Table of contents for Issue 181, Spring 2021 in Wild

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“Golden hour. It’s a magical time of day, when all the pretty colours come out to play. But it’s also a tricky time to shoot landscapes, especially when your shots have people in them. Lighting changes quickly, and you’ve gotta be just as quick to adapt to these changes, both in terms of composition and settings. When we arrived at Mitchell Dyke late in the afternoon, we hastily set up camp and raced to the summit for sunset. With the light rapidly fading, and as Maddy made us all a warm brew, I quickly set up my tripod and fired away some quick test shots. With the sun making its final dash towards the horizon, we knew we’d only get one sequence of shots before the light disappeared. I widened…

Like many other readers of Wild, the high country of mainland Australia and lutruwita/Tasmania is, in all seasons, my much-loved backyard. While I admire the higher mountains of other continents, these ranges feed me in a way that is hard to describe. Partly, my love affair with the mountains here has been fuelled by the gnarled and twisted snow gum. But lately I have had to accept the fact that, as I get older, the snow gum forests are getting younger. And, like the alpine ash forests that live at lower elevations, snow gums are facing an existential threat that should alarm all mountain lovers. The risks come from two sources: Firstly, dieback, which is caused by a native beetle; and secondly, more frequent and intense fires. Both threats have…

I am an alien. I belong to the landscape as much as a pulsating blue dot belongs to the environment it hovers over in Google Earth. “See that creek over there?” I squint and strain to see water; I see only trees. “Nah, nah, look ahead, down there. See the creek?” To avoid holding up the small group I say, “Yes”, despite not seeing the creek—Carlon Creek—for the trees. It’s 2001 and my first walk with the Sydney Bush Walkers Club. It’s clear that, unlike my sense of a Google Earth pixel, they belong to this Earth. Rolling down the winding dirt road of the Megalong Valley, I’d made an assumption that the English they were speaking was a language I understood. How was I to know that, as I…

He hikes thousands of kilometers every season, carries 50kg packs on his back, fights for the wild and stars in a children’s adventure book. Wes Moule—food dropper, wilderness guide, conservationist and activist—is a legend in the Tasmanian hiking world As a food dropper for hikers and tour companies, Wes carries incredible loads on his back, hauling food, supplies and equipment over rugged tracks to remote wilderness locations. It’s a physically demanding and labour-intensive job and not many stick with it. But Wes loves the challenge, once slogging a mind-boggling 63kg—an outstanding feat of strength and endurance which he modestly brushes aside. Surprisingly, despite the staggering weights he bears, Wes is no hulking giant, instead sporting the lean, muscular build of a triathlete. He has a dogged mental toughness at his…

I’ve got a question for you. Well, I lie. I’ve got three questions for you, but they’re all related. If you had a whack of time and no limitations, what’s the one thing you’d choose to do? In other words, what’s your favourite pastime or activity? That one special something you wish you could do all the time? I’ll guess many of you envisioned doing something active, in the outdoors. Something adventurous. Maybe bushwalking, or packrafting, or mountain biking, or rock climbing. Or skiing, or mountaineering, or canyoning, or kayaking. Perhaps it was simply being outdoors, engrossed in nature. Or maybe it was none of the above, and something more obscure … like baking scones. I’m studying to become a teacher, and I recently posed these same questions to over…

Canyoning in Victoria? But where? These are common questions we face when describing our recent adventures around the state. Victoria isn’t known for having deep slot canyons like those in the well-known Blue Mountains sandstone. Nevertheless, a surprising amount of canyons exist in Victoria. Its widely varied geological history has produced a range of canyoning areas of considerable diversity In the alpine areas, large uplands collect snow which—once melted in the spring and summer—is funnelled towards the resistant rocks at the plateau’s edge. Here, high volume streams fall 300–600m into adjacent, deeply incised valleys over many knickpoints (or waterfalls). Anyone who has been skiing at Mt Buller will be familiar with the striking escarpments of the Crosscut Saw and The Bluff visible on the horizon; both are perfect examples of…

