One of the pleasures of a metrogaine is being able to take a train to your jump-ing-off point. When the horn sounded my rogaine partner Monica grabbed our maps and we set off toward the station, picking up a couple of ten-point con-trols on the way. On the unseasonably hot day, we wel-comed the relief offered by the air-conditioning inside the train carriage. After walking a scant kilometre, we were already hot and bothered. Sitting in the cool air we compared notes with another team. All agreed that the course was set to be tough, with few opportunities to change tack or respond to changing circumstances. We would be locked into the route. Leaving the train, we left civilization and headed into the hilly wilds around Springwood. Locating the controls wasn’t specifically difficult. However, traversing the terrain was a ghastly business. It seemed do-able during the planning. However, now the 10m contours bled together on the map as we faced the reality that every small hop would require a hard slog up or down a rocky hill. Every rogaine has a low-value control that is far out of reach but appears achievable on the map. Some people call this the “course clearers control” as you’d only bother if you wanted to com-plete the entire course. I call it the

“sucker control” because I always get sucked into chasing it. Yes, we were sucked into a massive climb early in the day. Climbing the steep and never-ending hill was propelled by a stream of positive self-talk - “it will be worth it at the top, it will be worth it at the top”. Partway through, reality seeps into the mantra - “it will be only 40 points at the point, I just have to come back down when I reach the top”. It took 20 minutes to climb 70m via a winding track with cut-in steps. At the summit, we found a couple of incredibly fit women who were strug-gling with the climb. They had left their water at the bottom, reasoning that it would save them some weight on the climb and because they planned to come back down. We helped them out with a drink from our precious supply and were on our way back down.

(cont’d on P3)

2019 No. 3 SPRING

BANKSTOWN BUSHWALKING CLUB INC. THE OUTDOORS CLUB THAT DOES IT ALL!

The Spring Balance Metrogaine by Meela Davis

BUSH TELEGRAPH

Metrogaine 1

President’s Piece 2

Species to save 2

Metrogaine (cont’d) 3

What not to take 3

Rogaine results 4

Sleeping warm 4

BNSW Mtg report 5

Club Info 6

New members 6

Florabella Pass pics 6

Species to save (cont’d) 6

Snippets 7

Inside this issue:

Club email address:

bankstownbush@gmail.com

Postal address:

PO Box 7061,

Mt. Lewis NSW 2190

Membership Officer Ph No.:

0405 644 757

All opinions and recommenda-

tions contained in this maga-

zine are the individual authors’

alone, and do not constitute

official endorsement by the

executive or members of the

Bankstown Bushwalking Club

Inc.

Elevation gain from my Strava

As the cold weather (well it’s been a fairly mild and dry Winter really, although some great snowfalls have oc-curred lately for the keen skiers to play in) changes into warmer Spring days, we can look forward to the next can-yoning season starting up again.

Recently we ran a survey (via the online survey tool Sur-veyMonkey) which was open for 2 weeks to all Club Mem-bers (29 May to 12 Jun), asking you about our Club Name, to find out the majority view. The results were compiled and the answer was a clear ‘please leave the Club Name the same as it is’. In fact a clear 63% majority said this. A third of the Club Membership responded to this survey, which was a great response. Thank you all for your input.

Our 2017 survey about the Club Logo also had a clear majority electing to retain our current logo, so there will not be any changes occurring in the foreseeable future, and so hopefully we can all now concentrate on enjoying our bushwalking and other activities.

We’ve also recently been able to do some good Club pro-motion by getting a feature article in the local newspaper, the Bankstown Torch. Check it out on Wed 31 July 2019! We also have a promise of an ongoing monthly promo in the Torch’s ‘What’s On’ column. Coupled with the colourful Club flyer and business cards we are making our presence known not only in the community surrounding the Bank-stown area, but further afield. What can you do to promote the Club in your local area?

over a five-year period to build and maintain a best practice conservation program called Saving our Species.

Climbers Conserving The Cliffhanging Five

Monique Forestier is a Blue Mountains local and well-known in the rock climbing community. A few months ago National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) approached her to ask if she would like to front a campaign to get fellow rock climb-ers to be more aware of some incredibly rare plants that live around cliffs in the upper Blue Mountains. She was excited to find out about the plants and very happy to help NPWS because she spends so much time hanging out on cliffs, she feels an affinity for the small hardy plants that share her favourite environment.

