2019 Summer Newsletter – Friends of Grampians Gariwerd

April 14, 2019

From The Park Desks

ASSETS AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Recovery (2014 Fire and Flood)

A number of road, walking track and park asset redevelopment projects were completed late last year and focus now shifts to completing the following projects:

Nagamadjidj walking track, carpark and art site interpretation signage redevelopment
Stapylton loop walking track repairs
Zumsteins Cottages Pise repair works
Zumsteins heritage site interpretation signage
Coppermine 4X4 bush camp and Group Hikers Camp redevelopment
Longpoint west Hikers camp redevelopment
New Dead Bullock Creek (Barriguwa) campground development. Replacement of Troopers creek.

There have been alignment changes to Briggs Bluff and the Mt Difficult walking tracks. Check for alignment updates at Brambuk prior to venturing out.

Roads

Unsealed roads have been upgraded throughout the park as part of flood recovery works. However, dry summer conditions have resulted in many dusty and corrugated sections. Note unsealed roads cannot be graded until there is an increase in soil moisture.

ENVIRONMENT AND HERITAGE

The Grampians team was successful in receiving funding for Biodiversity Response Planning last year. The funding will be used to run research and monitoring projects and on ground management of environmental threats.

New technology is assisting with monitoring of the reintroduced Rock Wallaby population.

Hard rubbish dumping is fast becoming a major issue in our smaller reserves surrounding the Grampians. The team is responding to a number of reports of household and commercial waste being dumped in reserves near surrounding townships.

FIRE AND EMERGENCY

While there have been numerous total fire bans and severe and extreme fire danger days, it has been a relatively quiet summer in the Wimmera and South West Fire Districts. The Halls Gap fire crew have continued with fire line slashing works, burn preparation for the Autumn and Spring program, and have also assisted the wider team with Junior Ranger education programs and a safer together community information stall in Halls Gap.

Did you know? Parks Victoria is part of Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMV). To learn more about FFMV’s role and responsibilities please visit https://www.ffm.vic.gov.au/who-we-are/forest-fire-management-victoria.

VISITORS AND COMMUNITY

The summer holiday program has been a fantastic success this year. Our Summer Rangers have delivered a range of Junior Ranger programs to over 200 participants.

To assist with emergency response Parks Victoria has recently installed over 110 emergency markers throughout the National Park. These can be used to quickly locate lost or injured walkers, and reduce response times of emergency services.

April 14, 2019April 14, 2019

Farewell And Thanks Dave Handscombe

Dave is probably the ranger FOGGS has had most contact with over the years. Starting on 4th January 1982 with the Forest Commission as a technical assistant with the School of Forestry and Land Management in Creswick, Dave did four and a half years before being seconded to the Alpine Planning Team to work on the proposed Alpine National Park. In 1988 Dave transferred to Mt Buffalo working as a technical assistant (a.k.a. Ranger) focused on campgrounds and patrols including cross country ski patrols. In 1989 Dave got offered the job as the Dunkeld Ranger in the Grampians. ‘Unfortunately’ the job offer was just too late into Winter and the removalist truck couldn’t get into Mt Buffalo because of the snow so he was ‘forced’ to do another snow season on ski patrol. Dave then got offered the Walking Track Ranger position based in Halls Gap and has worked in the Grampians from late 1989 until February 2019.

Dave helping out at the Red Gum Walk (1998)

It is quite hard to conceive what the Parks Victoria Grampians Team will look like now that Dave is retiring after almost thirty years. Thirty years of working to protect the park, thirty years of learning its treasures, especially its plants, thirty years of sharing that knowledge.

Dave explaining the use of GPS devices (2004)

Though never actually officially our “contact ranger”, Dave has been one of the rangers FOGGs have seen the most. Working bees at the Red Gum Walk, examining sallow wattle near Beehive Falls back in the 2000’s are just two of our activities where he features in our photos.

Is his nickname still “Horrible”? Apparently he once reprimanded a tourist, I think with a dog, and she complained about “that horrible ranger”. Whereupon his mates called him “Horrible Handscombe” for quite a few years. Within FOGGs he was for a while called “Ranger Dave’ because we at that stage had so many members called Dave that I remember adapting the Dr Seuss poem for our newsletter:

Did I ever tell you that Mrs. McCave
Had twenty-three sons and she named them all Dave?
Well, she did. And that wasn’t a smart thing to do.
You see, when she wants one and calls out, ‘Yoo-Hoo!
Come into the house, Dave!’ she doesn’t get one.
All twenty-three Daves of hers come on the run!
This makes things quite difficult at the McCaves’
As you can imagine, with so many Daves.

