Terms and Conditions of Use Copies of Walk magazine are made available under Creative Commons - Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike copyright. Use of the magazine. You are free: • To Share- to copy, distribute and transmit the work • To Remix- to adapt the work Under the following conditions (unless you receive prior written authorisation from Melbourne Bushwalkers Inc.): • Attribution- You must attribute the work (but not in any way that suggests that Melbourne Bushwalkers Inc. endorses you or your use of the work). • Noncommercial- You may not use this work for commercial purposes. • Share Alike- If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one. Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitations on Liability. Melbourne Bushwalkers Inc. makes no warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any content of this work. Melbourne Bushwalkers Inc. disclaims any warranty for the content, and will not be liable for any damage or loss resulting from the use of any content. • • WALK • • A JOURNAL OF THE MELBOURNE BUSHW ALKERS No. 3 1952 llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll EDITORIAL: "BURNT OFFERING" 3 THE TOE OF THE PROM. K. Grant .... 4 BEYOND THE VALE OF RASSELAS G. Christensen 8 THE CRINOLINE .. G. Coutts 13 VAN TRIP ....... ''Nin" 16 BIG WALKABOUT E. Richards 17 OUR WALKERS .. "Barrani" 23 CLIMBING ON TABLE MOUNTAIN H. Wolff .. 27 THE GATES OF THE MURRAY . K. Middleton 30 PRESERVING OUR WILDFLOWERS 34 THE SNOWY MOUNTAINS . N. Richards 35 THE YOU-YANGS ........... E. Donath .. 43 BR-R-R; IT'S COLD!! . O.M•.. 44 BOOKS FOR THE BUSHWALKER 46 CORINNA AND THE PIEMAN RIVER .. H. Gerstman 49 WALLACE'S HUT-BOGONG HIGH PLAINS Anon•...... 52 SOME NEW MAP ISSUES . 53 MOUNTAIN MUSTER 55 WALKS SECTION: Locola - Middle Ridge - Mt. Skene - Licola . 58 Robin Hood - Brandy Creek - Camp Hill - Drouin . 61 Avonsleigh - Shepherd's Creek - Beer's Hill - Cockatoo 63 OUR FRONT COVER: TERRIBLE HOLLOW, THE RAZOR AND THE VIKING Photo from Mt. Howitt - by Len Barr Editor: NORMAN RICHARDS Telephone: WX 5450 Clyde Press, Thornbury. JJ 2902 1 ~"Ke MELBOURNE BUSHWALKERS Office-Bearers, 1951-52 • President: NORMAN E. RICHARDS Vice-Presidents: EGON DONATH FAY PITT Hon. Treasurer: Hon. Secretary : EMIL SLADE FRANK PITT Hon. Walks Secretary: Hon. Social Secretary: GORDON COUTTS MARIE GILLESPIE General Committee: PADDY MURRAY KITTY MITCHELL LORRAINE RICHEY WARREN OLLE LLOYD REYNOLDS FRED SOUTTER Sub-Committees: Walks: GORDON COUTTS, WARREN OLLE, LLOYD REYNOLDS Financial: EMIL SLADE, NORM. RICHARDS, FRED SOUTTER Social: MARIE GILLESPIE, PADDY MURRAY, LORRAINE RICHEY News: FAY PITT, PADDY MURRAY, KITTY MITCHELL Editorial: NORM. RICHARDS, EGON DONATH, FRED SOUTTER Equipment Officer: HAROLD SOUTTER Librarian: KEITH MURRAY THE MELBOURNE BUSHWALKERS Clubroom: Room 110, Victorian Railways Institute, Railway Buildings, Flinders Street, Melbourne, C.l. Advertising : Sales: E. J. DONATH F. SOUTTER 166 Wellington Pde., E. Melb., C.2 60 Victoria Road, Auburn, E.3 Telephone: F 0484 "Dedicated to all who appreciate the great outdoors" ... WALK is a voluntary, non-profit venture published in the interests of bushwalking as a healthy recreation. 2 EDITORIAL: Burnt Offering Twelve short months ago one of our members contributed an article which began by asking, "Are you interested in the ownership of a block of land which provides one with splendid scenic grandeur unparalleled anywhere for its delightful fern gullies?" If he were writing that article to-day he would have to commence, "Are you interested in an area of some eighty-thousand acres of fire-blackened tree trunks?"-for that is almost all that remains of our far-famed Wilson's Promontory, the area to which he was alluding. The bride who, out of her inexperience, occasionally produces burnt offerings has always been the butt of comedians; but in this, the year in which we celebrate one hundred years of responsible government and the Jubilee year of our Commonwealth, surely it is hardly possible to blame inexperience for the circumstances which produced such a national burnt offering as the "Prom" is now. An area easily isolated from external in­ fluences, especially such minor ones as a neglected billy :fire, one might have expected that it would never be ravished by bushfires. Last February proved just how ill-founded that hope really was, and the best that we now can hope for is that the rejuvenating plant life will never again experience such a holocaust. All this devastation has received a blaze of publicity, but it is only five years since our largest National Park-Wyperfeld-was seriously gutted. Well away from the cities and in the heart of the Mallee, this catastrophe received only a few perfunctory Press