APRIL 2012
This
year’s AGM yet again produce another full committee. There are several changes to the roles of responsibility for the Committee Members and these changes include;-
Glenn Bignell is now monitoring the club’s property along with his on-going insurance officer responsibility. Besides keeping an inventory of club property, Glen will also manage the ongoing maintenance and replacement costs so that our Treasurer can budget for these expenses. These costs include such things as replacement batteries for the defibrillator and future upgrading of IT equipment.
In the absence of any other volunteers, Michael Gilbert has taken the responsibility of Trip Coordinator alongside his Web Administration role. John Holbrook has volunteered to be Trip Coordinator Assistant, while Paul Ryan will be Assistant Web Administrator. Our Vice President Peter has volunteered to take on the management of the club’s library. David Jones is our club’s new membership officer, and Tracy Jones is looking after the club shop. Tony Weldon has two assistants to manage the environment activities. Stephen Kalynuik will assist in the area of Byford, and Keith Parker will assist with the Leschenault Peninsular activities.
As a result of feedback from the Planning meeting, and discussions during the Committee Meeting, Guest Speaker topics will be kept relevant to 4WDing, camping and club activities and kept to a 30-minute schedule. However it is difficult to draw a line on occasions when topics cross into non-related areas or sales promotions. It was therefore decided that the Secretary would have the discretion in rejecting or accepting guest speakers. Less restrictions are given to members themselves who wish to present something of interest as guest speakers. Any one wishing to sell a product that is relevant to the club and is willing to offer a special club price will be given the last five minutes of a meeting to describe their offer and can display the product at the back of the hall after the meeting.
The club’s media system was discussed following several problems in running presentations in previous meetings. Our club’s IT Officer, Rob Nankiville is currently investigating our options of improving the system. In the mean time, it is requested that any(Continued on page 4)
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one wishing to display an on-screen presentation that they make sure they are here in plenty of time to give Rob the file for loading and testing before the meeting.
Richard Nichols recently held a sand training day where members and visitors have expressed their delight in how professional the day was organised and run. The value of the information and training received is equivalent to attending a certified drivertraining course. Richard is a fully qualified and experienced off-road trainer and the value of receiving such training is a privilege not experienced in other clubs. For this reason, the Committee has decided that from now on, In the event of a full day’s driver training by Richard, member’s will now be charged $25 trip levy and visitors $50. Richard prepares and delivers a contemporary training package to our club and we cannot express enough appreciation for his efforts. All of the money received from the Training Days goes to the club. Future training days will include inland, hill and advanced driver training.
Mother’s Day is May 13. There will be quiz night in tribute to the Club Mums immediately following the Kaarakin Busy Bee on Saturday May 12. See the flyer in this magazine for details. See you at the May meeting where we will have the pleasure of listening to Troy Shortland’s adventures in the North. Martin Archer President
To all our Club Mums
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HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MAY 13th
Meet: 1st Service Station on the right as you approach the intersection of Wanneroo Rd and Hester Ave, Neerabup from Perth (Name to be announced) Time: 8:45am for 9am departure Bring: Morning Tea, Lunch, Drinks, Chairs etc. In Car UHF, Full Recovery Equip Lunch: Under trees adjacent to Moore River Grade: 2—3, depending on personal choice. Sand, mud, river crossings, rutted hills Leader: Craig P Register:
craigperry5@bigpond.com 5
(Notes by Trev with annotations in red by Paul to keep the Ba$%^ds honest) The day began with an 8:30am meeting time at the BP service station in Merriwa. Coffees purchased, the usual banter about 4WDing and all its glory prevailed, then we were mustered together by Richard N (our trainer) for the day’s briefing. The destination was the sand dunes of Wilbinga and after a short drive to a suitable spot on the side of the road, we all listened to the benefits of airing down, equipment needed to do the job properly and how it was necessary for each individual to decide the best pressures to be running in the tyres, depending on the car, weight carried in the form of plump passengers, tyre construction etc etc.etc. Most of us just heard “18 to 20 psi” as a good starting point and then we would experiment with lower pressures as the day went on and we found more challenging tracks. (Richard loves it when everybody listens so closely but as time will tell even the more experienced ones should always pay attention, it’s not about the pressure so much but the length of the tyre track.) Soon we all drove onto a soft turn-around circle on the edge of a sand dune that climbed up hill slightly. It was the first chance for us to see if the cars could handle the soft stuff. Didn’t take much to realise that for most of us 18psi was not going to cut it and we did our first pressure drop down to around 15psi. Such strenuous work. Great chance for morno’s. (DOH! See previous note J) Next it was into the sand dunes. We found a small hill climb and spent the next couple of hours playing on it and experimenting with different speeds, drivers and tyre pressures. Much was learnt and just quietly, between the Landcruiser and Patrol drivers, we decided that the Club would be a lot better off with a few less Pajeros! (Trevor promises to pay for the magazine printing and postage if our sponsor drops outs due to his cheeky comments. Whilst on demographics I noticed that the reason the Toyotas and Nissans went up the hills better was because the owners didn’t care as much about their vehicles, with the exception of Trevor who was clearly torn between dam6
aging his vehicle and his pride…it was painful to watch. J) A good long lunch break was spent on the beach front for most of us, but our fearless leader was called off for another duty of unbogging a stuck car. Personal training? ( Yes indeed it was a bit of one on one time recovery training with John Jr. He managed to balance his Patrol perilously on the peak of a sand dune for the purpose of demonstrating that when all 4 wheels are off the ground you aint goin’ nowhere buddy. I am pretty sure this little venture will earn him an honourable mention come award time at the next AGM.) Next it was on to Hill Descent training followed by a Beach Run. Again plenty of chances were given to play and experiment and Richard provided valuable coaching over the two way as we continued to show that we still had a lot to learn. The final challenge came when trying to exit the beach up a rutted, soft sand hill. Many had a number of attempts to get up this and so took a lot longer for us all to get off the beach than expected. (This hill was nick named “The Milk Shaker” and for reasons of public decency I will not disclose why but let’s just say you had to have (Continued on page 14)
