Canberra g o r F e e r o b o r r o Bushwalking C it Club newsletter Canberra Bushwalking Club Inc GPO Box 160 Canberra ACT 2601 Volume: 52 www.canberrabushwalkingclub.org Number: 3 GENERAL MEETING April 2016 8 pm Wednesday 20 April 2016 In this issue 2 Canberra Bushwalking Adventures in the European Alps Club Committee Presenter: Wayne Petschack 2 President’s prattle After 30 years of walking Europe, I will be talking about a couple of very 2 Totally topo final report famous walks you will know well and a few you might never have heard 3 Walks Waffle about. 3 Review: Local weather, climate and climate The hall, change Hughes Baptist Church, 4 Percies guide 2015 4 Membership matters 32–34 Groom Street, Hughes 5 Bulletin board 5 Corroboree Frog Field Research Project Also some leaders of walks in the current and next 6 Activity program month will be on hand with maps to answer your 6 Wednesday walks questions and show you walk routes etc 12 Feeling literary? Important dates 20 April General meeting 25 April ANZAC Day 27 April Committee meeting 27 April Submissions close for May it Committee reports Canberra Bushwalking Club Committee President’s President: Lorraine Tomlins prattle [email protected] 6248 0456 or 0434 078 496 t was great to have the opportunity to walk with the Treasurer: Julie Anne Clegg IHobart Walking Club (HWC) in March. I was able to [email protected] experience a number of different walking environments from alpine to coastal and it was great to share stories 0402 118 359 and experiences with quite a large number of different Walks Secretary: John Evans HWC walkers. The Hobart Walking Club has around 900 members and, as well as weekend walks they have [email protected] day walks on every day except Friday. I am looking 6294 8232 or 0417 436 877 forward to showcasing our region when they make their visit to Canberra in October this year. General Secretary: Cynthia Coppock One thing that did intrigue me about how the Hobart [email protected] Club organises their program is the use of ‘Walk Coordi- 0408 266 501 or 6270 9010(w) nators’ rather than ‘Walk Leaders’. I discussed this with Membership Secretary: Roger Edwards their President who explained that the term highlights the fact that the Club’s activities are peer-based. The [email protected] Coordinators are not there to do it all and that any HWC 6288 7863 activity is entirely a team effort. This gave me much food for thought especially as there are now moves afoot Training and Safety Officer: David Dedenczuk to develop Australian Adventure Activity Standards [email protected] for bushwalking involving dependent participants. As 0417 222 154 I learn more about the development of the standards I will keep you informed. Members with good memories Conservation Officer: Cynthia Burton will recall that our Club commented on the draft NSW [email protected] activity standards in 2009. g o r F 0488 071 203 e e Lorraine Tomlins r o b o r r o C Web Manager: David Briese President [email protected] 6286 3479 Editor: Alison Milton Totally topo final report [email protected] irstly, my apologies for the delay in writing up this re- 6254 0578(h) or 6289 2717(w) Fport; the early half of March was a little hectic for me. Assistant Walks Secretary: Keith Thomas The number of Australian maps walked on during the last year was the rather impressive number of 103. As [email protected] expected, the majority of these were close to the ACT, although there were also a number of trips further afield to Central Australia, Victoria and Queensland. The Social Secretary: Jenny Horsfield results also indicate the large number of Club members [email protected] (266) that were out walking throughout the year. 6231 4535 Both John Evans and Linda Groom walked on a total Publisher: David Williams of 35 maps, with Stan Marks (28), Ian Wright (27) and Peter Conroy (27) close behind. Fourteen people walked [email protected] on more than 20 maps. 0414 651 439 John Evans was the first and only Club member to walk All members of the Committee can be contacted in the ACT on all 16 eligible maps during the year. In in one email to the day walk category, John also walked on the most maps at 30. [email protected] In the multi-day category, Meg McKone walked on Check in: [email protected] 22 maps. As many of these maps are smaller scale interstate maps covering larger areas the figure of 22 Web site: www.canberrabushwalkingclub.org is a bit understated when compared with walking on 1:25000 maps. Continued on next page g o r F e e r o b o r r o C Page 2 – Canberra Bushwalking Club it April 2016 g ro F e re o b ro r o C Review of general meeting talk