SBW Magazine & History Project

Established June 1931

A monthly bulletin of matters of interest to The Sydney Bush Walkers, Box 4476 G.P.O. Sydney 2001. Club meetings are held every Wednesday evening from 7.30 pm at the Cahill Community Cenire (Upper Hall), 34 Falcon Street, Crow's Nest. Enquiries concerning the Club should be referred to Ann Ravn, telephone 798-8607.

by Jim Brown (13th July, 1983)

by Jo Van Sommers

* Dinner before the meeting at Phuoung Vietnamese Restaurant, 87 Willoughby Road, Crow's Nest. B.Y.O. 6:30 pm sharp!

by Bill Gamble

In March, 1983, a club walk on the autumn programme went to Arthur's Pass National Park in New Zealand. Two members (Brian Holden and Bronwyn Stow) and a visitor (Steve Tramont) flew from Sydney to join the leader (Bill Gamble) for nine days of walking in the park. The introduction to the park and the first days of the walking are contained in the following article. A second article in a later issue of the magazine will cover the programmed walk in the Poulter Valley.

Arthur's Pass is to the Christchurch tramper what the Blue Mountains are to the Sydney bushwalker, a rugged area within easy reach for weekend trips leaving Friday evening after work: but, otherwise, quite different. These differences - the nature of Arthur's Pass National Park - are perhaps best summarised with an extract or two from the park handbook.

“The park is a rugged and mountainous area of about 100,000 hectares situated in the centre of the South Island (about 150 km west of Christchurch). It is a land of jagged skylines, tall snowy peaks and snowgrass-clad ridges, deep gorges, steep, bush-covered hillsides, sheer cliffs of angular black rock, high waterfalls, wide shingle riverbeds and rushing torrents. The park is traversed by large rivers - on the east the Waimakariri and Poulter and their tributaries,the Taramakau and Otira and their tribularies on the west.

”… the area of mountain ridges above bushline approximately equals the forested area. From valley floors at about 700m on the east the peaks rise to 1800m or more, but the western valley floors lie at only about 300m or slightly more. From any of the high peaks there are views over ridge upon ridge of broken rock, with snowfields lying beneath them and deep-cut valleys below. Ten named peaks over 2100m in height and twenty-one over 1800m lie within the park.

“The main divide of the Southern Alps bisects the park and from it branch intricate ranges of mountains between the courses of the rivers…. Between the peaks are many passes, high and low, but nearly all of them difficult to cross. The western and eastern separation has a dominating influence on the character of the park; but the rugged terrain, the wide range of altitudes, the relatively severe mountain climate, the swift rivers and the passes all affect the nature of the park in various ways.”

Instead of going straight into the walk as programmed, our introduction to the park, as a party, was two days spent above Arthurs Pass itself, firstly on the east side in the Temple Basin and in the upper Mingha Valley, and then an the west side on the slopes of Mt. Rolleston, 2271m. The leader had spent two days in the park on the previous weekend and proposed this change as a way of widening the scope of the walking to be done by the party. It proved to be an excellent beginning, in brilliantly fine weather immediately after snowfalls. The change was also partly due to recent alterations in the timetable for trains to and from the park, which had made impractical the use of public transport if full use was to be made of the days allotted for walking. The use of the leader's rental car to move the party from Christchurch to the park and back again kept the walking days to schedule and provided the sort of flexibilitY which members usually enjoy in their weekend walks out of Sydney.

Anyway, three of the party members arrived in Christchurch late on Wednesday afternoon. Pat later told us the story. Bill had assumed that we would get lost because of “poor leadership, inadequate maps and equipment”. He had raised the alarm on reaching civilisation and the Forestry Commission had been alerted.

That night we camped in cold, overcast conditions in a clearing at the Border Lookout.

The next morning we rejoined the mini-bus and were driven to the Tweed Valley Lookout, 940 metres above sea level. Here a notice proclaims: “We now saw the breakers again, their situation may always be found by the peaked mountain which bears SW by W from them and on their account I have named it Mt. Warning - Lt. Cook RN - 16 May 1770.”

We arrived at Kyogie at 1:45 and sat down to a counter lunch, a welcome change from our bush repasts At 5 pm we escorted Joyce to the railway station and climbed aboard the bus for our journey back to Brisbane.

by Jim Brown

Of course;- bush walkers would never use explosives or fire-arms, would they? Never? Well, hardly ever….

This thinking was inspired by the quotation from Phil Butt in the “Sydney Morning Herald” - see the June issue of the magazine . Then I remembered that, if you go far enough back in the Club's history, you will find' stories of members. shooting wild duck on the Kowmung River to supplement the rations they h65. carried through.the granite gorges higher up. Oh, yes, and of course one of the early lady members carried a revolver as a protection against marauding- males….. not Club members, but the seedy itinerants who sometimes took to.the bush during the 1930s Depression years. In spite of the reputed permissiveness of more recent years, no one seems to think such a precaution necessary now. Maybe we really are better behaved after all.

But even in my time with the Club there have been walkers who were fascinated by the Big Bang. For some years there used to be a regular camp at Euroka Clearing in the Lower Blue Mountains (before there was a road there) on the weekend nearest to the 24th May (which used to be Empire Day - Cracker Night - in the days when there were still some vestiges of a British Empire,' my children). All comers brought their Catherine Wheels and Roman Candles, Port Lights and Rockets, and made the Blue Labyrinth resound on the Saturday evening.

On one occasion a lighted firework, thrown with small regard ,for the environment, landed in a cardboard box at the edge of the campfire area. The box contained a selection of rockets, most of which took off dn horizontal trajectories. One was alleged to have passed through an abdulled tent, happily without causing damage or injury. Thereafter, our favourite camping site at Euroka was. defined in the walks programmes as “Fireworks Ridge”.

