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+ | ======The Sydney Bushwalker.====== | ||
+ | |||
+ | A monthly Bulletin devoted to matters of interest to The Sydney Bushwalkers, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===No. 113. May, 1944. Price 4d.=== | ||
+ | |||
+ | |**Editor**|C. Kinsella| | ||
+ | |**Assistant Editor**|G. Jolly| | ||
+ | |**Business Manager**|J. Johnson| | ||
+ | |**Production**|Yvonne Rolfe| | ||
+ | |**Production Assistant**|Alice Wyborn| | ||
+ | |**Subscriptions**|Betty Dickinson| | ||
+ | |||
+ | =====In This Issue:===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | | | |Page| | ||
+ | |Cotter River|Alex Colley| 2| | ||
+ | |The Coachwood|Abores Australis| 4| | ||
+ | |Summer Days on Tumbledown Ck.|Alice Wyborn| 5| | ||
+ | |Nerang|Ubi| 6| | ||
+ | |What I've Heard| | 8| | ||
+ | |Letters from Lads| | 8| | ||
+ | |Letters to the Editor| |10| | ||
+ | |Our Own Meeting| |11| | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====An Englishman' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Dr. Thomas Wood in " | ||
+ | |||
+ | All day we had the sombre bush, a twisting road, and the sky. Colours sank to a few greens and greys, spaced with a brown or two and the endlessly varied glimpses caught by the eye fuse into one in the memory - a track walled in by trees, bridged across by cloud. Monotonous? Yes. In the unimaginable number of trees which make the bush, the individual beauty of each is swallowed, only the mass remains. It has no shape. Its one beauty is colour. Take that away and what is left? In Australia, nothing. Worse than nothing, if seen at speed. Then its vastness is brought home to you, rammed in. Its eternal brooding silence chills you like winter cold. I never felt when I was in the Bush or going thru' it, that it wished me harm; that a malignant power lurked hidden hut active, such as I have known in a tropical forest, waiting for a chance to strike - a something that made me start and look over my shoulder, scared. The bush is not like that. It wished me no harm because it never saw me. Its utter indifference, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | =====Cotter River.===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | by Alex Colley. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In March 1937, Bill Hall and I, looking for new country for a ten day walk, noticed on the map Mount Bimberi. 6,274 ft. high, with several other mountains of over 6,000 in the vicinity. From these mountains flowed the Cotter River, looking about 25 miles long on the map. That was all we knew when we set forth on foot from Canberra along the road to the Cotter dam. We were picked up by a reticent Englishman who couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Most of that afternoon we walked in the water along the rocky river bed. Only occasionally did we leave the stream for the steep banks covered with stiff, wiry, thorny growth. We camped that night on a shale covered hillock next the river, having covered about a mile and a half by the map. Next day was much the same/ We developed a technique of following the banks on the inner sides of bends, often rising far above the river and scrambling down the precipitous slopes where the river had cut in before deflecting round the end of a ridge. The only place we could find to camp was a small patch of grass in a hollow - all right if it didn't rain. It did, and midnight found us sitting on a rock with our packs watching the water swirl through the tent. There was nothing for it but to crawl up the hill-side and pitch camp on the stones. That day we had covered three miles by the map (so far as we could tell). Next afternoon we were overjoyed to come upon Ginini Creek and nearby a flat with white gums and grass. We did five miles that day. There was more rough going next morning, relieved by stretches of open timber. By afternoon the valley had opened out and we came to long flats covered with russet-brown kangaroo grass. White gums gave way to small " | ||
+ | |||
+ | My next view of the Cotter was at Easter 1939 (those who were on the trip please omit this paragraph). This was in the good old days when there was petrol. Fourteen club members were induced to part with £2/14/7 each and we hired a Pioneer motor coach for four days. The story of how we fought our way down Ginini Creek and up the Cotter, camped among the stones just above a beautiful flat, loped up to the Cotter homestead, climbed Bimberi, sped down the other side to Gurrangorambla, | ||
+ | |||
