gold rush days.Camp was made just before TabletopMountains on firm ground by theheadwaters swamp of WaterholeCreek. There was some water in thecreek - for a short distance only. Butit's a nice spot.

Next morning a farewell was said to Mt Jagungal from near Tabletop, the Selwyn ski resort was quickly traversed (they look awfulwithout the snow) and Three Mile Dam was explored. It's very pretty, and the weather was fine. Then the wombat headed northalong Wallaces Creek Fire Trail, through a fair bit of unburnt forest and over grasslands. The FT seems to be mainly used bybrumbies. The Plan was to descend the Coppermine FT as far as the crossing on Blue Creek and to camp there, but that's basaltcountry and it was dry, dry, dry. Oh Dear. . . The wombat sighed, and set off for the Yarrangobilly River, over 600 m below.

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An unsuccessful attempt at a dry foot crossing on steppingstones was made, but no matter. A wash in the river wasenjoyed - shivering due to fatigue, and then camp was swiftlymade. Next morning the light in the trees was nice, before thesteep climb up onto the plateau on the other side. The altitudehere is lower, and the trees are bigger - much bigger.

The Yans Crossing FT ledto the Jounama home-stead. The use of thatmuch brick suggests thatlife here must have beenprofitable for some time,and enjoyable too. Pityabout the big bag ofrubbish: doubtful thatthere are 'cultural arti-facts' in it. Then a verydry, harsh descent wasmade back to theYarrangobilly at YansCrossing.

This is limestone country: very dry and harshaway from the river, but the water was just warmenough for the obligatory swim. Lunch was in theshade of a very nice tree nearby. From here theAlpine Highway was crossed to reach theKennedy Ridge and the start of the Horseshoe FT.There were no signs of any other walkers around.

No walkers, but some wildlife. Bluetongue lizards tend to freezewhen you approach, which makes for good photos. The brumbywas curious at first, but then took fright and ran away. The pilesof brumby dung along the fire trails are pretty huge in places -too many of them altogether for a national park.

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10 | The Bushwalker

After the fires the NPWS seems to havegone mad building ugly bridges withconcrete pipes and arches over everylittle creek. Can't say they add to the'wilderness values' of the place. Thisone was at the site of the Long FlatHut, where the wombat camped.

From Long Flat the HorseshoeFT goes over the long, highAndy Andy range to theGoobarragandra River andKells Hut. The forest was thickin places, but the blackberriesand the native raspberries ontop of the range were luscious.The wombat had never tastedwild raspberries that good.The descent to the river islong, steep, tiring and a bitloose in places. But Kells Huton Emu Flat Creek is cute, andthe myriads of apple trees(and others) around were infruit, and enjoyed. Thoughtshad been given to going up theGoobarragandra River toDubbo Falls, but the extent ofthe blackberries on the riverbanks made that a non-starter.The blackberries on the riverbanks made the token effortsseen at spraying the black-berries along the immediateedges of the trail seem a bitpointless, and anyhow theemus love blackberries. Theirscats are full of the seeds.

Next morning the climb out of Emu Flat Ck was tackled (it's steep!) to the plateauabove. The trails inside the National Park are nice; the transition onto a public roadin Bondo State forest was a rude shock. In places the 'road' was one car wide withsolid blackberry walls. Granted, there was an unlimited amount of very ripeblackberries for eating, but they do pall after a while. Anyhow, the maze of roadsand fire trails was negotiated to Browns Flat for another smooth campsite.

The camp site was fine, but it took the wombat about half an hour to find enoughwater to fill four bottles. The water had some 'organic matter' in it too. Weird,because the previous creeks had all had good water, but not this one. It seemed allthe brumbies had left Browns Flat too, migrating down to the Wombat Ground. Thelatter was of course a very fine place in the morning light.

A food drop was picked up inBrindabella and the wombatset off down the Goodra-digbee River on the McLeodSpur FT. A rough camp wasmade where some fishermenhad cleared a site off thetrack - but it was tilted andbumpy. Then the long climb(800+ m) was started up toCircuits Mountain. But the airwas fresh and the views gotbetter. Somewhere betweenCircuits Mt and Mt Jacksonthere is a transition fromharsh rocky country back tolovely snow grass and snowgums, and the wombat feltmuch relieved by this. Homecountry as it were. In a saddlebeyond Mt Jackson a brumbytrack was picked up andfollowed down the valleyonto the plains north of BlueWaterhole.