So goodbye Dave (and Linda), enjoy your retirement, spend time studying peacock spiders and orchids. Come back regularly, maybe tell us gently what we should be focusing on, and thank you again.

April 14, 2019April 14, 2019

Advisory Group Report

I realise that, although I have been giving reports of our meetings, I haven’t explained who we are for quite some time..

The AG was set up shortly after the establishment of the Grampians National Park, in order to bring community concerns to park management. Members are chosen as individuals, not formal representatives of any interest group, but the aim is to involve a diversity of interests. So the current group has neighbours of the park to the south, east and west, rock climbers, 4 wheel drivers, educators etc. Membership is for a limited term, but there is no limit on howoften people can be members. The current group will finish at the end of the year, then advertisements will go out asking for expressions of interest, and a new AG will be chosen by PV

Each meeting we hear from various park staff what has been happening in their area, and can comment and ask questions. We also have time to bring up our own topics, so if I know FOGGS have a concern I can bring it up. The rules are that we must not communicate with the press, parliamentarians etc. If we feel strongly about something we can write to the senior management of PV.

There is also a National Parks Advisory Council established under the National Parks Act 1975. Its functions are to advise the Minister generally in relation to the administration of the Act, on particular matters on which its advice is sought such as on any proposed excision from a park referred to it by the Minister and on certain leases and consents. However local AGs are quite separate. It’s current membership is quite impressive. If interested you can read their most recent report via https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/…/National_Parks_Advisory_Council_

However, back to the local Advisory Group which met on Wednesday 13^th.Feb.

This was originally scheduled for December but had to be cancelled due to that being a Total Fire Ban day. Moreover several staff who were going to speak to us were apologies, partly due to so many staff helping with the fire in East Gippsland and partly with important unexpected meetings.

The first item was a farewell and thanks to ranger Dave Handscombe.

Next we had a look at the terms of reference of our group, as PV looks to calling of expressions of interest for the next group.

Discussion of planned burns was next and we had so much to say here that it was decided to make fire the main topic of our next meeting.

FOGGIES will be pleased to hear that the planned work at Zumsteins is progressing well. We were shown the signage plans which go to the contractors next week, and we liked them. Some signs will be plaques in the footpaths, some attached to buildings, rocks, and trees. I reminded parks about the seat we have money for (money originally from Friends of Zumsteins after they ceased).

Work to improve parking at McKenzie Falls has not got very far. The funding Dave Roberts had been hoping to get didn’t eventuate and flood and fire recovery works took precedent. Some good new signage re safety is there, but PV are waiting for the coroner’s findings after the recent drownings before making further changes. We discussed how difficult it is to get people to actually read the signs and even then to convince them how dangerous the pool is. There’s been a lot of discussion in Halls Gap social media among others, with accommodation providers also saying how visitors ignore their warnings.

The Grampians Peak Trail was next. Unfortunately no-one from the team was available to answer our many questions. The northern half is on target to be completed by September this year and the southern half by September 2020. One of our concerns, and of park management, is funding for ongoing maintenance of the trail into the future. Short term there is funding for maintenance, but for how long? We also discussed the issue of built accommodation along the trail. Apparently research has indicated that many potential walkers want a pack free, or minimum pack experience. So the idea of having roofed accommodation at several sites is there for discussion. So far the concept is to have these provided by Parks, thus providing an income. The AG members were divided on this, some having enjoyed pack free walking in Tasmania on the Three Capes Walk and impressed with how well the buildings there sit in the environment, others wary of the impact of clearing for fire hazards, tracks in, or helicopters for building then servicing the buildings. We were told that there would soon be concept designs open for public comment, and when I know more I will inform our secretary.

One thing is clear. This does not sit well under the current Grampians National Park Management Plan. Now, the Management Plan is hopelessly out of date, and we have been asking about when a new one will be made for quite some time, but now we are told it will be revised and our group will have an input. I hope that our FOGG committee will also spend time on this when it becomes available.