Because there are so few of these plants they are very vul-nerable to random events leading to extinction. The Dwarf Mountain Pine lives only in the spray of waterfalls between Wentworth Falls and Katoomba and another Euphrasia bowdeniae, is thought to now number only 60 individuals. Epacris hamiltonii only grows where groundwater seeps through the sandstone walls of cliff overhangs between heights of 810 to 940 metres above sea level in some small creek catchments around Blackheath.

Few people in the world would be able to find and recognise the threatened Leionema lachnaeoides, growing on ex-posed sandstone cliff tops and terraces between 960 and 1000 meters above sea level even though it has unusual orange flowers in springtime. Then there’s the living fossil, Fletcher’s drumstick, which dates back to the Gondwana supercontinent when the climate was warmer and much wetter than it is today. (cont’d P6)

In our precious local Blue Mountains area, there are a num-ber of native species that are at risk – including five species known as the Cliffhanging Five. The Save Our Species Pro-gram from the NSW Office of Environment & Heritage is in place to protect these species by educating those who fre-quent the Blue Mountains on how to do their part in the con-servation of the native flora .

Five very special plants cling to existence in tiny niches around the cliffs of the Upper Blue Mountains. They are found nowhere else in the world and some are survivors from the time of the Gondwana supercontinent, before flow-ering plants even existed and when dinosaurs walked the earth over 200 million years ago.

The Blue Mountains’ Cliffhanging 5 Include:

Dwarf Mountain Pine (Pherosphaera Fitzgeraldii)

Fletcher’s Drumsticks (Isopogon Fletcheri)

Leionema Lachnaeoides

Euphrasia Bowdeniae

Epacris Hamiltonii

Saving Our Species

Australia is home to some of the world’s most peculiar and fascinating species. More than 80% of mammals and over 90% of plants cannot be found anywhere else on earth. Un-fortunately, many of these species are threatened. In New South Wales alone almost 1000 plant and animal species are listed as threatened. Given the severity of these figures, the NSW Government has committed to invest $100 million

P A G E 2

Our quarterly Programs continue to showcase a variety of adventurous activities, with something for everyone, in-cluding some great social events. With new leaders com-ing through, and different activity options that haven’t been run for several years, its an exciting time to be a club member.

An update on some environmental issues in the news re-cently: UNESCO has stepped in over the Warragamba Dam Wall raising proposal to say that it will have an effect on the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area’s universal values; the petition about the feral horse issue in Kosci-uszko NP and a repeal of the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heri-tage Act is due to be debated in the NSW Parliament on 22 August; and the School Strikes for Climate continue to go on around the country and the world – there will be an-other on Sep 20th at Springwood HS.

Lastly—please consider creating some input (however large or small) for this newsletter. This issue of Bush Tele-graph was very difficult to put together as only 1 story was submitted, despite various emails to members requesting input. All other input had to be sourced from my files or written by me. I have limited time to do this. If many people just gave a few pics and a few paragraphs we could share a lot more of what the Club is doing, with everyone.

See you on the track,

Thaïs

B U S H T E L E G R A P H

Species to Save: The Cliffhanging 5 from Paddy Pallin’s e-newsletter May 30, 2019

