Page 20 - YV 4x4 Mag Summer 2019 .pub

Sign Maintenance Weekend

23rd to 25th November 2018

Peter ( Aussie ) Yin Peter & Carol Grant Bruce Unmack

Leon & Sandi Chris Kurz John Toogood

Ed & Jules Spencer Andy Clark Graeme Geelan

Who thought volunteering could be so much fun?

Our first camping trip with the Yarra Valley 4x4 club will definitely not be our last.
Friday 23 November dawned to reveal heavy grey skies and steady rain. The idea of a sign
maintenance weekend was being reconsidered and thoughts of a weekend of watching movies
in a warm home were dominant. Thankfully this quickly passed and we made our way to
McDonalds near Pakenham to meet the 3 other vehicles that had agreed to travel together.
It was good to have John Toogood leading as it was our first trip into Little O’Tooles.

We arrived at the Thompson dam to air down in 9 degrees and drizzly rain. Peter Grant
decided to give a quick lesson on how not to use a tyre deflator, somehow managed to find the
ejected valve and quickly setup the compressor to inflate his tyre.

The drive in along Walhalla road, Merringtons track, Sullivan track, Junction track and Donnelly
Creek road was fun with a couple of river crossings. The benefits of tagging along with experi-
enced members (and of walking a water crossing if you are not sure) were highlighted when
we made one of the crossings. We were told to stay right and cross to a middle bank before
completing the second part of the crossing as going straight across to the left was much
deeper. The value of this instruction was proven when Graeme Geelan passed through the
crossing later in the day and saw a land rover being dragged out from the left hand side.
The water was above the sill of its open window and the driver was sitting on the roof !

We arrived at Little O’Tooles to be welcomed by Bruce and Andy who had kindly collected a
heap of firewood and had a warming fire going. After checking for overhanging branches and
low flooded spots, camp was set up and we were soon having much anticipated refreshments
around the fire. The off and on rain through the afternoon and evening was annoying but um-
brellas kept us dry. Some great conversation and stories about past events were had.

Saturday morning revealed low cloud and intermittent showers but this did not stop the
planned sign maintenance work from proceeding. After hearty breakfasts, Bruce definitely got
the award for the most gourmet, we broke into two teams, each with a list of signs to clean and
areas to clear. Each team would complete a similar loop including; Donnelly Creek track,
Spring road and White Star track, we went counter clockwise and the other group went clock-
wise.

It was a really interesting day for all involved. The sign clearing was easy as the area around
them was relatively clear and for most it was a case of 1 or 2 workers with 6 or more supervi-
sors sharing the workload. Nature was putting on a special show. Parts of the forest we trav-
ersed were a sea of flowering wattle and the new red growth on the eucalyptus contrasted
wonderfully with the green foliage. The real treat was learning so much about the history in this
area. Lloyd’s hut, Store point, Edwards Hill, Eliza Anderson grave, Edwards Reef burial ground
and The Springs just some of the fascinating places we visited. Around lunch time we met up
with the other team at Crooks where we had at least 10 people supervising the sign cleaning
process.

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