Lantana Clearing & Weaver’s Ridge Trail
19th October 2008
Trip Leader:
Edward Emery – Landcruiser
Attendees:
Hass, Carmen, Liam & Ethan Hassan – GQ wagon
Charles & Jenny Bottemanne – GU ute
Rose & Max Serra – GQ wagon
Brett McCurley & Bradley Russell – GQ wagon
We all met up at the designated 9am time at South Maroota Community Reserve that is, except for Max & Rose, who were running late - as per usual Carmen says!
Making our way down to Maroota Ridge and through the locked gate we notice straight away the different appearance of the area as NPWS have had a ‘slasher’ come through recently and it has cleared a lot of the taller grasses.
All gloved up with seceters and loppers in hand we trudge down to the area we were at last time. It was good to see that the dead piles of old lantana that we have cut down last time had not re-sprouted and that the poisoning of the remaining stems and stumps had also prevented the return growth of this weed.
Straight away we notice the area has been cleared a great deal more than what we had done last time. The whole ridge we were working on is basically cleared of all the lantana. Edward says that Ranger Tegan Burton had informed him that the Jackeroo Club have also been doing work in the same area, so obviously they had cleared the remainder of the ridge at an earlier date.
With no further lantana to clear Edward tells us that he will speak with Tegan again so she can advise us of the next area they want us to help clear.
So with the lantana clearing complete we head off to Edward’s house to unload the club trailer so it can be eventually towed to a public weighbridge and then receive a blue slip for re-registration. Many hands make light work and the whole unloading process takes about 5 minutes in total.
Now it was onto Weaver’s Ridge Trail for the drive we didn’t get to do last time as we didn’t have the key for the gate. This time we do!
With Edward leading our convoy we slowly meander our way along the fairly wide and mostly flat trails. We take a few different turns which all lead to dead ends but the views are very scenic and the native wildflowers are out in full bloom. Jenny, Rose and Carmen are constantly chatting back and forth over the radio as they excitedly spot the different types and species.
We cover most of the tracks marked on the map and fortunately didn’t come across any major issues with access or track condition. As it’s now about 1pm and the temperature is hot we decide to call it a day and make our way home.
This is the first time the All Terrain 4wd Club has been granted proper access to a National Park ‘locked gate’ trail and hopefully this will be a positive sign of things to come as we continue to work closely with NPWS to hopefully gain further access to bigger and better areas.
Brett