Bushwalk Australia

Did the Mother Cummings track from Westrope Road yesterday. OUr first surprise was when we came around the corner on Westrope Road to the Western Creek bridge (shortly after the Higgs Track turn off) which has been half washed away in the January flood. WE carefully (probaly foolishly) crossed over the remaing half and proceeded to the Mother Cummings track. Suddenly in front of us we came across a great hole in the road - see picture. This was about 500 metres before the start of the Mother Cummings Track.
Ther were no signs or anything on the road to indicate the problem but on returning and crossing the Western Creek bridge a sign could be seen lying on the side of the road and evidence that tape had been removed from the road. This is a very dangerous situation. If Forestry Tasmania do not repair the Western Creek bridge then access to Syds Track, Western Creerk track and Mother Cummings track will be denied which would be very sad.
Trevor

...and I thought Adelaide's roads were bad.

John Cannon did an update on Syds and Western Creek tracks in last Saturday's Mercury Magazine (11 Feb '12). Bridge pehaps unlikely to be repaired now they're no longer logging in that area but going up Syds and down Western ("..best views of all the tracks of northern Central Plateau ...") still a good walk, though markers suddenly disappear, halfway up.

There are now three large logs and a sign before the bridge over Western Creek - although the bridge isn't really out, it just sags a bit (rather like me, actually ). But it means those tracks are now a lot harder to access.

north-north-west wrote:although the bridge isn't really out, it just sags a bit (rather like me, actually )

Unlike you though, when flat on back you cant tell....

OI! You've never been flat on my back!

(Or front . . . )

north-north-west wrote:OI! You've never been flat on my back!

(Or front . . . )

I think this thread should end here, i've seen threads locked for MUCH less under the complaint of this forum being kid friendly....

vagrom wrote:...and I thought Adelaide's roads were bad.

John Cannon did an update on Syds and Western Creek tracks in last Saturday's Mercury Magazine (11 Feb '12). Bridge pehaps unlikely to be repaired now they're no longer logging in that area but going up Syds and down Western ("..best views of all the tracks of northern Central Plateau ...") still a good walk, though markers suddenly disappear, halfway up.

Perhaps now that there will be no further Logging in this area some "Green" money could be directed to repair these roads that Forestry opened up for us
corvus

corvus wrote:
Perhaps now that there will be no further Logging in this area some "Green" money could be directed to repair these roads that Forestry opened up for us
corvus

What would the Greens benefit by such a move?

ILUVSWTAS wrote:

corvus wrote:
Perhaps now that there will be no further Logging in this area some "Green" money could be directed to repair these roads that Forestry opened up for us
corvus

What would the Greens benefit by such a move?

Perhaps with a big sign saying we fixed these bridges and roads to let you Tourists get closer to the start of the Tracks so we can use your money to save us
corvus

We did Mother Cummings Peak walk on Sunday using the southern track at the end of Scotts Road. The return journey was around 3.7KM and took us 3 hours walking at a leisurely pace - the walk to the plateau is pretty steep but the views on top of the plateau are stunning. Another option wth Westrope Road out of action.
Trevor

It will be realised soon just how good we had it with access to walking tracks when forestry and hydro were maintaining the roads and bridges.

A talk with a pws person has indicated that roads that were graded twice a year by forestry will only be done once every two years under their budget.

some bridges will be pulled up rather than be replaced.

Welcome to the future. Parks and Forestry have worked hand in glove for decades with Forestry providing roads, bridges etc for their logging operations with Parks and all of us using these roads to access walking tracks. Now that Forestry is being forced to pullout of these areas, road maintenance will be left to Parks, who very little money or income stream. There are about 750km of Forestry maintain roads in the Mersey Valley alone, duplicate that across the whole of Tassie and you can see that Parks simply won't have the resources to maintain all this road infastructure. When bridges washout people will just have to walk further. A 2 hour walk could become a 4 hour walk depending where the last bridge washout

Having to walk in again via the long, old routes of yore; not all that worrying really. Back to the future indeed. Old cable crossings and 3 sided sheds restored.
Mt Anne returned to a wilderness walk. Sounds enticing. Recutting the Old Port Davey around Bowes. But true enough; we've been very spoiled by forestry roads. Looks like a whole new chapter, happening gradually perhaps, for Tassie bushwalking.

With New Zealand's success in this field, as a model for Tasmania's future?

Did the Higgs Track on Sunday and then went to check on the bridge over Western Creek on Westrope Road and to my delight found a new bridge - see photo - went further along Westrope Road and the huge hole in the road as in my first photo on this topic has been filled allowing travel to the start of Syds, Western Creek and Mother Cummings tracks. THanks to whoever is responsible.

Hi all,
Looking to climb mother cummings peak very shortly. Can you access from scotts road? we took the smoko road and it was a little rough for the 2wd, would scotts road be more suitable?

Cheers, TW

Hi TW
Yes Mother Cummings can be reached from Scotts Road, just travel right to the end. When I climbed it a few months ago it was around 3.8KM up and back and took us 3.50 hours - including lunch.
The walk is not as long as from Westrope Road but short, sharp and steep and a well marked track.

I went up last week from Scotts Rd. No problems with 2WD, but a couple of interestingly leaning trees over the road so worth taking it slowly. Had to move some timber debris just before the end of the road (start of track).
It's a very beautiful spot, and well worth spending a bit of time exploring on top rather than just going up and down.
There were quite a few pesky flies which looked like March flies except that they didn't bite, but they kept flying between my camera lens and the things I was trying to photograph

Great shots.
If they weren't Marchies, perhaps they were Sarcophagus Flies (believe or not...).
[See post: "Bushflies in SW Tas".]
The critters are something else that doesn't show up in the photos but play such a "reality" part in Tassie walking.

Flies, Leeches, Mozzies, Ticks,
Hit me with your rhythm styx.