Anzac Day Weekend in the High Country

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4 days spent in the High Country with Stevo in a Disco 1, Trevor in a Rangie and Darren in a Cruiser.

Travelling on my own and driving pretty close to the extent of my abilities most of the time there aren’t many pictures on this trip, with the majority taken whilst stationary. The few pictures I tried to take whilst on the move either came out blurry or ended up being of the dash, steering wheel or similar.

Stevo prepared a Google Earth KMZ file of the weekend which can be downloaded from here. The 4x4 section begins at waypoint “69-track” You really need to rotate your view to get a sense of the topography of the land though.
 

A Weekend in the High Country

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Stevo & Fred in a Disco 1, Gavin & his son Angus in a Navara, Trevor in a Classic Rangie, Dimitrous & his son Luke in a Patrol



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Heading out with Gaynor and Pete to the Rubicon State Forest.

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Morning Tea at Cooks Mill in the Cathedral Range SP, then into the Rubicon SF for lunch at Whiskey Creek Hut, off to Morris Lookout via the Royston Range Tk for afternoon Tea.

A quick visit down to the Royston Power Station and then up the steep extension of Park Rd (which Gaynor drove) and back out onto the Hwy.



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Stevo, Darren and his son, Tim and his two kids, Connor and I all met at the Shell Servo at the bottom of the Westgate Bridge to convoy our way to Bacchus Marsh before heading North for Wombat State Forest.

Stevo with his newly fitted muddies looking for a challenge and Tim not to be out done, I chose to sit behind Darren and follow his line.

This is the first time I haven’t ended up getting myself stuck, with my home made CDL lever and the larger AT tyres Sally was more than capable even if she was let down by my driving skills.

I even managed to make my way through a section that Tim got stuck in and much to our amusement he ended up needing to be snatched by a bunch of tourists in an old Daihatsu Rocky.

Stevo made it through the day with no damage, Tim damaged his rear bumber bar, Darren bent his bulbar and lost a driving light cover and I cracked the lower section of my front bumper.


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Cobaw State Forest

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Speaking to Stevo’ on Friday afternoon he enquired if we were intending on going on the trip being organised by Dean to Cobaw State Forest, I haven’t been on the AULRO forums much of late and to be honest hadn’t seen the thread regarding this. I mulled it over for a while and to be honest the thought of getting out for the day was tempting to say the very least, being stuck at home job hunting is starting to take its toll on me.

Catherine was out with the girls for Friday night drinks so when I rang her about 11pm and asked her if she was interested she said yes, a few drinks and a not so clear head she failed to ask what time we would be leaving the following morning, I also believe that Cath agreed because she knew I wanted to go.

So I got to work packing for the trip, its amazing how time consuming getting ready for these things are when your packing for 2 little ones, lunches, snacks, bottles, changes of clothes, sun cream, hats, coats, drinks, dummies, nappies, wipes the list just goes on and on and crawled into bed around 12:30am just as Cath arrived home.

Waking to the alarm a bit after 5:30am we got to work, getting dressed then packing and loading the stuff into the back of Sall, then waking the girls, sorting breakfast and hitting the road about 6:40am. The plan was to meet at the Village Green Hotel car park at 7am but we needed to fill up with petrol first and 90 litres on these low flow pumps is all to time consuming.

Arriving at the car park Peter and Lyn were already there in their 80 series Landcruiser and Darren and his little one were there in his Pathfinder, we were just waiting on Stevo and Annette in their Disco1, time to crack open the thermos and have another shot of caffeine, I was sleepy and my eyes felt gritty.

Hitting the road the plan was to meet at Carlsruhe Servo at 8:30am, having a V8 and the fuel bill to prove it and with Tomtom set with our destination I decided to set cruise control and take the lead, leaving those with fuel economy to battle up the inclines.




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Stones Outstation Working Bee

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Stevo and I convoyed together from home at about 10:30am Friday morning chatting along the way via the UHF all whilst the rain came down by the bucket load. Stevo was optimistic that the rain would be clear once we made our way over the Black Spur, although I was doubtful to say the very least. Yet he was right about 50KMs out of Marysville the weather began to clear and stayed fine upon arriving at Stones right up to the time we began to setup camp and once again the heavens opened up. As luck would have it the weather cleared just as soon as we sufficiently drowned and our camp was setup!