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Several herds of brumbies were displaced and camp was madebeside a little creek at the edge of the plain; further out on the plainthe creek just vanished into the limestone soil. The evening was verymild and pleasant; breakfast the next morning was a shade cooler.

It was cold in the morning with a ground mist far away andfrost close up, but the arrival of the sun was eagerlyanticipated. The tent had been wet with condensation fromprevious nights, so getting the poles out of the sleeves in themorning proved to be a gloves-needed affair. But then the sunarrived and the wombat set off south over the plains, pastnumerous sink-holes.

The plains got drier and drier towards thesouthern edge. It was an interestingtransition: don't expect to find water aroundhere. But then the track moved off thelimestone plain and back into the hills, overa ridge and out onto the high plains. Therewas water in Dairymans Creek, but the burnt-out low heather scrub around it still shows nosigns of recovery from the fires.

The old bridge across the Murrum-bidgee River which the AustralianAlpine walking Track once used wasgone. What does one do in springwhen the river is in flood? The bridgeacross the next big side creek was alsoburnt, and only bits of it remain. Thetrees beyond show the effects of thefires too. And the track was very dusty.

Witses Hut is still in good condition.The wombat suspects it has survivedbecause the nearby water supply hasall dried up, so no-one camps nearbyor inside. A harsh judgement, but...Instead camp was made at thecrossing on the Tantangara nearKiandra Creek, out on the plainsagain. The site is not recommended: itwas very exposed to any bad weather,and very bumpy too. Snow grass islovely, but not for camping on.

The weather changed overnight. Not a lot ofreal wind and rain, but it was definitelydamp. Packing was done during a non-raining spell. Then it was off across the WildHorse Plains to the joys of Kiandra, pausingfor morning tea on a small ridge above thePlains.

The snow gums on the ridge were not burnt in the fires, and this one was huge, witha nice home underneath. Much nicer than the lonely wind-swept plains of Kiandra -how the gold miners survived winter there in their tents is anyone's guess. The lureof gold! The big bridge at Kiandra looks tempting but is no use to the walker - a pity.

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The TabletopMountain FTgoes up verygently from Kian-dra to the plateauabove: it's apleasant walk.The fires sweptacross the tophere, leavingsome fascinatingdead gums be-hind. But here theregrowth is doingwell. There wereeven some pom-poms left overfrom spring - anunexpected butdelightful bonus.

The Nine Mile Diggings looked a bit bare after the fires, butmaybe the site now qualifies as a 'cultural artifact' ratherthan as a mining wasteland?Perception, perception. The soil colours are fascinatinganyhow. Camp at Nine Mile Creek was considered, but itwas early and most of the good tent sites had dead treesleaning precariously over them, so the wombat pushed onpast Tabletop Mt. The NPWS has covered a fair bit of thistrack with thick layers of blue-metal so any fire trucks won'tget bogged - an absurd despoilation of the placeconsidering the futility of attempting to stop a firestormwith a little hose. Head Office bureaucracy at work, tosatisfy the politicians.

Then it was off to Cesjacks. Given the fog and rain and theloss of the track on Arsenic Ridge, the fire trails were usedinstead. The foggy ridge in the background of the last photowas Arsenic Ridge - wet stuff. But the day cleared up a bitas we reached the car. The wombat enjoyed a very largevanilla slice with a long black in Cooma.

All this fine dry mild weather, and at the same timeSydney was having torrential rain for days on end.

What a difference! t

Camp was made on another bit of Waterhole Creek -definitely not as smooth as the site used for the first night.That vast swamp area out there - was rather dry. Only onesmall waterhole was found - but it was enough. The windblew most of the night and rattled the tent, and in themorning there was fog and rain. No matter: a comfortablenight was had despite the snow grass tussocks.

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The Bushwalker | 13



Please don’t think that your clubbushwalking is just a private activitybetween consenting adults. Be

aware that NSW could be subject toridiculous regulations that have beenapplied or are about to be applied in otherStates of Australia. These regulations havethe potential to render volunteerbushwalking clubs and especially ‘clubwalks’ a bureaucratic nightmare, leadingvery possibly to their rapid demise.

