Bushwalk Australia

While on a walk over the weekend, my walking buddy and I got to talking about weird and strange things that people might come across in the bush. I haven't seen anything completely out of the ordinary - the odd rusted out car that's been taken over by the bush, a few weight plates from a weights machine, or the odd remains of a camp that someone has been living at for a while. I remember as a kid bush bashing at the end of my street to come across a cave that someone had enclosed with sticks they must have painstakingly cut to fit between the roof and the ground to make it more protected. There were books and a blanket there as well. Looked pretty cosy actually!

I'm interested to hear what other people have stumbled upon that's been a little out of the ordinary.

Bronman, welcome to the forum. Many years ago my party found a large pile of boots near Ritchies Hut on the Howqua River near Mount Buller in Victoria. We were thinking drop bears ... Not so strange, but how about an unopened bottle of port in a hut? A good day of walking from the nearest track on Tassie's Central Plateau we ound a boot print. Just one. On a day walk miles from a track I found the red tab thingy from a parking meter. On another day walk there was a small fenced off plot of pot.

WW2 Matilda Tank that had been converted to a bulldozer.

Off-track walking through some thick scrub in a NP and found a tube of sunscreen. It looked pretty new as well.

Woman's bra.

I could go on but they were some of the more memorable.

A middle-aged couple . . . errrr . . . well, I don't think you need a diagram to work out what they were doing. Right on the track, too.

You do find remains of vehicles or mining/logging equipment in some surprising places. There's a very fresh looking piece of truck tyre on the old track up the Raglan Range, well past Bradshaws.

And I recall about 15 years back, on a wander along the Snowy River, not far upstream from Pinch, finding the rather bedraggled remains of a large two-seat fibreglass sea kayak, a good 100 metres at least from the water. The paddles were still attached via tethers.

Lophophaps wrote:Many years ago my party found a large pile of boots near Ritchies Hut on the Howqua River near Mount Buller in Victoria.

There used to be a scattered pile of old boots - mainly hobnailed - on the track into Mystery Creek Cave. It was there the first time I did the Southern Range circuit. Unfortunately, all but one pair were gone the next time I went in.
Boots do get discarded in odd places. When I climbed Mt Juliet (Dandenong Ranges), there was a single boot (Vasque, I think), left on the top of the cairn. Fairly new boot, but the sole was already delaminating.

Oh, and the last time I went through Maddisons, there were a dozen shot glasses -a couple cracked and another two partially melted but the rest undamaged - in a fire pit, If only they'd left the whisky as well . . .

Probably a chap we bumped into on the AAWT. He was chatting to my missus while I was looking for a spot to set up and as I looked towards his tent the door was open and inside was...an inflatable doll On first glance I thought I was seeing things but a second look confirmed it. At that point I said "Anyway, we'd better be off" and quickly made tracks.

GBW wrote:Probably a chap we bumped into on the AAWT. He was chatting to my missus while I was looking for a spot to set up and as I looked towards his tent the door was open and inside was...an inflatable doll On first glance I thought I was seeing things but a second look confirmed it. At that point I said "Anyway, we'd better be off" and quickly made tracks.

Don't post things like that while I'm eating, please.

I'm not eating but the doll post was interesting reading. Next time post a warning or the like.

On a similar theme, about a kilometre west of the top station on the main quad at Thredbo we skied into a nice spot I knew, facing east, usually snow free, an overhang, rocky bottom. This was lunch. As we crunched the last few metres the sole female inhabitant turned over. She had been getting a total tan on her front. The offer to assist with sunscreen was declined, and being gentlemen we went into the smaller overhang just around the corner. While I was a good friend of the bloke I was with, it may have been nicer if he had not been there. Don't mind me, I'm a dreamer.

Not weird, but lovely stuff. Old hut in Mersey before flooding contained a tin of the darkest and tastiest bush honey I've come across, ever.

Old bulldozer south of Balfour with a hive of bees in residence inside the castings.
Probably gathered, I love bush honey, but this one proved elusive.

