Volume 37 No 4 Spring 2012

Volume 37 Issue 4 Climbing up to Riemannhaus, Hochkonig chain Spring 2012 Wouldn’t you like to be here? Grey Mare Hut, Kosciusko National Park. Photo: Graham White, South Coast Bushwalkers. Bungonia Gorge, Bungonia National Park. Photo: (name lost - if you recognise your picture, please let the Editor know and we will print an acknowledgement). Walk Safely—Walk with a Club T h e Bushwalker The Official Publication of the Confederation of Bushwalking Clubs NSW Volume 37, Issue 4, Spring 2012 From the editor’s desk. ISSN 0313 2684 My thanks to Michael Keats for looking after the Winter issue of The Bushwalker. Without his help you might not have had anything. My excuse Editor: Roger Caffin is that I wasn’t here in Australia. Sue and I were walking the Via Alpina [email protected] Graphic Design & Assembly: Purple route, through Slovenia, Austria and Germany at the time. Boasting Barry Hanlon of course, but they do have real mountains over there. And an awful lot of Proofreader: Roy Jamieson limestone. Confederation Officers: On the front cover we are climbing from Maria Alm, a town in the valley, President: David Trinder up to Riemannhaus, a club hut up on the limestone plateau. These lime- Administration Officer: stone plateaus have to be some of the harshest and most lunar places I [email protected] have ever seen. Great in the sun, like on this day, but slightly intimidating Website: www.bushwalking.org.au when there is snow on the ground and fog swirling around (as happened a Address all correspondence to: few weeks before this). PO Box 119, Newtown, NSW 2042 Articles for Publication I am getting a bit low on pictures for the Inside Front Cover. If you would like to see The Confederation of Bushwalking yours published, send them in. Note that I need the originals, straight from the camera Clubs NSW Inc represents and uncropped and unretouched, so we can set them up for the printing process. We approximately 66 Clubs with a total need high resolution for large pictures. membership of about 8,700 Apart from that, please keep those articles rolling in. We need them. Plain text bushwalkers. please, and again the original unedited photos direct from the camera. If you want to include a DOC file or a PDF (in addition to the plain text) to illustrate the sort of layout Formed in 1932, the Confederation you have in mind, please do so as well. provides a united voice on behalf of all Please note that opinions expressed by authors may not represent the official bushwalkers on conservation, access opinions of the Confederation or any Club. The Editor’s opinions are his own, if he can and other issues. find them. Roger Caffin People interested in joining a Editor bushwalking club may write to the Confederation Administration [email protected] Ice Floes at Port Charcot. Read the story on page 6. for a list of Clubs, but a far more useful on-line list is available at the Confederation website www.bushwalking.org.au, broken up into areas. There’s lots of other good stuff there too, including the bushwalking FAQ. Index Wouldn’t you like to be here? 2 From the Editor’s Desk 3 President’s Report 4 Budawangs Camping Rock Ravine 4 Antarctic Peninsula 6 Historic Passes of Kangaroo Valley 8 Volleys on the Overland Track 11 Ethereal Canyon on Bungleboori Creek 12 ‘Mystery Hike’ Valley Heights to Penrith 15 Front Cover: Climbing up to Riemannhaus, Hochkonig Chain, Austria. Photo: Roger Caffin. Volume 37, Issue 4, Spring 2012 The Bushwalker | 3 Walk Safely—Walk with a Club Budawangs Camping Rock Ravine or those who have not heard, I have ost of the Budawangs is a large Freplaced Dodie Green in the posi- dedicated wilderness area of at tion of President of Confederation. We Mleast 70,000 hectares within are all very grateful to Dodie for her Budawang and Morton National Parks. It two years at the helm and her enor- hosts several spectacular geographic fea- mous contribution. tures, many well known such as The Cas- I am looking at the organisation, tle and Monolith Valley, some much less so. The established tracks through the wil- past, present and future to see whether derness are well used, visiting many of we can make some improvements. the area’s features, but a side trip to near- Dodie was concerned that we did not by features usually involves extensive have a high enough profile to attract bush bashing through thick vegetation. volunteers into the positions and some A forensic study of 1974 aerial photos at a positions were not filled and some are scale of 1:15,840 has focused on an area still not filled. We are grateful to the very seldom, if ever, visited and it subse- people who do contribute, like the quently