Franklin News and Views

Thursday 7 August 2014 The final plateau leading to the waterfall was very pleasant open eucalypt with spacious low grassland.  The big v shaped valley below the falls was scenic as was the view of Table Mountain, which seemed quite close beyond the trees.   At the start of the walk the breeze was quite chilly but once we had a bit of tree and hill protection conditions became most pleasant, especially when in the sun. The falls had a reasonable sloping drop of 40 metres and a good flow of water was going over.  The views were particularly good from the sheltered western side which had a number of edges in convenient viewing locations. The walk started on a logging road then an old vehicle track and eventually through a section of fairly untouched open woodland.  It took almost 1:15 to get there and much the same to return. Although the return distance was 9k the wandering about the falls area added well over another kilometre.

Wednesday 23 July 2014 As I hadn’t done any bike riding this year I went for a couple of rides so it wouldn’t be such a shock to the body. One was the day before (Tuesday) on the Pipeline from Neika.   I was finding it quite hard work pedalling up the track and was wondering why it seemed harder than previous times.  I was ¾ of the way to the end when I switched up a gear and discovered it became easier to ride.  I had put it in high gear at the start thinking it was low.  At least the last ¼ was a lot easier.  I enjoyed the ride back better. As for the Cockatoo Gully event, the ride was along two valleys, the first along Clifton Vale Rd with the Jordan River coming into view on a number of occasions and the other somewhat narrower valley following the Cockatoo Gully Rd. Dave chose the direction well because the reverse would have entailed a long uphill section. The views, especially on Clifton Vale had tree covered hills either side of the valley. Th...

Sue and I have been on a couple of three day bushwalks over the last month. One was to Mount Rogoona and a few people noticed the blog post for that walk. I did introduce it with the words “a bushwalk where I fell into a creek, missed the intended track and took a photo of a snake without realising it was there”. I did refer to a photo album and several comments received back were along the lines of where was the snake photo, so it is below.  

A Day To Die For: 1996: Everest's Worst Disaster - The Untold True Story by Graham Ratcliffe My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is both a book about mountaineering and investigative writing. In part it deals with Graham Ratcliffe's alpine climbing, but it generally does so to show how it related to the events of May 1996 when a number of climbers died on Mount Everest. He doesn't go into too much detail about his climbs which is good from my perspective. Graham was high on the mountain when the tragedy arose and was left wondering what would have happened if his team new had been called upon to help with the rescue. Eventually, but after several years had elapsed, the event came to so haunt him that he spent many years of his life as he painstakingly tried to establish if weather predictions were known by the leaders of the mountaineering teams and, if so, why did they ignore these dire predictions. Serious questions are also raised about the avoidance of these matters b...

Click the image below to view photos from a walk in the Budawangs, Morton national Park NSW.   The walk was  the Foster, Styles Creek, Hidden Valley, Quiltys Circuit   from 20-23 September 2011   Budawangs2011

13-16 April 2010 Our latest bushwalk was to Artillery Knob and  a report and photos is at the link attached to image below.  

I recently went on a bushwalk through the Western Arthur Range where we met a commercial party from Tasmanian Expeditions at Lake Oberon. They were camped at lake Oberon and staying there for 3 nights and group of 4 (2 clients and 2 guides) were spread out on 3 of the 4 available platforms.  The leader did offer to consolidate to two platforms to allow our party of 4 room, but as no one else arrived that day we did not need the space and manage to fit on the hardened area need the lake shore.  However in differing circumstances it could easily get overcrowded there with the limited camping available. I probably would not have thought much more about this, but have just received an newsletter (don’t know how I got on the mailing list) from Tas Expeditions, in which they promote future Western Arthur walks.  These are described as 13 days with 12 nights which includes side trips for “6 trekkers” plus I assume 2 guides and departures  in 2010 for 10 January, 7 Feb and...

Wellington Park Bushcare Group Erica Follow up Breakneck, New Town and Pottery Sites at Wellington Park on Tuesday 13 Jan 09 Three sites were checked as part of a follow up of previous work. The New Town site near the powerlines had a reasonable number of seedlings and all were removed, whilst the Breakneck site which was cleared during 2002 and 2003 had very few plants; a very encouraging sign. Close by at the end of the Pottery access track seedlings and reshooting Erica at the Envirofund site was cleared along with plants of a substantial size growing on the lower side. In addition thistles and Elderberry were removed from near the waterhole at the top McRobies lower track. The day was quite warm but some shade was provided by trees, but conditions were hot by the time we reached the cars on the return. If you are interested in helping click for more information

