a ISS CANBERRA BUSH WALKING CLUB INC NEWSLETTER P.O. Box 160, Canberra, A. CT. 2601 Registered by Australia Post: Publication number NBH 1859 VOLUME 27 DECEMBER 1991 NUMBER 12 The President and Committee of the Canberra Bush wa/king Club wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy and active New Year CHRISTMAS BARBEQUE WHERE? Yarralumla Nursery WHEN? Wednesday 18 December 1991, 6.00pm onwards WHAT? This is our traditional, not-to-be missed Christmas BBQ in the relaxing, tree-shaded surroundings of Yarralumla Nursery. No humping of back-packs! Drive your buggy in and unload your bootful of Xmas goodies and leave your gaiters and water bottles at home! Gates open (accessible at beginning of Weston Park) until 6.30pm. If you're late we'll check gates every 15 minutes. BYO everything including cutlery/plates. Enquiries Sybille 282 4325. (It Closing date too!) PRESIDENT'S PRA1TLE With the end of 1991 approaching it is appropriate to look back on some of the highlights of the year and look forward to some great walking ahead in 1992. In 1991 the Club turned 30 (still very young to many of us!) and a 'fun' weekend was held at Orroral. I hope that I and the Club are still around for a similar event in another 30 years' time. The coming year should see the completion of our work in Monolith Valley and the start of our efforts to contribute to the conservation of Namadgi. When I walk through Monolith Valley I feel a real sense of pride at the work done by Club members. The track through the Green Room has blended into the environment and is not at all intrusive. If you have not visited this part of the Budawangs it is well worth the walk in. If you have been involved in our project come and look at the results of your labour. Perhaps we can organise an inspection in conjunction with the final work party to finish the approach to Nibelung Pass when the weather starts to cool. As in previous years there will 4bno formal meetings in December or January. Instead we will have BYO barbecues at Yarraluthla Nursery and Uriarra Crossing. These are relaxing get-togethers for members and I look forward to seeing a big roll-up. These events are not restricted to Club members so bring your partner, children, grandparents etc. Christmas is also a time to think again of those former members who will no longer be with us. My thoughts are of Mike Lucas, Fujio Takada, and Tessa Segrave. We miss you but all benefited from your contribution to and participation in the Club. The Committee wishes members a happy Christmas and New Year with lots of pleasant walking. Allan Mikkelsen MEMBERSHIP MATTERS Prospective Members Paul Banks 25 Hosking P1 Melba ACT 2615 2584962(h) Joe Sedman 25 Hosking P1 Melba ACT 2615 2584962(h) Kerry Cassidy Flat 9/56 Henderson Rd Queanbeyan NSW 2620 2991885(h) 2701234(w) Helen Douglas 49 Lucy Gullett Crt Chisholm ACT 2905 2918781(h) New Members The Club welcomes the following new members: John Henley, Sally Mussett, Thea Prenzler, Ian Overs, Robert Adams, Mark Short, Monica Short, John Bekkers, Susan Green. PRESIDENT'S REPORT (1990/91) - Thirtieth Annual Report of the Canberra Bushwalking Club Inc. As the report shows, the Club has enjoyed a full and fruitful year. This has been achieved with the full support of the Committee and the Club Members. Membership Membership of the Club contines to grow. This year membership was up by eight per cent on last year and by nearly 20 per cent on two years ago. Thirty per cent of our membership was made up of new members, which is an increase over the previous two yeárs when 24 per cent of membership was made up of new members. An interesting statistic is the proportion of last years' new members who haverenewed. This year, only 58 per cent of the previous year's members renewed, while in 1990,. 76 percent of the 1989 new members renewed (table 1). 1 Membership 1988-89 to 1990-91 Year 1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 Members 288 317 343 New members 68 77 106 Overall retention 240 237 New member retention 52 52 45 There are a number of issues that may require consideration regarding the steadily increasing membership. While there may be some economies in administration with a larger membership, there are little or no financial economies. Even then, the expanding membership base does mean that there is more work for Committee members. With the increasing membership, there is a need to maintain and possibly expand the walks program. Yet, as is shown in the next section, while the walks program is expanding, when it comes to walk leaders the basis for maintaining the walks program