Track Care WA News

TRACK CARE WA NEWS STOCKTAKE

The CSR is one of Australia’s most iconic drives and gives the traveller a real sense of achievement when completed. It hasn’t been used by the public for two years due to COVID, so what state is it in? Well, Track Care WA was about to find out!

To my knowledge, nobody has ever done a stocktake of the Stock Route. What’s there, where it is and what condition is it in? So, a plan was devised to find out. In consultation with our friends at Kuju Wangka and Jamukurnu-Yapalikunu (JYAC, formally Western Deserts Land Aboriginal Corp.) we formulated a plan to GPS locate, photograph and document all the relevant pieces of infrastructure along the CSR. A huge project but undertaken enthusiastically by the volunteers at Track Care WA. A group of four drivers was assembled and the first stop, Wiluna, was to be hosted by the Shire CEO and some of their councillors.

August 2022 BY ROD DURSTON

We were entertained with stories by two elders, Lena Long, a councillor who was born at Well 7, and Rita Cutter. Rita recounted when she was about seven years old, the day she saw her first white fella. He came out of the bush on a big iron machine. He had funny skin colour; white, red, brown and black, and spoke a weird language. Turns out it was Len Beadell’s grader driver Scotty Boord! She ran away. After we had copious supplies of sandwiches it was time to get on with our job on the CSR and we hit Well 1 in the early afternoon. Here we discussed roles for

each person. These included Road Conditions, Environmental Condition, Sign and POI photos and GPS locating everything. At the end of day one we camped at Well 3. It was freezing - two sleeping bags in my swag for me thank you. The next day had us taking a side trip to meet with Peter and Rebecca Gum, owners of Cunyu Station, to discuss any issues they may have with travellers on the track. Peter said most of the travellers act responsibly and don’t present problems unless they try to access station tracks after rain. I asked the age-old question of whether he allows trailers on his section of the track (there are still many signs saying they are not allowed) and he said he doesn’t mind. Just don’t come asking for help. More tea and cake and we were off again to set up camp at Windich Springs. After a few days of GPS locating and photographs of the numerous signs etc. we did strike something that seemed a little unusual to say the least. John the Camel Man, just outside Well 5. John, his five camels and trusty dog have been walking around Australia for the past three years visiting every state including Tasmania (where they struck a blizzard). Imagine loading those lanky things onto the Spirit of Tasmania! Talk about logistical problems; every night John must unload one tonne of gear and set up an electric fence to allow the camels some free space to feed. Search for John Arthur Elliott on YouTube. Time waits for no man or camel, so we moved on to our camp. Things were going swimmingly when disaster struck at a place we aptly named Two Flats Flat. After most of the convoy passed a small tree on the track, Tail End Charlie managed to stake not one but two tyres on the one tree! You get the name now? So, this car was now down to no spare tyres and we hadn’t reached Well 8 yet! After a bit of debate, we decided to push on as the terrain would morph into sand dune country and be a little easier on tyres compared to the hard station tracks. Guess what? Setting off the next morning we had a third flat on the same car within 200m and once again a sidewall puncture. Normally not repairable but we had no choice, so a couple of plugs later we were back on the move. Can it get any worse than this given the nearest tyre shop is in Newman, about 700km away? As hoped, we hit the sand dune country, so things were easier on man and machine