Remains of old plane wreck side of Fisher Bluff.

A wheelbarrow on side of track to The Walls. No sign of anything else but obviously for track work. Just looked weird.

Slept in a rock shelter west of Lake Nutting years ago.
Next morning my inquisitive nature went diving into the darker parts and pulled out a detonator tin complete with contents! That was not pleasant!

There's those obvious sites you see when people head to the interiors with all manner of paraphernalia attached to anything they can hang something off.
Puts a smile on the face.

Weird, no, Scary Yes.
For those ancient enough to remember the old track to the Trappers Hut, a huge (as in HUGE) boulder had been dislodged somewhere below Clumner Bluff. It was at least 1.8 metres diameter and round. The neat swathe it had cut through the bush was rather awesome but frightening.

A tiny Tasmanian Devil that raced out in front of my Ute just before Walls track and stopped, bared his fangs, stared us down then just as hastily retreated. It looked so comical.

A 2 seater dunny, cut from a plank, chocked against a log with long drop below. No screen, completely exposed to the elements.

Arriving at Dixons Kingdom to find it contained several skun and quartered roos, guns and horse evidence.
Little later helicopter swooped down, landed and asked if we'd seen an hunters in the area!
Made my kids day, the helicopter bit. Sort of made up for the shock they had in Dixons

NNW was it the age of the couple or what they were engaging in that your comment is aimed at?

I'll have to search my memory and come up with a list, as there have been a few curious finds. One that comes to mind was, about 5 years ago while scrambling/wading through a trackless creek gorge, we stumbled upon the wing of a light aircraft in the creek. Probably 1960s vintage I'd guess.

Found a scalpel handle in the creek coming down from Mt Barney.

taswegian wrote:NNW was it the age of the couple or what they were engaging in that your comment is aimed at?

Age just made it weirder. It wouldn't have been so surprising from youngsters but, given this was back around 1990, and they were 50ish . . . a bit of a shock. It wasn't like it was way off in the scrub, either, it was a reasonably well-used track.

A woman taking a leak on the side of the Cape Hauy Track. She jumped up with such a fright she dropped her panty liner. I didn't have the guts to tell her

To much info there strider.

having said that i have caught a couple enjoying themselves out bush... gave them the thumbs up and kept walking.

I was living above the lake at the top of American Fork Canyon Utah in a tent alone. Climbing trip. Headed down canyon for provisions. Bloke pulls up and offers lift. He is wearing lederhosen. Asks me if I had heard of Ted Bundy and he was up there looking for bodies Bundy claimed to bury up there. Said he had seen my camp and reckoned it was a likely spot. I made excuses and got out of that *&%$#! car asap. Also in same spot woke to a skunk eating out of my food box. If you have smelt a skunk you will understand I laid still, let it eat my potatoes and it went on its merry way.

abandoned packs on a track by people who panicked in bad weather when they saw someon with hypothermia being carried and dumped their packs to get to the huts faster,

wayno wrote:abandoned packs on a track by people who panicked in bad weather when they saw someon with hypothermia being carried and dumped their packs to get to the huts faster,

LOLL! Not having inflatable dolls in the hut can be very serious.

Not walking but in the bush on my mountain bike I found a fairly serious looking camera bag on the side of a creek. I wandered up the creek to see if anyone was around and found a guy taking some photos of some nude girls on the banks of the creek.

Ant71 wrote:Not walking but in the bush on my mountain bike I found a fairly serious looking camera bag on the side of a creek. I wandered up the creek to see if anyone was around and found a guy taking some photos of some nude girls on the banks of the creek.

I hope you outed him

We were two days walk from the nearest road, in the middle of New Zealand's Greenstone-Caples Track, when we came across a wooden door. Bold as its brass handle, in the middle of thick forest, it stood propped up against a mossy ledge. The words “Please Shut the Door” we're scratched onto it.

