New Club - Sandhurst 4WD Club - Bendigo and Greater Bendigo Region

Yes, the Bendigo 4WD Club is still active. The Sandhurst 4WD Club has actually been founded by former members to appeal to people in the region who were looking for a club with a greater focus on trips, and without a high joining fee.

Private land??

The club was driving on gazetted fire trails, thanks for your concern.

Looks like a nice formed track along a gully, hardly a creek bed I would say Ken.

All the best

Gazetted Fire Trail my foot !! That is the same tired old crap dished up by every macho man trying to defend some of the vandalism shown on so many uTube postings. It is amazing how many gazetted fire trails pop up when people are caught out driving where they shouldn't. The tracks and roads that can be used are called tracks and roads, I defy you to produce any map of public land that has a classification of Gazetted Fire Trail. Perhaps you are getting confused with the US, here we call them tracks.
Bonz if you reckon that is a formed track along a gully it is time to get your eyes checked. That is clearly a watercourse not a formed track, if you tried to form a track there it would wash away after the first rain, they just don't build tracks in those sorts of places get real.
It is stuff like this that feeds anti 4WD recreation and you play into their hands a). showing it and, b). trying a pathetic defence to justify it.

Looks like a track to me - with a puddle in it :)

Cheers
Greg

Very easy to prove with map coordinates. I've seen plenty of tracks that look like that but not many creeks if any.

No reason to disbelieve Tim. It may not have been a "gazetted" track (Ok - incorrect use of the word "gazetted"), but by all appearences it is an established track. He wasn’t barrelling down a vegetated creek bed for the fun of it which is what is being incorrectly implied.

Cheers
Greg

That's correct, it looks pretty typical of a lot of fire trails I've seen over the years. Perfectly legal to drive on them and your insurance is not void by doing so.

Sorry Michael - should have said, yes a location/map would be nice . It's in the Pyrenees.

Cheers
Greg

Thanks guys, I think some people can't help but be negative or jump to conclusions, but I try to ignore those sort of comments for most part. Yes, I looked up gazetted and you're right, but it's irrelevant in the context of the discussion as pointed out above.

We were actually driving a day after the area received around 20-30mm rain on the 2nd/3rd December (the 100-150mm forecast didn't come anywhere near to eventuating so we made the decision to continue on the trip), there was light rain most of the time. If you look at the youtube video in the event write-up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dIPjyl6RfU - I think it will demonstrate that the club was driving very responsibly and safely

As a side, I actually posted that photo on DELWP / Forest Fire Management Victoria's Facebook page and they thanked me for the write up. DELWP and Parks Vic are working really hard to strengthen ties with the Vic 4WD Community, and whilst our club is fairly new, we are doing everything we can to help promote socially and environmentally responsible four wheel driving, and strengthen our ties with state government.

Little hint for the slimy conditions found in the Pyranees in the wet. Snow Chains. :-)

Hi Ken,

I actually had my eyes checked yesterday and my eyesight is good or so the optometrist says. I do need new frames for my glasses though, but he said this wouldn't make a difference to my eyesight.

Tim we drive the Pyrenees often, what track is this mate?

Regards
Bonz

I just watched the clip, I see you went down Old Tiger Cat Track mate, thats quite a decent hill that one.

Bonz

Hi Bonz, yeah the old tiger track was a fun descent with a bit of rain, and the right hand turn at the bottom also makes it interesting, you can see the Prado's locking up a bit in the clip there, the in-car footage was from my GU Patrol, and that thing just lumbered down without any problems, one of the nice things about the full size wagon with live axle coils.

That wasn't the hardest bit of the trip either, the guy who ran the trip is a very experienced older member, and he has a bit of a reputation of taking everyone down pretty hardcore tracks - e.g. fire trails that haven't been used for a while and some of them can be pretty sketchy. He does however have very good judgement and knows when to stop and spot or get out place a few strategic rocks

To be honest, I prefer the high country because the tracks are all very well defined and maintained, generally no surprises and there's a lot more to look at, but we try to run a variety of trips with varying degrees of difficulty, and it's nice to have something close to home every once in a while.

I couldn't tell you exactly what track that was, though I can ask the trip leader when I see him next (I generally don't bother getting the GPS/map out when i'm in a convoy). The convoy went from Glenpatrick to Camerons camp ground, and went up tiger track, but there were also quite a few side tracks along the way.

actually, you know what... here's 3 images taken within the space of 2 minutes - with the time stamps. if anyone thinks that's a bloody creek bed i'll eat my hat.

Thanx Tim, I know the area well but I dint recognise that track, looks like a nice drive yes. I've just stepped out of a GU to a 1986 Troopy which drove up Tiger Cat quite comfortably with open diffs hmmm bit bouncier though.

Yer if you could spot that track with the arranger that'd be schmick mate. I like the high country too but the Pyrenees are just too close and the tracks are pretty good.

I think it was a good track for the full size 4wd's, my GU just has the factory LSD, and it's probably more set up for touring than hard stuff.

Where's Ken gone? I was going to offer to make him the club's public relations officer.

Still here reading a[[ the support from your mates no doubt making you fell so smug you can post rubbish about a club position. FYI I am far from convinced by you or them, one says he didn't recognise it until prompted and you yourself claimed not to know the name of the 'track'. so hardly convincing. Anyway have a great life I won't waste any more time with the issue.
Ken

I posted photos clearly showing a track, at least man up and apologise, and admit you made a mistake.

Sticking with your guns by attitude and judgement that you've made about me without knowing who I am, in the face of evidence, when I've been nothing but polite and understanding, well it looks worse for you than it does for me.

If you go through life judging people based on assumptions like you have shown here, then best of luck to you

If nobody drove those tracks they would become overgrown and covered with fallen trees. Then the firies would have a lot of trouble doing their job. Four wheel drive clubs typically clear tracks and many these days have good relationships with national parks and rfs. You can't compare them to youtube cowboys. There's a strong ethic fostered by the 4wd Association and any cowboys are quickly shown the door. There are thousands of kms of legitimate tracks that can be very difficult to drive, it's the nature of our country.