notices. Recriminations are useless now, but what lessons can we learn for the future? Firstly that the present administrative policy for our National Parks is not getting results-useful ones anyway. A policy for their future has already been proposed by a Conference convened specially for the purpose,* and has received the whole­ hearted endorsement of all who appreciate their national significance. It is a matter of regret that local State politics appear to have prevented its adoption. The Editor of WILD LIFE has put forward the interesting sug­ gestion that if the State Governments cannot see their way to implement some such policy, then the Commonwealth might be induced to treat the matter as one of importance to the whole nation and legislate accordingly, even though a referendum would be necessary. Whatever the means finally found to be expedient, some action is urgently required. The "Prom" was probably one of the least vulnerable of our National Parks; what happened there last year-and at Wyperfeld in 1946-might easily happen elsewhere next summer; perhaps in a park with practically no potential for rejuvenation. The economics of the situation should be sufficient to demand action. It seems reasonable to assume that although often valueless for agricultural purposes, our Parks have at least an equal value per acre when viewed from the standpoint of each present and future citizen. If this be conceded, then is it not reasonable to allow the same expenditure for upkeep as one would for any other property? We should consult owners of other hundred­ thousand acre properties to see how much they spend each year on preserv­ ing their asset; even though the analogy may be a poor one the comparison would certainly make present appropriations seem infinitesimal. Victoria is not rich in National Parks. The total area dedicated to such purposes represents only two-thirds of one per cent. of the State. Tasmania now has one square mile in every thirty-two a National Park, while in New Zealand the proportion is approximately one in twenty. It would be good to be able to devote our efforts toward increasing the total area; but at worst let us preserve what we have. To do so should be the constant care of every person interested in the out-of-doors-Let there be no more burnt offerings! •see wALK, 1951 3 Ihe Toe ol The ..Prom••: CHINAMAN'S BAY TO SEALER'S COVE We had planned to go by sea to Sealer's Cove, a journey of some forty miles along the rugged eastern coastline of Wilson's Promontory, where we were to make camp. The day before we were to leave however, a strong easterly gale blew up making this journey impossible, the fishermen told us, for possibly four or five days. So seven of us, including two girls, worked out an alternative trip to go overland across the little-visited north­ east corner and eventually to Sealer's Cove. Gramle Is (I INLrT "THE TOE OF THE PROM" Sketch Map We sailed from Port Welshpool about eleven o'clock in brilliant sun­ shine, bound for Chinaman's Long Beach in Corner Inlet. The sea was calm in the shelter of Snake Island, but as we approached the north-eastern tip of the "Prom", where Mt. Singapore stands guard, we had a taste of what the ocean journey would have been like. The waves were soon breaking over the deck of the "Janet lies", and while Bobby was calmly seated astride the prow the rest of us were hard put to it to stay on board at all. We turned south west, however, and were soon in the calm to the west of Singapore. We stopped to fish in Chinaman's Bay before continuing south along the coast of Corner Inlet to the north end of Chinaman's Long Beach. Messrs. Smith, the owners of our shark boat, told us of several places where we might find fresh water, and repeated how "the men who did it last time said they'd never do it again." We were rowed ashore in the dinghy to the wide, clean beach below Mt. Hunter, where the sand was un­ marked by any footprint. The Janet Iles weighed anchor and sailed north­ ward again, and we suddenly felt how entirely alone we were . we now could not turn back the way we had come. 4 It was mid-afternoon when we moved off, after an excellent lunch of freshly-steamed flathead. As we began our walk south along Chinaman's Long Beach the tide was receding and the sand was dotted with countless thousands of soldier crabs which burrowed down out of sight as quickly as we walked toward them. We passed two very small freshwater streams on the way south, but had been assured that Chinaman's Creek was good water, and decided to push on and camp there. The beach became a wide swamp before we reached the creek, which we struck about half a mile from the sea, and which we had difficulty in approaching owing to the soft deep mud at the edges.