In the last issue of Wild, Xavier Anderson wrote a piece called ‘The DWR Problem’. In it, he talked about the PFCs used in the Durable Water Repellent coatings of most outdoors wear, and about the harm to both humans and the environment they cause. We also, in the same issue, ran a piece in the ‘Gear News’ section about Helly Hansen’s Lifa Infinity Pro fabric. To recap the piece, the waterproof/breathable fabric is the first to not only do away with DWR, but to use no chemicals at all. The fabric combines a hydrophobic face fabric with the Lifa Infinity membrane. The latter is created via a solvent-free process, after which it’s stretched— at different temperatures—in varying directions. The result is a membrane that’s 75% air. Not only do…

We, the People The outdoors is not, as you may reflexively think it is, just about the outdoors. Nor is adventure just about adventure. Yes, nature is grand and beautiful and precious. Yes, our wild places are awe-inspiring, humbling, and deserve protection from exploitation. And yes, definitely, there is freedom and challenge to be found out there, along with pumping, heart-in-mouth, adrenaline-inducing thrills. Getting outdoors involves both an act (that of 'getting’ out there) and a place; differing people have differing, and subjective, versions of what both entail. For some, a walk around the block would be considered getting outdoors (and perhaps during COVID lockdowns, the number of people subscribing to that view has surged). But largely, I think, readers of Wild would assume that getting outdoors involves getting into…

A DISTANT BEAUTY You wouldn’t think so, but even the isolated, fragile landscape of the Munga-Thirri—Simpson Desert is being threatened by the fossil fuel industry. But we are close to safeguarding this globally important landscape forever. There are some parts of this continent that, while etched into our collective consciousness, are so remote that the coast-hugging majority of Australians could be forgiven for not knowing much about what goes on there. The Munga-Thirri—Simpson Desert, in the heart of Australia, is one such place. And therein lies the danger, because even places as hard to reach and timelessly beautiful as this are at risk from fossil fuel companies. “Munga-Thirri—Simpson Desert is a vast, globally important wilderness,” says Peter Owen, the Wilderness Society’s South Australia Director. “[It has] the world’s longest parallel…

For countless generations, takayna was home to the Tarkiner people. An ancient mossy rainforest set between the tannin-stained waters of the Arthur and Pieman Rivers, it is a remnant of supercontinent Gondwana, which broke up 180 million years ago, before songbirds evolved. It was here that the Tarkiner people survived the harshness of the last glacial age, sheltering along the coast. With the coming of the Europeans to Tasmania, it became a place of suffering, brutality and false promises. For years, Aboriginal Tasmanians have fought to protect its ancient cultural sites from accidental and wilful destruction by off-road vehicles. Takayna remains a refuge for slow-growing species such as the Huon pine, which can thicken by just one millimetre a year. Some were saplings at the time of the Roman Empire.…

For years, a voyage around Rakiura (aka The Land of Glowing Skies, aka Stewart Island, New Zealand’s third-largest island) by sea kayak had been a dream, a goal, a committing expedition comparable to climbing one of Aotearoa’s three greatest peaks, but in the wild ocean environment, paddling in small vessels, at the mercy of whatever wild weather systems the Southern Ocean throws at you. The island was visited by early Polynesian and Māori peoples who fished and hunted tī;tī (muttonbirds). The early 1800s brought European sealers and whalers, who created small settlements centred around timber, boat building, farming, and fishing. In 2002, Rakiura National Park was created. It currently protects 157,000ha—about 85% of the island—and is a sanctuary where native forest and birds can flourish. We camped among mature rimu,…

Traversing the Fitzgerald River National Park’s spectacular coastline, this adventurous and sometimes rugged six-day hike offers some of Australia’s finest coastal walking. Located in WA’s South West, and starting at Bremer Bay and ending in the quaint coastal town of Hopetoun, it wanders along white sandy beaches, passes over limestone dunes, traverses gently undulating plains, negotiates rugged quartzite ranges, and hugs the dramatic rocky coastline. And all the way, you’ll have expansive views across the Southern Ocean. The scenery, however, is just one of the walk’s draws; the nearly 300,000ha park itself is the core of the internationally significant Fitzgerald Biosphere, a 1.53 million hectare area recognised as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO. Nearly 1,900 plant species are found in the area, of which 75 exist nowhere else in the…