What are we talking about? Theproposed imposition of Adventure ActivityStandards (AAS) and National OutdoorsLeaders Registration Scheme (NOLRS) onvolunteer clubs. These are an array ofregulations which seek to dictate who canlead a bushwalk or similar activity. Now,many of us would be happy to seeregulations brought in to cover theoperation of commercial adventurecompanies and other people whoundertake to lead youth groups etc inoutdoor activities. After all, these peopleare putting themselves in the position ofbeing fee-for-service providers andclaiming to look after ‘members of thepublic’. Requiring some sort ofqualification for this seems very reasonable(and about time too). However, we doNOT agree that these regulations have anyplace in volunteer adult bushwalkingclubs.

It should be noted that Europe andNew Zealand have Guides Associationswith strict qualifications, and we would behappy to see a similar regime brought intoexistence here. In those countries wearinga Guide’s badge is a mark of honour. Butneither Europe nor New Zealand make anyattempt to regulate volunteer clubs andprivate individuals - but that is what theAAS seeks to do.

The SourceThe push seems to be led by an Australia-wide body, the Outdoor Council ofAustralia (OCA). OCA is an incorporated,not-for-profit association of outdoorrecreation industry professionals inAustralia that includes ORIC in NSW. OCA(and hence ORIC) are encouraging AAS &NOLRS.

See www.outdoorcouncil.asn.au formore details. It would seem that there aresome people in some governmentdepartments (eg NSW Department ofSport and Recreation) who are alsopushing this - why is not known. InVictoria, access to public land bycommercial groups is subject to licence.Licensees must show they meet AAS.Some commercial land-use groups arepushing an ‘equity’ argument that all land-users must meet AAS, and it seems fromthe Victorian experience that is part of the'real’ motive behind the current push.

OCA has members that range fromcommercial operators to Scouts / OutwardBound and outdoor education groups. OurConfederation is a member of BushwalkingAustralia or BAI, found atwww.bushwalkingaustralia.org.

BAI represents all the State-based'confederations. BAI has chosen to be amember of OCA in order to have a voiceregarding AAS and NOLRS, but it must besaid that the powers-that-be in OCA do notseem to want to pay any attention to theprotests from bushwalker organisations.The Victorian (VicWalk) experience hasbeen especially traumatic, with whatseems at times to have been deliberatemisrepresentations.

In more detail, AAS is a system ofguidelines and regulations for involvementin the outdoors that covers essentialaspects and practices including planning,leader competency, equipment, safety,emergency procedures and environment. Acore feature of the leader registrationscheme (NOLRS) is the dependency of‘Clients’ on the activity leader, the ‘Guide’.That is, unlike in bushwalking clubs, theclients are assumed to have little or noskill in the outdoors activity. This places asignificant ‘duty of care’ on the Leader.Typically, (inexperienced) ‘Clients’ pay afee to do an adventure activity (such asClaustral Canyon) with no pre-training orexisting skill. This stands in stark contrastto the system found in every volunteerbushwalking club in NSW, where everymember participates in club activitiesunder his own steam and takes fullresponsibility for his own safety.

Every bushwalking club in theConfederation has their own set of safetyregulations and training procedures towhich members must subscribe. In mostcases these have been developed inconcert with other clubs, and probablyrepresent a far more evolved, practical andrelevant code than some of the OCAguidelines we (RNC) have seen.Confederation has provided considerableinformation on Risk Management andprocedures to OCA, but at present theproposed AAS completely ignore all clubknowledge and training.

I (RNC) have seen some of theVictorian AAS Regulations and an earlierdraft of the NSW ones. They are abureaucratic nightmare of almost null-content in places. ‘The Leader shall haveappropriate skills in XYZ...’. It was notobvious where the ‘appropriate skills’would be defined or by whom, but it wasfairly clear at the time that bushwalkingclubs would have no say in defining them.Oh yes - those skills come in a series ofgrades too: you need grade 1 for a walk ofthis difficulty and grade 2 for a walk ofthat difficulty, or so it seemed.

Direct Implications forUs

Let’s be very explicit here about theimplications. You want to ‘lead’ a fewother members of your club on a walksomewhere? Under AAS you could not dothis legally unless you had passed all the

AAS examinations and regulations. Unlessyour club had AAS-approved leaders, itcould not schedule any club walks.

