Helena & Aurora Ranges to Lake Ballard

Thanks "Get Outmore". Appreciate your comments and trip report. Tried to go through the same route many years ago and ran out of track. Didn't want to repeat that little exercise !

ive been doing that track since 05 and never had an issue.

just be aware you will see my loop went up the eastern side of the HA and i make mention of passing through mt dimer abandoned mine site
- it is now active and there is no access that way so take the western path from HA up to pistsporrum rocks and on to Currara soak

OK, thanks for the help Get Outmore. I was following a 'friend' ;-)

gotta say i was seriously not happy using my track file for comercial gain.. if id wanted to do that i would have

certainly changed the way i shared information since

Not following what you're saying here. Are you saying that this site used your info in the trek note that was attributed to me?

It was a few years back now, and I can't recall how I lodged my data. I recall the EO people worked with me to develop the trek notes, and I was pleased that a trek had been logged through an area that was otherwise a bit of a blank.

Thanks Tim HJ61. Your experience is exactly the same as I had when I did this trip before, but from what you're saying it sounds like it shouldn't be a problem now.
I was planning to take the survey line out from Yowie Rock to the Evanston - Menzies road in an effort to avoid any confusion at that end of te track. Any thoughts on that ?

Working from memory here. From yowie rocks there was two ways to keep heading north. DEC had cleared the track to Yowie rocks and they had come in from a road to the east, not north.

There was one track that was very straight heading north, but it looked quite scratchy. I guess your calling that the survey line.

We took the DEC advise and took the slightly longer route which was fine, and ended in more open salt pan country which after a day or so of heavily overgrown stuff and 'where the hell are we', was quite enjoyable. Getoutmores photos are familiar to me too, so following his or my track logs should be fine. Both of us lived to tell the tale :-)

I provided in good faith to you trip reports from the area and emailed the track file which you told me was used to navigate that overgrown section

By the way, my mapping was the Geoscience Australia 250k series, and I found them accurate.

At one stage I followed a nice track past a drill rig, and the map soon showed me I was not following the marked track, so we turned around and went back to the little used track covered in trees. I really enjoyed, not sure about the teenage daughter who was on track clearing duty - it interrupted the iPod.

Thanks again guys for all your good advice.

Get outmore,

Hey did you? I don't recall, but if you say that's what happened I'm in no position to disagree. You've not said anything up to now, sorry if I've pizzed you off.

In my trip planning, I found track logs from a couple of people, I'm thinking you may have had a different user name then. What your notes and the others gave me was confidence that someone had been through there, following the tracks shown on the maps that I had, so I figured I'd get through.

I don't know how to load the breadcrumb track log into OziExplorer and follow it, so the trek I lodged with EO was mine alone, and as far as I could see, the only log at the time that showed all the way from Koolyanobbing to Ballard.

I got nothing from EO for lodging the trek that I did, so there was no commercial gain for me. I'm recalling they did send me a tshirt at some stage though I can't remember what it was for, might have been for lodging the trek, might have been for something else.

But sure, if what I did by making up the trek annoyed you, I can only apologise. No intention to steal anyone data, and I'm confident I didn't as I didn't load anyone else's breadcrumb file. What i got from my trip planning was confidence. My intention was to help others out for them to be more confident in heading into country that we all agree is really nice and under threat from mining.

Do you want me to contact EO and ask them to add recognition of the trip planning resources I used, that would be a fair thing to do?

im davoe off of p4x4.... any way im fairly certsin that track east comes out at ularing rock. and was previously close to impassable.Ideal place to bail out and take the gilden quest back to kal if your not continuing north

Ah Davoe - right, got it. Again, apologies if I've wronged you.

I'm pretty sure the DEC crew came along that track that you're talking about and opened it up. That was in April 2010, so it should still be clear.