Newcastle Ramblers Bushwalking Club Newsletter
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Newcastle Ramblers Bushwalking Club Newsletter - March 2016 Rambler’s Photo Competition 2015 – Second Place Winner “Paper Daisys” Newcastle Ramblers –March 2016 Page 1 2016 Annual General Meeting. The Club held its 2016 AGM on Monday 21 March. President Angela gave a report on the year’s activities (see below) and Treasurer Arthur gave the Financial report for the year. All current elected Office Bearers then stood down, nominations were called and an election held for the 2016 Office Bearers. The results of the election are as follows: President – Angela Vice President – Nick Treasurer – Hazel Secretary – Alan Elected Member – Arthur Elected Member – Peter Elected Member – Lynne Nominations for Non-elected Office Bearers. The new Committee will hold its first meeting early in April. At that meeting, one of its key tasks is to appoint people to fill the various roles that are vital to the Club’s effective functioning. All members are encouraged to play an active role in the Club’s administration so if any member would like to nominate for any of the positions, or has any suggestions as to how they would like to help, please let Angela or Alan know. The current officer’s position are: New Members Liason ;,Membership Officer, Training Officer; Newsletter Editor; Email Management; Librarian; Gear Officer; PLB Contacts; Website Manager; Photo Competition Organiser; Public Officer. PRESIDENTS REPORT – AGM – MARCH 2016 The club had a busy and varied year with lots of exciting activities that were well attended by members. There were many and varied car camps with associated day walks –the club visited Myrtle Ck northern Wollemi, Coorongooba Western Wollemi, Kanangra NP Blue Newcastle Ramblers –March 2016 Page 2 Mountains as well as old favourites Woko, Gloucester Barrington and Coolah Tops to mention a few. We explored new areas in the New England NP with 32 ramblers staying at two Styxs at Ebor. Backpacks continue to be popular – local favourite areas such as Wollemi/Colo Gorge, Drummers to Drummers, Barrington Tops were visited, as well as further afield in the Snowy Mountains, and for the more adventurous, Pantoneys Crown and Donkey Mt in Gardens of Stone NP to mention a few were all well attended. Members ventured interstate – the backpacks of the Jatbula Trail NT, Three Capes Track Tasmania and Walls of Jerusalem were very popular. Members enjoyed a variety of local day walks, bike rides, local paddles and social activities such as Rylstone Street Feast and the first ever Branxton Christmas Party at the home of Lindsay and Lynne. There were other events - 9 members braved the cold and participated successfully in the BRWS Navigation Shield and members continue to do great community work with the Obelisk Hill and Arcadia Park Landcare group organised by Bob Clifton. The website has now been functioning for more than a year and continued improvements are happening. Robert continues to manage the Club emailing system. This year we saw some new faces in management. Your committee has worked very hard and achieved a lot in a busy agenda with 5 meetings– revised and updated constitution, reviewed risk management protocols and updated the club guidelines for leaders and participants, use of contact person and PLB, reviewed insurance and incident management, introduced the supper roster. The completed 50th Anniversary photo album was a great success. Thanks to Arthur and the committee, the club is in good financial shape and we have 191 members as of the beginning of March with more joining. I would like to thank the committee and others in official positions for their time and efforts this year. Without them the club would not function. Special mention should go to John - the now retired walks officer. On behalf of the club I want to thank him very much for his long term support of the Club and all his tireless efforts in getting the activity program off the ground for so long. On behalf of members I would also like to thank all those members, including a few new members, who have given their time and efforts to organise and lead activities throughout the year. Again, without them the club would not function. Looking ahead, the biggest challenge for the club is lack of involvement of enough members willing to organise and lead activities and to play a role in club management. The club is a special interest group run by volunteers. With so many members and more wanting to join, we should be able to fill the program with activities and get new faces in managerial roles, but it is a hard slog to do so. We are