President’s Piece by Thaïs Turner

The journey back down the hill was steep but pleas-ant. Crossing the stream, the reality hit - another 100m of the steep climb to put us on top of the next control. Again, the ladies left their bags at the bottom of the hill to ease their ascent. We marvelled at their choice since this was one of a few junctions where you could elect to continue along a ridge or descend and take the stream. Their marathon-runner mindset didn’t seem to be translating to rogaining over challenging terrain. Continuing along the ridge was a straightforward fast-walk through a light forest studded with blood gums as we tried to make up time on the flat. No longer pro-tected by the lush vegetation on the valley floor and walls, the sun beat down. Reaching the stunning cliff-top control point was a moment to relax and take in the view. One interesting thing was being able to spot the controls on other hilltops from across the valley. All day long we leap-frogged with other teams on the same route as there were few options. Many people found the course physically challenging - the constant ascent and descent in the heat caused many to move slowly, pausing to rest before pushing themselves for-ward. On one hilltop, one fellow was asking around for ‘spare’ water, but by that stage, most people were re-alising that they weren’t prepared either and had little to spare. The little things were challenging too. The controls were definitely hung by beanpoles. Once we had to jump down onto a ledge to punch a control. Taller or-ganizers stepped down easily, but the vertically chal-lenged struggled to hop down. I actually needed a hand from another competitor to get back up. Imagine getting stuck up there! Teams with prams competing in the metro areas of the course struggled with the hilly terrain on suburban streets, with some tough cookies lifting the prams for greater mobility. This was one tough rogaine! Just how hard was it? Well the winning team scored half the available points - 1130 out of 2200. This proves that the course-setters advice is to be heeded - “that a careful balancing of options will be required”.

4. Denim jeans

5. Bowie knives and hatchets

6. The mega-warm sleeping bag

7. SLR camera & telephoto lenses

8. Mission creep headtorches

9. Tinned food

10. Expedition tents

Source: Article by Marcus O’Dean in Great Walks Feb/Mar 2019

p.60-61.

Each of these points is expanded in detail (humourously) in the article so get yourself a copy – check your local Library.

1. The baseball cap

2. Kettle-style billies

3. Stainless steel pots

P A G E 3

The S pr ing Ba lance Roga ine ( c o n t ’ d f r o m P 1 ) B y Me e la D a v i s

What not to take on a bushwalk

N O . 3 2 0 1 9 S P R I N G

The view from

Control 80 - a plaque com-memorates a

teacher who drowned while saving several

children from rough waves

The view from

control 100 - across the valley you can see con-

trol 80

A pleasant stream

crossing

Descending through the

slot

Map showing the

section of course we covered - not a lot of options!

(Link to map - http://nswrogaining.org/

AboutEvents/Events/19MG/

map.pdf)

Paddy Pallin Rogaine at Colo Heights on 16 June 2019

Results for Club Members in various teams. 186 teams

were listed in the total overall results for this rogaine.

Congratulations to Meela Davis—she is the winner of

the BBC Ross Hamilton Shield for the Paddy Pallin Ro-

gainer of the Year for 2019!

Meela Davis / Ray Elbourne

620 points 105th

Rebecca Parsons / Ivars Karklins / Donna Mulholland

540 points 120th

Robert Crough / Yvonne Lim / April & John Crough

410 points 151st

feet, on the plus side we are generally have a smaller frame (about 5’5) which means our mats can be smaller and lighter. Leading outdoor brands are now making women’s specific mats that accommodate all of these differences even adding extra insulation in the areas where we feel the cold the most.

In Hot water:

Just because you are roughing it doesn’t mean you have to do it rough. Heat up some water 10 minutes before bed, wrap it in a spare item of clothing and then pop it in your sleeping bag (remember to seal the lid tightly). The bonus of this is you always have a drink handy in the middle of the night in case you took our whiskey advice too much to heart.

Extreme sleeping – cover those extremities

There is some super impressive stat that prove we lose most of our heat from our hands, feet and head so cover them up to help stay warm at night. If you didn’t pack gloves a spare pair of socks will do the trick, if you don’t have a beanie draw in the hood of your sleeping bag nice and tight.

One last pitstop:

Empting your bladder just before you go to bed has a two fold positive effect. You won’t need to get up in the middle of the night and pee (and in the process loose a lot of body warmth) and your body won’t be wasting precious energy heating up the liquid in your full bladder.

S’mores:

Consuming a slow burning snack just before bed will mean your body will be burning those extra calories overnight help-ing to keep you warm from the inside. Best s’mores excuse ever! We hear it works with other slow burning snacks as well….

oh and you can check out Sea to Summit’s offering of women’s specific sleeping bags at: http://seatosummit.com/?s=womens

Sourced from the Women’s Adventure Magazine ‘Travel, Play, Live’

this is good advice for women & men – most of these tips apply

equally.

