Australian Alps Walking Track The Boboyan plantation NPA BULLETIN Volume 32 number 2 June 1995

CONTENTS Australian Alps Walking Track 4 Fuelling the fire of extinction 22 Babette Scougall Alan Davey National Forest Policy 9 Packwalk in Shoalhaven Region 24 Clive Hurlstone Eric Pickering Unfolding Bushfold 12 A single woman treks in Nepal 27 Matthew Higgins Basia Meder Listen to the trees 16 Clive Hamilton Cover IS Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve Photo by Fiona MacDonald Brand Author? Heritage Week KHA and NPA walk to Bushfold Fiat. Boboyan pine plantation 20 Matthew Higgins addresses the group about the Nicki Taws history of George and Russel Read's .

National Parks Association (ACT) Subscription rates (1 July to 30 June) Household members $25 Single members $20 Incorporated Corporate members $15 Bulletin only $15 Inaugurated 1960 Concession $10 For new subscriptions joining between: Aims and objects of the Association 1 January and 31 March—half specified rate • Promotion of national parks and of measures for the pro­ 1 April and 30 June—annual subscription tection of fauna and flora, scenery, natural features and cultural heritage in the Australian Capital Territory and Membership inquiries welcome elsewhere, and the reservation of specific areas. Please phone the NPA office. • Interest in the provision of appropriate outdoor recreation areas. The NPA (ACT) office is located in Maclaurin Cres, • Stimulation of interest in, and appreciation and enjoyment Chifley. Office hours are: of, such natural phenomena and cultural heritage by or­ 10am to 2pm Mondays ganised field outings, meetings or any other means. 9am to 2pm Tuesdays and Thursdays • Cooperation with organisations and persons having simi­ Telephone/Fax: (06) 282 5813 lar interests and objectives. Address: PO Box 1940, Woden ACT 2606 • Promotion of, and education for, conservation, and the plan­ ning of land-use to achieve conservation. Contribute to your Bulletin Contributions of articles (news, descriptions or fiction), Office-bearers and committee black-and-white photographs and line drawings are Acting president Eleanor Stodart 281 5004(h) keenly sought for the Bulletin. Please label photographs Vice-president Clive Hurlstone 288 7592(h); with the name of the subject, the name of the 246 5516(w) photographer and the date. Leave contributions at the Immediate office or phone the editor, Roger Green, on (06) 247 0059. past president Beverley Hammond 288 6577(h) The editorial fax is (06) 249 7373. Secretary Len Haskew 281 4268(h); fax 281 4257 Articles by contributors may not necessarily reflect Treasurer Mike Smith 286 2984(h); Association opinion or objectives. 248 3624(w) Deadline for September issue: 1 August 1995. Committee NPA Bulletin is produced by Green Words for the Stephen Johnston 254 3738(h); 264 2100(w) National Parks Association (ACT) Incorporated. This 264 2364 (fax) issue was produced with the assistance of funds made 248 6769(h); 275 8028(w) Phil Bubb available by the ACT Government under the Steven Forst 2516817(h); 279 1326(w) 1994-95 ACT Heritage Grants Program. Doreen Wilson 288 5215(h) Max Lawrence 288 1370(h); 272 2032(w) Printed on recycled paper by Koomarri Printers, Belconnen, ACT. ISSN 0727-8837 Letters to the editor

large increase in usage by sight-seers. Given the above I would not be surprised Sightseers a problem whose knowledge of climber activities is that more than a 'few, presumably non- near zero, is causing problems. A hut representative individuals' hold strong for climbers would certainly attract more sight-seers and valid feelings on this matter. I would like to respond to Ian and and cause greater problems. Margaret's'another interpretation(of the Problems of safety arise because sight- Yours sincerely history of Brandy Flat Hut), which will seers arrive on top of the rocks, above the Grahame Muller doubtless draw someone's fire3(Letterto climbers. Already large rocks, the size of the Editor NPA Bulletin March 1995). 20 litre drums, have been dug up out of Certainly no single group should the ground and rolled over the cliffs, past determine management policyasa whole. and over the most popular climbs, which But if that group is the original and most are obscured from the top. When I Volunteers available significant user of a small area within the reported this to the rangers I received a We are a group of SCUBA divers who are whole and if their usage is of a special let's wait. and see' response. committed to actively preserving the nature andincludes relatively low impact There is an increase in litter and underwater life of our oceans. Because we and caring activities, their views should erosion of the access walking track and are a relatively young gmup, with limited be given detailed consideration. the access road. Climbers now have resources, we have decided to spend some The problem is the old one of expanding increasing problems with the security of time caring for other areas of the usage destroying the original values. The their gear. environment in general, until we are able to care for the ocean in particular. We currently have a group of up to 20 volunteers who are prepared to assist with any projects which are consistent with our organisation's philosophies. If you are in need of volunteers to help you with projects which involve conservation, working towards a cleaner environment, environmental preservation or similar goals, we'd love to offer our services to you. We are not affiliated with any company or other environmental group. Please feel heto contact Kahren Evans, Ambassadors of the Ocean, PO Box 1129 TuggeranongACT 2900, phone 292 5773, for further information.

Yours sincerely Kahren T. Evans

On Canberra Day NPAoperated a stall to publiciseour activities and make contact with new members. A display ofphotos in the drew attention to our work in Namadgi on track-making and the Orroral Homestead and to the other wonderfil resources we have in national parks around the ACT Doreen Wilson's efforts in setting up the stall and organising a duty roster were rewarded as interested people walked through the tent for most of the day and we had a number ofgenuine membership enquiries. Photo by Reg

NPA BULLETIN 3 The Australian Alps Walking Track project

Origins of the project Murrays Gap (to be in the December establishing their Victorian Alpine issue of the Bulletin). In writing up Walking Trail (later Track) from Mt Members of the Namadgi sub­ the walks we will include not only a Erica to the Murray River. Over the committee of the NPA of the ACT got description of the features and years the Victorian track changed together in April to initiate a conditions encountered along the way and grew and, since the addition of Namadgi-oriented project for 1995. but also possible side or alternative the NSW and ACT extensions, has We chose the then almost-completed routes. Will our enthusiasm last long been renamed the Australian Alps ACT portion of the Australian Alps enough to complete the task we have Walking Track. Our ACT section is Walking Track. Our aims were to be set ourselves? the last part of the tri-state venture more positively involved in to be established. The challenging Namadgi activities, to contribute 655-kilometre track generally more local items for our partly ACT Some background follows the highest ridges and plains Government-funded Bulletin and information about the of Australia's rugged south-east also to introduce more Namadgi walking track country and is expected to be as outings to our walks program. With significant as the Bicentennial Trail. this in mind five members (Frank The Australian Alps Walking Track The track is intended for Clements, Stephen Johnston, Les has had a long gestation period. The experienced bushwalkers skilled in Pyke, Babette Scougall and Nicki idea of a long-distance track was the use of map and and Taws) met with great enthusiasm to first floated in the 1940s, then capable of self-reliant navigation. study maps and discuss the project. picked up and put down by various Few track markers are used; in fact, We are hoping that other members individuals and organisations until much of the track is not formalised, of the Association will take it from the late 1960s, when the Victorian and the policy for the wilderness where we leave off and continue the Ministry of Tourism together with areas is not to use markers at all. the Federation of Victorian Walking articles and walks, either further Anyone attempting to walk the track, Clubs started working towards along the alpine track or other walks or parts of it, needs to take particular within Namadgi National Park. care in planning the trip. Many sections In very general terms, the ACT take in the remotest traverses section of the Alpine Track starts at including the country's highest the Namadgi Visitor Centre in the mountains where conditions are north-east, climbs to the Mt Tennent unpredictable throughout the year. summit road, follows the Booroomba Creek to the Booroomba Rocks carpark, goes past the Honeysuckle Creek Namadgi Visitor tracking station site, over a ridge and Centre to Booroomba down to the Orroral tracking station Rocks carpark site, along the Orroral Valley to the Cotter Hut Road, and through the This is a through walk, so walkers Cotter Valley to finish at Murrays Gap must start with a car shuffle or a in the south-west. key exchange arrangement. (One While this 58.3 kilometre (according hill on the dirt road to the to John Siseman's book and Len Booroomba Rocks carpark is Haskew's pedometer) ACT stretch could extremely steep and may prove best be walked as a four-day packwalk, difficult for two-wheel drives.) we decided to divide it into three parts— Maps required for this one-day the first two parts as one-day walks so walk: 1:25 000 Williamsdale and that a larger number of members can Corin Dam participate, the third section as a two Even though we have provided a or three-day packwalk. Part 1 is from sketch map of the general area (see the Visitor Centre to Booroomba Rocks page 6), detailed contour maps will carpark (see below); Part 2, from the be required on the trip. Marker Booroomba Rocks carpark to Orroral The style of marker post used posts are installed at intersections Valley (to be in the September issue of along the Australian Alps Walking only. In between there is little to the Bulletin); Part 3, from Orroral to Track guide you and, as the walk is new, some stretches of the path are barely of these posts blended in with the discernible. surroundings and were easy to walk Birds s^^i^ong:' Suggested reading: Over the hills past without noticing them at first, and Tharwa way by Ian Fraser and but you soon get your eye in (except thetrackinApril Margaret McJannett. This little gem of where the tussock grass has grown : a book details three sections of this first taller than the post!). Although this • "From: the-Magpie-larks/ Willie' day of the alpine track—Walk 1 is the most recently established "Wagtails'ahd^SuperbFaiiyrwrens' at' ! describes from the Visitor Centre to part section of the track, it is already 7the*start;;«to thetfldckrof;Gang-gahg : way up Mt Tennent (the Cypress Pine clearly defined and easy to follow. .Cockat66s;-greetiri'gvusfwith their" walk), Walk 2 covers the Mt Tennent Volunteer groups have placed logs - 'creaking gate' call at the Booroomba : summit road stretch and Walk 23 covers and rocks across the path to aid Rocks carpark, an abundanceof bird the track from Booroomba carpark to walkers and control erosion. life was evident: Above the treeline the Mt Tennent^-Bushfold Flats fork on Members of our Association, in on the northerhlslopes of. Mt the fire trail. The only part Ian and conjunction with rangers from the ; Tennent small* flocks: of migrating Margaret haven't described in their ACT Parks and Conservation . hpneyeaters, predominantly Yellow-;; book is from the top of the Cypress Pine Service, spent a weekend working on rfaced;arid:;wliite-naped,:fiew. over

walk to where the alpine track some of this section and Australian ^almost ,coiitinuouslyrrduring:the intersects the Mt Tennent summit road. Trust for Conservation Volunteers mornihg.They were headed resolutely spent a week establishing the :in one direction:(eas.t-it;seemed) but; Officially, the Australian Alps Booroomba Rocks end. with frequentrshprt. rests, inther Walking Track begins next to the canopy. At the lunch stop, near the ; Namadgi Visitor Centre. However, as The track is up-hill all the way, .summit road:weheard a few more;; the ACT Parks and Conservation with grades much steeper than the .;spme.stopping;tpifeed—the morning Service's policy is to lock the gate to the Cypress Pine path. Even with a ^rush was oyer, A flocklof about 50 Red Centre at 4.30pm, it is probably wiser light day-pack on, you will find it .yy^attlebirds;also.gathered;.up therer. to leave the cars in a small grassy space one of those relentlessly long, and tookpffjn the same, general;; on the other side of the Naas Road from grinding climbs where you need to direction^alirpart^pfthe massive. the entrance to TuVerview*. The Cypress start slow and keep to an even autumn horieyeaterEmigration; from . Pine walk starts at the small gate steady plod. For people who have ; „the Brindabella Range. . . = A-A through the fenceline where the decided to walk the ACT portion of A lucky encounterph the path just overhead transmission line crosses the the alpine track as a straight four .before, the lunch* stpp^waswitha pair,; Naas Road. to five day stint, the climb with a K of Spotted ;Quail-th^ heavy pack would be a hard one. The Cypress Pine walk is along a with'the noticeable^ However, there is the occasional side well-prepared, nicely graded path, and white band on' fanned tail track to a rocky outlook where you which has become well defined with .^characteristic of thisTspecies. can take a breather and enjoy the regular use. Regular tall black posts '.Z GrimsonRoseiiasskittered noisily views back to the Murrumbidgee and rs with metallic arrows guide you through the branches!arid the Spotted \ Gudgenby rivers and Tuggeranong along the way, past the , she- ,'Pardalptes, still barracked; for, Paul. and beyond. and other dry forest vegetation. „, Keating (the poorinilpcerits unaware;' This attractive, though mostly up­ For the really energetic there is |jthat he is in favoujKpf the destruction:. hill, walk ends at a large slab of rock also a track leading down to Folly ^of;-much7p^ -r! with a sign 'Lookout 100 m' to the Hollow and the Tennent homestead tailed Eagle ranged high above, the side. A caution—I have been told complex to the north, but this will penetrating call of the^Wh^t^throated. that this rock slab is extremely add at least another one-and-a-half . ^eecreeper^mpnitored our progress,.. slippery when wet. hours onto the trip as well as an and a Superb Lyrebird tentatively, Across this open rocky flat you will extra climb back up to the track. The "practised itswinter .repertoire in the';' see the first of the shorter, less- Tennent property at one stage took Booroomba Creek'gully.,T."''-\[\''A obvious Australian Alps Walking in most of Mt Tennent, including the A check through Birds of the ACT.]"] Track marker posts. They are made summit. Grazing capacity was very An'AHas; "reveals thatthere would he of treated timber, yellowish in colour, low; much of the property could only about 46 species"reas6riably;cdm with the Alps Track emblem on top support one sheep per five acres. alongtbis;part of^theitrack,8 and a and an anodised grey or blue A row of cheeses (wooden stepping ^further 60 species&avelesscbn^ortiy ~. (depending on which way the sun stones) signals that you are been recorded:;Not'counting wat^r,*'; strikes it) arrow on the side, pointing approaching the next intersection. birds arid rarities, this represerits * the way. You will find the 'confirming' The arrow on the marker post approximately three-quarters;of the. marker post some metres further directly ahead points left, and you birds ofthe^ACT^^;^- " • along the track beyond the rocks : among the scrub. We found that some IK •. yi'•. V-l^©t P^ilGo-ddaitf;'," continued over The Australian Alps Walking for those going to Booroomba is for those who would like to bag Mt Track Project, continued from further down the road to the right. Tennent it is here they should leave previous page A good place to visit before taking the rest of the party behind and climb off down the road is the large rocky to the top for even better views— continue your climb up to the summit outcrop to the left of the junction from another 170 metres, all uphill. road via an old vehicular track which which wonderful views can be seen. This first part of the walk is is not marked on the 1:25 000 map. To the north-east is the Murrumbidgee through dry, north-facing, lightly This time the grade is more gentle, River, the Naas and Tuggeranong timbered terrain without much with even some stretches of downhill valleys, Lanyon bowl, Rob Roy Range shade, and probably best avoided in to relieve the grind, through and beyond, with the now small mid-summer, or at least requiring a attractive, open forest with taller, Namadgi Visitor Centre in the very early morning start. The few straighter trees than were on the foreground. To the west, glimpses of creeks crossed are very small and harsher, drier north-facing side of the the Tidbinbilla Range and Booroomba seasonal, therefore, you must take mountain. This old track intersects Rocks can be had. lb the north is Mt enough water for the day. Booroomba with the Mt Tennent summit road at Taylor with Black Mountain and its Creek on the western side of the an open grassy saddle—a nice place tower directly behind, and on the mountain is the first reliable water for a rest. The alpine track marker wonderfully clear day when we encountered, and this area has been post is on the southern side of the climbed it in April we could see row constantly grazed since the 1880s summit road, good placement for upon row of hills into the distance. when Andrew McMahon first took people coming up from the Visitor And all the while, overhead, the up leases on Bushfold Flats and Centre but not all that visible at the magic of the honeyeaters' migration Honeysuckle Creek. bend in the road among the tussocks kept us enthralled. The Mt Tennent fire trail dips and for people coming from the The alpine track has long been climbs and winds its way down the Booroomba end. The coniirming post regarded as a 'peak baggers' trip, and mountainside, passing through

