Three Days of Volunteer Work inThe Alpine National Park.
Monday the 18th, Tuesday the 19th and Wednesday the 20thof November 2019.
Participants.
Trip Leader Greg Rose. Lois Rose, Alan MacRae, Alan Harlow, John Kerr, Ian Blake, Mal Trull, Craig Murray, Vivian Lee.
Members of the Land Rover Owners Club of Gippsland spent three days, in mid-November, working at sites on Kelly Lane with Parks Victoria.
Kelly Lane, in the Alpine National Park north of Licola, runs off Tamboritha Road, following Shaw Creek, heading north and joining Howitt Road. Along the track there are several campsites and two historic huts; Kelly Hut and McMichaels Hut.
Our volunteers first assisted Parks Victoria with a clean-up of the huts in November 2012. On that first occasion it was just Ian Blake, Lois Rose and Greg Rose working with Mike Dower from Parks Victoria. One of the features of our club is the long and close partnership we have with the Parks Victoria Foothills and Southern Alps Team.
This time, our small group of seven volunteers in five vehicles, met at the Heyfield DELWP/PV work centre on the morning of Monday the18th. Craig and Vivian joined us late on Monday afternoon, making nine volunteers and six vehicles. We were looking forward to the three days and the weather forecast was excellent for the work we had planned. Two trailers were to be towed by club members’ vehicles. One of the trailers was the newly completed “volunteer trailer” towed by Mal Trull. It was great to see our club logo proudly displayed on the trailer along with other Parks Victoria volunteer partners for the Foothills and Southern Alps Team. The volunteer trailer carried fencing tools, hand tools, power tools, gloves, hi-vis vests, safety glasses and other bits and pieces we would need. The second trailer, towed by Alan Harlow, carried thirty long fence posts. A second load of fence posts would be collected on the Tuesday. More of that saga later.
Our group travelled to Licola for the essential coffee stop. Wayne Foon, Parks Victoria Acting Ranger Team Leader Heyfield, met us at Licola. Wayne’s Parks 79 series Land Cruiser was towing a trailer with a Dingo digger and auger attachments. A welcome site for club members after years of digging holes for bollards, picnic table sets and fence posts with nothing more sophisticated than shovels and crow bars.
One of the problems for volunteers and Rangers working in the Alpine National Park is the time it takes to get materials and personnel on site. It was nearly midday before we entered the northern end of Kelly Lane, through the locked Seasonal Closure gate, off Howitt Road. The wooden bridge over Shaw Creek at Thomastown on the southern end of the track had been declared unsafe by an engineer. The bridge will be repaired over the next few months. On site at McMichaels Hut, after initial safety briefings and a quick lunch, unloading the first load of fence posts began.
Our key tasks for the first day were to place bollards around the hut site and to repair some flashing on the hut itself. Over the three days our club members put in forty-eight bollards and fence posts, made repairs to the hut, removed some old wire fencing and cleared trees from Scrubby Creek Track. Wayne Foon instructed club members in the use of the Dingo digger, an added bonus to the trip. It’s always good to increase our skill set. Some of the more enthusiastic members of the club worked hard smashing their way through rock that the Dingo digger’s auger refused to tackle. The scene was like one of those prison movies from the fifties; hardened criminals breaking rocks!
Wayne Foon and I had a strange day Tuesday. The quick trip to Sale to drop off the Dingo and be back by 2:00 p.m. turned into an allay event not getting back to camp until 6:30. Towing a trailer with 1200litres of diesel fuel, for the big CAT generator, and the Land Cruiser tray loaded with twenty more fence posts didn’t contribute to a quick trip.
The remote location brings some challenges. Careful planning ensures that everything we need is with us. It’s a long way to Bunnings if you’ve forgotten the roofing nails. Medical help is a long way off too. We have First Aid trained members on the trips. The club has its own defibrillator, snake bite kit, First Aid kits, etc. Alan MacRae and I had satellite phones to supplement the Parks Victoria trunk radio.
We had the luxury of being able to stay at Surveyors Creek work camp. Hot showers went some way to soothing the tired muscles at the end of each day. We shared the night-time catering with Wayne Foon cooking a spaghetti banquet on Monday night and the club putting on an excellent bar-b-que on the Tuesday evening. Many thanks to Jan’s son (Butchers on George St Moe) for his succulent meat. We had so much food left; meat, salads, bread, pickles, sauce, etc. that Wednesday's lunch was a picnic of leftovers under the shade of the big peppercorn tree in Licola.
All tasks and clean-up were finished on Wednesday morning. On the way out the club members were able to “unlock” Scrubby Hill Track gate and do a check on Dingo Hill Track to clear any fallen trees. I use the term unlock loosely as Craig had to use the battery powered “key” as Wayne had the Parks keys. The Kelly Lane gate had been unlocked earlier in the day by Wayne.
We journeyed back to Heyfield to drop off the trailers. Once again, we had enjoyed the privilege of working with skilled Parks Victoria Rangers. We spent time in a magnificent part of the Alpine National Park. We solved the worlds problems and told a few tall stories and jokes. Our volunteer hours will be added to the thousands of hours logged by clubs affiliated with Four Wheel Drive Victoria. Importantly we had helped improve the visitor experience for all Park users.
Thanks to all the club members who came along. Unfortunately we had a few people unable to attend due to medical and family concerns. I hope all is well with those folk. We will set dates for 2020 joint works in the next month or two and announce them at the February meeting.
You will find photo's of the work in the photo gallery.
Greg Rose.
Land Rover Owners Club of Gippsland Trip Leader.
FWDV Regional Representative Southern Alpine National Park.
Write a comment