and we made good time, skipping through our duties and ticking over the miles. More stunning sunsets, full moon rises and the flowers kept spirits high. The next potential obstacle was going to be the Savory Creek crossing at Lake Disappointment. We had seen puddles of water along our journey, some of the ground was a little squishy at times and there was a big downpour in the area earlier this year, so I was a little apprehensive. Fear not. After a quick check of the depth, we easily crossed and continued. We set up camp at Georgia Bore to find that something slithery had slipped into the bore casing and was making its way back, piece by piece, up the bore outlet. This problem was eventually solved by continuously pumping it out and in the end the bore was back to its glorious best. At this point we departed the CSR and headed west for several reasons: we all had to fuel up and thanks to the generous support of JYAC, we had free fuel at Parnngurr. Two volunteers had a date with a tyre shop in Newman, and the others had a day off snoozing amongst the trees at White Gums, which is the entry to the Karlamilyi National Park. I was looking forward to what the northern section of the CSR had to offer. It didn’t disappoint. The dunes are taller and longer than in the south, and the vegetation remained glorious. Everything was in flower and put on a real show. The dunes were more of a challenge now, so everyone had to up their game when crossing them. After a few days we reached Well 33 and the community of Kunawaritji. There we met up with a solo motorcyclist, Alex, who was doing the CSR north to south. He was in for a little mechanical repair so while we waited, I asked him about the range on his bike. "800km", he replied. I told him the southern section is about 900km. Oh! Then I remembered about the petrol drums we saw at Well 12 abandoned in May 2022 (when the track was closed) and he was all smiles again. Kunawaritji has accommodation, showers and washing machines that we took advantage of as well as fuelling up again. The next major exercise was to make good the burnt out Well 46. I’m unsure how this

was damaged and there are many rumours floating about on social media but an area about the size of a football field was burnt and this took out the top timbers of the well. The lids had been removed too, so all that’s there is a gaping hole. Fortunately (for us) someone had trashed their ute nearby and we made good use of the tray as a lid for the well while it waits for repairs. Also, at Stretch Lagoon, the toilet was flooded some time back and the white ants have moved in chewing out all the supporting structure. Don’t use it unless you want to end up in the bin below. Before long we had reached our goal at Billiluna community. We had covered 1750km starting at Well 1. We had emptied all the dunnies we could (some had tyre troubles too), did a bit of handyman stuff, crossed 577 dunes (yep, we counted them), only saw seven cars and importantly documented all that we could on this famous track. We found that the track infrastructure is in good condition and we are confident it will be ready for the expected influx of visitors next year. Thanks go to my fellow travellers, Kevin, David and Phil for their efforts (without grumbles) in completing this project in the quick time of 15 days.

Winnemia Project Part 1

BY GRAHAM WEBER Track Care Chair PHOTOS BY STEPH MURPHEY AND GRAHAM WEBER

This project was introduced in the last edition of Western 4W Driver. The upshot is that phase one is now complete. So what did it involve?

The Track Care Trip

After much planning and preparation for a period of about 18months, the Track Care trip started on short notice with two of us meeting at Muchea and then travelling to Geraldton to pick up number three. Then as we got to our first stop at Billabong we picked up number four. So a total of around 660km on the first day. We were going to stay at the free camp at Billabong but the truck noise was considered to be too much so we went on to the Meadow free camp marked on Wiki camps. Unfortunately, it had been closed by the mining company working nearby so we decided to go to Gravel Pit (yes, one of the many Wiki camps of that name). The gravel pit was no longer used and so it was private, flat and a good relaxing stop. Much of the vegetation around the site had regrown and it was really quite pleasant despite its name! Number three had trouble starting their car in the morning but it resolved itself fairly quickly after a bit of a warm up and a kick! We then stopped in Carnarvon and refuelled at the Puma tanker near Harbour Road because it was the cheapest at the time. After one of us spending some time having a look around Carnarvon (lost!), while the rest of us waited, we headed east 150km on the road to Gascoyne Junction. The four Track Care members got to site just south-west of the Kennedy Range, at part of the Kennedy Range loop that goes through the pastoral lease of Jimba Jimba.

BY GRAHAM WEBER Track Care Chair PHOTOS BY STEPH MURPHEY AND GRAHAM WEBER

We turned off at the road to Winnemia Pool and found that the Kennedy Range was in view as we drove. Around 390km for the second leg of the trip.

On Site!

The site where we were to work was already cleared and the shearers mess hall/hut was visible and definitely in need of repair. The aim was to return a single shearers dining hall that survived the flood of 2010 into a complete building fixing all damage possible while adding verandahs to the south and north. This will eventually be a camp kitchen. There were four people helping out on site as employees of the station owner: one from Perth and three from Israel. They had already done the big clean up and the digging of post holes for verandah posts. We met them and the owner and had a pleasant introduction for all while discussing where we were camping and what we were doing.