is narrowing. Note in particular the increasing proportion of walks led by Committee .3 members. This is most unfortunate given the increasing demands on the Committee by the increasing membership. Walks program Statistics kept by the Club recorder and the Check-in officer show that the number of walks led and the number of walk participants increased in 1991 compared with 1990 (table 2a and 2b). The disappointing feature of the walks is that an increasing proportion of walks are planned and led by Committee members. Further to this, three members programmed 27 per cent of walks, with 50 per cent of the walks programmed by only nine members. Besides Alan Vidler, the inaugural recipient of the Greg Buckley Award, Allan Mikkelsen led 24 walks (same as AV) and Chris Leslie led 18 walks. Of our new members, Jack Wise programmed the most walks and amongst our female members Debi Williams programmed the greatest number of walks. To these members, and all of those who took a walk award at the Annual General Meeting, thanks for a job well done. 2a Walks 1989-90 to 1990-91 Year 1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 All leaders 57 56 55 'New' leader 16 8 55 'Dropouts' 7 4 - Total walks 188 235 235 -day 92 116 126 - > 1 day 173 214 145 % led by Cttee 19.1 33.6 40.6 (These figures supplied by the Club recorder. Walks with co-leaders are counted twice). 2b Walk participation 1989-90 to 1990-91 Type of walk Day > 1 day Total Programmed 115 113 228 (112) (116) (228) Went 104 81 185 (87) (76) (163) Participants 1269 552 1821 (1036) (542) . (1578) Av.participation 12.2 6.8 9.8 (11.9) (7.1) (9.7) (*Figures in brackets are the 1989-90 statistics). An important feature of the walks program for the year has been the variety of walks. While the Club is a bushwalking club, and many if not most of our walks are away from tracks and the like, it has been the policy of the Committee for members to have a variety of walks in which to participate. Allan Mikkelsen deserves particular acknowledgement for maintaining such a full and a varied program, while maintaining such a busy personal walks program. Conservation Over the year the Club has made donations in the interests of conservation totalling $600. Of this amount $400 was donated to continuing work in Monolith Valley - discussed below. A $200 donation was made to the Conservation Council of the South East Region and the ACT. The Club required that $100 of this donation go to the Forestry Working Group. In addition to this, a $1000 donation was made to the Conservation Council to finance the staging of the Walk for the Forest. With 25 members participating we again strongly supported the annual Clean Up Australia Day. Acknowledgement is due to Mike Morriss and his helpers, including Sandy Lolicato who once again had an important role in the organisation of Clean Up Australia Day in the ACT. Monolith Valley Since 1989 the Club has donated finance and volunteered labour for track delineation, stabilistation 4 and restoration in the Monolith Valley, Morton National Park. This year we donated $400 for equipment and materials for track delineation, restoration and stabilisation from Mt Nibelung to Nibelung Pass. Completion of this section will mean that we have carried out this important track work through the length of the Monolith Valley protected area. Because of financial restrictions in the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Service was recently unable to helicopter in the material for us to complete the projected work. We hope to join our friends Richard Green and Bruce Rodgie, from the Service, to complete this final section in 199 1-92. General Meetings The monthly general meetings have continued to be an important part of the Club's program. With slide showings, taking us through Australia and beyond, to auctions, these evenings are important for members to meet informally and keep abreast with walks and happenings. Thanks, Debi for keeping the guest speakers coming and helping us to set such a comfortable social environment. IT The most important source of information on the Club's happenings though is the IT. For twelve months of the year the IT appears in out letter boxes. Ths reason it does so and the reason why it is so informative is because you put in articles. The reason those articles along with other information came together in the form of IT though, was because of the efforts of Sue Vidler and Eddie De Wilde. Thirtieth Anniversary This year is the thirtieth anniversary of the Club. While the Club's history goes back to 1947, there was a period of dormancy until 1961.