+o TtlABWA

Sketch map of walking track from Namadgi Visitor Centre to Booroomba Rocks carpark drawn by Ken Johnson, redrawn by Nicci Haynes. mainly open grassy forest, past turn into it, stay on the main road track is perhaps the most difficult granite boulders and across some going south. You will soon see the part to pick up and stay on. Animal narrow exposed ridges where good next Alps Walking Track marker tracks, some of them more clearly views to the west can be had. This post, on the left-hand side of the defined than the alpine track, cross road was extremely dry in April, and road, directing you off to the west. it in places. The yellow and green the steep gravelly sections were Some metres away from the road tapes that were attached to shrubs quite treacherous underfoot. With is the confirming marker in the open and lower branches of trees by the heavy packs it would have been paddock area to the right, part of the people surveying the track last year worse. The road cuts through the Bushfold Flats run which was help to keep you on it. After going dogproof fenceline three times. resumed in September 1994 for through an old fenceline, the track Watch for the fork in the road that inclusion in the national park. Just goes down a dry gully and winds leads into Bushfold Flats, but don't follow the arrow. This stretch of the through open dry forest where the

Vegetation along the track

This section of the Alpine Walking summer through to autumn, while associated with grazing disturbance Track passes through an interesting during the winter the tubular green at this altitude include Briar Rose and range of vegetation types as the flowers of the Common Correa Correa Spear Thistle Cirisium vulgare. As route rises up from the plains to sub- reflexa can be found. the fire trail descends the southern alpine levels. At the start of the walk After the creek crossing the Cypress slopes of Mt Tennent the vegetation a glance up the slopes of Mt Tennent Pines are left behind and the forest alternates between Candlebark/ reveals different greens and blues in consists of Mealy Bundy and the similar Broad-leaved Peppermint/Snowgum/ the tree cover as the species looking Broad-leaf Peppermint Applebox forest in exposed situations composition of the forest changes dives. These are the two and the taller Mountain Gum/ with altitude and aspect. main trees forming the somewhat Narrow-leaved Peppermint forest on The walk begins in open grassy stunted and gnarled forest up to about more sheltered aspects. woodland, typical of the grazing land 1000 metres altitude. The understorey The track leaves the fire trail and of the southern tablelands. The common on this dry rocky slope varies between skirts the valley sides through mostly tree species are Yellow Box Eucalyptus the tall shrubs, Cauliflower Bush Applebox/Snowgum/Broad-leaved melliodora and Blakely's Redgum Cassinia longifolia, Sweet Bursaria and Peppermint forest. Silver Banksia E. blakelyi, with some Red Box Purple Daisy-bush Olearia tenuifolia, Banksia marginata is common through E. polyanthemos on slightly higher and low heathy areas with Beard-heaths this area, its yellow flowers an ground. This woodland was previously Leucopogon spp. and Heathy Bush-pea important food source for honeyeaters. partly cleared and grazed, as evidenced Pultenaea procumbens. The track wanders up Booroomba by the cut stumps and the presence of Where the track flattens above a large Creek through vegetation typical of the a number of weeds including Briar Rose group of granite boulders the forest takes mountain gullies. Tall Manna Gums (or Rosa rubiginosa and Lambs Tongue on a more sub-alpine character with the Ribbon Gums) Eucalyptus viminalis Verbascum tkaspus. Native grasses appearance of Candlebark Eucalyptus and Narrow-leaved Peppermints tower such as Red Leg Grass Bothriochioa rubida and Applebox E. bridgesiana. over a lush and often dense understorey macra and Kangaroo Grass Themeda Candlebark dominates the open grassy of Blackwood Acacia melanoxylon, triandra are still common despite the forest at the junction of the walking track Woolly Tea-tree Leptospermum previous grazing. with the old 4wd track, and the trees are lanigerum, Long-leaf Lomatia Lamatia The track begins to climb the lower particularly spectacular in autumn as the myricoides, Pomaderris slopes of Mt Tennent through a forest smooth bark turns all shades of red, pink, Poniaderris aspera, and several ferns of the scaly-barked Mealy Bundy orange, yellow, grey and blue as it is . including tree fern. The deep litter and Eucalyptus nortonii, its bluish leaves The occasional Black Sallee E. stellulata rich soil of the creekside is ideal for contrasting with the dark green can be found along this section, its dark Lyrebirds and scratchings are common needles of Black Cypress Pine grey, green and yellow bark distinguishing along the track. Callitris endlicheri. In the shrubby it from the Candlebark. Further along The trees at Booroomba campsite understorey there is usually the track Snowgum E. pauciflora, include several of the common species something flowering at any time of the Narrow-leaved Peppermint E. radiata encountered at sub-alpine levels year. The tiny pink and white flowers and the tall white-barked Mountain Gum along the track—Mountain Guru, of Heath Myrtle Micromyrtus ciliata E. dalrympleana start to becomecommon. Narrow-leaved Peppermint, Candlebark are spectacular in springtime. The The cleared area at the saddle on the and Snowgum. The open grassy daisies Cassinia longifolia and Mt Tennent fire trail is evidence again understorey makes this a most Olearia tenuifolia and Sweet Bursaria of the previous pastoral history of this attractive place to camp. Bursaria spinosa flower mostly in the part of the park. Weeds commonly Nicki Taws track is quite faint. Watch for the waterfalls and rock pools, a new is mostly a gentle climb along a well- fenceline further ahead to the right. The outcrop of mossy rocks at every turn, conceived route and was established track more or less follows this latter under beautiful tall trees full of by the ACT Parks and Conservation east-west fenceline. Even though it is birds and sheltered from the wind, Service with the aid of the Australian labelled 'dogproof on the Williamsdale but probably cold and damp in Trust for Conservation Volunteers. It 1:25 000 map, it is in fact a boundary winter. The flood debris that is piled ends at the north-east corner of the of normal height, unlike the ones high in some corners of the creek carpark, which also has its two passed on the summit road. sends out warnings against trying marker posts—for walkers starting After leaving the corner post of the to negotiate this path after heavy from the Booroomba end. fenceline, the track goes round a rain. The heavily timbered slopes of The only amenities provided at this small knoll on the ridgeline then Deadmans Hill to the left and joint carpark, picnic and camping descends steeply into the another unnamed one to the right ground are metal barbecues. Bring Booroomba Creek gully. It then seem to have been protected from your everything (except water, which criss-crosses the creek seven times. the timber getters' . is available in Booroomba Creek, but This stretch of the walk is Even though it is uphill all the way will require boiling). delightful—ferny gullies, small to the Booroomba carpark, the track Babette Scougall

Launch of Australian Alps Walking Track Walhalla to Canberra—655 kilometres

The Australian Alps Walking Track Waterways of her nine-week long for intending walkers and exhibited allows walkers to experience the hike along the entire track. Margaret examples of current markers and mountainous heart of some of our advised intending walkers to prepare sign boards. She also advised that finest national parks, including the well. Gill Anderson, from the there will be no marking in ACT's own precious Namadgi. The Victorian National Parks Service, recognised wilderness areas and that track climbs Australia's highest was in charge of marking the track markers which had formerly been peaks, crosses exposed high plains, nailed to trees are gradually being passes through snowgum woodlands removed. Gill is also busily preparing and magnificent tall forests as well appropriate pamphlets complete with as visiting areas of significant 'mud maps'. cultural value. These short addresses were On Wednesday 12 April, 1995, the followed by the official opening of completed track was officially the track. Just before wielding the declared 'open' by the ACTs Minister scissors, Gary Humphries issued a for the Environment, Mr Gary challenge to Bill , which was Humphries, in front of approximately accepted with alacrity, to see which 40 invited guests. NPA was of them could go the most distance represented by Babette Scougall and along the track in a day. (Perhaps Len Haskew. Other members were in NPA could organise this 'event' and attendance in a private capacity. Also include it in our Outings Program?) at the launch was the former Minister ACT Parks and Conservation for the Environment, Mr Bill Wood, Service officers organised the event who was an enthusiastic supporter well and entertained those present to of the ACTs involvement during his lunch. The occasion was. a significant time in office. one for NPA as, through its members, Before Gary Humphries cut the John Siseman author of Alpine the Association had been involved in official ribbon, those in attendance Walking Track related his surveying a suitable route from heard well known guide book writer, experiences on the track with Lyn Booroomba Rocks to the Visitor John Siseman, give a succinct history Nelson, Manager Conservation Centre at Tharwa as well as putting of the track. This was followed by an and Wildlife at the opening of the in considerable effort in track account by Margaret Krakowsky track at the Namadgi Visitor construction. from Melbourne Parks and Centre. Photo by Reg Alder Len Haskew National Forest Policy

Dear Mr Keating decision of one of your Ministers has process. These areas are either on the As your Government approaches its created such a furore and is polarising Register of the National Estate or were final decision on the issuing of woodchip public opinion. believed to have high wilderness, old- export licences, the National Parks We ask you to reverse Mr Beddell's growth or other conservation values. Association of the ACT strongly urges decision and to protect the 1300 coupes Assessment of these areas is underway you not to issue any permit for with no compromise whatsoever. and is due for completion at the end of March. In some cases, these woodchipping in any of the 1300 native Yours sincerely assessments have been completed. forests of high conservation value. Clive Hurlstone, Acting president, NPA Woodchipping of these forests would 25 January 1995 The Minister for Industry, Science amount to desecration of Australia's and Technology and the Minister for heritage. It would deprive future Primary Industries and Energy, in generations of this widely and highly consultation with myself and the valued natural asset, as well as Dear Mr Hurlstone Minister for Environment, Sport and Territories, have been asked to develop destroying the habitat of many Thank you for your recent letter a strategy to assist the timber industry species. On a dry, scantily-forested regarding the Government's National to move to higher levels of downstream continent, more than half of Forest Policy. Australia's tree cover has been cleared processing and investment. I recently outlined the Commonwealth's since European settlement. Today, The Government has also announced approach to dealing with future only 5 per cent of this land is covered a more efficient annual licence renewal applications for woodchip export by native forest. No enlightened process. In future, the Minister for licences and to forest policy in general. government could possibly allow this Resources will formally consult with me The approach is consistent with the precious legacy to be used for before making his decision on export National Forest Policy Statement woodchips. No government of any woodchip licence applications and my (NFPS) and is designed to meet other developed country is felling its Department will be responsible for co­ commitments under the NFPS for the native forests for exporting woodchips ordinating the process for advising the sustainable management and use of to another country. Minister for Resources. Australia's forest resources. NPA ACT often conducts bushwalks The key element to achieving The Government wants to achieve, in the native forest areas of the south­ these outcomes is the RFA process. over the next five years, the adequate eastern region, and many of our 800 Under current arrangements, the protection of old-growth, wilderness members have seen at first hand the Commonwealth is required to be and other high conservation value beauty and scientific values of the invited by a state government to forests in a national reserve system, forests, as well as the aftermath of participate in a RFA and the and to ensure that a high value-added woodchipping activities in, for example, Commonwealth Government is wood-products industry can operate the Eden and Gippsland areas. encouraging the state governments sustainably outside these areas. The Association would be grateful to do so as soon as practicable. Over the next five years there will be for your advice on the following points: As a first step in securing a co­ an annual 20 per cent reduction in the operative approach between the • How will the implementation of a maximum permissible level of export Commonwealth and state governments new woodchipping policy in 1996 woodchips sourced from areas of native to the sustainable management of save existing high value forest forest, unless those areas are covered by, Australia's forests, the Commonwealth ecosystems that are targeted for or there is significant progress towards, has developed a position paper on woodchipping this year? a Regional Forest Agreement (RFA). RFAs. This has been prepared • What is the estimated profit to The phase-out does not apply to following full consultation with the Australia on each tonne of plantations. Companies which increase states and most comments received woodchips exported? their domestic downstream processing from the States, particularly in The Association is aware that you capacity, or have a demonstrable relation to the accreditation of states have been receiving many letters and commitment to doing so, will have this processes, have been incorporated. representations on this matter. Within taken into account when the The Government remains committed the conservation movement there has Government is determining future to the adequate protection of native never been such unanimity on an issue. woodchip export quotas. forests and the development of a high Opinion polls over the last decade In addition, the Commonwealth value-added sustainable wood- have shown that the overwhelming initially identified a number of coupes products industry. majority of Australian citizens want (509) that may be required for a future Thank you again for writing to me our native forests protected. Most comprehensive, adequate and on this matter. people see this issue as one of inter- representative reserve system and may generational equity—they want their need to be protected until a detailed Yours sincerely children to enjoy this unique resource. assessment of their environmental PJ Keating, Prime Minister It is a very great shame that an inept values can be made through the RFA 20 March 1995 PARKWATCH