Some emergency services managers seeAAS & NOLRS as a way to reduce thenumber and/or severity of outdoorsemergency incidents. Fine, but it wouldnot be an exaggeration to say that thatmost incidents ‘happen’ to people who areNOT members of a bushwalking club, andwho are not on a club activity. You knowwhat we mean.

We need to have a viable alternative toAAS & NOLRS. We can say that AAS &NOLRS could act as a serious deterrent tonew members joining bushwalking clubs.Bushwalking clubs could slowly fade awayas private trips (without ‘leaders’)proliferate. Confederation would lose itsinfluence with land managers andgovernment. Unfortunately we cannotignore AAS & NOLRS. There isconsiderable momentum behind AAS &NOLRS in the commercial outdoors sector.BAI has advised OCA that in regards toAAS & NOLRS ‘there are things OCA doesNOT have the support of BushwalkingAustralia or our members on.’ So BAImembership of OCA does not implysupport of AAS & NOLRS. In fact, as far asI (RNC) know, every State bushwalkingbody is vehemently opposed to theimposition of AAS on volunteerbushwalking clubs.

AAS has the potential to be overly anduselessly prescriptive in defining outdoorsactivities and to ignore the range ofinformal training and acquisition ofbushwalking skills and experienceprovided by the current system within thevarious bushwalking clubs duringbushwalks. It has the potential to destroyour Clubs.

The Confederation does not believe theissue of AAS & NOLRS will go away. It isalready partly in operation in otherAustralian States but is currently non-compulsory. It is not appropriate forbushwalking clubs and has the potential tostop new members joining clubs. Theability of Confederation to speak forbushwalkers and influence land managerswould be compromised, or destroyed. Weask that all member clubs support yourConfederation. In addition, clubs need toensure that they have good training &safety procedures as a viable alternative toAAS & NOLRS.

We recommend that these proceduresbe documented.

Status - NowAt present AAS & NOLRS remain non-

compulsory due to resistance by BAI,VicWalk and Queensland Federation ofBushwalking Clubs and other groups. Buthow long this stalemate will last isuncertain. The Confederation will keepmember clubs informed of any futuredevelopments. t

A Looming NightmareAdventure Activity Standards

Roger Caffin and Keith Maxwell

(The more polemic bits were writtenby Roger Caffin, who takes fullresponsibility for them.)



Introduction

Morton National Park was thisyears venue for Navshield, areturn to the strikingly

picturesque area near Nerriga, used forthe original event 20 years ago. The vistafrom this western side is of numerous,bluff-sided, flat-topped mountains, juttingfrom a forested and gently undulatingplain. Gold, orange and red cliffs glow inthe morning and evening sunlight,silhouetted against the pale blue sky.Reminiscent of buttes and mesas ofNevada USA, but in a eucalypt forest, notin a desert.

It was just the place for BushwalkersWilderness Rescue Squad to celebrate thetwentieth year of the Emergency ServicesNavigational Shield, for 2008. Anycompetitors who glanced at a map wouldhave easily deduced that the 11 flattopped high points would be chosen forcontrols, even before they received thecheckpoint list and map. We always liketo reward competitors (and coursesetters) in as many ways as possible: whatbetter way than a magnificent view, aftersome ‘interesting’ navigation and routefinding to locate the pass up.

This is a big event with over 1000people taking part: competitors and theirsupport crews, administration, safety,communications, catering, etc. All theemergency services of NSW arerepresented: Police Rescue, AmbulanceSCAT teams, Rural Fire Brigades, SES,VRA, Armed Services, as well asbushwalkers and rogainers. The numbersof participants were down a bit this yeardue to a number of squads being rosteredto manage the Pope’s visit to the WorldYouth Day summit in Sydney. Onsite wehad members of BWRS as the safetyresponse teams, WICEN for radiocommunications, SCAT ambulanceofficers for remote casualty access, StJohn First Aid at base and NerrigaProgress Association for catering.

