Visitor Centre Area
Saturday 16 August 2014
Quite often the alpine area is snow bound, so we schedule work at lower altitudes and the August one was to follow up on the Holly growing on the hills to the east of the visitor centre. There are two gullies in the hills and we commenced clearing it in 2006 where it was particularly prominent in the first gully. On this our second follow up we only found a few bushes until reaching the more distant second gully where several quite extensive trees were discovered; somehow they got overlooked previously as they were quite big.
After lunch we helped Trevor remove fencing from the visitor centre car park and remove a few unwanted Blackwoods.
Since then (on 21 August) a group of us went to the alpine area to check on a some tracks and huts.
Some photos from then can be viewed by clicking the image below
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| Alpine Area August 2014 |
21 August
Fabulous day and we went first to Lake Dobson as it looked so nice there, then went along the Woodland Mosaic track and the Old pack track which we would like to clear. From there we also looked the state of the Lake Fenton hut and also saw the iced over lake. Our last objective was the lake Nicholls reroute near Beatties Tarn and also went on to check the hut at Nicholls. The ice was quite thick at Lake Nicholls even at 2PM.
Woodland Mosaic Track
We were very pleased with how the track looked and noticed people on it when driving past on 21st August and again on 5th September people were on it whilst driving in and again when leaving the area.
The Tasmanian Community Fund are pleased with the report on the project and wish to feature it with photos that have been supplied in either the TCF annual report and/or enewsletter.
The very start was noticed to be wet and a bit muddy when we walked it and some improvement could be made at this point.
Lake Fenton Hut
The hut was in quite good order and only minor work is needed. Some water was on floor of northern room but may have come from window not being firmly shut. It wiped off easily and hadn't soaked into the floor, thanks to the oil treatment.
The walls of the main room (southern room) had some condensation and a test wipe removed it easily so a thorough wipe down would be all that is needed.
The porch needs another coat of paint, and we do have some paint left over,
The window frames outside are in need of more paint and this has been an ongoing problem. We do have plenty of paint for the colour remaining
Lake Nicholls Track Reroute
The water is currently flowing onto track and then entering the drinking water creek.
On 21 August Greg Kidd and Peter revisited the site and were able to work out a better route than the current wet one. It was over hard ground for 90% of the 160 metre distance needed and any soft spots could readily be hardened. A GPS track record was made and a few tapes placed on bushes to mark key parts of the reroute.
We would like to undertake this work later this year or early in 2015
We also noted some minor vegetation clearing mostly along the first part of the track from the road would be advisable.
Maps of the proposed route are at
https://sites.google.com/site/mtfieldfriends/lake-nicholls-track-diversion
It is also shown below
Old pack Track
The old track was discovered in 2011.
On 21 August we visited the area and checked on the spot where a small patch of young King Billy Pines are growing. We could see that it would not be very hard to route a track a reasonable distance away from the pines.
There are two small areas where Fagus impedes the old track and so there would be very little cutting needed for them.
Lake Nicholls Hut
We visited the hut and found it to be in good order. The door was hard to open as it was jamming at the base. Some outside timber was showing signs of weathering, but most timbers were in good order.
Log book was in a reasonable state with no loose pages.
Lake Nicholls had a quite thick coating of ice and this was after 2PM when we arrived.
Then on 5 September
A walk on Tarn Shelf in lovely weather on Friday 5th and I made some notes.
I have some old photos from some marked points and took new ones to compare. To make it easier I put them on a web site.
https://sites.google.com/site/mountfieldnationalpark/tarnshelf
Tarn Shelf
On a visit to Tarn Shelf it was very pleasing to see the track still in reasonable condition when compared to the situation before work was commenced there. Most of the closed off sections showed that they were not being used.
On a visit to Tarn Shelf it was noted that some new marker poles had been installed by PWS, possibly in similar locations to where the old metal poles were removed. There were also several spots where rock cairns had been added and we wondered if this was done by PWS. It may be preferable to substitute the marker poles for at least some of these as they do give and arrow to provide direction. There is a supply under the Rodway Hut and also at the ski fields temporary cabin.
Some short distances could do with hardening or extra hardening.
Some photos were taken at spots where previous ones were taken and comparisons can be made between then and now. In general there does not seem to be any dramatic improvement, but certainly hasn’t got any worse.
See
https://sites.google.com/site/mountfieldnationalpark/tarn-2/closed-track-2
https://sites.google.com/site/mountfieldnationalpark/tarnshelf/Closed1
https://sites.google.com/site/mountfieldnationalpark/tarnshelf/braidedbog
In March 2011 a short section of ground that led to the shore of Johnson Tarn was gradually degrading from use. It was an attractive area and people were obviously going to edge to enjoy the scene. It seemed that the best option was to harden the degrading pad with rock as it was unlikely that walkers would avoid the going there.
This visit confirmed the correctness of the action. There remains a short length that we did not have time to harden and were uncertain how it would fare, but it would be best to harden judging by the situation in September 2014 as in the photo below.
See
https://sites.google.com/site/mountfieldnationalpark/tarnshelf/hardened-pad
Tarn Shelf Actions to be done
Harden short bit of side pad to Johnsons Tarn
Add some marker poles.
Paint or replace a few "X" on poles that have worn and also a few markers are missing off poles.
Rodway Shelter
A visit was made and the hut looked to be in good order and clean.
The wire in entrance is worn in several spots and lifting. It needs replacing.
Door handle has a screw missing and it makes it loose.
Some exterior boards have rotten spots but are OK for now. A few spots need paint and a couple of others just showing weather wear.
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