it Canberra Bushwalking Club Newsletter May 2020 Canberra Bushwalking Club Inc GPO Box 160 Volume 56, Issue 4 Canberra ACT 2601 www.canberrabushwalkingclub.org GENERAL MEETING Using Zoom INSIDE THIS ISSUE 7.30 pm Wednesday 20 May 2020 Presentation (Zoom) ..... 1-2 President’s Report ......... 3 Drought and Fire in the West MacDonnells Conservation Officer’s Report This trip was led by Meg McKone in August 2019. Join her ......................................... 4 presentation of this fascinating region. The party explored a Obituary—Reet Vallak ... 5 new section of the northern side of the Chewings Range and, Review ............................ 6-7 despite some tense moments, managed to find water for every night. They also witnessed the results of the huge fire CBC Committee ............. 8 which swept through the West Macs on both sides of the Facebook admin ............. 8 Chewings Range from Standley Chasm to Redbank Gorge the Club items for sale ......... 9 previous February. Walk Secretary’s Report and featured walks ................ 10-15 Hope you can join us for this Zoom presentation! Three Capes Track ......... 16-18 An email containing the Zoom link will be sent to all Recipes ............................ 19-20 members prior to the meeting. Bulletin Board ................ 21 Link to Bushwalking NSW More information on the Zoom session is outlined on the publications .................... 21 next page. CBC Publication Policy link to website ............................ 21 Activity Program ............ 22-27 IMPORTANT DATES • 20 May— General meeting (Zoom) • 27 May—Committee meeting (Zoom) • 27 May—Articles for inclusion in June 2020 It close Canberra Bushwalking Club It—May 2020—Page 1 Monthly Meetings using Zoom The CBC Committee is keen to maintain a Asking Questions after the sense of community and to help keep presentation people informed during these challenging There will be an opportunity for times, and will continue to offer general participants to ask questions. To ask a meeting presentations using Zoom until question Unmute your microphone (it is further notice. Final details on the Zoom automatically muted to begin with) and meeting will be emailed to members a few speak. All participants will hear your days prior to the meeting. question. Then Mute your microphone please. (If all microphones are not muted How to use Zoom then there is constant background noise It is easy to use Zoom. It is easy to which significantly affects the sound participate in a Zoom meeting. You do not quality for everybody.) need to log in, but it is good to set up Zoom on your device and to confirm your We look forward to seeing you on Zoom on video and audio settings are working well Wednesday 20 May 2020 at 7.30 pm. before the meeting. (You can instead participate by phone on The following video will show you how to 02 8015 6011 if you prefer. You will be do this. The video is only about a minute prompted for the Meeting ID: 406 919 long. 385. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ hIkCmbvAHQQ? Use *6 to Mute/Unmute your phone microphone.) rel=0&autoplay=1&cc_load_policy=1 If you have trouble then contact Alan Laird on 0478 616 214 or at [email protected] and we will explore what might be wrong. (But please don’t call just before or during the meeting!) A few minutes prior to the meeting just click on the Zoom meeting link and we should see you on-line. Canberra Bushwalking Club It—May 2020—Page 2 President’s Report With the cold snap upon us it certainly feels interest to participate in an IT issues like winter is all but here and for many of working group. The purpose of this small us this is the perfect time of year to be out working group will be to work through walking. So, it is welcome news that the troubleshooting an existing list of bugs and physical distancing restrictions are to be enhancements, with a view to come up with gradually lifted. As you will no doubt be a range of potential options for aware national restrictions will be lifted in improvements in readiness for committee three steps, of three weeks duration for consideration. If you would like to be each step. So let us see how this rolls out considered for one of two positions I would locally here in the ACT but for now we are welcome hearing from you directly by permitted to have non-contact outdoor emailing me at activities in groups of ten which means we [email protected]. Or if can start putting walks back on our you know of a fellow club member you program once again! I hear the jubilation. think might be interested. As a Club we rely Further details on the Walks program from heavily on our website as the ‘go to’ our Walks Secretary and Leaders to follow. information portal for booking activities, I would like to thank you all for your new and renewing memberships, for policies and guidelines pertaining to a