The AG met on February 3rd with a busy agenda. We were given the progress report on the Brush-tailed rock wallabies (Suzy Skurrie mentioned she had been doing some research and discovered that the indigenous name for the BTRW was Billewirrup. Suzy suggested perhaps it could be called the Billewirrup project.
Major works (both fire related and new) include:
Completion of car park at Brambuk – new entry, bitumen etc. It’s the same size as before but with clearer bays and separate entry and exit.
The track from Halls Gap to the Pinnacle was due to open by Easter, but this is now likely to be later following major fire activity elsewhere in the state and extreme temperatures. All the new stone steps (340 of them) are complete, but there are still steel steps to be installed.
On the McKenzie Falls to Zumstein walk around 51m of steel boardwalk has been installed (like that on the Major Mitchell Plateau) and a three metre bridge has been replaced. This track is expected to be open by June.
Crews have also completed track work on the Red Gum Walk and the information shelter has been installed ready for the interpretation signage.
Campground improvement work is being done at Jimmy’s Creek, Smith’s Mill, Stapylton and Plantation. At Jimmy’s Creek barriers have been installed to delineate camp sites, so that in future they can be booked, and to stop incremental expansion. However some of the AG were critical of the “cattleyard” feel. I have not looked myself yet. What do members think? Do let me know please. We learnt that a large number of Aboriginal scatters had been found at Stapylton when the survey work for new toilets was done. It appeared that the occupation site was quite extensive, much more than just an art site and that it probably dated back around 4,500 years.
At our December meeting we had discussed camping in informal bush campsites as well as the official campsites, and the need to better handle these. Prue Daley told us PV is planning to introduce an online booking system by end 2009. Some sites will be bookable while others will be spare for people who didn’t know they could book. This will provide much better customer service and will lead to making all large groups intending to overnight in the park register their intentions. There are also tree risk issues in some bush camping sites – e.g. we can’t have campsites in Red Gum areas – we may need to eliminate camp sites that are in high risk areas. Other sites don’t comply with the management plan guidelines and so will be closed.
We had a lengthy discussion on the problems being caused by some rock climbers and the best strategies to remediate these. Expect to see some articles in magazines explaining the issues and asking for more responsible behaviour. Also a clearer statement from PV on bolting in all parks.
Rod Spinks brought us up to date on the proposed long-distance walking track from Mt Zero to Dunkeld in 14 days. Hiker camps would accommodate up to 24 people in 12 two person sites on elevated structures, and a simple shelter and toilet facilities. The next steps would be:
to complete the ground-truthing for the proposed track, environmental and cultural heritage assessment, business and funding case
PV hope to complete the feasibility study in the next four weeks or so, delivering a draft to senior management on 4th February 2009. If it gets senior management approval the next step would be a business case and very detailed planning. We had many questions which would need to be considered in the next phase.
Other topics discussed were gravel pit management, feral cat control, the name change proposal for Mackey’s Peak, track names in general. We left with plans for some of us to go to Wilson’s Prom NP to meet with their AG, leaving on Feb 8th. But you all know what happened on Feb 7th. When that visit will be rescheduled I have no idea. What will happen to park budgets for campground improvements, long distance walks etc, who knows? Our park received so much help with fire recovery in 2006. So many other parks will now have lost so much infrastructure. PV’s budget will be stretched I should think.
Our next meeting is 7th April, with a focus on fire ecology.
Margo