Speaking of Camping:

Our campsite was alongside the Gascoyne River and we had budgies nesting in the tree hollows next to each of our camps. What a broad spectrum of campsites it was: one tent with a cooker in the back of the car and a shovel!; another was on the back of a ute with built in kitchen and toilet but an external shower; the next was a hybrid camper with external kitchen, toilet and shower but had hot water; lastly an offroad caravan with indoor kitchen, toilet and shower and an outdoor kitchen as well! For the first time, Track Care was creating new access for the 4WD and camping communities rather than maintaining access for the future. The lessees of Jimba Jimba had organised materials by clearing the site and collecting all that could be repurposed and had five staff on hand to help with the work. The only things that were not recycled or repurposed were the bolts and Tek screws. So, we got help from Jimba Jimba, who did a lot of the work. Once shown how to roll the corrugated iron with the almost-100 year old manual roller, they did the full set of tin for the roof of the verandah.

Photo: Steph Murphey

They collected tin for the roof from the damage site where complete houses were lifted, destroyed and dumped by the 2010 Gascoyne River flood. 4x2 and 3x2 of varying lengths were collected and it was only after trying to get the timber sorted that we realised that these young pups were metric and we had to change the way we spoke. Quick results were achieved with the building walls returned to be almost complete but completion was only achieved after the doors were added. Our intrepid “Wood Butcher” worked on the doors getting two in place within two days. Meanwhile “Safety Dave” set the steel poles, pre-welded with crossbars to keep them in the ground during cyclones and brackets at the top to hold the rafters. Due to repurposing the timber, we had 4x2 rafters with 4x2 battens (none of this new fangled metric for me!) so the structure was very robust and rustic with all timbers coming from old flood damaged buildings.

Construction

We worked solid for six days with a typical day resembling this: Our Israeli friends helped by carrying anything they thought we may strain with because I was old and grey. They spent much of the day re-rolling the corrugated iron so that it was smooth and as close to new as possible (apart from the corrosion) and then going to other sites to get even more. We fixed the loose corrugated iron to the structural timbers, formed up the verandah floors, searched for timber to be used in constructing the verandahs and denailed the old timbers. The steel posts had been prepared for us earlier in the project and we found that the foundation holes were not deep enough. So we volunteered our Israeli and Perth friends to dig them 30cm deeper. We unloaded cement for the post hole foundations and prepared two doorways in the construction. All done by 5pm where we then went and had a drink, dinner and had the obligatory around the lamp light chat as we were in the north after 1st October and no campfires are allowed.

Photo: Graham Weber

The team worked solidly for six full days with a half day for the seventh. We toured parts of the property looking at old buildings, accommodation and travelling tracks where no other vehicle, apart from the track construction vehicles, had ever travelled. This was a serious work trip and we really needed a little more time to sight see as we normally would on a Track Care trip. Next time there will be days allocated for traversing the Kennedy Range and its surrounds.

Purpose:

So why are we doing this? To allow some form of management of users of the Kennedy Range loop, supplying a place to camp and have some facilities near the loop. We implore people not to camp anywhere on the Jimba Jimba pastoral lease because it is a working cattle station where we do not want to create bio-security issues. We also ask that you ring 08 9943 0505 (the pastoralist) as you would on any other station so that they know you are there and can make you aware of any issues relating to the operation of the station, in particular, the timing of mustering and other station activities. In the future, there will be a toilet installed on the site at which time there may be a service charge or Track Care donation box to allow the facilities to continue. Keep an eye on the TCWA website to see what space will be available for the solar eclipse next year. The Track Care website will be up and running in its new format at the end of January 2023 but our historical posts will give you an idea of what types of things Track Care does. www.trackcare.com.au also has a downloadable membership form that you can still use should you wish to become a member. Track Care and Jimba Jimba have put in a lot of time building up a relationship and getting this project off the ground and there are other benefits to the relationship. Those can only be found if you are a member of Track Care while the project work continues.