wide patience during these challenging times, and as a Committee we have adapted to variety of bushwalking situations, and as a ensure we continue to bring you the toolkit of information for walk leaders. It is monthly presentations that so many of you therefore important that we have a system find both informative and inspiring. I also that can deliver the level of function we know from the photos on Facebook many require to provide the best possible of us have been enjoying some fabulous outcome. Your contribution of assistance walks much closer to home while in ISO would be greatly appreciated. and making some amazing new discoveries I look forward to seeing you all on the trail too. Some of my favourites have been the again soon Rob Roy gully walk that incidentally Jenny Diana Horsfield writes about in this issue, and others along both the Cotter and Murrumbidgee river corridors. Plenty of rock hopping, beautiful deep waterholes, huge fish, and of course physical distancing no problem at all! All within a 15-20 minute drive from home, we really so have so much to be grateful for. Finally, I would like to invite members with an interest and/or expertise in web-based IT systems to put forward an expression of Canberra Bushwalking Club It—May 2020—Page 3 Conservation Officer’s Report Submission re coal mining in Gardens of Stone National Park area On behalf of the CBC, I have compiled the following report outlining objections to proposed project addressed to Rob Stokes, NSW Minister for Planning Industry & Environment: Objection to the State Significant Project– Angus Place Mine Extension (SSD 5602 - Amendment Exhibition) We request that the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (the DoPIE) recommend refusal of consent, as Centennial Coal has not modified the Angus Place mine extension proposal to adequately protect nationally endangered swamps and has sought to grandfather its consent until 2053, preventing future necessary adaption of the energy sector to address the growing climate emergency. As a result: • We oppose the mine extension as it will fracture the sandstone strata supporting the nationally endangered swamps. • We request that if any consent is issued, then it must be reviewed every 5 years with a possibility of cancellation from 2025, to enable future NSW Governments to end coal-fired electric power as soon as possible and so help stop the growing climate catastrophe. • Please require Centennial Coal to revise this amended proposal to prevent damage to spectacular Birds Rock, pagodas, cliffs and the nationally endangered swamps in the 2,000 hectare proposed mining area. • DoPIE must not allow Centennial Coal to replicate under this proposal the damage it has already caused to nationally threatened upland swamps on the Newnes Plateau. • The Wolgan Falls must not run dry and so the proposed mining panels along the Wolgan River side of the proposed mining area must be shortened by hundreds of metres to prevent river water losses due to far field impacts associated with the extensive Wolgan Lineament field. • The excessive clearing of 50 hectares of public forest for additional roads, ventilation and pumping facilities must be greatly reduced and all facilities located away from sensitive areas. • DoPIE must require that Pristine Carne Creek, and its waters that flow through the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area and past the Wolgan Valley resort not be contaminated with iron and manganese or suffer reduced flows due to fracturing of surface rocks. • In the seven years since Centennial’s consultants identified the need for targeted surveys of four nationally endangered plants, the company failed to undertake these searches. Lithgow Environment Group has in that time identified many sites where these Federally listed plants occur within the proposal, highlighting the weakness of the company’s environmental assessment. • For all the above reasons, the amended mine extension proposal must be subject to Independent Planning Commission review processes. Canberra Bushwalking Club members walk in and revere the Gardens of Stone and Wollemi National Parks as these Parks are of extraordinary natural significance, comprising rare landforms, rare vegetation communities and ancient aboriginal rock art. The proposal resulting in the desecration of these areas for the purpose of mining coal is globally impacting and unnecessarily environmentally destructive. Please recommend rejection of this proposal. Cynthia Breheny Canberra Bushwalking Club It—May 2020—Page 4 Obituary: Reet Vallak (1936-2020) Long-time members of the club will be saddened to authorities were considering demolishing even more learn of the death of Reet Vallak who died on 1 May, huts. aged 83, after a very full and active life in the Canberra Gosta Lynga remembers her as a strong walker and region.