We headed out for a bit of an explore before it got dark and I cease to be amazed at how Lake Eilden’s water level has dropped, we came upon a camp ground with toilets that was used for boats which is now currently an estimated 3KMs from the water..

Heading back to camp Stevo amazingly spotted a Bowerbird nest along the side of the track. Ray turned up at the campsite first followed by Gavin a little later we had an amazing dinner of roast pork, vegies with gravy or apple sauce all cooked in the camp oven by Stevo.

Saturday we began working on the hut, Ray and Steve cleaned out the dirt and rubble around the fireplace before Stevo was alarmed by the presence of a fictitious snake. Gavin and I leveled the high ground areas around the outside of the hut creating a full away from the hut and Jason and his son Noah arrived to help with the timber slabs on the chimney, before Clarkie and Justin also arrived.

Jason had to leave early to get his son off to work, Clarkie and Justin needed to find some tracks in Toolangi. Stevo and I left Saturday afternoon and on the way out spent an hour or so wandering the old mine shafts littering the hills on the way out and Ray & Gavin spent Saturday night at camp and headed out on Sunday morning.



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As a member of the AULRO Huts group Caitlin and I made our way up to Stones Outstation on Saturday, we left home about 9am and arrived around 11am.

This was the second working bee on the hut, as it was Meg’s Birthday on the privious weekend we were unable to participate in the first working bee.

We lifted the hut using acro props and a high lift jack and removed the old rotten posts, replacing them with new ones that had been cut on the prior weekend. Interestingly enough it appears that all bar one of the original posts were free standing on the surface and not dug in, but it is possible that the posts had completely rotted leaving no evidence of the post in the soil.

Caitlin in her new hat had fun playing with Ray’s kids and seemed to take a shine to Ray’s youngest son!

See the Pictures Here on my sister website AULRO Huts.




On Sunday Catherine, Caitlin, Meg and I headed up to Stones for the continuation of the working bee on the Hut and Meg wasn’t in the best of moods as surprisingly she was still asleep at 8:30am when I had to wake her to get her dressed to leave.

On the track into Stones we met with Wayne coming the other way who informed us that people had decided to pack up early and skip working today. (Most people had gone up on Friday or Saturday and camped at the hut for the weekend.)

Stopping to chat to everyone as they made there way out we found ourselves at Stones on our own. We stopped for a picnic at the hut I had packed for the trip and then made for the 3km walk to Lake Eildon.

On the walk we came across a very large wombat who was not impressed with us turning up at dinner time and 5 ducklings hiding from predators under a fallen tree in the creek. We also came across many kangaroo bones and rubbish that had once been on the bottom of the lake, such as boat parts, batteries and old bottles.

We also found concrete boat moorings that were at least 1.5kms from the water now and finally reaching the lake itself you could see the high water mark on the hills which was at least 50ft up from the current water level.

On the way home we made a quick detour through the township of Eildon before hitting the road in earnest for the 2 hour trip home.

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I have been busily working away on a new Website for Australian Land Rover Owners - Huts Maintenance Team (AULROHMT).

http://www.aulrohuts.com

Currently we have been nominated caretakers of 12 huts by DSE.

About Aulro HMT -

The Australian Land Rover Owners Hut Maintenance Team was formed as a direct result of the losses of High Country huts that occurred in the bushfires in January 2007.




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Upper Jamieson Hut

Located:
Eight Mile Creek, off Brocks Rd

History
A slab hut built by Fred Fry in the early 1930s. Renovation undertaken by DSE in 2007

Construction
A classic drop slab cabin with an iron roof and chimney.

Caretakers
AULRO

Read More . . .

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AULRO Sheepyard Flat Weekend

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Ray a member of AULRO organised a trip to Sheepyard Flat with approx 50 adults, kids and dogs going.

Sheepyard Flat is near Mansfield and is a natural camping spot on the banks of the Howqua River in the High Country......




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AULRO Toolangi Trip

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We headed out with AULRO folks for an easy drive in the country.

What a suprise we where in for!




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