The course covered about 80 squarekilometres, mostly rugged national park.There were three radio checkpoints: RCPAlpha, with views to the northeast, in aleafy glade on the trail just past Flat TopHill; RCP Bravo on a trail junction on highground to the south of the course; andRCP Charley on a trail just south of RoundMountain, with beautiful views east toQuiltys Mountain and south to FostersMountain and beyond. The RCPs are therefor the participants’ safety, as well as alocation to pick up water or to camp atnight. There were also numerousoverhangs below the cliff lines that havebeen used for camping in the past, withnatural water soaks nearby which couldbe used during the event. Most majorcreeks in the area have good water.Height loss or gain was only a modest300m or so, which suited manycompetitors. Elevation of the area wasfrom 600 m to 900 m, so cooltemperatures were expected. Morton NPis noted for high rainfall, but this westernside tends to be dryer. In fact we onlyhad a couple of drizzly days in all the timewe spent there, including setting up andpulling down. The event itself was sunny.There are two parallel service tracks in thearea: Alum Creek Firetrail and Square TopMountain Firetrail, running north south 4– 5 km apart. They join in the south so itwas easy to set a course to limit theamount of road running.

Course SettingCourse setting is always a busy time forthe small band of talented navigators.Their reward is walking to interestingbeautiful places bushwalkers would notnormally visit. Some map features selectthemselves as checkpoints because of theirviews or as places of interest. It is thenonly a matter of filling in the grid byfinding features that will make goodcheckpoints between them. Flat Top Hill,Square Top Mt, Fosters Mt, Round Mt,Hoddles Castle Hill, Barnies Hill, Castle

Hill, are such places. We would haveliked to include Quiltys Mt, Mt Haughton,Sturgiss Mt as well but these would havemade the course too big.

In searching along the foot of cliff linesto find passes up through the bluffs, wesaw many overhangs with flatsandy/dusty floors that indicateaboriginal use, pre-European settlement.A couple of the high points had whatlooked like Bora Grounds (ancientaboriginal corroboree sites - clear, flatareas marked out with stones).

Many of the watercourses (eg GrassyCk, Corang Ck, Corang River, Alum Ck,Running Ck, Gallagher’s Ck, Sallee Ckand Hoddle Ck) were swampy and veryscrubby places, to be avoided as much aspossible. To complicate matters a fewwere excellent walking and provided flatplaces to camp. The flat swampy natureof the creeks made most watercoursejunctions too indistinct for use as checkpoints, especially where they were veryscrubby.

Places of particular interest or beautyincluded the tall forests on the easternside of high ground such as Round Mt,and the views from the flat open areassouth of Round Mt, west of Sturgiss Mt,south of Barnies Hill and west of MtHoddle. We passed a beautifullyconstructed Lyre Bird nest on a 1 m highboulder out in the open on the south westslopes of Castle Hill. Most of the Lyre Birdnests I have seen previously were a fewsticks roughly set on a ledge, just enoughto stop the eggs rolling off.

Another interesting item was the campoverhangs (not just one, but two) belowSquare Top Mtn bluffs, with the firewoodin each neatly set out in separate neatpiles of sticks all broken to size. A pile ofsmall kindling with leaves and bark, a pileof less than 5 mm diameter sticks, a pileof 10 mm diameter sticks, a pile of 20mm sticks, all that would be easily brokenby hand and all about 200mm to 300mmlong. There was no big wood that couldprovide hollow havens for insects or smallanimals. The fire place was set up withstones just so to protect the fire and

Navshield 2008Nerriga—Morton National Park

Doug Floyd, BWRS

Map - Endrick; 1:2500,8927-4S, third edition

“Now if we run down here. . .”

The Bushwalker | 15



Errata and OmissionsCorrections to Volume 34, Issue 1:

Some of the photos of BarringtonTops should have been credited toCotter Erickson of The Bush Club.The article on the Great Ocean Walkwas by Paul Ellis of the ShoalhavenBushwalkers.

Apologies over both of these.

surrounded by flat stones to hold the billy.Importantly, they had been used beforebut there was no big pile of ash orcharcoal. Clearly the sites were cleanedout regularly. Many bushwalkers mayleave a pile of long branches in a dryplace for those who turn up in the rain,but Ive never seen this before.

Friday -- PreparationGood weather, cool but sunny day. Alocal landholder had kindly offered theuse of this beaut base site beside theNerriga Braidwood road. A basin-shapedgrassy paddock with scattered trees andscrubs on the higher ground for firewoodand shelter. Thank you to Bob and Adamfor donating the use of this site: your helpwas most appreciated by all participants.