OHA environs Wellington Park Wednesday 26 Nov 08 Weed Check - Two pines growing near the OHA track were treated with glyphosate. Some 300 metres of New Town Rivulet was checked for Erica with two patches being found and removed. Most did not have much in the way of flowers except for those in sunnier positions Details and photos from the working bee can be viewed at http://wellingtonpark.wordpress.com/ If you are interested in helping or for more information go to http://wellingtonpbg.googlepages.com/home

Saturday 26 July 08 We made a mistake in picking the track and missed out on getting to Prosser Sugarloaf. For details and photos

The whole day was delightfully fine and calm, with initial patches of morning fog about. See http://bushwalks.blogspot.com/ for more

Wednesday 23 April 08 to Friday 25 April 08 The Tyndall Range is of conglomerate and is around 1000m. It is steeply sloped on the west and large cliffs on the east. Along the southern portion are many lakes and tarns and low alpine meadows. At the northern end is Mt Tyndall at 1179 metres and on the southern end Mt Geike at 1193 metres Details can be viewed at http://bushwalks.blogspot.com/ and photos at http://picasaweb.google.com.au/PeterJFranklin/TyndallRange

Saturday 5 April 08 Parks have improved the area at the Myrtle Forest picnic area by renovating the vandalised hut and installing a toilet. The initial section of track has been further upgraded and a wooden viewing platform placed at the first waterfall. It all looks good and it is hoped does not get ruined by louts. Click for more on the walk plus photos

We regularly get a visit from Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoos and at least once per year a flock arrives prunes a Hakea bush back quite severely as they break off the branches that have fruits. A cracking sound alerted Sue on Monday and sure enough 10 of the magnificent big birds were in the bush.

Friday 29 February 08 to Monday 3 March 08 4 A four day walk in lovely weather and for much of the time away from the other walkers. Details can be viewed at http://bushwalks.blogspot.com

We were camped in the little valley with the lake that is directly south and over the ridge from Lake Rodway. At about 7:30 AM we both heard a dog bark several times and it did not seem particularly distant, coming from the east near to the lake. On checking about we came upon a dead wallaby quite close to our tent spot (40 metres). It was lying in a somewhat awkward position but apart from a little disturbance to the fur near the neck, there was no great sign of what may have caused the animals death. It was reasonably big and well built. However we did not touch or move the wallaby. Some 100 metres further on we noticed animal fur lying about in a couple spots. Now as we had arrived at the camp site at 4PM on the previous day we had plenty of time to wander about and both feel that we would have noticed the wallaby then if it had been there. We both feel quite confident that it was a dog bark, it wasn’t a growl. The incident has been reported to the Parks & Wildlife ...

Details and photos on this walk on 21 February 08 is at http://bushwalks.blogspot.com/

Wellington Park Bushcare Group Erica Removal Hull Site at Wellington Park on Tuesday 5 Feb 08 Erica at a water hole north of the Mt Hull Fire Trail junction with East West was cleared, but one area comprised many small plants that were tedious to remove by hand. Spraying would have been more efficient, but as we had sufficient numbers it did not overly long to clear. On completion we moved to the above-mentioned junction to do follow up work on Erica in the bush and beside the trail between the locations. It has been 5 years since first clearing the site and many significantly sized bushes were noticed in the bush. All these were removed, plus most near the fire trail junctions, but some lower on the Mt Hull FT had to be left. The day was not overly hot, but nevertheless quite warm with a high cloud cover, and we did notice several snakes, including three whip snakes in a group close to the work site. To view photos got to http://wellingtonpark.wordpress.com/2008/02...

Wednesday 14 November 2007 We located an old bulldozer track uphill from the lookout and eventually came onto a cut track with plastic markers and occasional wooden posts. The track contoured the slope crossing small gullies, but at 828309 it ceased and we could not locate an extension anywhere. We both wondered why the cut track should be heading in the direction it did as we thought it more logical to ascend more directly to Proprietary Peak. Although conditional were quite cloudy when we started by the time we reached the end of the cut track it was quite drizzly and visibility poor with the peaks now completely blanketed, so we decided it best to retreat and return when conditions were better

After I could finally think beyond the immediate urgency of my horrible accident, it was to wonder how I could have possibly coped without Alan and Nigel. They stopped the blood flow, cleaned and patched me, set up the tent, put me in it, and brought food when I had recovered sufficiently to drink and eat. Earlier that day we had walked past profusely flowering bushes, where the big fire had gone through a couple of years ago. By the time we left Lunchtime Creek showers had developed but the bush held back the wind until we came to the notoriously exposed area above Perdition Ponds. In the buffeting here I had trouble making forward progress and whilst trying to get my feet onto an even surface a particularly strong gust hit. I felt myself losing balance and was literally blown into a dive onto rocks. I realised what was happening but was unable to prevent it. The instance before impact I probably yelled in horror because my tooth got chipped without damage to the mouth. Blood wa...