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“We want to recreate a natural balance between predators and prey,” says Aaron Smith. The local Narungga Ranger, now 36, has been working in the Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park (previously known as Innes National Park) since the age of 18, and knows every animal and plant species in the area. Aaron sets a trap under a low bush, containing dried meat laced with the toxin sodium fluoroacetate—also known as Com-pound 1080. He insists it poses no threat to the local wildlife. For the feral predators the traps are targeting, however, that’s a different story. The park consists of more than 10,000ha of native vegetation on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula. The area showcases dramatic cliffs and long sandy beaches, and attracts thousands of tourists. And while the area of wilderness is…

‘Adventure’ has become one of those buzzwords that gets brandished around like bright red candy at the lolly store. One can get away with calling just about anything an adventure these days. The word is used in marketing slogans of tour companies that promise ‘adventure’ on catered trips that run like clockwork, with predictable outcomes and comfort guaranteed to the clients the entire way. The idea of adventure is in stark opposition to the current Zeitgeist. We live in an era of hyper-conservatism, where any unnecessary risk to human life must be eliminated. Risk taking is becoming more and more frowned upon. The rise of insurance companies has meant that we are covered, at least financially, for most foreseeable but unexpected situations. Humanity seems to have a deep desire to…

It’s one of those perfect autumn days in the Blue Mountains, the land of the Dharug and Gundungurra peoples. Endless rains have cleared, and the horizon wears a hazy eucalypt halo that melts into the flawless blue sky. The sun radiates warmth deep into my bones and just before it gets too hot, the soft breeze whips the heat away with a cool breath Bursting bouquets of new growth decorate the valley. On the eucalypts, this means enormous baby leaves that will eventually shrink to slender half moons. Amongst the fresh greenery, rivers of black cut through the landscape like lightning bolts. Last year’s Black Summer bushfires destroyed 80% of the Blue Mountains National Park, annihilating entire mountainsides and leaving behind thick gashes and deep wounds in the ground. A…

Imagine setting out on a three-day walk to a remote lake in Tasmania’s Central Highlands. The lake is in a trackless area, far from the nearest roads and vehicle tracks. The walk in, which can take eight hours even by the quickest route, involves navigating across a mosaic of woodlands and moorlands, past several other lakes, and through patches of dense scrub. Early on the second morning, you cross a small clearing and pick your way through rocky woodland to the crest of a low ridge. You’re rewarded with the view of a sky-blue alpine lake, nearly three kilometres long, fringed by heavily timbered slopes. Scattered pines grow along the shoreline. And in the midst of the lake there is an island. The island is like a miniature of the…

Winding down twisting gullies between steep cliffs, we slog down towards Canoe Creek. Heavy packs crammed with everything needed for two days of packrafting. Paddles, constantly in the way, held awkwardly in one hand. And then we see it—our first view of the Colo Gorge. Ancient sandstone cliffs tower 400m above the river; I’m filled with excitement … and anxiety. The exciting: two days packrafting through one of the largest gorges in the world in the heart of the Wollemi Wilderness. The worrying: numerous unknown rapids, stories of undercuts and sieves, and no easy egress routes other than our planned entry and exit points. As Lieutenant Colonel Clews—a pioneering surveyor of the region—wrote in his memoir The Bad Bit Across the River in 1934, “If you fly in a straight…

I am a tight arse. There, I’ve admitted it. But one thing I’ve realised with outdoors equipment over the years is that, to a large extent, you get what you pay for. Going cheap frequently means inferior gear that ends up not being worthwhile, and in the end you buy the more expensive, more suitable item anyway; the old saying “A poor man buys twice” is all too true. What’s worse, the cheap gear you ditch can end up in landfill. But because of my natural proclivity to tight-arsery, I’ve had to learn the hard way that it’s usually better to get quality kit in the first place by ponying up and spending a bit more. But not always. Sometimes there’s cheap equipment that works, and, occasionally, that works really…

I think at some point, many—if not most—bushwalkers take a good hard look at their backpacks and think, Why are you so heavy?! Upon investigation, the normal culprits are tents, sleeping bags, sleeping mattresses, and food. But have you considered cutting down weight through your cookware? I hadn’t. I’d always thought the weight saving would be minimal at best. But then I picked up Keith’s Ti6017 Titanium cook set, with a combo 1.25L pot and 800ml pan. I was honestly surprised at how light it was—just 230g. That’s 200g lighter than my trusty 1400ml stainless steel billy. It mightn’t sound like much, but when I held Keith’s cook set in one hand and my old billy in the other, the difference was stark. That wasn’t the only surprise. Titanium’s strength…