Friends of Mt Field

Saturday 19 November 2016

A very light shower started the day, but not enough to make a raincoat a necessity, and it cleared up quickly with the day gradually getting finer and warmer.
 
More track clearing was done between Seagers Lookout junction and the top of the climb to the high point before Windy Moor. Also, some of the Bauera on the Seagers track was cut but we discovered more needs doing there.
Our priority section of track has already been hardened with rock and areas of lesser concern are now being targeted. Two short boggy areas were given the rock treatment and it was fortunate that both had a good supply close at hand. In addition, a scree on a slope was made much better to negotiate by moving rocks into positions to make stepping up and down easier. 
 
A wet area now hardened with rock
 
 
 
 
Adrian and the rock he and Greg slid to be used on the track
 
 
 
 
 
Thursday 17 November 2016
Part of a grant from Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife was used to purchase timber to add to that already laid at the start of the Mount Field East track and it needed to be moved to the site. On a delightfully sunny morning it was ferried from the workshop at the park entrance and then the hard work of carrying the planks commenced.
 
Each plank had to be taken about 250 metres up the track and required two people for each one. There were five volunteers and three parks staff, making a nice round number and meant four trips  for each pair. Even so it was still quite an effort for most of us.
 
The timber will be used to extend the hardening of a further wet area on the track, which is also an area of extensive tree roots that have become exposed.  Walking over the earlier section is already a vast improvement and this will add another 50 metres or so for the benefit of both walkers and the environment.
The task was finished by lunchtime and we then moved on to Wombat Moor to view plants that may be used for interpretive signs; another of our planned project. Once done we were invited on a  visit to see the improved facilities underway at Lake Dobson and the recladding of the rough sawn timber on the nearby historic Government Huts  
 
Ozothamnus on Wombat Moor