PRESIDENT’S REPORT
May 2019
I am back in town now after a few pleasant weeks away in central Australia. My thanks to Barry Walker and our Committee for filling in during my absence.
One thing that our 4WD group learned in central Australia is that trip planning needs to be flexible and that our small inconveniences are nothing compared to the great benefits brought by rains in western Queensland’s Channel Country. From all predictions, it looks like 2019 will be a special year for the inland with Lake Eyre filling, small plane flights buzzing, grass and flowers growing, Birdsville isolated, the Simpson desert closed for periods, and many roads impassable. Our monitoring of the flood waters began six weeks before our departure at the time Townsville received a soaking.
There was another thing that I learned recently, and it will not be often that you see the President’s Report venturing into the topic of waste and toileting in the bush. For those of us brought up on burn-bash-bury on Scout camps, we find that new and improved practices are preferred because so many more people are travelling into forests and deserts. It is rather dis-heartening to arrive at an established campsite to find toilet paper and waste metres from tent areas because previous visitors thought that the toilet facility, at 150 m, was too far to walk. Even more of an eye-opener for me is what is being encouraged, through the Victorian schools’ outdoor education scene, as best practice in the higher country where campsites are sparse. The training now is that, where feasible, all toilet waste is to be carried out even after extended camps; this process is graphically described in the Australian short film, Winter On The Blade.
If you are leading or even joining a Club trip from early June be aware that the track-closure season is from Queens Birthday to Melbourne Cup. Details of over 900 track closures are readily available in a searchable spreadsheet and cover national parks and state forests in Victoria.
Neil Phillips
1744
President
pajeroclub.com.au
Vol 36 No.3 - May / June 2019 © Pajero 4WD Club of Victoria