Table of contents for Issue 146, Mar-Apr 2015 in Wild

Throughout human history, philosophers have looked to the wonders of our natural world for inspiration and wisdom. For some, the grand majesty of snow-capped peaks hold lessons in humility and the insignificance of man, while others contemplate a deep forest and wonder how to parse the wood from the trees. Yet it is in rivers that I find the richest material for reflection, as their ability to support metaphor after metaphor appears limitless. Take, as just one example, Quentin Chester’s column in this issue, ‘Streaming Lives’, in which he draws comparison between a person’s life and the movements of a river. This is a common theme, particularly among Western philosophers, who conceive of time’s passage to be like the inexorable flowing of a river, from source to sea. When we…

1 Camp Boots $79.95 A new, Australian-made concept from Laidlaw Walkwear, this footwear is designed to be worn around the campfire after a hard day of bushwalking. Made with lighweight waxed cotton and oilskin. laidlawwalkwear.com.au 2 Cruise SUP $1099 Introducing a highly portable, inflatable stand-up paddleboard from Cool Water designed to roll up into a backpack for easy storage. kangarootentcity.com.au 3 EOS 5DSR (Due in April) Canon as relaunched its flagship range of DLSRs including the EOS 5DSR, which includes a full-frame, 50.6MP CMOS sensor and a range of new digital functions. canon.com.au 4 Morphus 30 $549.95 For the traveller, this luggage solution from Eagle Creek allows versatility with a design that includes a zip-off backpack. It also has a smaller size option. eaglecreek.com 5 Men’s Gunyah Pant $100 Quick-drying,…

Bushwalkers have always had a fierce love for Australian wilderness places and perhaps that love is even stronger today. There’s a growing awareness that in order to keep enjoying our native environment for years to come we also need to protect it. However, this dovetails nicely with the ‘leave no trace’ principles that most bushwalkers already adhere to. I think leave no trace is motivated by the combination of our instinctive love of nature and the broader understanding of it. It’s easier for those who have spent a great deal of time in the outdoors to be able to respect it and understand the need to ‘leave no trace’. People have become more informed about how their actions have a big impact on the environment. We also expect those walking with…

• This walk takes place in very remote area. Walkers should be experienced in off-track walking through thick scrub and should expect to be walking in the river often.• Walkers should carry food supplies for 8 days.• An emergency beacon should be carried.• Access to the Murray source is either a) In Victoria, drive via Limestone Black Mountain Rd to the southern end of Cowombat Flat Track (part of the AAWT) and walk along this track north for about 12 kilometres to Cowombat Flat and then about another 4 kilometres to the source. (b) In NSW, walk from Dead Horse Gap, near Thredbo, along the Cascade Trail and Cowombat Flat Fire Trail for about 40 kilometres to within 1 kilometres of the source.• Leave a car, or arrange for a…

Human history can be described as a race to explore, map, and document the last unsurveyed places on our planet. Today, almost every corner of the world has been explored and most of the significant journeys have been completed. This is especially true in New Zealand, where exploration and adventure are considered a birthright, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to walk upon previously untrodden soil. Yet in 2013, a teenager growing up on the archipelagos North Island found an adventure that hadn’t been tackled before. At just 19 years old, Brando Yelavich set out on the longest journey ever undertaken in New Zealand’s modern history - the circumnavigation of the country’s entire coastline. I first heard of Brando in a brief newspaper article and was intrigued that he was taking…

• The area travelled is well covered by Vicmap’s 1:50,000 WILLIS 8524-S and DEDDICK 8523-N• Start: On the Willis Loop Track off the Snowy River Road at WILLIS GR: 273155 (approximately 230m ASL).• Finish: The small bridge across the Deddick River off McKillops Road at DEDDICK GR: 256951 (approximately180m ASL)• The distance travelled was approximately 35+ kilometres and the descent was about 50m. Rapids in this section are Grades 2 to 3, depending upon water flow• Most rafters and canoeists complete sections of the Snowy River downstream from McKillops Bridge where the rapids are Grades 2 to 5, depending upon flow. This part of the river is covered by Rooftop’s combined 1:100,000/1:50,000 Snowy River – McKillops Bridge – Lakes Entrance Adventure Map. Such trips can take several days (see Wild…