facing a generational change of club leaders and management. Many long term members who have contributed enormously to the club are winding down. It is unfair to expect them to continue to do so much. Some of the committee and official officers have paid their dues and would prefer to retire. Other committee members are doing too much because no one else will do it. To ensure a continuing strong and viable club, we need newer members or those not previously involved to step up and contribute more to the Newcastle Ramblers –March 2016 Page 3 club- organise walks or events, take on managerial roles and help out. The Ramblers will only continue as it has for over 50 years by active member involvement. So if you enjoy being a Rambler – get more involved and help out in some way. Angela Library. The Club has a large number of bushwalking books. A listing is being prepared for the website so that members can see what books are available. Books may be borrowed at any regular Monday meeting. Additionally, the Committee has approved a budget of $500 to buy new books for the library. So far we have purchased Book 1 and Book 2 of Michael Keats and Brian Fox’ “The Gardens of Stone National Park and beyond”. These excellent books contain a large number of Day walks with detailed track notes including GPS coordinates and are beautifully illustrated. They proved useful in planning walks at our Easter Camp in Newnes. Index of Activity Reports: 1.Nine Days in the Snowy Mountains Bob Page 5 2. Gloucester Tops Exploration Bob Page 11 3. My First Backpack Tony Page 13 4. February Committee Meeting in Bob Page 14 Branxton 4. Frenchmans Cap – Tasmania Angela Page 15 5. Three Capes- Tasmania Malcolm Page 19 6. Easter at Newnes Col Mc Page 20 Newcastle Ramblers –March 2016 Page 4 1. Nine Days in the Snowy Mountains - 28 Nov to 5 Dec 2015 Walkers: Bob (leader), Lois, Frank, Alan, Ali, Kevin, Anna, and Angela. Morning tea on the Geehi River looking north to Mt Jugungal (photo Angela) Our adventure this year covered a much larger area of Kosciusko National Park, discovering many new locations and visiting more mountain huts. We walked over 110km in near perfect weather - clear and mild each day with only a half hearted storm on one evening. We would wake to ice on the tents but by mid day it would be quite hot. We enjoyed an open campfire for most evenings. After our eight hour drive to Dead Horse Gap on the Saturday we shouldered packs about 3.00pm and commenced our warm up three day walk around Boggy Plain, an area south of the steep ridge behind Thredbo Village. We selected our first camp site in a saddle near Sam’s Camp along the Chimneys Ridge about six kilometers from the cars. Sunday morning saw us skirting or climbing several small knolls along the Chimneys Ridge line before ascending the Chimneys Pinnacle for morning tea. We had crossed several delightful saddles along the way and the brumby pads here and there aided our progress through the thicker patches of vegetation. We followed the ridge generally north east stopping for lunch at Smiths Gap before climbing to Mt Terrible – the climb was easier than the name implied. We later dropped down to the beautifully restored Teddys Hut to set up camp and get a good fire going. All up we walked for 7 hours and covered 14 km. Newcastle Ramblers –March 2016 Page 5 Alan, Frank, Angela, Ali, and Lois around our camp fire near Sam’s Camp. Bob checks his navigation before crossing a beautiful alpine wetland area to climb the Chimneys Pinnacle Lois and Bob push through some thick undergrowth along the Chimneys Ridge. Alan is relaxing with a cup of tea at Teddys Hut. Climbing steeply on Monday morning to the north west behind Teddys Hut, again thanks to brumby pads in the thick undergrowth, we were soon on the plateau above and walking though open snow grass towards Paddy Rushs Bogong. This prominent little peak at 1920m provides wonderful views to the north-west over the Rams Heads on the Main Range and down into Thredbo Village and the ski fields. From the Bogong we crossed more or less directly over the open plateau towards Brindle Bull Hill where we were able to follow another brumby track through some beautiful open forest on its western side. We perched on top of the next knoll for lunch along with a million ants. From this point it was a pleasant meander through fairly open bush down the prominent east-west ridge leading back to Dead Horse Gap. All up we walked for 7.5 hours and covered 17 km. It was a forty minute drive to our destination for the night at Old Geehi Hut on the banks of the Swampy Plain River where we swam and relaxed after the first three days of walking.