Timber industry based on Permanent protection for Virus killing frogs plantations remnant vegetation A virus, possibly a species of A strategy to assist the transition A biologically significant patch of ranavirus, may be responsible for of a timber industry based on remnant sub-humid woodland in declining populations of montane woodchipping to one based on a central western NSW will receive stream-dwelling frogs. Fourteen or softwood plantation resource permanent protection as a result of more species of Australian without loss of jobs has been the Genaren Hill Landcare project. rainforest frogs have been wiped developed by the South East The 'Save the Bush' scheme and the out or severely reduced in the last Forests Conservation Council. The Environmental Trust funded the 15 years. strategy involves the transfer of project, which involved the The virus can decimate a frog timber workers to the softwood construction of 8.2km of fox and cat population in only a few weeks, industry centred at Bombala. proof fence around 390ha of believes Dr Bill Laurance of the remnant woodland and grassland. All employment in the woodchip CSIRO's Division of Wildlife and A program of fox and cat eradication industry can be absorbed by the Ecology. He suspects that the is now underway and plans have growth in permanent positions in virus, which may have been been made to reintroduce bird and softwood plantation processing. brought in to the country with The plantations around Bombala mammal species that were once ornamental fish, may be spread by will be harvested by CSR, who will resident in the habitat. aquatic insects. begin construction this year on a The site will be protected forever Dr Laurance's theory challenges modern and an oriented under a NSW Conservation previous explanations, which have strand board plant at Bombala. Agreement and Plan of Management included drought, acid rain, ozone The phaseout of woodchip drafted by the National Parks and depletion, salination, pesticide exports from the Harris-Daishowa Wildlife Service. residues, predation by feral pigs mill is due to be completed in Newsletter of the Australian and climate change. March 1997. Conservation 's NSW Biolinks, newsletter of the ACTwild, The Wilderness Society Landcare Liaison Officer newsletter, Autumn 1995 Biodiversity Unit, Department of the Environment, Sport and Remnant vegetation Territories, March 1995 Grant to save under threat Westermans' Homestead Five thousand kilometres ANational Estate Grant of $11 750 of bush are cleared in Australia Tree clearing exceeds has been given to the Kosciusko every year. Overclearing has planting resulted in erosion, salinity and Association for the conservation of reduced productivity. Remnants of At the Fremantle Greening Westermans' Homestead. Though the original vegetation survive, often Australia conference, Dr Michael Association weather-proofed it a few in unlikely places such as Buxton, Victorian Environmental years ago, the site has since become cemeteries and beside highways, Protection scientist, said that overgrown with thistles and urgently but are threatened by further Australia had one of the highest needs attention. The Association's clearing, grazing, dieback, root rot rates of indigenous tree clearing members are eager to start work on diseases, fire and poor human in the world. Twice as much forest the three year restoration project and management. Including nature has been cleared as in Brazilian are calling for volunteers to help. conservation, vegetation retention Amazonia and more trees are Westermans' was constructed and native tree planting in cleared in Australia each year around 1916. Built on stone property planning is a step in the than are planted in a decade. perimeter footings, it is a five- right direction. Groups can Total land clearance between roomed weatherboard house with undertake activities such as 1983 and 1993 was 5.17 million ha a timber frame. It has a small fencing, and control of weeds and including 1.5 million ha in NSW. verandah at the front and unusual- feral animals. decorative scalloped bargeboards Thirty seven per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions resulted to the gables. Newsletter of the Australian from clearing. Kosciusko Huts Association Conservation Foundation's NSW Newsletter, Autumn 1995 Landcare Liaison Officer The Colong Bulletin, March 1995 PARKWATCH

Granite's living force the lake's physical features are intact and only a few millimetres Few other words in the English of easily dispersed silt covers the New NPA members language convey such a sense of beach. Dr Kiernan concludes that indestructibility as 'granite1. The as at 1 May 1995 no human intervention would be word connotes an endurance that necessary for restoration after time and the passage of the Glenis & Kim Taylor Gowrie drainage of the basin. seasons will not erode. Yet granite Ann Vahey Red Hill has another quality that we see in Benefits from increased tourism Lucille Atkins Ainslie Egyptian carvings. There is, in the could offset any financial loss due eyes and the sensuous curves to the restoration. The restored Jan, Ian, Angus & Craig Macdonald Curtin especially, an unmistakable 'living Lake Pedder would become force'. The stone seems to flow, has famous as the only case in the Maude Salvage Kambah world of a lake being drained in been shaped by hands that knew Douglas & Susan order to restore a gem of nature in the rock could live'. Nancarrow Reid a World Heritage area. In its natural state granite is a Keith Ayotte & Jane late arrival after volcanoes have The Colong Bulletin, March 1995 Roots Cook been produced by great tectonic James & Caroline forces. We live our lives in terms Golden Lyneham of minutes and hours, days and No time to spare for the Grace Milewska Calwell years, but a part of us has existed Darling for millions of years and has seen the appearance of the granite and The Darling River system has its eventual erosion. never been in poorer health. Blue- We live with two concepts of time green algae, irrigation, pollution existing side by side, city time and and salinity are all taking their toll Native Title claims wild time. Wild time cannot sense on fish populations, billabongs, The National Native Title the hours or the days and so when lakes and wetlands. Tribunal's role is to process claims we encounter wild landscapes we Because water flow in the by Aboriginal and Torres Strait feel as though we are coming Darling catchment is limited and Islander peoples over Australian to a scale of time with which, variable, governments and lands and waters. The tribunal is irrigators have invested heavily in biologically, we are completely not a court and disputed claims that dams, weirs, diversions and familiar. In the wilderness we can fail to be resolved by mediation will pumps to maintain reliability of glimpse 'deep time'. be referred to the Federal Court for supply. Water has been over- Wilderness News, February/March litigation. allocated without proper regard 1995 The NPAhas receives notification for ecological consequences and of Native Title claims. Further effects on users downstream. information about these claims is Irrigated river systems can be Restoration of Lake available from the NPA office. Pedder healthy too, but the health of the Darling can only be restored if The Colong Foundation for irrigators make do with less. ' > Wilderness strongly advocates the Governments are under For sale restoration of the original Lake pressure to redress the over- Pedder. With its exquisite allocation of water resources in the Meindel walking boots quartzite beach and backdrop of Darling and to meet their (Gortex) Bll size mens mountains, Lake Pedder is a commitments to environmental landform unique to Australia and 8 V2. Purchased in flows which will not be achieved possibly to the world. This imposes Austria 18 months ago while irrigators defend their a responsibility on the Australian existing entitlements. The future for $200. Near new. Government, the protector of the of the Darling comes down to western Tasraanian wilderness, to Offers. Please phone political will. Without action, the restore the 'status quo'. Beth Browning on Darling will die. Professor Peter Tyler and Dr 254 3056. Kevin Kiernan have shown that Habitat Australia, February 1995 Unfolding Bushfold

'Unfolding Bushfold' was the name rammed earth floor. Last year part in telling the pastoral story of this of one of the Heritage Week walks when I first the hut it was part of Namadgi and, in company with organised by the NPA and the still locked and it was not possible the park's other stockmen's huts, are Kosciusko Huts Association during to go inside, thus the of value in helping park visitors to April. The walk was designed to give floor laid by the McCormacks in understand this significant story. people an introduction to sites of 1991 was not visible and did not A short distance to the south-east of European occupation in this small figure in my Namadgi sites report Russ's hut is the ruin of the single-stand valley behind Mt Tennent and to being written at the time. shearing shed built by Russ in 1964. It also allow walkers to experience Adjoining the enclosed part of the consists of a range of forms of timber some of the natural beauty that is hut is an open section which dates and is of quite some interest, not least Namadgi National Park. Well before from after the Reads' time. Last for the way that it, in common with Heritage Week began the walk was year the chimney flue was lying other ruins, is a trigger to the visitor's fully booked, as was the other NPA- on the ground but our Heritage imagination. This site too reflects a key KHA heritage walk which looked at Week visit discovered that it has aspect of pastoral use of Bushfold. selected forestry sites in the now disappeared. It was an Three earlier hut sites were visited northern Brindabellas. unusual piece of bush architecture, during the walk. The first, consisting The Bushfold area is a recent consisting of a series of welded 20- of scattered hearth stones, was on a addition to the park. In 1991 the litre drums! South from the hut block surveyed in 1884 for Duncan northern part was added to are old sheep yards, while to the McKeahnie; at the time the hut was Namadgi when Mt Tennent was north-east is the vestigial remains valued at £35, which was a fairly incorporated into the park, but the of what was either a covered substantial amount for a hut then. southern end remained an isolated sheep pen or more likely a small Charles McKeahnie (the McKeahnies island of grazing until only last year, hay shed. were the owners of Booroomba) later when the sheep were evicted. At the northern end of Bushfold acquired these blocks and had a scrub Two standing huts remain today at stands Russ's own hut. Built in lease across George's Creek, which in Bushfold and the first is found as soon 1957 it replaced an earlier hut 1906 had a slab hut. While this site was as you enter the valley on the fire trail built two years earlier but which visible in the 1970s, Russ, Muriel, leading up from the Honeysuckle was blown down in a windstorm. Namadgi ranger Vivien Raffaele and I Creek Rood. Sections of Bushfold The chimney stones of the earlier could not locate it amongst the were part of the large Booroomba hut remain a short distance down regenerating ti-tree last year and no Station for many years from last in front of the present hut. The attempt was made to find it on the century, but in the early 1950s, after present hut too has a skillion roof Heritage Week walk. John Hyles bought Booroomba, and bush timber in the frame, and Not all early huts were frequently outlying portions like Bushfold were one nf the walls is weatherboard occupied, for some were built not so sold off. George Read (originally of while the others are iron. The much to a stockman but simply Naas and the founder of the Tharwa most distinctive feature is the to satisfy land regulations which Store) and his son Russ bought enormous height of the building, required the landholder to occupy the Bushfold in 1953. In 1954 George, for it has a very high roof indeed selected block. with Russ's help, built the first hut for this sort of building. Inside The second hut site that was seen that walkers see. Like the other there are a couple of old fridges during the Heritage Week walk was stockmen's huts in Namadgi, this and a Bega wood stove in the one belonging to the McMahon family. simple corrugated iron structure was fireplace. Around the hut there is Brothers Martin and Tom McMahon used by the Reads for periodic shelter a range of objects, one of the most selected several blocks in northern while doing stockwork on the interesting being an aged crosscut Bushfold early this century and a slab property—they did not live there full saw jammed in a tree trunk. Russ hut was built on a block surveyed for time. Then in the mid 1960s Dr Hugh built the hut with help from mate Martin in 1902. Today, fallen corner Pearson and his wife Peg acquired Cav Lalor. Russ and his wife posts, collapsed chimney stones, the block and the hut, and Muriel (both of whom, incidentally, bottles and other pieces of timber subsequently it was purchased by the now live in Ainslie) used the hut mark the site. Evidence survives of McCormack (or Cormack) family. while doing periodic stockwork. where the slabs were attached to the The hut has a skillion roof and Both huts are fairly corner posts. The survival of timber features much round timber taken straightforward structures which from the hut makes this site a from the bush (as do many of do not really have very high particularly interesting one in the Namadgi's huts), and as built had a aesthetic values. Yet they play a context of Namadgi hut ruins Dunns' Hut either collapsed or was burnt. Today the site is marked by the usual funereal mound of chimney stones. Nearby there are two dams excavated by the brothers; whether they did the job by hand or with horse-scoops is not definitely known, though I suspect the latter, at least in the case of the lower dam which would have been pretty heavy work with pick and shovel. Laurie Tong (whose family had Tennent for some years up to the 1980s) has told me that Dunns actually used to take a horse and cart from the homestead up to the hut—they must have skilfully picked their route around the rough face of the mountain.