There is nothing better than falling asleep under the stars, marvelling at the milkyway and listening to the chorus of bush animals who come to life at night. But there is nothing worse than putting in a massive day on the trail to spend the night tossing and turning because of the cold.

To help you get a good night’s rest we’ve put together a few handy tips on keeping warm at night when out in the wilds.

Start warm – stay warm:

Get warm before you get into your sleeping bag. If a camp fire isn’t an option, make sure you dress warm as soon as the sun goes down and if all else fails a quick run around the campsite should warm you up. I have been told a shot of whiskey might help too….

Loft enhancer – loft your bag

Make it a priority when you arrive at camp to put your sleep-ing bag out and give it a good shake. This will give it maxi-mum time to loft and create air space to warm up and keep you warm.

Line up: sleeping bag liner:

A sleeping bag liner will not only add an extra layer of warmth at night it will also help keep your sleeping bag cleaner. Washing and drying a liner is a lot quicker than cleaning a sleeping bag and they pack down super small and can add a great deal of warmth to your night time. They can also help reduce the “rustling” noise every time you turn over in the night.

Elevate – get a good mat

The ground is cold and will take away your warmth so make sure you have a good insulated sleeping mat that will not transfer your body heat away from you. Studies by smart people have proven that women sleep colder than men and different parts of the body transfer heat in women versus men. We feel the cold in our extremities like hands and

P A G E 4

Glenn Stalgis + 4 others (after a 21 min over time pen-

alty)

370 points 160th

Neil Beer / Miriam Beer / Nino Piro

30 points 185th

Navshield Rogaine (emergency services rogaine) at

Kanangra National Park on 22 /23 June 2019

105 teams in the 1 day event (winners had 950 points

only)

Danny O’Connell / Robert Crough / Nino Piro

(Bushwalking category) 470 points 44th

B U S H T E L E G R A P H

HOT BODY: THE KEY TO SLEEPING WARM IN THE WILD

Rogaine results

For the second presentation Mark Roach, a former teacher who is now a field officer from the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award, also from the NSW Office of Sport, spoke with passion about the Duke of Edinburgh’s scheme. He also spoke about how the Program empowers all young Australians aged 14 – 24 to explore their full potential. He described the levels as Bronze 14+; Silver 15+, and Gold 16+ and the 5 areas undertaken: Service; Physical Rec-reation; Skill; Adventurous Journey; and Residential Project. For Bushwalking Clubs the focus was on the Adventurous Journey aspect.

There is Preparation and Training, then a Practice Journey, then a Qualifying Journey. There are thou-sands of young people taking this pathway every year, mostly just with their friends. In terms of get-ting involved in the scheme a Club or Club members could become assessors or supervisors. However the Club needs to assess realistically if they have the human resources to become involved at this level. Such an opening though could then also attract the young person, when able to do so, to join the bush-walking club in later years.

For the next segment of the meeting we heard from member clubs, particularly Sutherland Bushwalking Club who have had a successful Adopt a Track pro-ject, under the control of the NPWS, in the Royal National Park, for some years, and have worked on the Uloola Track, among others.

We also were advised about Reclaim Kosci.org and the new ‘Underfrog’ film that has been made to high-light the plight of the native species in KNP, which have been forgotten in the Government’s push for making feral horses a higher priority.

Knowing you will always be able to hear from inter-esting keynote speakers, you are encouraged to come along to the next BNSW meeting (their AGM) on Tue Aug 20 at 7pm in the Redfern Town Hall.

All are welcome, not just the Club delegates. Hope to see you there.

We were greeted with the usual array of tasty, healthy nibbles and beverages prior to the BNSW May meeting at Redfern Town Hall (a lovely historic building).

President Alex Allchin welcomed us, went through a few formalities with regards to the previous meeting minutes, and then introduced the keynote speakers – Matt Sawyer and Mark Roach – who were speaking on the main topic of Engaging with Young People in Outdoor Adventure. Young People in Clubs (YPIC) is a particular focus for BNSW during 2019.