+ | But time is kind. It obliterates our sufferings; and Easter, 1944 found eleven of us once more bound for the Cotter. This time there was no petrol, so we had to walk roads through 9 miles of arid sheep country, then 7 miles, mostly uphill along a dry creekbed, and 4 more miles uphill along a road. This was our first day, from which we didn't recover. The next day was 12 miles along a track, according to the map. It was meant to be an easy day with good scenery. It would have been if the track had still existed, but as we found out the tracks on the Federal Capital Territory map in this region have mostly disappeared long ago. However three of the unblistered and one blistered member of the party found time to rush up Mount Kelly (6,001 ft) and obtained one of the best views in the district - a complete panorama, including Jagungal, the Kosciusko plateau, the Fiery Range, all the mountains on either side of the Cotter, the Murrumbidgee plains and the Tinderry Range. Each mountain in the foreground was a separate peak, so that there was no continuous range on any side to obstruct the view. It was a splendid vista of granite cape, rounded mountain masses and distant peaks. Right beneath were some beautiful little upland flats dotted with snow-gums. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Next morning, after walking for over 3 hours at a steady 3 m.p.h, we had covered a track marked 6 1/2 miles on the map. In the afternoon the blistered ones got an early start and went up Kangaroo Creek, where there was supposed to be a track. The unblistered, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Back at the railway station we were glad to find that the Scotlands had turned up. On the first day they had stayed to tend a wounded calf stuck between two rocks. They had a map with the route marked but missed us when we deviated from the course for a few miles and didn't find us again. Had we stayed to look for them we would probably have had to spend the whole four days in the sheep country. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This story has no moral, but it is a good idea in new country to stick together, to plan short trips and not to believe the map track distances, or the tracks, till you have done them. I think it was the same in the early days of the Club when the Southern Blue Mountains was new country. Now, thanks to Miles Dunphy, we have a good walkers' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | =====May The Coachwood Be Exterminated? | ||
+ | |||
+ | By Abores Australis. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The coachwood (ceratopetalum apetalum) is the tree with green glossy leaves like those of the sassafras, but without their aromatic smell, with flowers like the Christmas bush, and with a tendency for the base of the trunk to be pyramid in shape because its roots do not go below the humus into the subsoil. It grows in our gully brush country, and is one of the trees that go to make up that lovely dense sub-tropical rain forest which probably once covered all the coastal districts of N.S.W. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Its danger of extinction lies in the fact that it has not been found how to propagate it. It is noticed that along the upturned soil of a new road, it may spring up like wheat! but although the seed may duly germinate in nurseries, so far it has never been grown in forests artificially. Nothing is impossible. It used to be thought that hoop-pine could not be cultivated artificially, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Meanwhile the timber of this tree is in tremendous demand. It is a hard soft-wood of even and consistent grain so that it can be cut into very fine plywood useful for making, among other things, mosquito bombers. But in addition to this extensive field of wholly wasteful application, | ||
+ | |||
+ | When the tree is cut under the supervision of the Forestry Department it is very carefully taken out; only the larger trees are felled and only in scattered groups. It is thereby hoped to preserve the forest cover to protect the young trees. But no matter how careful a forester is, he can never be certain what will happen when one of nature' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Even more fatal to the life of the coachwood than our desire to destroy Japanese people or wear high-heeled shoes, is our failure to keep bush fires in check. It is only in the state forests that there is any fire-prevention scheme in working order. Outside the state forests the fires spread unchecked every year, especially in primitive virgin country, and as we all know, once our brush country is swept by fires there is no possibility of its regeneration in our life-time and possibly never, and the coachwood, which lives on the humus of decayed leaves, suffers irretrievably. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | =====Summer Days On Tumbledown Creek.===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | By Alice Wyborn. | ||
+ | |||
+ | River oaks etched against a pale afternoon sky, and the roar of the river, greeted us as we followed the track down the last ridge, and dropped our packs on a green carpet of grass by the creek. | ||
+ | |||
+ | We had been told at Brindabella we would find a good camp-site with excellent fishing at the junction of the Goodradigbee River and Tumbledown Creek (also known as Flea Creek), and our first view of the spot certainly justified the description - at least, as far as the camp-site went - the fishing we were to prove later. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 0ur tent was quickly erected on a lovely green flat surrounded by pink blossomed briar roses, and we then went exploring. | ||