These ruin sites, subtle though they are, are significant for indicating the pattern of settlement, and also for the insight they give into earlier lifestyles. They are also very evocative of a sense of the past. One could be excused, if judging only by surviving huts, for thinking that our mountain hinterland was almost wholly unoccupied, but once you start to observe the numbers of these hut sites you soon see that there was a real community of people among the big hills that we now collectively call Namadgi. The walk allowed time to savour some of the natural delights of the park—views toward the Booroomba Rocks area, the extensive forests Russel's shearing shed and yards at Bushfold Flat. Photo by Fiona that extend out from the Bushfold clearings, the rounded granite MacDonald Brand boulders and slabs, the migrating honeyeaters winging their way out generally. A salt trough made from Homestead at the northern foot of before winter, and the perfect peace a hollowed log formerly lay nearby, Mt Tennent. Just beyond the of the bush on a windless day. And according to Russ Read, but it has northern end of Bushfold, at a spot then there was the utter delight of now entirely rotted away. NPA and which became known as Dunns Flat, Blue Gum Creek which, despite the KHA member Babette Scougall is they also had a small hut which they drought, still ran with crystal, cool researching aspects of the used while working on this part of mountain water. Its river stones and McMahon's family history and I look their property, which was at some ribbon gums combined to make a forward to the results of this distance from their homestead. really lovely spot. important work. According to Roger Hobbs' recent Matthew Higgins The third hut site visited during conservation plan on Tennent the walk (which made a very Homestead, the hut was built some (Acknowledgment: the historical pleasant lunch stop on what was a time after 1903 but before 1918; information above is from Namadgi perfect autumn day) was the Dunns were resumed in.1920. It was sites, compiled in 1994 by the author Dunns'. At the turn of the century, slab and had a shingle roof, with National Estate Grants brothers Jack and Bob Dunn, with although there was some iron in the Program funding and sponsorship their sister Annie, owned Tennent structure too. from the Kosciusko Huts Association) Draft statement of principles and action of Environment Subcommittee of the NPA of the ACT Inc Second revised draft 12 December 1994

Introduction (v) remnant artificial and natural • Pending the above, the NPA ACT vegetation corridors. research officer to undertake a The Environment Subcommittee of While numerous environmental project, drawing on existing the ACT NPA believes that while research and the knowledge of reacting promptly where necessary studies have been carried out within the ACT, there appears to be no community groups, that identifies to government initiatives, the key areas needing protection. association should maintain a pro­ current unified guide to the location • Drawing on that work, the NPA to active approach to nature conservation and tenure of areas of high establish which areafs) ino more in the ACT and south-east region conservation significance outside than two to three recognising the focusing on: the reserve system. Without such a guide it is extremely difficult for the limitations of the association's 1. areas of high conservation ACT Government and community resources) require the most urgent significance that are not groups to establish priorities for action adequately protected in the reservation and plan appropriate • The NPA to publicise, in cooperation reserve system action. The principal reason for the with other community groups if 2-the adequacy of management of urgency is because areas may be appropriate, the significance of the high conservation areas that are committed to urban development identified areas and their need for within the reserve system without adequate assessment of reservation through means such as: 3. national issues such as catchment their nature conservation values — lobbying ACT politicians and because long-term rural leases protection, biodiversity, ecotourism, — organising walks to the areas bushfire management, weed and may be renewed for areas where — articles in the Bulletin feral animal control which affect reservation for nature conservation — media publicity. the ACT but where our action is is warranted. This deficiency has motivated as much by the need to been recognised by the Plants and The Environment Subcommittee support national conservation Animals Reference Group in the recognises that important unreserved initiatives as to address ACT ACT State of the Environment natural areas in the region to the east concerns Report 1994. The group's conclusions of the ACT are under as much if not and recommendations provide a greater threat. It further recognises 4. publication of high quality guides broad action plan for nature that the size and influence of to fauna and flora and significant conservation in the ACT in the short conservation group(s) operating in natural areas in the ACT and and medium terms. that region are very limited. The nearby region Monaro region appears to be something of a conservation 'blind Suggested action 1. Areas of high conservation spot'—for example, the nearest NPA significance that are not * Lobby the ACT Government to NSW branches are based at Milton establish as a priority and as adequately protected in the and Bowral. recommended in the ACT State of The Environment Subcommittee reserve system the Environment Report 1994, a recognises that the NPA will only The committee believes the Ideational inventory of fauna and receive funding from the ACT following areas require better flora in the ACT including the Government for ACT initiatives. protection within the sub-regional tenure of those areas, drawing on Nevertheless we believe the NPA (ACT and nearby parts of NSW) existing information and focusing should, within the limitations of reserve system: most urgently on areas outside those priorities and its resources, the reserve system. take an interest in and have an (i) native grasslands • Lobby the ACT Government to involvement with certain priority (ii) remnant lowland woodland prepare, on the basis of the conservation issues in the I'm) remnant riverine environments inventory, a program for reservation immediate region in cooperation (iv) remnant native vegetation in of significant areas currently with the Conservation Council of the Queanbeyan district outside the reserve system. Canberra and the South-East ^H'hird Wednesday of every month 8 July Saturday walk 2/A/B hone Phyl Goddard on 254 8279(h) or NPA office on 282 5^0ibr Alpine Track Extension Ref: Williamsdale Outings program details & Corin Dam 1:25000 Leader: Babette Scougall Phone: 2487008(h) Meet at Kambah Village shops at 8.30am. Walk the first day of the June-October 1995 10-12 June Long Weekend Pack Walk 2A6 newly extended Alpine Track from the Namadgi Visitors Centre to Quilty*s Mountain Ref: CMW Budawangs Booroomba Rocks car park, mostly on track or marked paths. Leaden Steve Forst Phone: 279 1326 (w) 251 6817 (h) 65kms $12 per car. Contact leader by Wednesday for detail of two and a half day pack walk. A late lunch at Braidwood Pub on Monday. Easy-medium pack 9 July Sunday outing walk to a base camp on the Endrick River. Visit Styles Pass, the Bora Southern Highlands Ground and Round Mountain. 340 km $68 per car. Devonshire Tea Ref: Southern Highlands tourist map Leaden Steven Forst Phone: 279 1326(w) 251 6817(h) 18 June Sunday Walk (with CBC) 1BE Contact leader by Wednesday for starting time. Meet just north of Booroomba Rocks circuit Ref: Corin Dam 1:25000 the Dickson lights on Northbourne Avenue. A drive visiting scenic Leaden Murray Dow Phone: 257 4371 spots in the Southern Highlands around Bundanoon and Fitzroy Falls, Contact leader to book. Joint walk with Canberra Bushwalkers. interspersed with stops at some of the Devonshire tea houses in the Follow the rock climbers' tracks around Booroomba to the North, area. The trip will go ahead whatever the weather conditions. around the buttress, and scramble up the descent gully, finishing on 300kms $60 per car. the summit of ACT's Uluru. Interesting plants and great scenery. 70kms $14. 16 July Sunday walk 2/A/B/D/E Nursery Swamp Ref: Rendezvous Creek 1:25000 and Nursery Hill 24 June Saturday walk 2/A/B/C/D/F Leaden Mick Kelly Phone: 241 2330(h) Mt Coree and Devils Peak Ref: Cotter Dam 1:25000 Meet at Kambah Village shops at 8am. From Nursery Swamp car Leaden Mathew Higgins Phone 247 7285 Outings guide park, the track climbs to Nursery Creek and continues to the swamp Contact leader for bookings and details (because numbers are lim­ proper. The ascent of Nursery Hill will be scrubby with areas of dense Day walks carry lunch, drinks and protective clothing. ited). Crunch frost in the northern Brindabellas this winter. Climb bush and no track. Total climb about 450m and distance 13kms. Pack walks two or more days, carry all food and camping Coree from around Blundells Flat, then descend to Coree Creek flats 80kms $16 per car. requirements. CONTACT LEADER BY and head north to Devils Peak. Some very good views and very steep climbs, walking both on and off track. About 14 kilometres, needing WEDNESDAY. 22 July Saturday walk 2/A an early start. 90kms $18 per car. Car camps facilities often limited or non-existent. Mt Tennent Ref: Williamsdale 1:25000 vehicles taken to site can be used for Leaden Max Lawrence Phone: 288 1370(h) 272 2032(w) camping. BOOK EARLY WITH LEADER. 25 June Sunday walk 1/C/E Meet at 8.30am at Kambah Village shops. A return walk from the Namadgi Visitors Centre to the summit of Mt Tennent, using part of Other activities include nature rambles, environmental and Billy Billy Rocks area Ref: Corin Dam 1:25000 Leader: Mick Kelly the new AlpinPhonee Walkin: 241 2330(hg Track) extension. A climb of750m to excellent field guide studies and ski tours. Mick Kelly Meet at Kambah Village shops at 8.30am. From Square Rock car views of southern Canberra and Namadgi. 40kms $8 per car. Walks gradings park, walk through open forest to Billy Billy Rocks, a spectacular pile of boulders overlooking Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve. If time 30 July Sunday walk 2/A/C Distance grading (per day) permits, the area towards the boulder at GR709686 will be explored. Orroral Valley circuit Ref: Corin Dam 1:25000 1 - up to 10 km Total climb about 200m; distance 9kms. 60kms $12 per car. Leaden Mike Smith Phone: 286 2984(h) 248 3624(w) 2 - 10 km to 15 km Meet at Kambah Village shops at 8.30 am. A walk from the Orroral 3 -15 km to 20 km gate along the Cotter Hut Road until the saddle at the weather station. 1 July Saturday walk 2/A/B Climb to unnamed rocky peak 1339m for lunch and exploration. 4 - above 20 km Lake George escarpment Ref: ACT 1:100000 Continue on to Sawpit Creek and return along valley track via site of Terrain grading Phil Bubb Phone: 248 6769(h) 275 8028(w) Rowley's Hut. Total 400m climb. 250kms $50 per car. A - Road, firetrail, track Meet at car park off Northbourne Ave. at Southwell Park (about 100 m B - Open forest north of corner) at 9am. An exploration mainly on fire trails of the 5 August Saturday walk 4/A C - Light scrub Crown land which is the western escarpment of Lake George. Achance Red Hill to Mt Taylor Ref: Gregory's Street Directory D - Patches of thick scrub, regrowth to view from above an area many of us drive through often. Leaden Stephen Johnston Phone: 254 3738(h) E - Rock scrambling 75kms $15 per car. Contact the leader by Wednesday to reserve a place on the walk. F - Exploratory. There is a short car shuffle. An energetic but very scenic circuit along the ridgeline of Canberra's southern dress circle-Red Hill, Mts The walks program contains additional information. Davidson, Sheaffe, Stanley, Wanniassa and Farrer ridge to Mt Taylor. If necessary, contact the leader. 12August Saturday Ski tour 2/A 9-IQ^kptember weekend ski tour 3/. 30 September, 1-2 October long weekend pack walk 1/DE/F Four Mile Hut Ref: Mt Selwyn ski touring map Brd^^Dam Hut Ref: Mt Selwyn ski touring mnap^a ^ ! Jillicambra Mountain and Myrtle Creek Ref: Belowra Steven Forst Phone: 279 1326

20 August Sunday walk 3/A Ettrema Gorge Ref: Touga, Nerriga, Yalwal 1:25000 Aboriginal Paintings, 10 September Sunday walk 1/A/C Leader: Stephen Johnston Phone: 254 3738(h) Rendezvous Creek Ref: Rendezvous Creek 1:25000 Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve Ref: Tidbinbilla 1:25000 Members interested in joining the Victorian National Parks Leaden Frank Clements Phone: 231 7005(h) Leader: Lyle Mark Phone: 286 2801(h) ' Association eight day walk to this rugged sandstone wilderness should Meet at Kambah Village shops at 8.30am. From Boboyan Pines Meet at Kambah Village shops at 9 30am. An easy-paced 6 km walk, phone the leader for details. All off track with plenty of rock hopping, carpark, the walk is to the grinding grooves on Middle Creek and partly on tracks, near Mt Eliza Lots of Xanthorrhaea Australia and I scrambling, climbing and scrub bashing, but the scenery and isolation around ihe ridge to the paintings on Rendezvous Creek, returning two interesting granite formations Very suitable for beginners and is ample reward 375kms $75 per car. across the paddocks lOOkms $20 per car. amblers. 60kms $12 per car.