7 Guess they should have bought a PAJ! Great shot by Judith B.
6th May Maintenance Day at CAMPERS ON THE RUN
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DON’T FORGET MOTHERS DAY ON MAY 13TH
APRIL P.O.T.Y. This great shot by Glen B. is this months Picture Of The Year entrant. Taken on the Leeman Camping Trip in March. Well Done Glenn! Cover photo by Peter on the Wilbinga Training Day. Don’t forget to upload all your photo’s to the new easy Dropbox site. Login to the club website, and click on the UPLOAD YOUR PHOTOS. Too Easy!!
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Participants: McCarthys, Archers, Bignell, Parker, Ryans, Hewers, Bickerdikes, Cheethams, Lehmanns. A total of 9 vehicles made their own way up to the Leeman Caravan Park throughout the day on Friday 2nd March. The group were allocated shaded sites with grass in close proximity to the camp kitchen and amenities. Once again the weather was beautiful and surroundings were fantastic. On Saturday, the weather forecast predicted a hot day. We decided to run a trip from the northern end of Stockyard Gully. We made a quick detour to check out Lake Indoon, which was more of salt lake than anything else. We entered a track off of the Coolimba Eneabba Road and made our way south along a rocky sandy terrain. We eventually arrived at the Stockyard Gully caves, and took the opportunity to have morning tea, and a stroll
through the caves. As the day was starting to heat up, we continued the journey along the rocky tracks, and finally came out onto the bitumen a few kilometres from Greenhead where we spent a couple of hours swimming and having lunch. Happy hour back at the caravan park was followed by dinner at the local country/sportsmans club. Sunday’s day trip started directly behind the caravan park. We made our way through tracks amongst the dunes, and headed towards Milligans Island beach. The scenery was lovely with gorgeous coves. We got to the end of the track and discovered the beach was full of seaweed and thought we couldn’t continue on. Our brave President decided to tackle the bumpy mounds of seaweed first, and led the rest of the group through to the other end. We found a lovely clear spot on the beach for mornos and an early
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swim. After that we continued on to Point Louise and admired the view looking out over the ocean and nearby Greenhead. We returned to the caravan park for lunch and a rest. After lunch, Glenn led a small group of us to some sand dunes north of Leeman. The dunes were a spectacular white contrasted against the blue sky. Glenn, Keith, and ourselves, admired the view from the top of the dunes, whilst Paul, Neil and Henry (in Neil’s car) continued on to find more play areas. Glenn and Keith decided they would venture down the steep sand dune while we took a video of the descent from the bottom. We later caught up with Paul and Neil who happily playing like little boys in a large sandpit. Not wanting to be left out of the fun, the rest of us joined them. Making it to the top of a large steep sand dune was the challenge of the day. Paul was the first make it up, in a fashion similar to a space shuttle launch. Keith and Neil had a go at it, and made it over without any trouble. Glenn attempted the dune a couple of times before finally getting over. We started making our back out of the dunes, before one last descent down a large dune. Jason and I filmed the group as they headed down.
We then continued out of the dunes, before (dare I say it) we got stuck! (not bogged). Jason was very quick to get out of the car and quickly dig with his hands, and a minute or two later, we were out. We found a nice spot on a nearby beach for a quick swim, before joining the rest of the group back at camp. On Monday morning we packed up after breakfast and made our own way back home. The caravan park owners were delighted with our club and offered to provide a prize/trophy next year, for an award of our choice for the weekend. We all loved the trip and will run it 13again next year! Jane McCarthy
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been there.) Eventually all good things must come to an end and we reached the last bit of track where we pumped up tyres in readiness for the long trip home. Fantastic day Richard. Enjoyed and appreciated by all. Trevor Theunnisen And A Richard Training Day... from the Theory point of view. Talks about wheel lockers and stuff, which is understandable at the time, but powers of recall can die very quickly. Richard Nicholls from Adventure Off Road Training offering advice over the radio.
