Thursday, Jun 09, 2005 at 23:56
I was there two weeks ago.
The area you talk of was between
Well 9 and
Well 15 and there was some evidence that a grader had been in the vicinity, however we drew the conclusion that he was not being paid either by the hour or by the tonne, as I reckon he spent more time with the blade up than down. The track is not a highway as a result - we only increased our average speed to 45 or so from about 35 for this section of the track. Partly due to the grading but more to do with the fact that you are getting out of dune country into flatter terrain with rocky interludes that you have to crawl over.
There are some spots where some scrub on the side of the track has been pushed down but I wouldn't squawk to loudly about environmental damage. This area (the CSR in general) is only used by a handfull of 4wders a year - a big handfull but still only a handful.
The number that dump fuel drums,
water containers, tin cans and other junk is disgraceful. The number who leave camps with the fire still smouldering or burning is criminal. The number that don't burn their
toilet paper so it is dug up by dingos and spread from here to breakfast - or don't even bury it (girls...) is utterly appalling.
Many of the areas obviously recently burnt (ie. last 12 months or so) coincide with wells and other popular
camping areas (like
Calvert Range which has been recently cinderised) and its too coincidental to be caused by
well placed lightning strikes - especially in an area that doesn't see too many ground striking lightning storms. And we are talking thousands of hectares in total from many many small and not so small fires.
It's not a national
park, it doesn't even have state
park status. My belief is - and someone can correct me if I'm wrong - is that there is a reserve similar to a road reserve stipulated as a particular distance (2 1/2
miles rings a bell) either side of the designated stock route.
The washaway damage and subsequent bypass tracks around washaways and flooded areas have caused far more damage than the light touch up the grader took on.
The area in question doesn't need rehab. I grew up in National Parks in Vic and have half a clue about rehab of erosion, blow outs, dunes and other areas, and if you want to do rehab work on the Canning (nearly impossible due to logistics) then the eroded areas are where you'd start. The track between 9 & 15 will be the least of your worries.
The biggest environmental damage may still be to come. I beleive from several sources (
Wiluna Police included) that sometime in the very near future a charity bash will see something of the order of 125 vehicles head north up the Canning from
Wiluna. Now this is not the sort of country that you can tow a semi full of portaloos through. For a trip that involves between 14-20 nights camped there are only a couple of sites to
camp that have any sort of enviroloo - and these are not high volume devices.
I'd like to know what has been organised to deal with the waste issues associated with such a trip and who will be taking responsibility for any clean up which may be required after hundreds of people have camped in areas designed for 2 - 3 groups of campers at maximum.
Anyone know the answer or who is involved? I hope it's been
well thought out.
Dave
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