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--- 196907 [2017/01/20 15:42] – tyreless
+++ 196907 [2017/01/20 15:45] (current) – tyreless
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 As we later discovered, we came upon the road somewhere near New Yards. The party collapsed in an oddly regular line on the roadside and after a while began to think of food and scrabbled in the bottom of the three packs for the few remaining bits and pieces. Then all was eaten we started plodding the miles along the white, moonlit road, and again made the occasional dicey detour to avoid a dingo trap. We waited at the turnoff for bods to catch up, and then it was all downhill to the causeway on the Kowmung where we walked upstream a short distance to reach the camp.
-It was ten past nine when we arrived, and we were exceedingly tired, so wo were really grateful when we saw that Marion had a fire still going for us, although she had gone to bed. For a long while we sat around it in silence - no energy. Around 10 o'clock there were some stirrings as some thought of food and others of bed. Then followed some weary wanderings around the camp as packs and gear were sorted out. In our absence Marion had cleaned our billies to such a shine that nobody knew whose was whose, and she's even aired our sleeping bags. Confusion ensued with Laurie using someone else's billies and Doug managing to sleep in two bags at once, neither of them his own. Around midnight everything had been sorted out and everyone eventually reunited with their gear, could at last go to sleep.
+It was ten past nine when we arrived, and we were exceedingly tired, so we were really grateful when we saw that Marion had a fire still going for us, although she had gone to bed. For a long while we sat around it in silence - no energy. Around 10 o'clock there were some stirrings as some thought of food and others of bed. Then followed some weary wanderings around the camp as packs and gear were sorted out. In our absence Marion had cleaned our billies to such a shine that nobody knew whose was whose, and she's even aired our sleeping bags. Confusion ensued with Laurie using someone else's billies and Doug managing to sleep in two bags at once, neither of them his own. Around midnight everything had been sorted out and everyone eventually reunited with their gear, could at last go to sleep.
 The fine weather stayed on for Sunday, and after some debate we decided to go up Gingra Creek and Croft's Ridge, over Page's Pinnacle to Crofts Wall and back along to Kanangra.
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 The Spring Walks Programme (September-November) is not exactly revelling in the abundance that should be Spring.
-You can help eliminate this discrepancy by spilling a carnucopia of walks into it in the club room or pouring them into the telephone at 84-4497 (H) 630-0251 ext 19 (B). Don't wait until the sap rises. Select a date and book now to avoid disappointment. If you're lost and don't know where to go, contact the Walks Secretary - she has just the walk for you.
+You can help eliminate this discrepancy by spilling a cornucopia of walks into it in the club room or pouring them into the telephone at 84-4497 (H) 630-0251 ext 19 (B). Don't wait until the sap rises. Select a date and book now to avoid disappointment. If you're lost and don't know where to go, contact the Walks Secretary - she has just the walk for you.
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 ====The Surveyors Crag.====
-Don't miss the chance to survey the breathtaking panomara from this vantage point. The miles and miles of burnt black bushes will give enough bruises to gladden the heart of any masochist. And the views make it all worthwhile for ordinary mortals. The trip, a good twenty-five miles should be classed as M-R and will be going on August 22 23 24. See Mike Short.
+Don't miss the chance to survey the breathtaking panorama from this vantage point. The miles and miles of burnt black bushes will give enough bruises to gladden the heart of any masochist. And the views make it all worthwhile for ordinary mortals. The trip, a good twenty-five miles should be classed as M-R and will be going on August 22 23 24. See Mike Short.
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 All our National Parks are basically botanical in concept, Colong possibly excepted. The management ultimately must be concerned with the preservation of the flora assuming that if we have a complete cover and a close to natural association of genera there will be faunal population to follow. The Heathcote Primitive Area, now the Heathcote Park, is ample demonstration that this can be obtained (the absence of wheeled vehicles ensures that rubbish doesn't extend far beyond the gates). Where a few weeks ago there may have been some clima Associations left in the park this is now unlikely. We can only look forward to a regeneration which will almost certainly be of a lower order, and which in fact will take at least ten years to approach a reasonable level for a park. Many of the larger angophoras reached the limit of their survival during the fires. I doubt if they will be replaced.