Matt Sawyer is from the Sport Integrity Unit within the NSW Office of Sport and spoke about Children and Young People in Bushwalking. This included the benefits of including young people in Bushwalking Clubs – there are many! - and creating a club suit-able for young people. Sub-topics were the learnings from the Royal Commission and determining what is child safe sport and active recreation, including areas of risk. Having a Child Protection Officer in a Club was seen as beneficial.

I was happy to be able to tell those gathered that Bankstown Bushwalking Club has had this role for some time, and that we had developed a Child Pro-tection and Safety Policy already. Other Clubs were keen to have a look.

The Working With Children Check is also a tool which can help in the pathway of changing the cul-ture of an organisation. The Child Safe Standards (1-10) were also mentioned, as was the Play By The Rules approach which is making sport inclusive, safe & fair.

Next Matt covered what support is available to help include young people, focusing on the resources, websites, and education out there which can assist clubs.

Lastly we heard about member protection – what is it?, why is it important?, and again the resources available to assist clubs in this area. Appointing a Member Protection Information Officer was also rec-ommended. I was able to relate this role to our Club’s Member’s Representative position in terms of the duties of that role.

P A G E 5

Bushwalking NSW Meeting Report – 21 May 2019 by Thaïs Turner

N O . 3 2 0 1 9 S P R I N G

Georges Hall Community Centre 188 Birdwood Road

Georges Hall NSW 2198

Club email address: bankstownbush@gmail.com

Now that the planet has dried out, around a couple of hundred of these plants cling to life in just a few areas along north facing cliffs near Govett’s Leap.

Because of their cliff-hanging location, these plants are extremely vulnerable to bushfire as well as to polluted water running down from the nearby townships. Ac-cording to NPWS Area Manager Vanessa Richardson, there’s another, less obvious threat to the so-called Cliffhanging 5. “Because they live around cliffs they can be easily crushed or trampled by rock climbers, abseilers and bushwalkers,” Ms Richardson said.

“Some of them grow in isolated clumps so their num-bers could be drastically reduced by someone crush-ing them with their climbing gear. Please be mindful when you are out and about in the Blue Mountains – these plants live on the narrow ledges which you might use for a lunch stop or to put down your climbing gear. Enjoy yourself but also consider the beautiful environ-ment you are climbing in and the species you share it with. To the untrained eye these plants look like a lot of others, so treat every plant like it’s the last,” she said.

Help us protect the Cliffhanging Five

There are a few simple things you can do while enjoy-ing the Blue Mountains to ensure these threatened

plants have the best chance of survival.

Keep to main tracks. You may not know, but any steps off formed tracks may damage these threatened plants.

Remember that these plants are easy to damage and parts will break off if they are touched or disturbed.

Take photos rather than flowers – leave the plants as you find them so they can be enjoyed by other visitors.

Be mindful of where you sit, climb and step when enjoying the park. Trampling by bushwalkers, climbers and canyoners is a threat to these plants.

Treat every plant like it is the last one! The less disturbance of these plants, the better.

We are calling for all lovers of the outdoors to educate themselves on protecting our native flora and fauna when out on an adventure and enjoying the wilderness! Watch the NSW Office of Environment & Heritage’s, Saving our Species videos on each of the Cliffhanging 5 and learn how to protect these vulnerable species. Watch the videos below now!

Learn more about the Saving Our Species Program by heading to the NSW Office of Environment & Heritage’s website now, where you will see the great work they are doing to protect NSW’s threat-ened flora and fauna.

#ExperienceIsEverything | #PaddyPallin

S p e c i e s t o S a v e : T h e C l i f f h a n g i n g 5

Contributions to this newsletter are always welcome & can be emailed to Thaïs .

Deadline for Summer issue is: Fri 1 Nov 2019

Club Nights coming up in 2019: Oct 14th Social event Nov 11th General Meeting Dec 9th Xmas Party

We’re on the Web!

http://

www.bankstownbushwalkingclub.

org.au

CLUB MEETINGS EVERY MONTH

USUALLY HELD ON 2ND MONDAY OF MONTH—

EXCEPT JANUARY

P A G E 6 B U S H T E L E G R A P H

NEW MEMBERS Please welcome our new members when you

next see them on an activity.