26 August Saturday walk 2/B/C/E 17 September Sunday tour Blue Gum Hill (Mt Lincoln) Ref: Corin Dam 1:25000 Queanbeyan Conservation Ref: Gregorys Street Directory Leader: Stephen Johnston Phone: 254 3738(h) and Cultural Sites Phone the leader to reserve a place on the walk A medium-standard To be led by: Monaro Conservation Society off-track walk to the rounded, rocky bump you can see throughout Inquiries: Stephen Johnston Phone: 254 3738(h) Canberra, via the beautiful Jumbuk Flat There are granite slabs on Meet at 8 30am beside the swimming pool in Moore Park, Antill Street the mountain's northern ridge, and eucalypts and prostanthera that for a half day tour of Queanbeyan"s significant conservation and are believed to grow only in this area. Great views from the summit. cultural sites A great opportunity to gain a better understanding of 60kms $12 per car. Points to note things on the other side of the border and meet enthusiastic members of the Monaro Conservation Society. Finish the tour with lunch beside Please help keep our outings program alive by volunteering to lead outings. New leaders are welcome. The outings covenor 2 September Saturday Walk 2/B/C/E the Queanbeyan River Hill 1409 Ref: Corin Dam 1:25000 is happy to suggest locations suitable for a walk if you do not Leader: Stephen Johnston Phone: 254 3738(h) 23-24 September work party have something in mind yourself. Feel free to send in Phone the leader to reserve a place on the walk. A medium-standard Namadgi National Park suggestions for outings to the association's office as soon as you think of them, with a suggested date. off climb through alpine ash and over large granite tors to Hill 1409 Leader: Len Haskew Phone: 281 4257(h) with its large north easterly cliff-line, which can be seen from Contact leader by Wednesday to express interest and find out more ; All persons joining an outing of the National Parks Asso­ Canberra. 60kms $12 per car. about the work planned This is an opportunity to demonstrate how ciation of the ACT do so as volunteers in all respects and as much members value Namadgi National Park by doing your bit to ! such accept sole responsibility for any injury howsoever in­ 3 September Sunday Ski Tour 2/A help maintain and improve it Attend either day or both. curred and the National Parks Association of the ACT, its Perisher Valley Ref: Kosciusko 1:50000 office bearers and appointed leaders are absolved from any Leader: Mike Smith Phone: 286 2984(h) 248 3624(w) 30 September. 1-2 October long weekend pack walk 1/A/B liability in respect of injury or damage suffered whilst en­ Contact the leader by the preceding Wednesday foi details An easy Mt Talaterang Ref: CMW Budawangs gaged in any such outing to medium ski trip in the Perisher area visiting the Porcupine for Leader: Stephen Forst Phone: 279 1326(w> 251 6817(h) The committee suggests a donation of TWENTY cents per views into the Thredbn valley Then proceeding to Charlottes Pass Contact leader by Wednesday for details After a long drive, an easy kilometre DIVIDED BY THE NUMBER OF OCCUPANTS in for lunch or shortening the trip by returning via Belts Camp The pack walk ol 2 !> hours over flat terrain to a camp site at the top of the car, including the driver, (to the nearest- dollar) be offered exact trip will depend on snow conditions anil the weather 400kms Nyanga Falls i nu sleepwalkers please' > A solid dav walk to the top of to the driver by each passenger accepting transport. Drive drive $80 per car. Mt Talaterang through some scrub oiUlkms $100 per car J and walk distances quoted in the program are approximate 1 distances for ret urn journeys. Region, the NSW NPA and local Government, like all governments, management, feral animal and noxious conservation groups. faces constantly growing demands weed control, Aboriginal management on its relatively limited resources, of nature reserves, recreation use of Suggested action the NPA has a fundamental national parks or majornational battles responsibility to lobby the government such as the Franklin Dam, Fraser • Environment subcommittee to in the months leading up to the ACT Island and World Heritage status for meet representatives of the budget to ensure that adequate the wet tropics. Monaro Conservation Society to funds are provided to the Parks and We recognise this is a difficult area discuss areas for possible future Conservation Service. to decide priorities and there will be cooperation. The Environment Subcommittee disagreement about individual • Maintain regular contact with the believes that there is also outcomes. Queanbeyan office of the NSW considerable scope for closer National Parks and Wildlife cooperation with Parkcare groups to Suggested action Service. tap their collective knowledge of • Maintain active membership of • Guided walks or tours organised management of the nature reserves the Australian National Parks to areas of high conservation and to assist them in their work. Council. significance in the Monaro region which need protection. Suggested action • Maintain close contact with the VNPAand NSW NPA on issues of • Monaro Conservation Society to • NPA research officer to coordinate mutual concern. be invited to contribute an article NPA submissions on the Canberra • Support financially, if appropriate, to the Bulletin on threatened Nature Park and Murrumbidgee the representation of the NPA at areas in the Queanbeyan region. corridor management plans when significant conferences, seminars or they are released. meetings when they relate to our 2. The adequacy of • Meetings to be sought with priority concerns or to issues of management of high Environment Minister and pressing national importance for Opposition' Environment spokes­ nature conservation. conservation areas that are person in the pre-budget period to within the reserve system identify areas of the ACT Parks and Conservation Service operations 4. Publication of high Establishment of a reserved area can requiring more funding. be a thoroughly pyrrhic victory if the quality guides to fauna and flora and significant area is not managed adequately; it • Parkcare activities to be publicised becomes a nature reserve or national in the Bulletin, at least a diary of natural areas in the ACT park in name only. The Namadgi their activities, to enable NPA and nearby region Subcommittee keeps abreast of members to participate. The Environment Subcommittee management issues in the national believes the NPAshould maintain its park. The Environment Subcommittee outstanding reputation for believes the adequacy of management 3. National issues such as publication of high quality, popular of the Canberra Nature Reserve and bushfire management, weed conservation books. In doing so, the Murrumbidgee corridor is of equivalent and feral animal control books must not only promote significance. understanding of conservation in the The key to management of these which affect the ACT but region but also attract good sales. two areas is the long-awaited where our action is management plans. It is imperative motivated as much by the Suggested action that we make thorough submissions need to support national on those plans when they finally conservation initiatives as • The Environment Subcommittee become available and, in the to address ACT concerns to develop proposals for consideration meantime, continue to make the Parks by the NPA general committee for and Conservation Service aware of In recognition of the limits to its publication of a guide to the our interest in their completion. resources, the NPA ACT must address distribution of fauna and flora, The primary reason often offered its core concerns first and foremost. geology, past and present use and by government conservation agencies National issues should probably be management of the Canberra for appropriate management considered for active support only if they Nature Park, focusing initially on initiatives not being undertaken is relate to our priority concerns or to Black Mountain, Bruce and the lack of resources. While issues of pressing national importance O'Connor Ridges and Mounts recognising that the ACT for nature conservation such as bushfire Ainslie and Majura. Listen to the trees Speech to an anti-woodchipping public meeting

For ninny of us, when we .see working operations in 1995 so that different increasingly acknowledged that the people demonstrating to preserve areas would be logged. Rescheduling original forest management plans their jobs as we did at Parliament is often carried out in response to drawn up over 20 years ago by the I House recently, our natural instinct bushfires or bad weather. The 509 state forest agencies were seriously | is tojoin them. Many of us. including coupes represent around 5—8 per cent flawed. The assumption that the [ environmentalists of long standing, of the remaining stands of timber whole area of the woodchip ! have made sacrifices to support available for woodchip operations. In concessions could be cut over a 40- ordinary Australians in the face of the longer term this 5-8 per cent year period has turned out to be way injustice and exploitation. decline in the resource would result off the mark. Regrowth of forests So what are we to think when we in job losses in the industry. However, after logging has been well below are accused of trying to deprive this needs to he seen in the context of expectations. A rotation of 120-160 ordinary Australians of their jubs° the rapid decline in employment in years would be closer to the mark How should we react when we are the industry over the last 20 years, to obtain a sustainable yield. attacked with such vitriol and fury'1 from around 55 000 in the early Thus while decisions such as those None of us wants to see people lose 1970s to under 32 000 now. to reserve 509 coupes will affect their jobs Along with many other It is repeatedly claimed by the employment in the longer term, the groups. The Australia Institute has industry that this loss ofjob s has been impact on jobs of industry been active in trying to persuade the due to loss of access to forests due to restructuring and changes to forest Federal Government to break the the campaigning of conservationists. management plans will be spell of economic rationalism and The head of the NSW Forest Products substantially greater. So we must adopt sensible, compassionate Association said that 'almost every ask ourselves about the alliance we policies that will tackle this country's job lust has been because of closure saw on the hill of Parliament last appalling unemployment problem. of thousands of hectares of productive week between the timber workers We appear to be caught in a moral forests'. Tliis is absolutely false; it is and the industry. It has been a great dilemma. On the one hand, we are a statement aimed at directing the public relations victory for the strongly committed to social justice wrath of timber workers away from industry to have the timber workers and do nut want to see anyone lose their employers and towards thrust to the forefront. their job; on the other, we feel conservationists. When we take a closer look at the passionately committed to The decline in employment in the likely impact of the decision to preserving the old-growth native industry has been due to massive reserve 509 coupes on timber towns, forests of our land. It is a case of labour shedding. Big companies have claims that they are about to turn social justice versus conservation. been swallowing up small companies into ghost towns are shown to be But when we start to look closely and new technologies in logging and the wild exaggerations. Many timber at the situation of the forests, our have left thousands of workers towns now rely more on plantation moral dilemma is much less severe redundant. In fact, the output of the softwood than on native forests. This than we have been led to believe. The forest and wood products industry has includes the four main timber towns employment consequences of been increasing, while employment has of NSW—Oberon. Tumut, reserving more forests are much less been falling. This is a very important Tumbarumba and Bombala. serious than the timber industry has fact that should be noted at every Bombala, which provided a large been claiming. Let's take a closer look opportunity. The volume of output of the proportion of the people who at the impact on employment in the industry has been increasing over the blockaded Parliament House, is forest and wood products industries years. So the decline in employment in more dependent on plantation of the latest proposal to reserve 509 the forest and timber industry over the timber than native . coupes, although the actual outcome last 20 years has ovenvhehningly been Plantation timber would, of course, seems likely to be much less— due to the commercial decisions of be unaffected by any decision. perhaps 140 coupes saved. timber companies rather than the Indeed, the town will soon The first point is that reservation environmental decisions of experience a boom in employment of the 509 coupes would result in no governments. in the wood products industry as a immediate job losses in the timber The fall in employment is going to result of the decision by CSR to industry. State forest management continue with further restructuring locate its big softwood sawmill agencies will simply reschedule their in the industry. It is also there. The new mill will provide alternative employment in the have forced us to confront the species extinguished, each forest cut region as the Harris-Daishowa question of whether our standards down means a loss without and a chipmill winds back with the of living can be maintained in a grief within. depletion of the hardwood resource. world of finite resources, and to see The roots of the battle over the So what is desperately needed is the damage we are doing to our well- forests go back a long way. In the an industry plan for the timber and being by pollution of the elements. middle of the last century, a great wood products industry, one that But there is a deeper reason for debate over the philosophy of forest will manage the restructuring being an environmentalist— management raged among process and promote segments of the something that goes to our very core European foresters. On one side industry that are sustainable and as humans. The American were the economists who saw forest which are not going to cause environmental economist Herman management in purely commercial environmental havoc. We can have Daly has recently pointed out that terms. On the other side were a jobs and preserve most of our humans currently use 40 per cent of group of foresters known as the remaining old-growth native forests. the earth's plant growth, mainly from sylvan fundamentalists. Perhaps We can have these by a plan that: land devoted to crops, grazing and the foremost among the sylvan forestry. Seventy years ago we used fundamentalists was a German • encourages the growth of up only 10 per cent and, if current forester named Professor Phil. plantations for softwood and rates of conversion of land continue, Professor Phil's answer to the hardwood in 35 years we will consume 80 per mechanical calculations of the • stimulates value-adding activities cent. This represents a transition economists was to proclaim: "Listen in the wood processing industry from a world that was relatively to the trees'. empty of human activity to one that • increases utilisation of timber, It seems in all of the bitterness of is full, indeed overfull. thereby reducing waste. this debate over woodchipping, we All of this is entirely feasible Today almost the entire area of the have forgotten this profound truth. economically. The longer the earth's crust is managed by humans; When we go to a forest we must be government delays the transitional very few areas remain that are wild very quiet in order to hear the trees. strategy, the bigger the crunch is and impenetrable. Wilderness must But if we still our minds and allow going to be in six to eight years time now be 'managed' in an attempt to ourselves to listen to the trees, the when nearly all of the old-growth prevent these last areas from being trees will tell us things of great will be gone, and the more pressure overrun by human activity. wisdom, things deep in ourselves there will be to log high conservation Expeditions now venture to Mount that we have forgotten. areas. But because of the utter Everest to clean up the empty cans They will tell us that in times past failure by government we are now left by climbers. Park rangers in the humans asked permission before in a situation where each year there wilderness of south-west Tasmania taking from the forests. is a political battle over the renewal complain of the litter left by east They will tell us that because of of woodchip licenses, all hanging on European tourists. our arrogance and our greed, we the Commonwealth's discretion over We hail the great European have blinded ourselves to our export licences. Everybody loses, explorers—Columbus, Captain essential connectedness to the except big investors who will simply Cook, Edmund Hilary, Neil natural world. take their capital elsewhere when Armstrong—but at the same time They will tell us that the earth is the forests are finally depleted we cling to the bits of the world that being strangled, that there are beyond any economic value. have escaped our physical control or natural rhythms that we ignore at So our moral dilemma—the domination by knowledge. We keep our peril. apparent conflict between social alive the stories of the Loch Ness They will tell us that nature justice and conservation—is not as monster and the yeti. We are provides us not just with material evident as it first appears. There is captivated by the lure of the dolphin, goods but with spiritual nourishment. a way through the morass that will by the image of the untameable So let us say to our political allow both the jobs and the trees to stallion, and by the wild of leaders that we do not want to be preserved. Unfortunately, Tolkein. So there is a great conflict sacrifice these things—our successive governments have been inside of us: on the one hand we are connectedness, our spirit, our in the thrall of the timber industry driven to explore the world, to know future—that we want to win back which has woven the spell of it, to turn it to our own selfish ends, some of nature's respect for us. So economics. on the other we honour and admire join with us and listen to the trees. it for refusing to succumb. We know There are good scientific and that as we conquer nature we are economic reasons to be concerned both increased and diminished. Clive Hamilton, about the state of our natural Each wilderness tamed, each environment. Environmentalists The Australia Institute Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve An extract from the policy statement prepared by i\'icki Taws for the NPA