Photo: Steph Murphey

WA State NRM & Coastal Conference October 2022:

A Report on Multiple Experiences and Partnerships The 4W Driving Community Experience

BY JOY UNNO - Environmental Officer, Subaru 4WD Club of Western Australia

This conference brings together environmental managers, coastal planners, practitioners, volunteers, Traditional Custodians, researchers, and businesses to share our experiences and knowledge, and our passion and visions for the future in a series of presentations, workshops, networking opportunities, field trips, etc. Key presenting partners this year were the City of Mandurah, the Shire of Murray and the Shire of Waroona.

The purpose of this article is to relate how recreational 4W drivers were involved as stakeholders in this conference and how connections between local government agencies and 4WD groups have forged working alliances to achieve the goals of both protecting the coastal environment and allowing 4WD recreational access to coastal areas. A key player in this process is Dr John Collins from Track Care WA Inc. who gave a presentation at the Preston Beach Community Centre as part of the Conference’s Preston Beach Field Trip on Wednesday 16 October. We were going to have the talks onsite at Preston Beach but the wind and weather were not accommodating. John’s topic was Code Off Road: Coastal Zone, Wetland and Rangeland Education Delivery by Stakeholder Partnerships. This well thought out, educational effort directed in this case towards 4WD coastal users has resulted in an informative pamphlet: A guide to safe and responsible off-road driving on WA beaches and coastal national parks. Track Care members have ‘Awareness Days’ where they attend a beach, for example Preston Beach in the Shire of Waroona, that is very popular with the off-road fraternity, and hand out the pamphlet as well as chatting with people. In this way people are made aware of the issues involved in coastal preservation and are educated in practices that help to keep themselves and the environment safe. Track Care has also produced Code Off Road pamphlets for Rangeland and Wetland areas. As John described in his presentation, Track Care encourages collaboration and partnerships between 4WD groups, community groups, and government agencies such as Shires, City Councils and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. In addition to education delivery, Track Care is a liaison that organises volunteers from stakeholder 4WD clubs to assist agencies in remedial works to repair damage caused by off-road vehicles. It was for this reason that the Subaru 4WD Club WA representatives, in the

form of Club President David Peck and myself, were present in club uniform in the audience listening to John’s OffRoad talk. The Subaru Club is a member of Track Care WA and as such has volunteered for many rehabilitation projects, not just at the coast but in wetland and rangeland areas as well. The Club has a vested interest in preserving the coastal environment of the beaches between Mandurah and Bunbury including Preston Beach, as we have the Annual Beach Run trip in that area, as the name suggests, annually. It is one of the few municipal areas that still allows access for the beach driving experience. Besides John’s talk, there were other interesting presentations on the day. Of particular interest (because it involved 4W drivers behaving ignorantly at best or badly at the worst) was the Preston Beach Dune Conservation and Restoration presentation given by Rhys Bloxsidge, Senior Infrastructure and Development Services Officer at the Shire of Waroona. Rhys showed spectacular drone footage of Preston Beach with amazing views of the high wave energy beach and the landward dune field. The drone was used as a monitoring tool and clearly showed the tracks of off-road vehicles breaching the foredunes, creating an erosion tunnel and the resultant sand blowouts. It also showed the efforts of the Preston Beach Rangers, a community volunteer group, who take brush from a public dump site near the beach and partially bury it in sand, blocking the tracks into the back dunes. The combination of drone monitoring and brush dune rehabilitation appears to be a successful strategy enabled by the cooperation of the Waroona Shire, the Preston Beach Progress Association and the Preston Beach Volunteer Rangers. Another speaker contributing to the Conference that day was Jacqui Freeman, Manager of City Reserves for the City of Albany, whose experience with 4W drivers on the coast from a municipal officer’s point of view is described below: The take-home message from this Conference Field Trip Day was a rather unexpected one for me. Generally 4WD clubs are regarded negatively in relation to the environment, particularly in coastal areas. However, at this conference, I observed a different and perhaps more realistic attitude in municipal authorities responsible for coastal care. One that was not only more inclusive of off-road activities as a valid public recreational activity but also was cognisant of the need for education and management to mitigate damage to the environment caused by a small percentage of off-road vehicle users. There seemed to be a greater willingness to look towards forming alliances and working together in promoting responsible 4W driving. I would like to thank the Conference organisers and Track Care for inviting us to participate and also the Noongar People whose land we were on at Preston Beach.