Nahed Als

Robert Dean

Tatyana Babic

Guy Dunphy

Cyril Jacquemin

(Cont’d from P2)

Florabella Pass 21 July 2019 — pics from Thaïs

N O . 3 2 0 1 9 S P R I N G P A G E 7

An excellent History of Bushwalking (Pt 1) is to be found on Caro Ryan’s blog lotsafreshair.com. Check it

out now!!

$2million has been put aside to upgrade 2.35kms of walking tracks in the Lower Blue Mountains including Siding Lookout to Knapsack Viaduct, Elizabeth Lookout to Knapsack Viaduct, Marges Lookout to Mitchells Pass, and Marges Lookout to Lennox Bridge. This will make significant heritage features more accessible to residents and tourists. These are all part of a walk that Thaïs often runs in the Lower Blue Mountains. The works are due to get under way in August 2019.

A number of walking tracks across Blue Mountains National Park have reopened with improved safety. These include Valley of the Waters; undercliff/overcliff tracks at Wentworth Falls; and Furber Steps at Katoomba. Track surfacing, drainage improvements, stepping stones, footbridges, safety barriers, and step replacements have occurred to make these tracks accessible again. However the National Pass walking track remains closed until further notice due to dangerous rock falls.

Bird lovers would be interested to know that there is a podcast well worth listening to about Lyrebirds. It was on Radio National Off Track segment and was broadcast on 22/6, 29/6 and 6/7 2019. These fasci-nating birds do have their own call, it is not all a mimic of other sounds.

BNSW e-News has recently had some very interesting links to articles such as The Walking Volunteers Map of Greater Sydney; a story about a winter traverse of the Australian Alps Walking Track (AAWT); and the Light to Light Track on the NSW South Coast. Check them out when the email arrives in your inbox.

A new book has been added to our Club Library courtesy of the authors. It is titled ‘Take A Walk: in Southern NSW and the ACT’ by John and Lyn Daly.

BNSW has recently given club members an opportunity to make feedback for their Constitution update.

The NPW Regulation has recently been updated and on show for consultation.

Plans of Management for various National Parks & reserves are on display for the public to provide feed-back: Ku-Ring-gai Chase NP; Lion Island Nature Reserve; Spectacle Island Nature Reserve; and Long Island Nature Reserve discussion papers have been released, comments close on 15/9/19. Bouddi NP by 30/9/19.

SportAus has produced a 3 year study Australia-wide into the state of play with the activity of Bush Walk-ing. Fascinating stats and info to be read by all members if possible.

A brochure has recently been released showing the proposed Great Western Walk, which goes from Emu Ford at Penrith to Flagstaff at Bathurst. Soon an ongoing traverse of the Blue Mountains will be a reality.

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has stepped in over the Warragamba Dam Wall raising proposal. They have found that any new dam proposals are incompatible with the world heritage status of the Blue Mountains. The Committee met in Azerbaijan in early July 2019 and found that raising the wall and inter-mittently flooding large areas of the GBMWHA would “likely impact on its outstanding universal value”. Australia has been asked to submit any EIS for the Committee’s review before any final approvals are made.

A new documentary titled ‘2040’: Join the REGENERATION has started screening in cinemas from May 23. It shows that with the technology available to us today we are capable of building a more sustainable future for future generations. Directed by Damon Gameau (That Sugar Film) it embarks on a journey to explore what the future could look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to us to improve our planet and shifted them rapidly into the mainstream.

WIRES would like to highlight the issue of net entanglement which can cause constriction wounds, abra-sions, fractured bones and even death in the thousands of animals per year which become entangled in tree netting. By choosing to leave a tree without netting or making responsible choices (tight weaves, very small holes) at the checkout, netting entanglements could be prevented.

Take care of the superheroes of pollination – bees and flying foxes – without them our native plants and forests would not remain healthy, so they are irreplaceable in the ecosystem.

Parramatta Council has recently updated its Bushwalks of Parramatta brochure which includes informa-tion on 15 major walking tracks across Toongabbie, Winston Hills, Westmead, North Rocks, Carlingford, Northmead, Epping, Telopea, Homebush and other suburbs. Find it at the Visitor Centre or online.

SNIPPETS Compiled by Thaïs Turner