We assumed it was a track worker's sight gag, and that a helicopter had been involved. We had a laugh, took a photo or two, and walked on. But I have since pondered its usefulness as a metaphor (e.g. opening or shutting access to wilderness etc),

cheers

Peter

Ant71 wrote:Not walking but in the bush on my mountain bike I found a fairly serious looking camera bag on the side of a creek. I wandered up the creek to see if anyone was around and found a guy taking some photos of some nude girls on the banks of the creek.

I had a similar experience on a snowy day on Mt Wellington. Late in the day returning to the car we stumbled across a nude photo shoot in the middle of the track just near the Springs. It was a decent set up with multiple cameras and umbrellas. They apologised, the girls put their big warm coats back on and we walked through the middle of it all and continued on our way, rather surprised.

whynotwalk wrote:

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We were two days walk from the nearest road, in the middle of New Zealand's Greenstone-Caples Track, when we came across a wooden door. Bold as its brass handle, in the middle of thick forest, it stood propped up against a mossy ledge. The words “Please Shut the Door” we're scratched onto it.

We assumed it was a track worker's sight gag, and that a helicopter had been involved. We had a laugh, took a photo or two, and walked on. But I have since pondered its usefulness as a metaphor (e.g. opening or shutting access to wilderness etc),

cheers

Peter

Ha! I literally laughed out loud when I saw that photo Peter! This is the kind of stuff that I love about walking in the bush, the most random things in the middle of nowhere.

I hadn't received any notifications of replies to my thread! So thank you all for replying. If I see anything strange on my walk this weekend, I'll be sure to add it to the thread (though I am sure all I will see are tourists!)

I found a light switch installed in one of the public huts on the Overland Track once. I think it might have been the new new Windy Ridge hut (ie, Bert Nichols monstrosity), when it was just about finished.

(It was not connected to anything, of course, but I wonder how many people flicked the switch expecting something to happen.)

Walking a track down south in W.A., came across a surfboard, real old school thing about 9' long with massive fin. We were about 200m from the Blackwood river but still very remote. Was going to lug it out but it must of weighed 50kg's.....

I found a small diary at Haven Lake in the Arthurs. It was damaged by rain but an attempt to look through it found just one entry. On Xmas day, it said "I'm not sure receiving a diary for xmas is a wise gift for me" or words to that effect. I carried it out and threw it away...

Son of a Beach wrote:I found a light switch installed in one of the public huts on the Overland Track once. I think it might have been the new new Windy Ridge hut (ie, Bert Nichols monstrosity), when it was just about finished.

(It was not connected to anything, of course, but I wonder how many people flicked the switch expecting something to happen.)

It was in Pine Valley, along with a power point by one of the tables for a short while....some members of staff were not amused and it was removed.

This skull was the was the strangest thing I've found. Large...about 40cm long, 20 wide and 15 high. Is it a small whale or something??

Location is nearish to Encampment Cove on Maria Island

Looks like a whale skull

I met a walker on the OLT, got to Pelion Hut and he asked me how old I was. Told him 69, he said I'm 69 and will be 70 in May, I said I'm also 70 in May on the 2nd. Turns out we were both born on the same day him in South America and me in the UK and we had our driving licences to prove it.

One of the members of the walking club always use to carry a Bunnings umbrella and wear Supercheap Auto gloves. One day on the way to Pine Valley we met a walker coming the other way with you guessed it a Bunnings umbrella and wearing Supercheap Auto gloves.

Met a guy walking the overland track.

His entire food for the track was a plastic bag with about 20 sweet potatoes. He had no other food, no cooking equipment nor a water bottle.

As he walked along he munched on raw sweet potato like an apple.

the great walks rangers always have good stories, one guy using shopping bags to carry his stuff...
a lady in heels. when asked why she was wearing heels, she was told to wear her best boots on the track....
another guy was asked for his ticket, he reached under his bunk and pulled out a suitcase... people expecting an umbrella to be enough to keep the rain off, in one of the windiest inhabited places on the planet... people using down jackets and wind breakers as raincoats in one of the wettest places in the world...