Walks Review: Local weather, Waffle climate and climate change ‘Everybody talks about the weather... • The Pacific El Niño Southern large number of members re- but nobody does anything about it’ Oscillation (ENSO) system, A cently enjoyed great walking (attributed to Charles Dudley Warner) reflecting differences in sea surface in Tasmania, hosted by the Hobart temperatures between the western Walking Club. The Hobart Club Well, Clem Davis has spent a lifetime and eastern Pacific oceans. When are coming to Canberra between doing what he could on the weather, temperatures in the eastern Pacific 10 and 17 October. If you would working in the Bureau of Meteorology are increased, eastern Australia can like to be involved please contact for 33 years, bringing us ever more experience reduced rainfall and me immediately as we are putting accurate forecasts. He is now a Visit- increased temperatures, among the walks and social events for the ing Fellow at ANU’s Fenner School of other effects. visit together now. Environment and Society. • Monsoons: ‘Step Out and Step Up’ is an oppor- Clem explained that weather is what is tunity for you to walk with different happening now, while climate is what • Southern Annular Mode (SAM), leaders, to perhaps different places is expected: it reflects the long-term describing the north–south and to meet new walkers. Carpe averages, extremes and variability of movement of the westerly wind belt diem! weather at any location. that circles Antarctica. It appears that the SAM is contracting, with Congratulations to Terrylea Our weather and climate systems are lows travelling further south, Reynolds, and Gabrielle Wright the products of highly complex physi- possibly due to the impact of the on leading their first CBC walks. cal interactions. These are influenced polar ozone hole or the expansion Please support their current and by such factors as incoming solar of the Subtropical ridge. future walks. radiation, changing atmospheric gas- eous composition and changing land • Oceans. Cooler and calm autumn days are cover (as affected by land clearing and Interactions between the ENSO perfect for fire control measures. contracting polar ice). A basic element system and the IOD cycle can Check on your planned walking of this is the heating of air, causing it also be important in shaping our areas via Canberra Connect. to rise and then cool. weather. A reminder to Walk leaders to please Australia’s weather is influenced by the Canberra’s climate is influenced use the updated Trip Booking Form, following major drivers: which reminds you to send your pre- by these continental influences, and post-trip check-in to check.in@ • The ‘subtropical ridge’: a feature at overlaid by local influences, canberrabushwalkingclub.org not 30 degrees south (and 30 degrees such as the effects of mountains, to individual committee members. north) dominated by high pressure altitude and the ocean. Evening If a walk is cancelled, please also systems summer sea breezes are an advise check.in@canberrabush- example of the effects of the • The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), Pacific Ocean’s influence. walkingclub.org by 10 am on the measured by the difference in sea day following the walk. surface temperatures between the Clem also outlined the nature of Corin Road and Stockyard Spur are western and eastern Indian ocean. projected changes that human- still closed till at least mid-April. A positive dipole measurement is induced climate change is pre- Check the Icon Water web site for associated with reduced rainfall dicted to bring. These include details. over parts of central and southern not just increases in average Australia. temperatures, but also increased Enjoy your walking and happy feet. variance, leading to a greater Weather/Climate System number of days of extreme high g o r F e John Evans e r o b o r r o C temperatures. Walks Secretary Clem concluded by previewing some of the findings of Totally topo report cont’d a paper he will be publishing with As I write this, a full record of Dr Janette Lindesay the event can be found at http:// on how Canberra’s www.canberrabushwalkingclub. climate has already org/events/index.html. If you can changed in recent no longer find the information at this decades. URL try looking in ‘Past Events’. g o r F e e r o b o Jonathan r r o C g o r F e e r o b o r r o C Keith Thomas Miller Canberra Bushwalking Club it April 2016 – page 3 Club challenge Percies guide 2015 he ‘Percies’ are a list of 68 named peaks, or peaks point or rock must be reached regardless of the spot Twith folk names, over 1000 m in height in the ACT.