+ | |||
+ | After leaving Brindabella the Goodradigbee River winds its way through some rough, rocky country with granite walls on either side, and at the junction of Tumbledown Creek rushes out from the gorge with a mighty roar and sweeps in an abrupt turn to the north-west. The creek was flowing crystal clear, and its lovely green flats and ferny banks make an ideal spot for peaceful camping. | ||
+ | |||
+ | We enjoyed perfect weather for swimming and exploring the river and creek, and in the evenings we went fishing when the last rays of the sun, shining through the trees, cast lacy patterns over all. Here in the calm, cool evenings, one could sit quietly by the river holding a rod and line, hoping to catch a trout, and nearly always doing so - but whet matter if no fish were caught - here we had peace and beauty, and the world at large seemed very far away. | ||
+ | |||
+ | One day we went five miles up the creek' which we found to be very pretty, and after leaving the cool green glades, climbed out on a long ridge, our objective being the summit of Mt. Coree (4,60Oft). It was a hot day and we were glad to reach the top at 2 p.m. five hours after leaving camp. Here we had lunch and enjoyed a wonderful panorama of the surrounding country, and could look back over the mountains and plains we had traversed the previous week. Away to the east was the city of Canberra, its white buildings just visible in the sunlight, and the water in the Cotter Dam sparkling like a deep blue sapphire. The trip back to camp was made in much quicker time, for we were anxious to get back to our fishing. We found that from about 7 p.m. till 8 p.m. was the best time to catch the trout. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Never did we tire of scrambling among the rocks on the river and wandering through the cool glades of the creek, inhabited by many varieties of birds and plenty of rabbits. The latter would sit up at our approach, eyeing us curiously before scurrying away to their burrows, with little white tails bobbing. | ||
+ | |||
+ | When we reluctantly said goodbye to our paradise, we promised it a further visit in the distant future, when we hope to find it still as lovely and unspoilt. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | =====Nerang.===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | By " | ||
+ | |||
+ | Nobody could claim we encouraged the dog - not at first anyway. Having alighted from the train we set off in the heavy rain to look for the showground. The night was pitch black, we were drawn into our ground-sheets like snails before a pinch of salt and the dog did not possess a single white hair. However, as we began poking around in a partially built sawmill looking for shelter our suspicions that we were being shadowed were confirmed. We did not actually see the animal but vaguely referred to it as " | ||
+ | |||
+ | Nevertheless in the morning light everything appeared intact until we found only the top of the pineapple remaining but, until further evidence was forthcoming, | ||
+ | |||
+ | We moved for breakfast to the showground - the dog followed. Here, all ye hard-hearted, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Of course the dog now showed marked attention in keeping up with us but as it was collarless and apparently ownerless we did not begin to worry until just before lunch when we suddenly realised that the position was acute as we could not feed the animal and we could not induce it to leave us. I concocted a plan entailing returning the animal to Nerang by a car or lorry going the other way but unfortunate1y for my plan there were no such vehicles. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The dog was now a major problem in our life and the subject of much spirited argumentation so, a name seeming desirable, we christened her " | ||
+ | |||
+ | When we arrived at Binna Burra our real worries began. The guests in an excess of sympathy all remarked on the thinness of " | ||
+ | |||
+ | We were housed in a tiny attic reached by a ladder in which it was obviously impossible to have a dog yet Nerang commenced to howl down below. We breathed a few soothing words and, as though satisfied with our presence ten feet above, she curled up under a seat beside the wall and didn't move all night. We had hopes of leaving her at Binna Burra - just one more among the tribe of animals - but she proved unique so our temporary ownership and guilt were patent. | ||
+ | |||
+ | All day she trodded along in the rain and here we discovered another trait in her character. She always kept at the heels of the leading member of the party except when we became a little separated when she would chase around keeping a watchful eye until we were close again - the cattle dog instinct for keeping the herd together, I suppose. It was still waste of time attempting to light a fire at lunch-time so more sausages were doled out to Nerang who was probably being better fed than ever in her life before. Just as we, Nerang caught her quota of leeches Head occasionIlly had to be de-leeched, a process to which she submitted with extreme docility, with as much apparent understanding as a human being and with much less squealing than some. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Further problems arose at O' | ||