WICEN members (radiocommunications) and BWRS membersarrived throughout the day to set up thebase site and radio checkpoints in thefield. Competitors and support crewarrived during the afternoon and eveningto set up camp, light camp/cooking firesand start the socialising which is a featureof all Navshields.

The maps and checkpoint lists weredistributed from 7 pm Friday onwards.Competitors could then begin to mark upthe checkpoints on their maps and plantheir intended route – a difference fromrogaining where competitors are handedmarked-up maps. Also we give gridsreferences of 8 figures.

Saturday – day oneSaturday morning dawned clear andbright. Frosty of course after a clear starrynight. The bustle of preparation yesterdayafternoon meant there were only a fewlast minute activities this morning. Theroving bushranger teams were briefed anddispatched early to be ready in placebefore the 8:45 am start. Bushranging ispartly a safety role to have people in thefield to react swiftly to any problem orinjury.

Competitors were briefed by the coursesetter and safety manager at 8:30 am,ready for the mass start at 8:45 am. Oncethe start hooter sounded there was aflurry of activity as the teams collectedtheir control cards from the line strungout before them. Then they all headed off,

navigating to collect their first control.Within 5 minutes peace returned, with thesupport crews and administratorsstanding about with little to do but wait atthis time. A couple of teams choose tohang back till 09:00 am to study themaster map prepared by the course setterto verify a particular location.

All was quiet. We just wandered aboutchatting or enjoying the sunny morning.Around mid morning I was relayed a radiomessage from RCP alpha: a competitorhad reported one of the checkpoint flagshad blown down a slot in the rock. Thatmeant they had to climb down a 3 m cliffto punch their tags. A bushranger teamwas dispatched to correct the situationand soon all was as it was meant to be.Peace reigned again until a little later Ioverheard part of a message from theradio tent that indicated that thebushranger vehicle had come across ateam with a member who had a damagedknee. No problem - she was evacuatedback to base where the paramedics andfirst aider did their stuff.

Just after lunch a competitor told methat RCP alpha was in the wrong position.A check showed that there had beenconfusion caused by a draft checkpoint listand the flag needed to be moved 170mfurther north along the track. Just what Ididnt need. But that was it: no excitementfor the rest of the event.

Late in the afternoon the teams begantrickling in with stories of easy to findpoints, hard to find points, points thatcouldn’t be found by one team but werefound by another, easy walking places,good views places, hard to negotiatepasses, easy passes found, and one storyof horrendous scrub leading to a chestdeep pool that was near impossible tofight out of through the swampy scrubbyovergrown bank. The beaming faces andlaughter: they have obviously had a goodtime.

By 7:30 pm all one day teams wereback or accounted for and the one-daypresentations could be made.

Results1st Team: 009 Springwood Bushwalkers 750 points2nd Team: 018 Berowra Bushwhackers 730 points3rd Team: 050 Wollongong SES – 1 640 points

Sunday – day twoSunday dawned clear and sunny aftercold and frosty night. All teams were backby 3:30 pm and the two-day presentationscould be made.

Results1st Team: 006 Shoalhaven SES – 1 1670 points2nd Team: 061 Sutherland Bushwalkers 1370 points3rd Team: 086 Kangaroo Valley Bushfire Brigade 1350 points

ConclusionCongratulations and well done to theplace getters, and to all participants.NavShield is an event where everyone is awinner. We all enjoy the friendly informal

atmosphere. Thank you everyone forcontributing to that.

It was a great event, withcomplements on the course from manycompetitors. Mind you, a few teams didhave difficulty with checkpoints andothers with thick very mean scrub. Whilewe did warn participants of the thickscrub we knew about, some of themfound some very nasty places we hadn’tknown. Route choice is very important!

Thank you again to the landholdersBob and Adam, and National Parks andWildlife staff for their help and support,without which the event could not havegone ahead.

We received an unsolicited note, froma nearby land holder, complementing uson how clean we left the site and thatthere was no trespassing into out ofbounds areas. t

Check point

Bashing around under the cliffs

A neat and tidy camping cave

volume 34 issue 2 autumn 2009 - bushwalkermagazine.org quartelys/bushwalker342.pdf · the official...

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