Our experts have provided a basic checklist to remember when travelling in croc territory. One of these points may save your life: • Pay attention to signage placed around waterways at all times • Speak with locals where possible regarding potential danger • Never assume that because you can’t see a crocodile there isn’t one present • Don’t make camp on beaches or river banks • Avoid cleaning fish or washing cookware at the water’s edge • Never draw water from the same place twice • Stand a minimum of five metres from the water’s edge if fishing from a river bank • Boats less than 4.5 metres are not recommended in places where crocodiles are known to be present • Select shallow, clear areas of water where possible so…

Issue 145, Jan-Feb 2015 LETTER OF THE ISSUE Leigh wins a set of MSR Swift™ 2 Walking Poles valued at $219. These adjustable aluminium trekking poles feature breathable straps and foam grips for continuous comfort. CAUSE OF DESTRUCTION One of the reasons why I like Wild magazine is that it fosters enjoyment of outdoor activities while promoting an environmental responsibility attitude. The editorial in the last edition (145) discussed how “our love for the world is killing it”. This is certainly true and it is great that Wild is not afraid to speak out about such issues. However, financial profiteering from activities such as mining, logging is causing major destruction, grazing etc., compared to bushwalking, climbing and canoeing. The key risk factor for recreational environmental degradation is vehicular access. If…

Who am I? I am a shrub that can grow 10 metres high, can look like an innocuous plant in the Victorian alps, but have cost Parks Victoria over one million dollars in control over six years. I am the gray sallow willow (Salix cinerea). This species is a major threat to alpine ecosystems in Australia, in particular the fragile sphagnum bogs, which have been described as sponges as they store then slowly release snowmelt water over summer. These bogs are special and are listed under the National EPBC Act as being of national environmental significance. The gray sallow willow, like other willows, uses large amounts of water, can outcompete and displace native plants and has the potential to disrupt hydrology and aquatic nutrient cycles. Willows are native to all…

NPAQ investigates cattle grazing leases Paul Donatiu of the National Parks Association of Queensland (NPAQ) investigated the grazing leases in Queensland’s national parks having been shocked at the state of Warro National Park in October 2014. The practice of leasing these areas to graziers is a holdover of past governments honouring leases on state forests that had since become national parks. NPAQ discovered there are at least 30 of these leases currently in place. Jury’s out on wind farm health impacts A report released by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has found ‘no direct evidence’ of wind farms affecting human health. However, the NHMRC wind farms and health reference group chairman, Sydney University Emeritus Professor Bruce Armstrong has said that available studies on the matter weren’t substantial…

“It must be around the next corner,” calls Mike, as he steers his sorry excuse for a vessel past a thick outcrop of trees and shrub jutting out from the left bank. We are looking for the exit point - Bob Turner’s Track. ‘So who is Bob Turner anyway?’ I think to myself. We are a forlorn looking flotilla. Mike is paddling a raft that is now almost fully submerged. I am in the same boat, albeit a different raft, if you know what I mean. Two days of pinballing down rapids and scraping against river debris has left me up to my waist in water, with prune-like digits and only a few pounds of air left in the remnants of my little raft. Chris and Claudia are not faring…

Australia’s exotic Top End is brimming with two things above all else: warmth and water. That’s great for travellers and you did always dream of undertaking semi-aquatic experience, but now you find yourself standing on the banks of a tropical river and reality sets in. Warmth and water. Two things that make a crocodilian feel right at home. You’re looking at the brackish water with unwavering interest. Are those tracks leading up from the waterline? Every piece of flotsam and jetsam could be a ridge of scales just breaking the surface. Truth is, if there were a submerged, man-eating crocodile in this river, you wouldn’t have any chance of seeing it until the fatal lunge. If this sounds something of a nightmare to you, the good news is that the…

A Tiwi Islands man survived an attack in 2014 in the Northern Territory while hunting geese with family. Stephen Moreen said he was “a little bit tipsy” when he went to fetch the party’s quarry from the water. He was about waist-deep when a two-metre crocodile grabbed his arm and dragged him under the water. “It did the death roll,” Moreen told ABC. “Lucky for me when [he] went underwater I saw him and poked his eye. He let go. Once he let go he ran for the bank.”…