The need to revise the Management Plan is also important to the next item on our agenda, The Rock Art protection plan. There has been a worrying increase in damage to indigenous art works, with the culprits being climbers, and particularly “boulderers”. It is really distressing to responsible rock climbers, as the two in our group explained. The main reason is that rock climbing has become a sport, many climbers now do it mainly indoors, in gyms etc. They are more interested in the experience and challenge than in the environment they are in. They look for new sites to climb, share that on social media, others follow, making more new tracks …. So at a recent meeting of climbing clubs “Cliff Care” and park staff strategies were discussed, including new maps, signs, and the possible closing of some sites, including some very popular ones, so it won’t be easy.

The next two items were to update us on the native title claim and the future of the Brambuk precinct. Again the person who was to talk on these was unable to attend, and in any case both of these are changing rapidly. Once the court case against Geoff Clarke (alleging among others that he and the family have stolen a large amount of money from Brambuk) is settled, a new agreement for the precinct will be negotiated.

Our last agenda item was to have been Mike Stevens giving us an update of the work to protect our environment. Make wasn’t able to attend but sent us a comprehensive report which follow.

April 14, 2019

Grampians Rock Art In The News

EXCERPTS FROM AN ARTICLE IN THE AGE JAN 13

The AGE had a long and chatty article on a fascinating newly discovered art site. It is far too long to copy here, but I do recommend that you read it on line – The Age

Or you can contact me (Margo) and I can send it to you. It is the need to protect valuable sites like this one that makes it so important to educate rock climbers, and where necessary ban some sites.

‘Now the legendary bunyip has been found – or ancient rock drawings of it at least – in a shallow cave atop a cliff in the Mt Difficult Range. Four bunyips, to be precise, lurking in a sandstone shelter on an outcrop that commands sweeping views of the plains of north-western Victoria.

It was a find that would shine new light on an age-old story – that of a cosmic struggle between creator spirit and his monstrous enemy – purport to explain why mother- and son-in-laws should never mix and forever change the way you see a double rainbow.

The rock art was found in the Mt Difficult Range and tells a story which links the cave to two other sites which can be seen from the clifftop.

It was in May 27, 2016 that park ranger Kyle Hewitt – marking a new track that will form part of the Grampians Peaks Trail – entered the sandstone shelter and brought its bunyips back from oblivion.

Since then the rediscovery has been kept secret. Only a handful of traditional owners, park rangers and archaeologists have been allowed to enter the cave.

Even now, its exact location cannot be revealed.

The cave was the latest and most significant of about 40 rock-art sites to be rediscovered in the last seven years in the Grampians – or Gariwerd as they are called by the people whose ancestors drew those bunyip.

That has taken the tally of rock-art sites in Gariwerd to about 140 – or 90 per cent of all the known such sites in Victoria.

Jake Goodes began his life as a park ranger in Gariwerd hunting goats. Now, 15 years later, he hunts rock art. As Parks Victoria’s Aboriginal Heritage co-ordinator for western Victoria and, at 36, an archaeologist in training, Mr Goodes was among the group that first recorded the bunyip cave.

Goats are one of the primary threats to these ochre bunyips, as they are to all Gariwerd’s rock art. Like people, goats are drawn to these shelters, and like to scratch their coarse and oily hides against the sandstone.

On the hike to the bunyip cave, Mr Goodes points out signs that indicate the bunyips survived another close encounter. It’s there in the blackened stringybark trunks, the thick regrowth of leaves, the fields of white everlasting daisies.

“Fire has the potential to destroy the whole site,” he says.

“It heats the air within the rock and then it pops the rock like popcorn.”

“But people are the ones who do the most damage to any site,” Mr Goodes says. “Which is unfortunate. The rock art of the Grampians is rich in symbols, some of which are found nowhere else and much of which has meanings yet to be relearned.”

The article goes on to tell a story about Bunjil, who is depicted in Bunjil’s cave not far from Stawell. Mr Goodes calls this tale a lore story. Its survival too, is a small miracle. It came to him by way of research done by historian Ian Clarke, who dug up a newspaper article published in 1925 by a reverend, who was told the story by an Aboriginal source he refers to only as “a woman from the Wimmera”.

(Remember that Ian Clarke told us about this in a talk last year.)