attracted the attention of five Management Committee members, the Batemans Bay Bushwalkers for explora- web site manager, the magazine editors tion. and many of these people have been tracks closed, or in bad condition, Camping Rock Ravine is in the helping out for a long time with little please let us know. northern section of the wilderness. It is reward. Some Clubs that have many working known on the old 1960 Budawangs Confederation was started members are not happy with the bushwalking map as Crevasse Canyon. It immediately after the Blue Gum Forest is aptly named, a highly dissected 250 Personal Accident benefits. The hectare maze of broken rock laced with was saved from the axe in 1932 and it maximum benefit is $500 per week. mesas, buttes, pinnacles, crevasses and was created to solve that type of Additional cover will cost more canyons on either side of a series of problem. The problem of obviously and our broker is reluctant to parallel narrow rock ridges on the conservation, is now being solved very have more than one level of benefits southeastern point of Island Mountain. well by some large organisations like running. Please let us have your Few of these features are discernible on The Nature Conservation of NSW, NCC, thoughts on this matter. available maps. of which Confederation is a group Our State Government has changed It is only on the rocky ridgetops that member and supporter. The National its model constitution for associations the dense vegetation can be avoided. The Parks Association, NPA, the Colong and consequently we are changing our rest is clothed in a very thick blanket of Foundation and other organisations are Constitution. While we are at it, the scrub and litter which not only slows a also doing the job very well. Confederation might simplify its name bushwalker's progress to a half kilometre However, Confederation has the role from “The Confederation of per hour but severely restricts visibility, of looking after the Clubs with Bushwalking Clubs of New South making it very difficult to detect the very insurance, and representing them in Wales” to ‘Bushwalking New South few passes and saddles which allow many ways, e.g. developing Risk progress from one valley to another. It is Wales’ or ‘Adventure New South Wales’. not a place for the faint hearted. Management guidelines, having In the absence of a state budget that On this occasion the Ravine was involvement in Adventure Activity allows for the NPWS to build good approached from the north along the Standards through ORIC and generally tracks for bushwalkers, some Clubs may Folly Point track which had recently been being a central point for dissemination wish to work on tracks on a volunteer trimmed by Parks staff. A rugged bush of information and assistance to clubs. basis. Confederation intends to bash westward to a base camp in the We are interested in providing coordinate track work volunteering. Ravine proved to be only a sample of the additional services to the Clubs. Our The new Management Committee heavy going we would experience for the aim of providing more services to Clubs will look at its communications with next two days. Water was scarce until and to bushwalkers as a whole, is the Clubs, web site and magazine, and reaching Camping Rock Creek but a consistent with the aims of their visual appearance and we might comfortable campsite was found in the Bushwalking Australia Incorporated, introduce a monthly Newsletter to gloom of late afternoon. BAI, of which we are a part. We and provide more regular communications. Next day’s exploration required more BAI want to ensure that training in We are still looking for a Conservation intense bush bashing to the toe of a navigation, First Aid and possibly Officer, an Insurance Officer and a narrow rock ridge running from Island bushcraft is consistent among the Clubs Training Coordinator. Surely there is Mountain which was then easily climbed to improve safety and reduce risk. We someone in the Clubs who would be southwest. The intermittent bare rock areas on top enable faster progress. Above might also make it easier for overseas willing to help out with these jobs. the thickest of the vegetation we were visitors, who come to Sydney, to enjoy Please let us have your thoughts on then able to gain our first full views of the our natural places. these positions or on any of the above, Ravine. We get a Tracks and Access Report drop me a note via Gail at At 479983 (Endrick 84 GDA), an old for each management committee [email protected] and it will stone fireplace possibly twenty years old meeting, much of which comes from be passed on.

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