Dalys Clearing
Over the past 12 months, Gavan has been talking with State Forests with the intention of the Club being able to assist Forests as volunteers where possible. Areas covered include reporting on the state of facilities in forests, untoward behavior by the public, and any perceived out ‘of the ordinary’ problems.
One area that appealed was to assist Forests at Dalys Clearing in the Belanglo State Forest just off the Hume Highway south of Berrima and an easy 90 minute drive from Sydney. The job, if we chose to accept it, was to erect bollard like posts around an area being set aside for BBQ facilities. Accept it we did and plans were in place to spend a weekend in November doing the work. That weekend it rained harder and longer than it’s rained in living memory so work was postponed to another suitable time. Members were ready for the working party on the weekend of 15 & 16 March and the weather was picture postcard good.
The Basebys arrived on the Friday and setup camp a
s Gavan arrived, followed by the Altonas and the Rayments. Firewood was easily gathered (it was after all a forest) for cooking and sitting around, and a mild night with clear sky helped the food, wine and conversation close a great start to the weekend.
On Saturday morning the other members arrived and after induction by Graham ‘Tangles’ North, the SF Ranger, we were issued with the required safety gear for the job. SF had drilled the holes in the ground and delivered the poles to site. It looked a daunting task but once started we soon got into a rhythm and while some cleaned out the holes, others carried poles, others followed up with the spirit level and others back filled and tamped.
Lunch was held in the shade of some large pine trees at the campground and ‘Tangles’ gave a talk to those gathered about the history of the Belanglo State Forest and of current forest operations.
By mid afternoon everything was looking good except for a couple of poles that would have to be concreted in as the ground was too hard with rocks to gain any depth. ‘Tangles’ produced three BBQ stands that he had made and they were concreted into the ground in the centre of the area before we called it a day.
All work and some play was the order of the weekend plan so Gavan led a trip on forest tracks taking us past the memorial to those slain backpackers whose bodies had been found. The memorial is a simple bronze plaque listing the names and nationalities of the girls, and a few keepsakes have been placed there by their families.
Close by, a Scout group had delivered a container of gear and was setting up tents and facilities to house 1000 Scouts and their leaders in pre
paration for the coming Easter weekend.
‘Tangles’ had very generously offered to provide us with a key to the local forestry office where there was a nice hot shower for people to use after a good days work. An orderly key exchange system was put in place and many people took advantage of the facilities to wash off the day’s dust and return fresh for a night around the campfire.
Back at the camp it was farewells to the Deans and Jim who could only spare the one day. The Basebys packed up their tent and stayed for dinner but had to be back in Sydney for the next day, so got away around 8.30pm.
We awoke to another beautiful day at Dalys Clearing to begin day 2 of the project. The sun was shining and the birds were out, so no one required an alarm clock. ‘Tangles’ turned up just before 9am and work recommenced promptly at nine. The slightly smaller work party this morning split up and one group made short order of concreting in the last four remaining posts and the other started marking out areas around the BBQ’s for some bricks to define the fire area.
In just over an hour all the bricks were laid in a bed of cement, the last posts were finished and morning tea was convened while ‘Tangles’ went in search of a ground leveling device and some grass seed. The final job of the morning was to sprinkle some grass seed around the northern end of the newly created BBQ area. The total for the weekend was 93 posts and three BBQ’s successfully installed.
Following the completion of the work, lunch was called and people finished packing up their tents. After lunch we took a short drive through some tracks at the northern end of the Belanglo State Forest and finished the trip shortly before 2pm on the edge of the pine plantation.
Dalys Clearing is a large peaceful grassed camp site surrounded by cool sweet smelling sustainable pine trees with cooking areas, a drop toilet, and a dam although the muddy water is not suitable for human consumption. As with all Forests, well behaved dogs are allowed and during the course of the weekend several locals went by walking their pets. Animals living in the forest include kangaroos, emus, deer, wombats and rabbits and prolific bird life. This is a place that the Club can and will utilize a lot more in the future and as it is kid and dog and friendly I urge members to watch for Club activities at Dalys.
TRIP LEADER’S NOTE
It is an interesting exercise organizing a weekend away where you expect everyone to give up their leisure time and work. I’d like to thank everyone who gave so generously of their time to contribute to a rewarding and enjoyable weekend away. Through our efforts all visitors to the Belanglo State Forest will now have access to new BBQ facilities. I’d like to thank Ian Baseby for helping with site visits and promoting the trip at club meetings in my absence, and I’d like to thank Graham ‘Tangles’ North from Forests NSW for his enthusiasm for the project and being so generous with his time and good humor over the weekend.