+ | |||
+ | A keen debate followed and the guests arguments were so distressing that we decided to risk Nerang in the bedroom. So, dragging a mat as far from my bed as possible, I put Nerang on it and before you could say "Jack Robinson" | ||
+ | |||
+ | The breakfast we acquired from O' | ||
+ | |||
+ | This morning Nerang had a narrow escape from a snake which I had seen and avoided. She was at my heels but when I jumped aside she stopped within inches of the snake' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The next great event in Nerang' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Whenever we met anyone we expatiated on Nerang' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | =====What I've Heard!===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Easter holidays brought the Bushwalkers out in crowds, but it is doubtful if the bush feels any better for the holiday. Canberra must be suffering badly from scorched earth. Thirteen members of the club " | ||
+ | |||
+ | Another doubtful benefit has been conferred on the country down south. This part of the country has been enriched (?) by the addition of a full set of teeth (upper). This, or these were not abandoned in that first fine careless rapture that holidays inspire but deliberately walked away from their owner. Unless we want a " | ||
+ | |||
+ | Many members (and their relations, apparently) made Friday the 21st April an opportunity of relieving themselves of the oppressive burden of Private Property by turning out their garages, attics and bringing in the stuff they couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | We owe, and offer profuse apologies to Mr. W. Mullins. Bill, we hear was married a few months ago to Sheila White, and this oversight on our part occurred because we were unable to contact someone who had been at the ceremony. We hope the happy couple think no less of our congratulations for being extended so late. | ||
+ | |||
+ | After Ray Bean's effort in last month' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | =====Letters From The Lads And Lasses.===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Letters were received during April from:- | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Jean Ray, C.M.W. | ||
+ | * Jack Campbell | ||
+ | * Rob Morrison | ||
+ | * Tom Moppett | ||
+ | * Gordon Upton | ||
+ | * Keith Bennell | ||
+ | * Gordon Mannell | ||
+ | * Ron Galley | ||
+ | * Sal Norden | ||
+ | * Jack Watson | ||
+ | * Frank Gentle | ||
+ | * Jack Adams | ||
+ | * Bruce Simpson | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===Gordon Mannell - England 11-3-44.=== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Since arriving in this country I have managed to see a fair amount of the place and, besides visiting London quite a few times have spent a week on a farming property in Yorkshire. I have also spent some little time in and around Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Recently I spent a week in and around Glasgow and was able to make a trip up into the Scottish highlands as far as Loch Lomond. I was fortunate in that the Highlands were under snow during my visit and a good time was had by all. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===Tom Moppett - England 10-3-44.=== | ||
+ | |||
+ | I am glad to see quite a number of members are becoming interested in snow and several talk (I really mean write but have no doubt they also ta1k a lot) like experts. Good thing. I'm all for it. By the way I thought Bert Whillier' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===Jack Adams - England 6-4-44.=== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Very glad to have your latest airgraph (2/3/44) as continuance of "bits and pieces" | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===Frank Gentle - Torres Straits 26-3-44.=== | ||
+ | |||
+ | It's about time I replied to your welcome letter of the 2nd inst. which I received on the 4th. I've been kept busy lately, being engaged on printing work, besides having plenty of correspondence to answer - so please excuse this delayed reply. Thanks very much for sending the " | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | =====Letters To The Editor.===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | May I crave space in the " | ||
+ | |||
+ | They are:- | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===(a) Incorrect spelling of native flora.=== | ||
+ | |||
+ | I should like to support Mr. David D. Stead' | ||
+ | |||