-Ten years is the approxiniate time it takes for seedling eucalypts and casuarinas and mallee-rooted stock to grow 15-20 feet; hakeas and banksias need about the same time to mature and hold fruit for the next regeneration. Because the overhead storey of large trees has been reduced the content of the cover is increasingly made up of hakeas and casuarinas and less of the more delicate heaths and sought after flowers. The Park must degenerate with each fire. At ten years there is a dense understorey of extremely inflammable material reaching to the fully recovered crowns of the larger trees. This is the stage for an extremely dangerous situation, the understorey brews up the crowns which explode through an immense cloud of burning gas into further crowns. At any time after ten years the first critical drought of winter and spring provide, with the undergrowth the real source of ignition. It is no coincidence that the literature cites 13 years as the critical cycle; ten years plus the statistical certainty of one severe drought and one moderate drought year in five. Our own 1984 could conceivably see the whole of the south east coast of Australia ablaze again.
+Ten years is the approximate time it takes for seedling eucalypts and casuarinas and mallee-rooted stock to grow 15-20 feet; hakeas and banksias need about the same time to mature and hold fruit for the next regeneration. Because the overhead storey of large trees has been reduced the content of the cover is increasingly made up of hakeas and casuarinas and less of the more delicate heaths and sought after flowers. The Park must degenerate with each fire. At ten years there is a dense understorey of extremely inflammable material reaching to the fully recovered crowns of the larger trees. This is the stage for an extremely dangerous situation, the understorey brews up the crowns which explode through an immense cloud of burning gas into further crowns. At any time after ten years the first critical drought of winter and spring provide, with the undergrowth the real source of ignition. It is no coincidence that the literature cites 13 years as the critical cycle; ten years plus the statistical certainty of one severe drought and one moderate drought year in five. Our own 1984 could conceivably see the whole of the south east coast of Australia ablaze again.
 That is being done? Despite the evidence of devastation, something is being done.
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 Present equipment of the Brigades is based on 4-wheel drive vehicles, at least 25 years old but well maintained. The "off-highway" capacity is necessary to negotiate fire trails and at times the heath and more open wooded areas. They carry water tanks of five hundred gallons, two pumps, live hose reels of rubber and an assortment of canvas hose from 1" to 2 3/4". Knapsacks, the rake-hoe HaCleod tools, First Aid gear including AirViva. Crews take their chance somewhere.
-A minimum of five, Deputy Captain, driver-radio operator, pumpman and two helpers is desirable. The trucks have radio communication with the control centre and with each other and walkie-talkies nozzle-to-ppmp and captain-to-driver. Ideally all jobs are interchangeable. Engadine has a converted petrol tanker, not 4-wheel drive, of 1,000 gallons capacity and is frequently used to replenish the other tenders in the field. It can negotiate most of the fire trails. Shortly all brigades will be re-equipped with new 4-wheel drive Bedfords, uniformly equipped so the capability of each tender is known to all and the effectiveness of the whole system improved.
+A minimum of five, Deputy Captain, driver-radio operator, pumpman and two helpers is desirable. The trucks have radio communication with the control centre and with each other and walkie-talkies nozzle-to-pump and captain-to-driver. Ideally all jobs are interchangeable. Engadine has a converted petrol tanker, not 4-wheel drive, of 1,000 gallons capacity and is frequently used to replenish the other tenders in the field. It can negotiate most of the fire trails. Shortly all brigades will be re-equipped with new 4-wheel drive Bedfords, uniformly equipped so the capability of each tender is known to all and the effectiveness of the whole system improved.