The Tidbinbilla Range is the most plans for a national wildlife centre communities have been identified, distinctively rugged section of were developed. In 1963 a Tidbinbilla ranging from high altitude snow gum Canberra's mountain backdrop, with Fauna Reserve Advisory Committee forest, through wet scierophvil forest the sharp peaks of Camelback and was established which included a with fern gullies, to dry scierophvil Mount Domain bordering the great number of prominent Canberra forests with grass trees and cleared bulk of Tidbinbilla Mountain. scientists. Tin- concepts proposed for areas Four of the communities (grassland, Leptospermum thickets, During 1994 several developments the Tidbinbilla reserve included: exotic plantation and native indicated that the government had • restricting the collection to the plantation) are the result of human serious Intentions of encouraging the national fauna activities, but add diversity of habitat growth of a nature-based tourism • displaying fauna in free-range and scenery to the valley floor. industry in the ACT. Following the conditions with public access As well as the wildlife introduced release of the National Ecotourism inside the animal enclosures to the reserve, Tidbinbilla contains Strategy in 1993 the ACT Government • providing a series of educational a diversity of indigenous fauna. The set up a working group, with stepping stones f r o in 'total wet gullies in particular provide representatives from ACT Tourism environment controlled buildings', habitat for a large number of bird ajid the ACT Parks and Conservation such as a nocturnal house, through and animal species, including some Service, to compile an ecotourism pens and enclosures of varying of the ACT's less common species. strategy- for the ACT. At the same time size, to the truly wild animals. the ACT Parks and Conservation Approximately 170 bird species Many of the major structures proposed Service was working out a marketing (excluding captive species) have been in the development plan, such as the strategy for promoting tourist use of recorded in the reserve. The powerful visitor centre, have been constructed. natural areas, and the government owl, a nationally threatened species, However, a common vision for the natiu-e commissioned an independent report is known to have territories within reserve has not been shared by all levels on the ACT's potential for tourism and the tall forests. The artificial of the government and community. The revenue generation within parks. wetlands have increased the range question has been posed: to what extent Areas of the ACT identified in these of habitats available and provide is the reserve a national park, a nature reports as having significant good feeding and breeding areas for reserve, a sanctuary, a zoo, a wildlife ecotourism potential include many waterbirds. conservation centre, an education centre, Namadgi National Park and Thirty native mammal species a research centre or a tourist centre? Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve. The have been recorded within the ACT Parks and Conservation Service Current management of the reserve This figure excludes captive has indicated its preference for reserve species, although it does include the ecotourism developments to he in Although all of the reserve is public koala. The thirty mammal species Tidbinbilla rather than Namadgi. land, none of the area is actually include 10 species of bats, six species The prospect of increasing tourism designated as nature reserve in the of possums and gliders, and four developments in the Tidbinbilla area current Territory Plan. The central species of kangaroos and wallabies. has highlighted the fact that area is designated as special purpose Rarer mammals recorded in the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve does not reserve and the remainder as reserve include the wallaroo and a have a management plan, nor an national park. Special purpose record of the tiger quoll in 1963. agreed vision for its future. It is reserves are not given any particular Other fauna records from the essential that a vision and a protection under the ACT Nature reserve include three species offish, management plan be agreed upon Conservation Act. nine species of frogs and 29 species before the pressure for any of reptiles. Natural values of the reserve developments overwhelms and Sites of significance dictates planning for the reserve. Sedimentary rocks form the backbone of the Tidbinbilla Range, A number of specific locations in the History of the reserve a sharp, jagged ridge which is in reserve have been listed as sites of The first land for a public reserve in marked contrast to the rounded form significance. These include: the Tidbinbilla area was set aside in of the granitic Gibraltar Range and • Gibraltar Peak 1939. Around the same time an valley floor. • Mount Domain enclosure was established on nearby The geological variety and the • Wet Gully land, later incorporated into the range of slopes and aspects within • Billy Billy Rocks reserve, for the reintroduction of the reserve have given rise to a koalas to the ACT Little happened to diverse vegetation which contains a • Hanging Rock Aboriginal Rock the reserve until the earl)- 1960s when number of species uncommon within Shelter additional land was purchased and the ACT. Sixteen vegetation • Bogong Aboriginal Rock Shelter. Cultural values that are within the nature reserve 4. The remaining area, including the Archaeologists report that Tidbinbilla to Namadgi National Park valley floor and north-eastern section was of special significance to the • developing a management plan for of Gibraltar Range, should be designated Wolgalu people. The reserve contains the valley area which provides the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve with the the'greatest density of Aboriginal secure tenure and promotes following primary objectives: artefacts in the ACT outside Pialligo, appropriate facilities and activities. (i) restoration of the degraded and was said to be the last refuge of former grazing land with local Aboriginal people outside white Policy details extensive planting of indigenous settlements. It also contains the oldest 1. Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve consists species and control of noxious human occupation site in the southern of two highly differentiated zones: weeds and rabbits highlands and a range of rock shelters, (ii) native fauna education open campsites, bogong moth sites (i) the eastern foothills, slopes and (iii) natural environment education and the remains of a painting. peaks of the Tidbinbilla Range, (iv) native fauna research Tidbinbilla Mountain was an and the western slopes of the (v) native fauna captive breeding important site for initiation ceremonies. Gibraltar Range up to Devils Gap, conserved in a largely natural state (vi) nature-based tourism and The 150 years of European history recreation. in Tidbinbilla have been well (ii) the valley floor consisting documented and are the subject of primarily of the cleared and 5. The Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve two books. Several old homesteads semi-cleared land and the management plan should recognise and other historic sites are found forested areas around the the need for: within Tidbinbilla. animal enclosure. (i) an emphasis on environmental Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve 2. The eastern foothills, slopes and education, with a particular provides a variety of recreational peaks of the Tidbinbilla Range and focus on the importance of opportunities ranging from picnics, the western slopes of the Gibraltar Aboriginal heritage and sites barbeques, scenic driving, nature Range up to Devils Gap should be (ii) environmentally friendly study and photography to walking, included in Namadgi National Park facilities and developments rock climbing and mountain biking. because of: (iii) effective control of weeds and Approximately 18 000 visitors take (i) the wet sclerophyll forest of high feral animals part in interpretation activities each conservation value, containing (iv) a clear policy for control of year. The reserve is seen as having Eucalyptus fastigata at the kangaroo numbers great potential for promoting the inland limit of its range, and a (v) maintenance or upgrading of ACT as a tourist destination and for number of plant species roads, tracks and car parks. generating revenue. uncommon in the ACT 6. The management plan should (ii) the faunal value of the wet not permit: NPA policy sclerophyll forest (i) camping areas. The NPA has produced a policy (hi) the sites of significance statement on Tidbinbilla Nature (ii) overnight accommodation Reserve which is to be presented to (iv) the aesthetic value of the facilities. the ACT Government. The aims of Tidbinbilla Range (iii) convention facilities. the policy are to: (v) the climatic similarity of the 7. The following developments could higher sections of the ranges to • maintain the biological diversity be undertaken, with provisos: other parts of Namadgi. and rich ecological and scenic (i) picnic areas, but predominantly resources of the Tidbinbilla and 3. The management of this area has been in the eastern part of the Gibraltar ranges consistent with that of similar areas in reserve which can better • compensate for the loss of natural Namadgi. Therefore, substantial withstand the impact of large resources in the valley zone of changes to management would not be numbers of people, and only Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve by required nor would existing access be after maximum use is made of providing and promoting other curtailed. While pine forests are existing areas regrettably close to the boundaries of the ecological objectives such as (ii) food outlet, but only on a modest reserve, the only significant intrusions education, scientific study, captive scale similar to that in the actually in the area proposed for national breeding programs and low-impact Botanic Gardens, with an park are the Fishing Gap track and the recreation linked to nature emphasis on food eaten on the Camelback Fire Trail. Appropriate appreciation. premises rather than take-away management will be necessary to protect (iii) provision of an entrance station The NPA believes these aims can and maintain the high conservation to collect an entry fee, but only be achieved through: values of this section, recognising that if the revenue is directed to it is next to a highly modified area which • transferring most of the management of the reserve. Tidbinbilla and Gibraltar ranges gets thousands of visitors. Boboyan pine plantation—removal and rehabilitation (A copy of this report is available from the NPA office at a cost of $2.00!

The National Park? Association Adequate site preparation is area of the national park. The welcomed the ACT Government's essential to achieving successful rehabilitated area should serve as a decision to remove the Boboyan pine rehabilitation. Revegetation will buffer zone to protect the wilderness plantation, thus making possible the involve seeding or planting the area or at least be managed so as not rehabilitation of the area to a condition prepared site with local native species. to encourage activities contrary to appropriate to its location within Broadcast seeding is the preferred the wilderness status. Namadgi National Park. Officers of option for large sites due to its • The pine plantation contains a ACT Forests and the ACT Parks and markedly lower cost and more natural network of tracks developed for forest Conservation Service have advised that appearance than planting seedlings. management purposes. Noting their harvesting the pines should begin in Large amounts of seed will need to be potential value for park management 1995. Nicki Taws, the NPA's research collected from the native forest around and public access on the one hand. but assistant, has prepared an excellent the plantation. their intrusive effect on wilderness on detailed report outlining considerations Monitoring and maintenance of the the other, consideration needs to be which are relevant to the rehabilitation site is required for a number of years given as to which of the tracks should project. The report highlights the wide after the rehabilitation. Monitoring will be retained. range of issues involved, such as need to identify areas of failed • The Boboyan pine plantation is clearly recognising the need for: regeneration, erosion, animal damage visible from some major viewpoints m or weed invasion, and there must be the park such as Boboyan trig at the • agreement on an overall concept for resources available to treat these sorts end of the Yerrabi Track. A clear the development of the area: this of problems. concept of how the rehabilitated area agreement should be reached before will appear as part of the parkscape, it is rehabilitated Agreements between the authorities both in the short term and long term, • appropriate technical solutions for responsible for removal and rehabilitation should be developed. many aspects of the task of the pines will need to cover: • long lead times for some components, • roadwork and logging operation • The location of the plantation beside such as preliminary studies standards the Old Boboyan Road, with ready access to the wilderness area and its • positive community attitudes. • harvesting plan requirements close proximity to the Yankee Hat • site preparation specifications Nicki's report is available for anyone rock shelter, adds to the potential of to read at the NPA office. A brief • removal of pine regeneration from the rehabilitated area to act as a focal summary appears below. the site point for visitor use. Parking, rest • revegetation specifications and picnic areas could be developed Summary • weed and animal control at lower costs by making use of • removal of pine wildlings from the existing features. Such developments The Boboyan pine plantation is a surrounding native forest would need to be balanced against the Pinus radiata plantation approximately • commitments to ongoing monitoring requirements for wilderness 50 kilometres south of Canberra in protection and the need to keep visitor and maintenance the Namadgi National Park. The numbers to the Yankee Hat site • financial arrangements. 380-hectare plantation was within acceptable levels. established by ACT Forests in 1966 before the national park was formed. Roading The pine trees have grown poorly due Development of a concept to site conditions, lack of maintenance for the area Upgrading the Old Boboyan Road and and damage from a bushfire in 1983. the plantation roads must be limited to Rehabilitation will involve site The removal of the Boboyan pines will that which is necessary to perform the preparation, revegetation using local make available a substantial and removal and rehabilitation operations. native species, and ongoing site accessible area of the park. Before After rehabilitation, roads which are not maintenance. The logging operation rehabilitation of the area proceeds, its required for management purposes will leave large amounts of pine debris, potential within the overall scheme of must be closed and revegetated. known as slash, and non-commercial Namadgi National Park should be Harvesting pines on the site which will create a examined and a concept for the problem for the revegetation. A major rehabilitation developed. Factors which Harvesting operations must be part of the site preparation will involve bear on this evaluation include the conducted with the needs of the dealing with the slash. Measures following. rehabilitation in mind. Cutting units include manual or mechanical removal • On its western side the Boboyan pine in the plantation need to be planned so or burning the slash. area is bounded by the wilderness that site preparation and revegetation can follow progressively. The harvesting along Bogong Creek, where the The use of fire can be effective in plan must also address the protection harvesting and rehabilitation will killing small pine trees, but it may not of sensitive areas. These areas include inevitably have impacts on the creek, kill weeds such as briar rose and Bogong Creek, other watercourses and avoiding disturbance to the grassy blackberry which resprout from the drainage lines, and patches of native are'as along much of the swamp will base. If the rose and blackberry can be vegetation within the pines. All help minimise these impacts. killed by herbicides before burning, the machinery brought on site for use of fire in site preparation would harvesting or rehabilitation must be Fertiliser remove the pine and has the added clean of soil and vegetation so that weed The application of fertiliser during advantage of producing an excellent seeds are not introduced. revegetation is an option for increasing seed bed for native plant growth. Both the roadworks and harvesting the rate of plant growth. Soils in the area The stand of the introduced box operations must adhere to the ACT are naturally deficient in nutrients from Salix fragilis growing in Bogong Forests Logging Code of Instructions an agricultural viewpoint; however, the Creek is considered a weed in the and the Draft Soil Conservation native vegetation is adapted to growing context of the national park. It would Principles and Guidelines. Stabilisation in poor soils. Application of fertiliser will be appropriate at the time of of the site, involving the prevention or not increase geirnination rates, although rehabilitation to remove the by control of erosion, is essential before it can increase seedling growth rates in initial poisoning, then cutting and revegetation is attempted. the short term. It will also increase growth removing the stems, leaving the roots rates of weed species, and run-off from a in the ground to cause least disturbance fertilised site has implications for water to the creek. Rehabilitation of the site quality in Bogong Creek. Soil tests are Site preparation needed to determine whether fertiliser Vegetation establishment applications are appropriate or necessary. In normal operations in ACT pine The most appropriate species to plantations, logging is followed by site Weed control establish on the Boboyan pines site are preparation for the next rotation and those which occur naturally in the area, this is done by mulching the pine debris Weed control can be the single most and the best source of propagative or slash. However, where the objective important factor in determining the material is the native vegetation is to restore native vegetation to the site, success of native revegetation on a site. growing within or immediately around mulching the slash is not appropriate. Weed control is most effectively carried the plantation. The most practical method of out during site preparation and the After logging and site preparation, removing the slash, killing the conifer different methods of control include: revegetation can be carried out by seed and providing a suitable seed bed • herbicides spreading seed directly on the site, or for native seed is by fire. • manual or mechanical removal by growing seed and cuttings as tube Fire intensity needs to be sufficient • fire. stock for planting out. Revegetation by to destroy the pine seed and pine seeding also has a more natural seedlings and provide the benefits to the Herbicides can be an effective means appearance than plantings and revegetation of the 'ash-bed effect', of controlling weeds but their impact encourages better seedling growth and including increased availability of on Bogong Creek must be considered. survival resulting from a more natural nutrients and microbiological changes One of the most widely used herbicides root development. Planting seedlings in the soil. Fire intensity will depend in the ACT is glyphosate, marketed as may be the best option when on the amount of slash, its moisture 'Roundup', which affects only those establishing plants in areas where seed content at the time of burning and the plants which have been sprayed. Any bed preparation is difficult, for weather conditions during the burn. glyphosate which reaches the soil binds example, creek banks or swampy areas. Options for burning the slash include tightly to the soil particles. It is not broadcast burning or windrow heaping washed from the treatment site and is Maintenance then burning. broken down rapidly by micro­ The revegetation site will require organisms into harmless compounds. Different site preparation techniques maintenance for a number of years. will be needed in the various vegetation Weeds can be removed by manual or This will include monitoring to assess types that make up the plantation. mechanical means which can be very the success of native plant Within the areas of mature pines a time-consuming and machine or establishment, the growth of weed broadcast burn of the slash may be the labour-intensive. Effective removal of (pine wildlings plus other weeds), the most practical method of site many weed species depends on extent of animal damage and erosion. preparation. The pine regrowth, removing the root system of the plant To be successful, the rehabilitation although not able to be harvested, still so that it does not resprout. Mechanical scheme will need to be managed and needs to be removed and rehabilitated. methods can remove dense stands of financed over a number of years. An This may involve cutting the trees and weeds but need to be carried out so that appropriate management structure broadcast burning or windrowing then the plant roots are also removed. will be required to achieve this and burning, depending on the amount of Manual methods are efficient only should be established at an early stage. residue. The grassy areas on which where weed infestation is low, or where pines have never established may be weeds are to be removed selectively Prepared by Nicki Taws best left as grassland. Particularly from within native vegetation. for NPA Are you fuelling the fire of extinction?