In addition to those who were satisfied with commercial fireworks, there were others who liked louder noises. At a camp in 1952 (I think the Club's 25th Anniversary) some one let off an explosive device, occasioning.what might, be called in modern legal parlance_“publLa affront or alarm4-:- dff-be-ing-td1d:- not to do it again, the perpetrators displayed a suitably meek attitude, but countered with a proposal to blow up fallen trees which were causing serious bank erosion at Blue Gum Forest.

Being at the time the S.B.W. representative on the Blue Gum Trust, I undertook to put the proposal to the Trust. Admittedly, I did so with fingers crossed and uttering a small prayer. However, the idea was readily adopted, and on the weekend of 25/26 April, 1953, the dynamiters went into action. Actually, it was gelignite which was used and, because it is apparently sensitive stuff, it was claimed that some of the party cuddled up to it in their sleeping bags at the top of the Perry's Lookdown track on the Friday night. (Shades of the old drill sergeant rasping “Right t The rifle_is the,soIdier's - best friend. In very cold weather, or if anyone is likely to steal it, you WILL SLEEP with your rifle. After all, you'd sleep with your best friend, wouldn't you?”)

The Blue Gum affair wasn't quite as simple as it sounds. A drill was needed to burrow into'tfle hardened, saturated wood of the partially submerged logs and a chain block was used tb'Shift'sate Of the more massive lamps of timber. It was reCkbned at the time that Colin Putt, who carried the chain block, had a-load of.nearly 100.1bS -(about 44 Kg) on the way down to the forest. I think it was Peter Stitt who carried the petrol-engined drill, and he must have had 75 lbs (33.Kg).an his .back. Several times over the weekend the cry arose “To the hills:” as the 31 workers were cleared fromthe explosion area. ' . :

At one stage on the Sunday morning .a rumour Spread around “They've poured the jelly down Brian Andersons shorts”.- For a time Brian must have . .wondered if he had halitoSis, before it was explained that one of the girls had been trying to make edible jelly,, which wouldn't-set, and in a moment of devilment had poured the billy down. the back of Brian's shorts.

Honour - or the urge to make a big bang - must have been satisfied at Blue Gum. Although we had almost 50 people there for a. subsequent working bee in 1955 to consolidate the work on the “silt pack”, there were no. more loud noises. Our mantle passed to one of the Speliblogical Societies which was reported in 1955 to be using explosives to form a passage between two natural caves at Bungonia. Being reformed characters, we could afford to chuckle at Geoff Wagg's explanation in one of the Chronic Operas (to the tune of “For.he's gone and married Yum Yum” - from The Mikado):-

As Hamlet says with his last breath “The rest is silence”.

Over the next few months several courses of lectures, discussions and outings are to be held by the University of Sydney in its Continuing Education Programme. Anyone over the age of 18 may enrol for these courses. Some of these courses may be of interest to people engaged in outdoor activities such as Bush Walking. Further information may be obtained by writing to the University or by phoning 692-2907.

Birds - 9 meetings $35.00. Tuesdays at 7 pm, commencing 6th September. Classification and distribution of birds, their habitats and breeding behaviour.

Bird-Watching Week-End - Oberon:State'Forest, Friday 14th October to Sunday 16th October. Basic accommodation at camps sleeping bags and similar equipment must be brought. Cost-$60.00.

Seashore Ecology - 6 meetings $45.00. Tuesdays at 6 pm, commencing 1st November. Study of animals and plant of NS.W. Seashore - life hiStorY, environments, behaviour-and interaction of these organisms.

Hill End - The Study of a Goldfield - October. Participants make food, accommodation. Study Cost $40.00. Week-end Saturday/Sunday 8/9th own arrangements for transport, of mining developments from 1851.

Anthropology - Aboriginal Art - 9 meetings, $30.00. Thursdays 10.30 am from September 8th. Survey of aboriginal rock carvings, painting and bark art.

Congratulations to Margaret and Bob Hodgson on the birth of their first child, a daughter,Jennifer Louise, last month.

Let's put our dancing shoes on and get together for the Bushwalkers Ball (it's country dancing, really).

Longueville Road, entrance in Phoenix Street. Council car park at rear and in Little Street. |

The tickets will also be on sale in the clubroom.

We would like S.B.W. to be represented by a large, lively, funloving group this year. You don't need a partner - just come along and join our table. There's a prize for the best decorated table, so let's have your ideas:

Gordon Lee, following a recent walk in the Budawangs area, reports that Sluice Box Falls on Kilpatrick Creek, are not shown on the new Endrick 1:25000 map in the correct location.

The Sydney Bush Walkers (Founded 1927) G.P.O. Box 4476 Sydney N.S.W. 2001

Notice is hereby given that the half-yearly General Meeting of the Sydney Bush Walkers will be held on Wednesday, 7th September, 1983, at the Cahill Community Centre, 34 Falcon Street, Crow's Nest, commencing at 8:00 pm.

Agenda

1. Apologies
2. Welcome to new members
3. Minutes of the General Meeting held on Wednesday, 10th August, 1983
4. Correspondence
5. Reports: Treasurer; Talks; Federation; Coolana.
6. Determination of the site for the 1984.Annual Reunion
7. Election of a convenor for the 1984 Annual Reunion
8. General Business
9. Announcements

Barbara Bruce Honorary Secretary.

No notices of Amendments to the Constitution have been received. 15th August, 1983. The walkers then packed for a 3-day hike without the benefits of a support vehicle. Pat and Mark shared the main load, consisting of food and tents, for the whole group. I est