+ | This is, as Mr. Stead says, a very important matter, more particularly having regard to the wide circulation of the Club Magazine. Such a Journal often becomes a document of reference and it is in my opinion most essential that any matter appearing in it should be as correct as possible. The same could be said of the Club's Programme of Walks, in which frequently place names are very incorrectly spelt. In this regard, I brought the matter before the Club some years ago and made the suggestion that Mr. Stead now makes, that a small Committee might be appointed to read through " | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===(b) The Blue Labyrinth incident.=== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Hearty congratulations to Ray Bean for his " | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===(c) Dried fruits & vegetables. Ray Kirkby' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I would refer all interested to a pamphlet available on application to the "Wm. Angliss Food Trades School" | ||
+ | |||
+ | I am, etc. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Joseph V. Turner. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | =====Letters To The Editor (Continued).===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | With Ray Bean's open letter many of us must agree. Many Bushwalkers are intolerant. They look down on other walkers, other clubs, other members of their own club. They are particularly intolerant of the non-bushwalker public. They don't like picnickers, they don't like scouts, they don't like shacks, they don't like aliens, they don't like motorists. Wild statements often made about farmers' | ||
+ | |||
I believe it is because to these members, bushwalking is an escape from life. Normal living involves mixing with people of all kinds and opinions. It means doing one's share of the community' | I believe it is because to these members, bushwalking is an escape from life. Normal living involves mixing with people of all kinds and opinions. It means doing one's share of the community' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Over-indulgence in bushwalking is as bad as over-indulgence in alcohol, or picture-shows. My advice to those afflicted with the habit is to get out and look at the world - and fight it, if need be. Try to make one change in it worth making and then come back and see if you don't look at your club members more tolerantly and wonder why you got so worked up about who brought an extra onion that wasn't in the food list. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Ruby Payne-Scott. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | =====Our Own Meeting.===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Mr. David Stead was in the chair. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Resignation of Office-bearers: | ||
+ | |||
+ | Miss Beverley Druce was elected Hon. Secretary, and Miss Hazel Firth, Hon. Assistant Secretary. Miss Grace Edgecombe is to be Federation Delegate and Committee member from 1st August. Hon. Auditor, Eric Moroney. | ||
+ | |||
+ | David Morris was welcomed as a new member and Mrs. Devitt of Woodhill, via Berry was made an Hon. Member. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Mr. Colley drew attention to a press notice on fire in National Park. He proposed that we write suggesting they organize a fire-fighting service. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===Soil Erosion - Cox River.=== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Water Board appreciated our letter re siltation of Warragamba Dam. Steps are being taken to have the area declared a Catchment Area within the meaning of the 1938 Soil Erosion Act. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | =====To A Billy.===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Old Billy-battered brown, and black\\ | ||
+ | With many days of camping,\\ | ||
+ | Companion of the bulging sack,\\ | ||
+ | And friend in all our tramping:\\ | ||
+ | How often on the Friday night-\\ | ||
+ | Your cubic measure testing--\\ | ||
+ | With jam and tea we stuffed you tight\\ | ||
+ | Before we started nesting! | ||
+ | |||
+ | How often, in the moonlight pale,\\ | ||
+ | Through gums and gullies toiling,\\ | ||
+ | We've been the first the hill to scale,\\ | ||
+ | The first to watch you boiling;\\ | ||
+ | When at the lane the tent was spread\\ | ||
+ | The silver wattle under,\\ | ||
+ | And early shaft of rosy red\\ | ||
+ | Cleft sea-born mists asunder! | ||
+ | |||
+ | And so, old Billy, you recall\\ | ||
+ | A host of sun-burnt faces,\\ | ||
+ | And bring us back again to all\\ | ||
+ | The best of camping places.\\ | ||
+ | True flavor of the bush you bear,\\ | ||
+ | Of camp and its surrounding, | ||
+ | Of freedom and of open Air,\\ | ||
+ | Of healthy life abounding. | ||
+ | |||
+ | You bring us more - with those we love\\ | ||
+ | We watched you boil and bubble\\ | ||
+ | And in the sunny skies above\\ | ||
+ | Forgot each schoolboy trouble:\\ | ||
+ | So not without a kindly glance\\ | ||
+ | We eye you in the study,\\ | ||
+ | Although you've met with some mischance\\ | ||
+ | Although you're black and muddy! | ||
+ | |||
+ | James L. Cuthbertson (1851-1910) | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- |
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