XDR4XDR4 CANBERRA BUSHWALKING CLUB NEWSLETTER it Canberra Bushwalking Club Inc. GPO Box 160 Canberra ACT 2601 Volume 54 Number 4 www.canberrabushwalkingclub.org May 2018 GENERAL MEETING 7.30pm Wednesday 16 May 2018 Weston Uniting Church 16 Parkinson Street, Weston Snow camping skills and emergency alpine shelters Guest speaker: Rowan Peck Never camped in the snow? It's great fun - you just need a few simple extra skills in setting up your campsite. Come along to this talk and learn and share, just in time to put it all into practice over winter. We will also look at various forms of emergency alpine shelter: what to do if you get caught out in weather, without a tent; what equipment you should carry so you can build one - equipment that you might not have with you in other situations. Rowan has spent winters in the snow since he was eight years old, and in the past ten years or so out in the back country from time to time, or mountaineering. He has been a Club member since 2016 and a ski patroller at Perisher since 1984. When Rowan puts walks on in winter, you can almost be sure they will be to somewhere cold! Contents President’s message Dam news Trip Report: Gavells Hut/Gang Gang Mt Canyoning Walking the AAWT A Look at a Book – Geoff Mosley Conservation in the CBC Budawangs Track Maintenance Cradle Mountain Skyline Traverse Membership Fence removal in Gudgenby Valley CBC Committee members Ants and Safety Rock Cairns and Stick Houses Contributions to the newsletter The Kowmung – a poem Planning and Leading a Walk Activity Program Bulletin Board Canberra Bushwalking Club it May 2018 page 1 Club News, Conservation and Canyoning While conservation is not our main activity, we have been active in this area lately. At our recent general meeting, the Club voted to support the Save the Blue Mountains Wild Rivers organisation, which is fighting to raise awareness of the potential impact of raising Warragamba Dam on walking tracks and the native environment. Originally proposed as a $200 donation, members agreed to amend that amount to $1000. Members are also active in fence clearing and weed identification. There are plenty of opportunities for those inclined. After a significant commitment from Julie Anne Clegg, the Club is looking for a new Treasurer to help from September this year. If you have an interest in the Club's financial affairs and in contributing to committee meetings, please contact me. I have an expression of interest from our friend, the real Nigerian Prince, but I would like to open this to all members. Meanwhile, our Activity Program is in full swing as the weather cools. I look forward to walking with you soon. Michael de Raadt President Come Canyoning Canyoning is making a comeback. The Committee has approved plans to re-invigorate the Club’s canyoning program in the 2018/2019 summer. This will start with leader refresher training in spring. Several CBC members with an impressive range of canyoning experience will help each other brush up their skills. The Club will then offer half-day training sessions, open to all members, in late spring and early summer, at locations close to Canberra. The training will include self-rescue techniques. Linda Groom Walks Secretary Rowan Peck in Claustral Canyon Photo: Supplied Canberra Bushwalking Club it May 2018 page 2 A Long and Proud History of Conservation Work in the CBC Welcome to the May edition of it. Once again I have received some very generous and lively contributions to help make this newsletter a great monthly read for Club members. Our two trip reports transport us from the dizzying heights of Cradle Mountain to the beautiful forest around Gang Gang Mountain in northern KNP. Thank you to Allan Donnelly and Terrylea Reynolds. We also have some very useful advice from Stan Marks about resources we can use for planning and leading walks; and we have a short browse through sections of Club member Geoff Mosley’s memoir “Repaying my Debt” which he has kindly donated to the Club. A central focus of this edition of the newsletter is conservation – we look at the selfless volunteers who have once again undertaken the strenuous work of track maintenance in the Budawangs; we have some background information about the activity proposed for June in the Gudgenby valley to remove remnant fences; and there is also a spotlight on the controversial question of rock cairns and stick houses scattered through our bushland. The controversial Warragamba Dam extension also has an update. We are blessed with a very active Conservation Officer for our Club, Cynthia Breheny, to keep us informed and aware. The CBC has a tradition of involvement in conservation work. There is a section in Geoff Mosley’s memoir, Repaying my Debt (for reference see page 14 in this newsletter), which describes the CBC as having a long association with conservation efforts: “In spite of the occasional good humoured jibe, such as, ‘are we a bushwalking club or a conservation society?’ in practice, the two activities have always existed in natural harmony. CBC’s conservation activities have in fact ranged over its entire walking territory. The Club’s first major effort was in the southern ACT where it played a distinct role with the ACT National Parks Association (NPA) in working for a conservation reserve..…It’s approach paid off and by 1991 Namadgi National Park covered 106,000 hectares…..Conservation is of course essential for bushwalking to have a future – one of the best examples ever of a symbiotic relationship.” (The full text of this section can be found in pages 112 – 113 of the book) Enjoy your reading. Any comments or feedback are always welcome. Have you ever thought of writing a Letter to the Editor if you have an issue? Meredith Hatherly Editor Welcome New Members The Club would like to welcome the following new members who joined the Club during April 2018: Alexander Bush, Dan Sells, James Volk, Paul Stok, Peter Hogan, Shilpa Lanka, Jenny Bourke and Elizabeth King. Roger Edwards Membership Secretary Canberra Bushwalking Club it May 2018 page 3 Know Your Ants Recently a walker suffered a severe reaction to a (probable) Jack Jumper ant bite. Fortunately, the walker was OK and has made a good recovery. This recovery is a credit to her and to her fellow walkers who provided good support in what could have been a very dangerous situation. Ant bite is common in the Australian bush and fortunately, is usually just a matter of short-lasting discomfort. Sometimes however, ant bite is more serious and is a cause of pain. For those walkers who react badly to ant- bite, it can even be life-threatening. It is ironic that such tiny creatures can present such risk to us mighty humans. And yet it is so with ants, spiders, ticks and other tiny bush residents. Though the weather is (slowly) cooling down, ants will continue to be a risk until the winter is fully set in, and they certainly will be out again in numbers come the spring of 2018. My safety approach with ants is the same as with other bush risks – that is, that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. For the purposes of this article, I will discuss observation, identification and recognition in order to prevent, or at least to reduce, the incidence of serious ant bite. Walkers should acquaint themselves with the common bush ants in the ACT and be able to distinguish between the main types. It is good to be able to ‘get one’s eye in’ so to speak, and to recognise Meat ants, Jack Jumpers and Bull ants. In the ACT, the common Meat ant (or Gravel ant) is responsible for many ant bites. Meat ants are ubiquitous and found throughout Canberra gardens and Canberra Nature Parks. They are 10mm in length, and on close inspection have a dark-bluish body and red head. Meat ants do not sting, but cause irritating bites and secrete a defensive fluid from the end of their abdomen. They form large gravelly nests and will quickly swarm over the unwary. Many a distracted birdwatcher has had cause to enact the comical ‘meat ant dance’ when otherwise focussed on a treecreeper. This ‘dance’ consists of an ungainly leaping, while madly striking oneself and swiping Meat ant nest near Bungendore ants off flailing limbs. Usually the greatest injury is to the Photo: Steve Shattuck, Wikipedia.org victim’s dignity. Equally common Jack Jumpers are more dangerous, and not a source of comedy. Unlike Meat ants, Jack Jumpers do have a venomous sting to which some of the human population has developed an allergy and potentially an anaphylactic response. Jack Jumpers are approximately 12mm in length, and have a distinctive matt-black colouration with yellow-orange legs. When agitated, they jump about erratically in a manner deserving of their common name. Jack Jumper They are common throughout ACT bush, particularly in the granitic high Photo: Mark Newton, ala.org.au country of Namadgi. They often, but not always, decorate their gravelly nests with small fragments of charcoal. Walkers should actively watch for them and avoid them. A walking party will often cross a nest and stir up the inhabitants, so it is good manners to warn the walkers behind you, that they are about to cross some cross Jack Jumpers. Canberra Bushwalking Club it May 2018 page 4 Know Your Ants Bull ants are also common, though less so than Meat ants or Jack Jumpers.