WILD – A GUEST FILM REVIEW BY NOELENE PROUD starring Reese Witherspoon (Fox Searchlight Pictures) It is not everyday a long distance walk is the subject of a Hollywood movie. Based on the best-selling book by Cheryl Strayed, Wild is the true story of twenty-six-year-old Strayed’s hope to heal her shattered life by hiking a 1,100-mile section of the Pacific Crest Trail, a walking trail stretching from the Mexican border to Canada. As much as Cheryl (played by Reese Witherspoon) battles with her exceptionally heavy pack, badly fitting boots and a searing hot Mojave desert, she finds her emotional struggles greater, particularly the pain of the loss of her mother. Despite the agony, the rewards derived from being immersed in nature eventually shine through. Wild is a heartfelt and inspirational…

Until the second half of last century, the forbidding nature of the south-west corner of Tasmania with its impenetrable vegetation had constituted an effective barrier for human entry. However, in the 1940s an intrepid band of canoeists starting laying their claim to this unknown quarter of Tasmania, sometimes referred to as “Transylvania”. These men risked life and limb down these treacherous rivers. One of them was a man called Johnson Fletcher Dean. Born in Evandale (north-east Tasmania) in 1926, Dean was to attain many noble feats in his life, canoeing was just one of them. An accomplished farmer and an avid bushwalker – his family would venture along such walks as The Overland track and Lake Pedder. He even laid claim to making the steepest walking track in Tasmania –…

Australian Alpine Walking Track maintenance continues Conservation Volunteers Australia is inviting last-minute attendees to join with rangers from Parks Victoria and assist with a schedule of works on the Australian Alpine Walking Track. There are two trips left in March (1-7 and 22-28) on which volunteers will have a chance to restore a piece of Australian bushwalking heritage while experiencing the best of our great outdoors. See www.conservationvolunteers.com.au for more. Rescues spike in summer spate The incidence of people requiring rescue after getting lost in Australia’s wilderness appears to have spiked in the summer of 2014/15. In one week in January alone, eight people needed to be airlifted in Tasmania’s south-west in three separate rescues. More recently, a 72-year-old man was reported missing on February 14 in the vicinity of…

Campbell Phillips’ thoughtful editorial in Wild 145 should have stimulated many debates about whether or not humanity will save the planet from itself. Or will we simply consume our way to the inevitable depletion of resources (including wilderness and biodiversity) and societal collapse which, in previous history, has occurred on a regional scale but this time will be global? We will either gain a world-wide consensus for self-preservation through democracy or thrash out the scramble for more water, food and shelter, using guns and whatever other weaponry is available as Earth’s population tops 10 billion later this century. No victors in the latter option will be left feeling good. Local and global democracy is the way forward. I agree with Winston Churchill’s sentiment in 1947, that democracy may be full…

Modern crocodiles belong to the order Crocodylomorpha, a group of archosaurs that also includes caimans, alligators and gharials. However, during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic (60-250 million years ago) this group was actually much more diverse. The largest species of which, Sarcosuchus grew to nearly twice the length of the modern saltwater crocodile (perhaps as large as 12 metres!) and weighing around eight tonnes. Dating Sarcosuchus fossils indicates this gargantuan predator inhabited what is now Africa and South America around 112 million years ago. Today, the largest, officially-measured crocodile is known as Lolong. He ended his days in captivity at the Bunawan Ecopark and Wildlife Reservation Center in Barangay Consuelo, Philippines. He measured 6.17 metres and weighed just over one tonne (1,075 kilograms).…

I’ve always loved animals and the bush. Where my brother was given to playing with Lego and one day grew up to become a mechanical engineer, I used to play with zoo animal toys. Look where I ended up. While we may have grown up in Melbourne, the family was lucky enough to own a smallholding near Seymour – the weekends spent there contain many of my fondest childhood memories. It was from this time that one of the largest influences in my life appeared. Max Johnson, the neighbouring farmer, taught me a lot about the land and he became a true inspiration to me. From that time on, I knew I was going to study zoology and so I chose my high school subjects to get me into the…