 Tactics to be effective are infinitely variable but depend on training a thorough knowledge of the area and co-operation. Preferably fires are "washed" right out. This implies that time is available for the job, water is unlimited and that the perimeter has been secured. Fires burning slowly at night can be put right out.	We have pumped, at times, through 3000 feet of hose for eight hours to put out some outbreaks. The recovery, stowage, drying and re-rolling of so much hose is exhausting work.
-If washing a small fire is not feasible and conditions are suitable handtools can isolate a fire and "spots" prevented with knapsacks. This is the only justifiable use of knapsacks, or indeed of any work done away from the tender. Frontal assaults from fire trails need conditions less than explosive and likely to remain so. It is only under these conditions that a "backburn" is allowed and justified - then only if sufficient men and water are available to prevent spotting. The burn is lit as the main fire approaches, allowed to burn towards the front and then extinguished from the trail inwards. With the advancing front blunted the edges of the main blaze not directly downwind are attacked. Several years ago the brigades controlled a major fire during a week of intense heat. With frequent wind changes it was not feasible to work far from the road, many members collapsing from heat exhaustion from teh radiation and atmospheric heat. It was possible to allow the fire well within a hundred yards of a trail, burn and then wash. What looked like being a disastrous fire was contained between trails and the Hacking River.
+If washing a small fire is not feasible and conditions are suitable handtools can isolate a fire and "spots" prevented with knapsacks. This is the only justifiable use of knapsacks, or indeed of any work done away from the tender. Frontal assaults from fire trails need conditions less than explosive and likely to remain so. It is only under these conditions that a "backburn" is allowed and justified - then only if sufficient men and water are available to prevent spotting. The burn is lit as the main fire approaches, allowed to burn towards the front and then extinguished from the trail inwards. With the advancing front blunted the edges of the main blaze not directly downwind are attacked. Several years ago the brigades controlled a major fire during a week of intense heat. With frequent wind changes it was not feasible to work far from the road, many members collapsing from heat exhaustion from the radiation and atmospheric heat. It was possible to allow the fire well within a hundred yards of a trail, burn and then wash. What looked like being a disastrous fire was contained between trails and the Hacking River.
-How effective are the volunteer brigades? Up to conditions on the possible side of catastrophic the combination of sufficient training, suitable equipment, mobility and good leadership the brigades can control fires in the R.N.P. and the Heathcote Park. Posssibly a similar situation exists for Kuring-gai Chase and the Blue Mountains National Park. I don't know and can't comment. In the catastrophic conditions of late October no amount of men or equipment could have saved the park. Fire crossed the gorge of the Woronora almost from top to top, a carry of 800 yards. A similar carry crossed the Hacking River. There was no chance. Brigades sent north along the Highway to extricate other brigades were stopped by flames; by the time they turned to retreat they were enclosed. Internal combustion engines need oxygen to operate, as do firefighters. Motors and men stop suddenly when there is no oxygen left for them. It is the limit of human effort. It was reached.
+How effective are the volunteer brigades? Up to conditions on the possible side of catastrophic the combination of sufficient training, suitable equipment, mobility and good leadership the brigades can control fires in the R.N.P. and the Heathcote Park. Possibly a similar situation exists for Kuring-gai Chase and the Blue Mountains National Park. I don't know and can't comment. In the catastrophic conditions of late October no amount of men or equipment could have saved the park. Fire crossed the gorge of the Woronora almost from top to top, a carry of 800 yards. A similar carry crossed the Hacking River. There was no chance. Brigades sent north along the Highway to extricate other brigades were stopped by flames; by the time they turned to retreat they were enclosed. Internal combustion engines need oxygen to operate, as do firefighters. Motors and men stop suddenly when there is no oxygen left for them. It is the limit of human effort. It was reached.
 Waves reaching a shore are the result of storm centres scattered over the ocean. When the wave patterns interact they sometimes cancel each other and then reinforce. Often the fifth wave is an enormous wave engulfing the rock fisherman. It is too late to learn to swim when you have counted to four.