Regional firewood Contrary to popular opinion, monotonous fashion for little gain. Is consumption seasoned pine firewood will not block there a better way? chimneys any faster than hardwood. Community groups plant millions A proportion of firewood being sold Any unseasoned or wet wood can of trees in open areas, on farms, along j in the Canberra region is cut from cause deposits in the chimney, roads and as advanced plantings remnant woodlands in central and whether pine or hardwood. Although around new suburbs in Australia western . many people in the region burn pine each year. Alarge proportion of these Conservation bodies have been firewood, the majority of Canberrans plantings have involved someone extremely concerned at the reduction appear to insist on burning putting seedlings into the ground and of these woodlands to feed the fires hardwood, namely eucalypt. from then on the small trees are left of Canberra and Sydney. These At the moment, the only sizeable to fend for themselves. woodlands are the of many sources of hardwood are the firewood Australia is littered with many species of animals and birds and merchants. All consumers of examples of places where plantings provide nesting places for a number hardwood should inquire of their have failed due to incorrect choice of rare or threatened species. merchant as to where the wood is or lack of tending after planting. But In their wisdom, generations of coming from. If you have your doubts with just a little more planning and farmers have left many of these about the firewood you are ordering, a little more care and management fragile woodlands untouched, as you should exercise your right to take of the trees after planting, most of these areas are usually on infertile your business elsewhere. these well-intentioned projects could and highly erodible slopes and For some time, ACT Forests has have been successful. The trick is to hilltops. The rural recession has been researching the idea of growing generate funds which will help pay seen many of these areas multi-purpose plantations of eucalypt for the continuing management. demolished to generate emergency and acacia for firewood production. income for struggling farmers and Since 1985, ACT Forests has been their families. Commercially and conducting research into the species While the debate on the future of aesthetically managed selection and acclimatisation of wood fires in Canberra goes on and Australian native trees, both eucalypt landscapes on, firewood cut from these eucalypt and acacia, in the ACT. ACT Forests is looking into a better woodlands keeps on streaming into In addition to a number of smaller way of producing fuelwood. Think of the ACT. Estimates of the amount species screening trials, ACT a eucalypt plantation where the of fuel wood burned in Canberra and Forests has a number of field-scale trees are not planted in lines but are Queanbeyan vary from 100 000 to fuelwood trials. The most notable of planted randomly or in clumps, over 150 000 tonnes per year. To put these are an earlier one at Lyneham where the species and seed provenances this in some perspective, if all of this Ridge (around 25 Ha) and one have been matched to the target wood was put into a fleet of your planted in 1991 in northern microclimate, where the tree species average tip trucks, you would have Gungahlin (around 250 Ha) using and colours have been chosen and a line uf trucks stretching from the best available information from grouped so as to blend in with and Canberra to Bateman's Bay and a local species trials and the CSIRO. enhance the landscape rather than fair part of the way back again. Research to date shows that if confront it, where some areas even Whether you agree or disagree ACT Forests was to plant about have an understorey and where one with the existence of wood fires in 5000 ha of hardwood plantation, we or two trees here and there are Canberra, everyone must agree that would be able to satisfy around extracted in a sensitive fashion from while we have wood-fires, the 50 per cent of the ACT's current time to time. burning of wood from plantations firewood consumption by the time (whether hardwood or softwood) ACT Forests is looking at just such the plantation was 10 years old. offers an ecologically more palatable a plantation system. It has been The problem with the majority of alternative. named the CAMELS (Commercially hardwood plantations is that they and Aesthetically Managed Landscape look like straight rows of trees for a Systems) project. The plantation option very long time. Given the fairly large CAMELS are a special type of So where can the residents of area of eucalypts which we would need plantation. They start with a forest Canberra and Queanbeyan obtain to plant to satisfy a useful proportion of ecologist and a landscape designer ecologically sustainably produced our fuelwood requirements, this could getting together to match groups of firewood? tie up a large amount of land in a trees with the geology and microclimate within the site to produce a layout CAMELS amenable to a wide range fuelwood trial at Gunghalin have which is aesthetically pleasing. of recreational activities. been staggering, with some trees From time to time, selected trees are Over several decades, a few trees exceeding three metres in height over harvested with minimum disturbance per hectare can be left untouched two and a half years. to the other trees on the site. Timber from one rotation to the next and left Where the ACT goes to from here from the extracted trees is sold as to grow into mature trees with high, depends on the availability of firewood. The income from sales pays spreading canopies and nooks and suitable land—perhaps as a for tending, protection and continuing crannies for wildlife. Through such replacement for amenity planting on management of the plantation. long-term planning, once planted a the outskirts of Canberra or as a The use of an area in this way can CAMEL will always have tree cover. joint venture with farmers in the continue ad iiffinitum. There never This means that as a diverse region—and the degree to which the has to be a clearfall, just a gradual landscape and a backdrop, CAMELS community supports the idea. thinning out. If necessary, along the will become increasingly interesting In the meantime, watch what you way individual trees can be and visually diverse with time. burn. The ash in the bottom of your replanted or species can be changed ACT Forests has tested over 100 fireplace may once have been the as technology and knowledge about species of eucalypt and several acacias only thing protecting a family of growth and use changes. and carried out hardwood and fuel wood parrots or reptiles from extinction. Landscaping and careful removing field trials in areas throughout the ACT. of trees during harvesting will make Growth rates achieved in the latest Alan Davey

Wild Agendas Book review Conference Trees of Victoria and The Wild Agendas Conference will be a conference with a adjoining areas difference. Held on 1 and 2 July at Sydney University, it will bring people in the By Leon Costermans, 5th ed, fully in black-and-white accompany some community together with revised 1994, Costermans Publishing. species. wilderness experts, bushwalkers, 164pp 15x11cm. Available for $11.95, Scientific names are given without wilderness campaigners and only at the Botanical Bookshop. authors, and common names are members of conservation also quoted. The latter are probably organisations. This is truly a 'pocket book', very Victorian usage, as I note some • compact with a soft, semi-stiff glossy The conference will have two which are different in NSW, such as cover, and it will probably stand up main streams. Stream one will Elaeocarpus reticulatus, which is to being carried around on bush look at the identification, 'Blue Oliveberry' in this book, but protection and management of trips. The contents cover the trees is 'Blueberry Ash' in NSW, and wilderness areas. Stream two of south-eastern Australia, including Livistona australis is 'Cabbage Fan- will investigate the relationship all Victoria, south-eastern South palm' as against 'Cabbage Tree' in between wilderness and people. Australia and southern NSW. NSW. There are probably others, but Both streams wil focus on The book starts with coloured as common names do vary from Aboriginal perspectives on pictures of some types of country, district to district, this is not a fault. wilderness. some common eucalypt barks, This book was first printed in 1966 Melaleuca andBanksia inflorescences, If you would like more and has been though several and fruits of Casuarina and information on Wild Agendas, editions and reprints to get to the please contact: Leptospermum. The broad natural present edition. The diagrams were vegetation regions are briefly also used in Costermans' larger Community Campaigns defined, followed by descriptions of format book, Native trees and shrubs 179 Sydney Rd, the relevant species. Each species of south-eastern Australia (1981) Fairlight NSW 2094, has from a half to a full page, with ACT people should find this a phone/fax (02) 948 7862, clear diagrams of their diagnostic useful book for the local trees. email: [email protected]. features plus a small but adequate distribution map. Further photographs George Chippendale Goats, gold, horseshoes and heritage A packwalk to old gold-mining areas in the Shoalhaven Region of Morton National Park 22-25 April 1995

