It CANBERRA BUSHWALKING CLUB NEWSLETTER
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XDR4XDR4 CANBERRA BUSHWALKING CLUB NEWSLETTER it Canberra Bushwalking Club Inc. GPO Box 160 Canberra ACT 2601 Volume 53 Number 11 www.canberrabushwalkingclub.org December 2017 2017 – What a year! 2017 has been an eventful year for the CBC. We’ve had such a wide variety of walks – international, interstate and local walks, long distance multi week walks, multi day walks, weekend walks, sub 24 hour walks, day walks, half day walks, evening walks, toddler and family walks, interclub walks, geocaching walks, peak bagging walks, snow trips, paddling trips, canyoning trips, car camping trips, bike trips...and sometimes to the most amazing wild places. To keep things interesting, John Evans, our previous Walks Secretary, actively encouraged new leaders, while Jenny and Rob Horsfield provide a steady trickle of new walk leaders through their yearly White’s River Hut, KNP Photo: Rowan Peck navigation training. Our website went live in November. Linda Groom has slogged for years to bring us a quality website to make procedures easier for walkers and leaders. Continued practice at it, as with anything, will make it increasingly easy to use. The Club deserves its gold star for participation in a range of conservation activities. We will read about this year’s broom clearing at Cotter Hut elsewhere in this newsletter. Participation in the Alpine Weeds Project was a great success and is ongoing thanks to Bungonia Gorge the efforts of previous Conservation Officer Cynthia Photo: Meredith Hatherly Burton. There have been many more special events and people throughout this year, with enthusiastic walkers and leaders all contributing to our healthy, diverse and active Club. Next year promises to be just as good. Have a happy and safe Christmas season, enjoy the bliss of summer walking and Toddler’s Toddle, Cotter Bend the joys of another packed Activity Program for the New Year. Photo: Meredith Hatherly Contents Presidential selfie Broom Clearing at Cotter Hut National Parks of the Granite Belt Membership Review of Nov meeting - Antarctica The Tidbinbilla Traverse – an ACT icon Editorial Reflections on exploring Sandy Creek CBC Committee information Walks Secretary items A new walks leader – Jonathan Miller Newsletter contributions Training and Safety January 2018 Club Barbecue Activity Program New Conservation Officer Book review – Seeing through Snow Bulletin Board Canberra Bushwalking Club it December 2017 page 1 A Presidential Selfie This last month has been eventful. The new Club website has been launched, the Club earned attention for our contribution to environmental endeavours and daylight saving walks have begun among a packed program. Well done to all. I had the privilege of catching up with the presidents of the BBC and NPA. Peter, Esther and I shared a chat over drinks, discussing matters of relevance and building already strong inter-club relations. I am delighted to let you know that our new friend, the real Nigerian Prince, is now a member and will soon lead walks, as long as we can pass on each member’s bank account details. We’re drawing to the end of the year. As things wind down, there are still enjoyable things to do. By the time this is published, we'll have had our annual Christmas party and more walks as well. I wish you all a blessed Christmas time, for you and your family, and I look forward to walking with you all next year. Michael de Raadt President Welcome - two new Club members The Club would like to welcome the two new members who joined the Club during Membership fees the month of November. Welcome Robyn Hall and Janevieve Sims. 2017/2018 $33 per person Roger Edwards Membership Secretary Canberra Bushwalking Club it December 2017 page 2 What’s going to happen to the IT? What do you do with your IT when you get it? Does it sit in your laptop unloved and unread Do you flick through the pages and then go to bed Or do you devour it and hunger for more Is it too frequent Is it too small Is it too long Do you want it at all? The IT needs your help for better or worse And it’s not a condition for any submission That it has to be written in verse We’re having a serious look at what is to become of IT with the advent of the new website. Send in your ideas. What do our readers want? Let’s have a discussion. All comments will be gratefully received. You might notice a slight change in the Activity Program this month. The minor walk details and the leader contact details are missing. This is to save duplicating what is already on the website. If the walk description interests you, click on the link at the top of the page and you will be taken directly to the list of walks on the website, with full descriptions. Scroll down the page till you find the walk you want. If you want to book on the walk you will need to log in. This may be a change you might or might not like – let me know. ……………………………………………………………………………………. In this edition we continue to look into the philosophical mind-set of walks leaders – this time we have Jonathan Miller, new to leading, as well as a long standing leader, Linda Groom. Thanks to you both for disclosing a little of what drives you, and for Linda taking us to another fabulous and remote place. And we have a trip report about a classic walk unique to Canberra – the Tidbinbilla skyline. This Canberra icon intrigues and beckons every day as we go about our lives in Canberra – and in October Trevor Lewis responded to that call. Meg McKone describes some of the beautiful National Parks around the NSW/Queensland border during a recent trip – places which are little known here. They aren’t too hard to get to and would be well worth considering as a new destination. Thanks also to the other contributors who have helped to fill out this edition – Mike Morriss with a review of a new book by Club member Matthew Higgins; and Quentin Moran with a description of this year’s 25th anniversary of the Cotter Hut broom clearing, as well as his review of the November meeting’s guest speaker talk. There are some important issues brought to you by Committee members which you should attend to, and you will also meet our new Conservation Officer and talented artist, Cynthia Breheny. There will be no further IT published until February 2018. In the interim, I wish everyone safe holidays and a happy Christmas and New Year season – and please have a good think about the questions I have put to you. Meredith Hatherly Editor Canberra Bushwalking Club it December 2017 page 3 Important items you need to read Could you help organize a CBC display stand in March? The Club will be running a stand at the next CAP (Connect and Participate) Expo on Saturday 24 March 2018 at the Old Bus Depot, Kingston. CAP Expos are organized by the ACT government and are a good opportunity for us to promote the Club’s activities and gain new members. We already have a number of volunteers to staff the stand on the day, but need someone willing to do the clerical co-ordination work – filling in the application to have the stand, drawing up a roster, ensuring we have enough handout material etc. Please contact Linda Groom if you would be willing to take this on: 6281 4917 [email protected] A commonly asked question about the new Club software Q. I used to be able to send the leader a short email to make a booking. Now I have to login and fill out a form - doesn’t this mean the new software is creating more work for members? A. The former system involved at least as much work – but the work was not visible to you. For safety reasons, the Club requires leaders of need-to-book walks to compile a trip list containing your address, phone numbers, and emergency contact details. Leaders also often need to know whether you have a suitable car available. To compile the trip list, the leader had to search through old trip lists or search the online member list for your details, and often had to ask you about transport. Multiply that by several participants and it adds up. The new system aims to spread this workload more evenly. And once you have checked that your ‘My Profile’ is up to date, it should only take you a few clicks to request a booking. A new award coming up at the next AGM Do you like the images that accompany many walk descriptions online now? They serve more than one purpose. They can give you an idea of the scenery you might encounter on a walk, or show the difficulty of the terrain. To encourage leaders to include images, the Committee has agreed to establish a new award at each AGM, for the best image submitted with a walk description that year. The prize will be wine or chocolates or something similar of the winner’s choice. So, leaders, start trawling your photo libraries. And members, if you see an image in a walk description that you found especially attractive or useful, let me know [email protected] Near Billy Billy Rocks Photo: Linda Groom Linda Groom Walks Secretary Canberra Bushwalking Club it December 2017 page 4 Ticks and what you can do about them An ABC TV Catalyst story on dangerous tick reactions and diseases reminded me of the perils presented to bushwalkers by these tiny creatures.