We are taught .. tyre pressure is less important than tyre profile... to be down by one third.. and then air them down again when they heat up and rebuild pressure. and air down again when we still can’t get up that !@*!#** sand hill. We then learn how to reverse back down that same !@*!#** hill, and again... and again… but, by the end of it, we’ve also learnt why we should keep that steering wheel straight while reversing down in the wheel ruts. Why not to brake hard going down backwards, and how not to chew up the track for the next vehicle. We learn not to drive too far up a beach unless we know for sure there is a way off the beach.. before the tide comes in. Sound logical? Ask the drivers who get caught by the tide every year. And remember to stay aware of how close behind is that sandy dropoff at the water’s edge when focussing on the run up to get off the beach. We learn we have to take a leap of faith when our bonnet is in the air, our windscreen is filled with blue sky and hopefully cresting a sandy knoll... not driving off the edge of a cliff. We learn that traction control activates every time the ignition is turned off. So when 14
to offer assistance. Contact Piers - sales@officino.com you think you are in the right mode to get up that rutted, mogul ridged, boggy sandy track..you need to look again at all your settings.. or you may find you didn't have a hope in hell of getting over the top. We learn that sometimes no one can read. Especially the hundred or so drivers who passed the sign at the entrance to the beach.. ‘No vehicles past this point’. Looking forward to our next Training Day Judith Brinkley 15
MCBEG Activity January to March 18, Wungong Regional Park. The Upper Wungong Valley within the Park is a popular area for bush walking, bird watching, hiking, cycling and horse riding. It is closed to vehicle traffic without the consent of the Department of Conservation and Environment Regional Office (DEC). A proposal was made to the Mitsubishi 4wd Club late in 2011 that members may like to assist in clearing the area of the home site on Lot 54 in the Upper Wungong Valley in preparation for the installation of interpretative signage. A visit was made on January 23rd 2012 of a group comprising Tony Eddleston, the Regional Parks Operations Officer, Lee Hollingsworth, Project Officer at the Department of Conservation and Environment responsible for Volunteer Services, Hugh Carder, Administrator Planning Services (includes heritage issues), Ian Berryman, an historian specialising in early colonial history, six Committee members of the Mitsubishi 4WD Club including the Environment Officer, Tony Weldon, the President Martin Archer and myself. Some 30 Club members and representatives from DEC and also the Cultural Heritage Advisory Group were ready and signed on at the Wungong Dam car park at 9am. We set off in convoy down the stony track from North Admiral Road to the homestead site, however, someone in the front of the convoy managed to follow the wrong track so there was a bit of a delay while we backed and turned around. (Continued on page 17)
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The working bee made a good start to the task of making the homestead site safe for visitors and collecting information to be used in interpretive signage about the location. One group collected bricks used for the foundation of the last house known to have been built on the farm. These were fired in kilns further down the valley and at least two brick manufacture names are still legible. I invited Kim Fletcher to join our working bee as he has extensive local knowledge. He will return to the site soon with a member of the Armadale Districts Brickworks Preservation Group, Kath Coulthard who has specialist knowledge of the early brick making. I hopeful of advice about how these bricks might be best used in telling the story of the place. Kim is a member of the Cultural Heritage Advisory Group. He was also able to show several of us the location of the remains of the water wheel that provided power for the butter churn and irrigation of the vegetable gardens. Care was taken not to disturb the remaining relics. Other groups pulled out fencing, cleaned out the “cellar�, the tank and pruned the ornamental trees. Steve on the hired tractor dealt a blow to the cotton bush alongside the brook and others pulled up or cut down cotton bush in preparation for a later boom spray of roundup. This area can be planted with marri, Banksia and other similar plant species at the next visit in June. It is tempting for people to take souvenirs from sites such as this but it must be remembered that heritage sites have heritage stories because of fragments of china, broken toys and even the old washing machine and so all relics are valuable to the Heritage Commission. The integrity and wholeness of the site from an archaeology view is important. The Cultural Heritage Advisory Group with the City of Armadale is keen to have this property listed in the State Register of Heritage Places. 17
Dirty & Dusty! Steve K mowing the cotton bush What we know about Location 54: Ownership • There are significant aboriginal heritage sites in the Upper Wungong Valley. Koodah Cornwall from the Aboriginal Heritage Unit at DEC, who was another invited guest worker for the day, found a site with Tony Eddleston and will return with local elders to search for other sites. Koodah is also hoping to involve some of the youth from local communities in projects in Wungong RP. • European settlement began In April 1866 when William Lacy Gibbs obtained Grants 49, 54 and 62 in the Canning District at Woongan. A month later he sold three lots including Lots 54 and 62 to William Butcher (senior). The house ruin appears to be on location 54 and Lot 62 is adjacent. An original survey marker has been found and the site will be resurveyed by a volunteer forensic surveyor and the Club President, another forensic specialist. • . The property came under the control of The Metropolitan Regional Planning Authority in 1982. Stella Weldon –Club historian Note: The name Wungong has had different spelling over the years. The first Title for this property uses Woongan but later in 1908 when William Butcher (senior) died it was written as Wongong
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