Participants: Eric and Pat here and there The beach runs Pickering 'I eaders). Stephen clown to a large deep pool backed hv Johnston. David Hall. Hazel Rath, the sheer rocky side of Monitor Kathv Saw, Anne Sulinski Mountain spur. The river winds around this spur to form the horse­ The decision to visit old gold-min­ shoe shape. There is an outcrop of ing sites came about after a discus­ smooth pink granite near the wa­ sion with Anne Sulinski who had ter's edge. We set up camp and then expressed an interest in the gold explored the water-race area behind mining history of the Shoalhaven. the beach. Anne is a young architect who has There is much evidence of gold been engaged in a conservation ar­ mining activity scattered over about chitecture project for the NSW two hectares of dry open terrain Parks and Wildlife Service. with a canopy of eucalyptus trees. The plan was to visit Touga Creek, There are several large excavations Little and Great Horseshoe Bends which contain large river pebbles on the Shoalhaven, Touga West Trig David Hall and Anne Sulinski derived from the alluvial material and Tims Gully Touga Creek is a inspecting the tvinch at Great being sluiced. Some of these pebbles major drainage to the Shoalhaven Horseshoe Bend. Photo by Eric are neatly stacked to form retain­ for six significant westerly flowing Pickering ing walls which would have pro­ creeks, including Big Oaky Creek. tected the sluicing area. Several According to my information, there about two kilometres from the smaller diggings were no doubt the had been a water-race in Touga Shoalhaven. We camped in a delight­ source of alluvial materials for test­ Creek which commenced near Big ful spot amongst trees on the banks ing. Anne found the remains of a Oaky Creek. It was built for gold of Tims Gully. Tims Gully was dry fireplace of rock held together with sluicing in the 1890s. The race con­ but 50 metres away in Touga Creek a mortar of mud. Nearby were the tinued for some eight kilometres to was a small pool of clean water. remains of a shovel blade, an iron Little Horseshoe Bend on the On the second day we continued bolt and a small piece of crockery. Shoalhaven where there had been towards the Shoalhaven. Touga After lunch most of the party set a sizeable sluicing operation. Creek had dropped 200 metres since off towards Great Horseshoe Bend we first entered it but was now flat We started our walk 33 kilometres i.GHB). Hazel decided to have a and much wider. Three hundred from Nerriga on the Tolwong Road quiet time contemplating nature in metres from the junction we saw our (Touga 1:25 000. grid reference this beautiful place. We would hap­ first evidence of the water-race. Ten 388295). We walked in a westerly pily have joined her but the oppor­ metres up on the southern bank on direction through scrub for just over tunity to go to GHB was compelling! the slopes of Flume Hill a bench had a kilometre before descending We walked and waded a further been cut to support the water-race. through a gap in the cliff-line down three kilometres north to our objec­ On the opposite bank some 30 me­ an open spur into Big Oaky Creek. tive which was also the scene of gold tres across the creek is an outcrop Big Oaky was dry as a bone and had mining activity in the 1890s and of rock where the water-race contin­ been for some time. We followed it later. Here the Shoalhaven River ued around the side of Specimen for two kilometres to its junction curls its way for some two kilome­ Hill. A wooden-trestle would have with Touga Creek. There was no tres around Assay Buttress on the supported the water-race as it I sign of a water-race. south bank and Backhender But­ crossed the creek We climbed to the We rock-hopped along Touga tress on the north bank to form an water-race on the northern bank Creek. The smell of feral goats was almost perfect horseshoe shape. The and followed it to Little Horseshoe sometimes overwhelming. There was narrow part of the horseshoe on the Bend on the Shoalhaven. There it a regular tinkling of rocks and stones lower slopes of Assay Buttress is swings away from the creek to an falling from the steep 200 metre high about three hundred metres across. area behind the foreshore. banks of the creek as herds of goats Chapter 3 of the Budawang Com­ Little Horseshoe Bend t LHB> is a went about their daily routines. mittee's Fit z ray Falls and Beyond delightful place. It has a huge sandy • At 4 40pm we were at the junction refers to an attempt made in the beach with clumps of casuarinas ' of Tims Gully with Touga Creek 1890s to drain the horseshoe by building a by-pass tunnel below steel ropes, pieces of perforated covered in caked mud and river water-level. To provide power for the metal and a very powerful highly gravels indicating they had been drilling equipment a large steam geared windlass, still in good condi­ buried for some time. They were engine was carried by bullock dray tion. I wondered whether this could about the size and of the from Tolwong to Touga West Trig have been part of the flying-fox ar­ wheels on mining handcarts. above GHB. It was lowered over 500 rangement for the boiler of the The following morning we set off metres down to the Horseshoe by 1890s; it did not look 100 years old. early for the 500 metre climb to flying-fox. The tunnel was com­ Perhaps it had something to do with Wine Glass Tor. The first section of pleted but collapsed before it could hydraulic sluicing at GHB with the climb was steep but provided be put to use. Surprisingly this sig­ hoses and water pumps in the 1940s beautiful aerial views of LHB, our nificant engineering venture is not and 1950s. Anne reported later that camp-site and Tbuga Creek, where mentioned in either of the two main there were other mining sites and we had walked the previous day. We historical works on the artefacts in the area. were soon on the ridge 400 metres Shoalhaven—WA Bayley's On return to our beautiful camp­ above the Shoalhaven River. We fol­ Shoalhaven and RG Antill's Settle­ site Hazel reported that she had a lowed the ridge at times quite nar­ ment in the South. marvellous time but not quite alone. row for two kilometres to Wineglass We could see no evidence of this She had never seen and heard so Tor. The walking was dehghtful— tunnel. However halfway round the many feral goats in her life! She glorious sunny weather, a canopy of horseshoe we found diggings into showed us a pair of steel bogey iron bark trees, no scrub and won­ the western bank of the river and wheels she had found near the derful views of the Shoalhaven. It some mining artefacts—braided camp. They were rusted and partly was just a gentle undulating climb of a hundred metres to the Tor. We stopped on the cliff-top to admire the views of GHB, take photographs and inspect the wineglass formation—a weathered remnant of the former cliff-line. We left our packs here and did a side trip to Touga West Trig a fur­ ther two and a half kilometres along this beautiful open ridge. We found no evidence of the flying fox which lowered the steam engine to GHB a hundred years ago—no wire, no pegs driven into rock, no trees with wire, no artefacts. Returning to our packs, we took an­ other delightful open ridge to Tims Gully, the site of other gold digging activities. We arrived at 3.30pm and set about ba­ sic camping chores. Anne set off to inves­ tigate mining artefacts. David, Stephen, and I set off towards Sparkes Falls to find water in this dry creek bed. Within a hun­ dred metres of our camp-site we found a pool of clear water. By 4pm we had set up, water available, afternoon tea served, and the area investigated! This section of Tims Gully also has a horseshoe bend which the gold miners drained. They did this by cutting a channel through a three- metre high narrow spur of rock and diverting the water flow. The total length of the by-pass drain known as Peach Tree Canal is 35 metres. It drains 200 metres of the horse­ shoe. There is another channel a hundred metres long, five metres wide, and two metres deep with a where a small building of wood or peach tree growing in it. The chan­ canvas had existed. It had a fine Bill Adams nel was used to store water for the view over Tims Gully David sluicing operation. At its southern commented that the partially end are the remains of a dam wall. collapsed oven did not look big Bill Adams, member of the NPA for According to RG Antill there were enough for the bakery operation many years, died at home in rumours of gold in Tims Gully in associated with the mine as Canberra early Saturday morning July 1S72 suggested in Fitzroy Falls and 5 November 1994 ai age 85 years. Anne led a walk of the area based Bey on d. Bill's interest in bushwalking on her findings of the previous half We walked along the cliff-line commenced in 1936 when he walked an hour! She had found the site of above South Oaky Creek, then with the Melbourne Walking Club major gold-digging activity, many through beautiful mature eucalyp­ (MWC). Right from the start Bill holes, some five metres deep and tus forest and some thick scrub. By fitted in admirably and contributed two to three metres in diameter. 11.30am we were at Tullyangela to the club's active, vigorous and Here alluvial material had been re­ where Stephen's car had been placed social atmosphere. As a regular moved for sluicing. She also found in a car shuffle before the walk. bushwalker he was also a keen a fireplace of stones cemented to­ We had enjoyed beautiful weather, conservationist, before that attitude gether like the one at LHB. Nearby seen magnificent wilderness and became fashionable. wras a rectangle of level ground wonderful views. We saw how feral Post-war, Bill came to where a hut or tent may have been. goats in large numbers are Canberra, working on the It had been a stimulating day of damaging this fragile place—and no finances of the Australian War walking and exploring! Stephen doubt changing both its plant and Memorial. He stayed with the made the interesting comment that animal ecology in the process. We Memorial until retirement Back unlike areas such as Ballarat, in also gained an appreciation of the in those (petrol-rationing) days this remote area, inaccessible to methods and workings of the gold a fairly small group, Bill and most people, we were seeing the seekers of yester-year. We could Bert Bennett among them, country as it was when the miners admire their tenacity in getting walked and cycled just about were there. themselves and their supplies into every mountain and valley in the The next day we started our brief such remote areas to seek their ACT and nearby NSW and took walk-out at 8.30am. We climbed a fortunes. For our party the walk was in several more-or-Iess gentle open spur for a kilometre. a most appropriate an enjoyable exploratory ventures that even We paused to inspect an oven of activity for Heritage Week. stone with a flattened area opposite today, with better access, would Eric Pickering be considered pretty ambitious. In more recent times, Bill and with wife Joan became members Ecopolitics IX Essay of the National Parks Association of the ACT. Bill was active as an Ecopolitics IX will be held on 1, 2 outings leader and car camps and 3 September at the Northern competition leader. A particular interest was Territory University in Darwin. This archaeology. Joan regrettably St John's Canberra is celebrating year's Ecopolitics conference will died. Some years later Bill its 150th anniversary with an focus on Perspectives on Indigenous married Phyllis, a Melbourne essay competitition. The topic of People's Management of resident whom he met on an the competition is 'Spiritual Environmental Resources. overseas tour. They attended NPA values and the environment' and The purpose of the conference is meetings and social occasions. the first prize is $1000. Anyone to provide information and under 25 can submit an essay. At NPAannual general meetings resources, debate and discussion to Essays must be under 2000 for many years, Bill took the chair highlight indigenous perspectives words long and typed. The and conducted the elections for and options that will lead to a competition closes on 24 June NPA positions. change in attitudes, if not a change 1995. Bill was a valuable organisation in government policy. member and a true friend to many Send your entries to The If you would like more information in the Association and the MWC. Rector, St John's Canberra, or a registration form for the GPO Box 219, Canberra ACT conference, please contact Ros 2601. For enquiries, phone Charlie Hill, Sultan at PO Box 42921, Casuarina (06) 248 8399. with acknowledgments to NT 0811, phone (089) 205 180, Bert Bennett Bennett (MWC) fax (089) 452 633. TRIPS

A single woman in an Aussie hat treks in Nepal

Nepal had been my dream destination this area home, sharing it with many to -20°C. This particular part of my trip for many years. However, I shivered varieties of domestic and wild animals. I did in the company of many other with fear as well as anticipation when I My first trek to Annapurna Circuit led trekkers. Indeed, for reasons of safety, I got off the which landed at me from one village to another. In the would advise others not to attempt Kathmandu in November. But, as I had beginning, the foothills and valleys were crossing this part of the Annapurna gazed at the snow-capped Himalayan magnificently green with many Circuit alone. peaks visible in the distance, I became colourful flowers. Children and women After spending 12 days in this breathless with joy and renewed from the nearby villages were selling fabulous but cold and snow-covered courage. I had planned trekking on my juicy mandarins along the trek. Down country, 1 descended towards the Kali own with a hired porter to the below, I could hear the rumbling of the Gandaki River valley. By now, I was Annapurna Region. In my previous Marsyangdi River. The temperature longing to see green forests, flowers and travels I always went with a group of was about 25-30°C. My spirit was also to eat fresh fruit. Also, I longed to give friends; this was my first solo trip. It also very high, affected by the beauty of the my body and soul a rest in one of many was a trip to a completely different surrounding environment. hot springs on the way down. culture with quite different customs. The next part of my adventure was the Besides the sheer adventure of such trip to the Annapurna Sanctuary, the an undertaking it is my hope that, spiritual heart of the Himalaya. Once by describing my individual again I ascended the trail. Through the experiences of trekking to prodigious rhododendron, bamboo and Annapurna Circuit and the sub-tropical forests, at almost 3000 Annapurna Sanctuary, I could metres, much to my surprise I noticed a encourage and empower other group of monkeys playing nearby. single women adventurers to Every day I had the companionship of engage in similar life expanding, roaring rivers and a large number of but also safe and inexpensive brilliant waterfalls. But my most travels which do not require rock powerful experience occurred when I climbing skills. arrived in Annapurna Sanctuary at 4130 Within four days of my arrival in metres. After my arrival, clouds and the Kathmandu, I was already trekking. I mist gradually lifted unveiling the magic combined two treks: one to Annapurna of the place. The high alpine valley Circuit—a 21 day excursion that circles surrounded by the Annapurna peaks the Annapurna Himal—and a second one was superb and unreal. That night, with to Annapurna Sanctuary—a 10 day the full moon and the starlit sky, I did journey up the Modhi Khola valley. I hired not sleep much. In the morning, the a porter and started my adventure. Over orange sunrise was breathtaking. the next five weeks I met hundreds of Basia Meder at Annapurna base Despite the cold weather (-15°C) I was trekkers from many different countries. camp happy and joyful. I felt lucky and Everyone was very friendly and privileged to be there. supportive. I never felt lonely or unsafe. As I ascended the steep trail I passed This unique experience has charged The Annapurna Region—bordered on through terraced rice fields, noticing my spirit with an inner peace that will the north by the Tibetan frontier, on the gradual changes in several ecological endure for the rest of my life. With this south by the Pokhara Valley, on the east zones. The village houses were mostly feeling, I left the Sanctuary and by the Marsyangdi River, and on the traditional stone houses with slate roofs. gradually descended the track to west by the Kali Gandaki River—is a At the highest altitude they were often Pokhara, the end of my trip. land of extremes. It is the most clustered high on the ridges, just below Finishing my wonderful solitary geographically and culturally diverse the permanent snowline. Further down, adventure, I became nostalgic leaving protected area in the world, stretching Buddhist temples, shrines, flags and behind my feeling of freedom and love for over 2600 square kilometres. The region prayer walls marked some of the Himalayas. This trekking turned out to be includes sub-tropical lowlands, , entrances and exits to the villages or the one of happiest and most beautiful rhododendron and bamboo forests, high local holy places. experience in my life. It was a fantastic and alpine meadows and windswept desert Walking every day, often by myself, I marvellous adventure. I learnt about my plateaus. It has Kali Gandaki, the enjoyed breathtaking and splendid strengths and my weaknesses. I acquired a world's deepest river gorge lying some views of Himalaya peaks—Himaichuli, lot of courage and I loved it, especially 6900 metres below the world's highest Ngadi Chuli, Manaslu, Lamjung Himal, because I had achieved it on my own! and most scenic mountains. Annapurna Pisang, Annapurnas, Machhapuchhare, I am convinced that most women I is the eighth highest mountain in the Dhaulagiri, Nilgiri. My trekking can achieve as much given a bit of world, reaching a height of8091 metres. challenge was to cross the snow-covered strong will and preparation. More than 40 000 people of distinct Thorung La Pass at an altitude of 5415 ethnic and cultural backgrounds call metres, where the temperature dropped Basia Meder JUNE Thursday 1 Committee meeting 7.30pm, for location contact Eleanor Stodart, 281 5004(h) Thursday 8 Namadgi Subcommittee 7.30pm, for location contact Steven Forst, 279 1326(w), 251 6817(h) Thursday 22 Environment Subcommittee 7.45pm, for location contact Stephen Johnston, 254 3738(h) JULY Thursday 6 Committee meeting 7.30pm, for location contact Eleanor Stodart, 281 5004(h) Thursday 13 Namadgi Subcommittee 7.30pra, for location contact Steven Forst, 279 1326(w), 251 6817(h) Thursday 27 Environment Subcommittee 7.45pm, for location contact Stephen Johnston, 254 3738(h)

AUGUST Thursday 3 Committee meeting 7.30pm, for location contact Eleanor Stodart, 281 5004(h) Thursday 10 Namadgi Subcommittee 7.30pm, for location contact Steven Forst, 279 1326(w), 251 6817(h) Thursday 24 Environment Subcommittee 7.45pm, for location.contact Stephen Johnston, 254 3738(h) SEPTEMBER Thursday 7 Committee meeting 7.30pm, for location contact Eleanor Stodart, 281 5004(h) Thursday 14 Namadgi Subcommittee 7.30pm, for location contact Steven Forst, 279 1326(w), 251 6817(h) Thursday 28 Environment Subcommittee 7.45pm, for location contact Stephen Johnston, 254 3738(h)

NPA Bulletin SURFACE If undelivered please return to: MAIL National Parks Association of the ACT PO Box 1940 Woden ACT 2606 Print Post Approved P 248831/00041

General meetings

Held at 8pm, Room 1, Griffin Centre, Bunda Street, Civic

Thursday 15 June; Green Politics Simon Grose, who is the science and technology editor at the Canberra Times and that paper's environmental features writer, will give an informed view of this highly relevant topic. Thursday 20 July: Vegetation dynamics in lowland grasslands in the ACT Sarah Sharp, grasslands project officer with the Parks & Conservation Service, has been undertaking an extensive research project on grassland protection and regeneration and conservation. She will speak to us about how grasslands respond to different treatments. Thursday 17August: Travels in China After the AGM Doreen Wilson will give us an illustrated account of her experiences in China. Thursday 21 September: Glaciation in the Snowy Mountains Bob Galloway will speak on this area of unique interest—the only part of mainland Australia which shows evidence of being glaciated some ten thousand years ago.