Track Maintenance submissions

[north-north-west]

Hope this works. This is the public submission form for suggested essential track maintenance. How much will come of it we don't know, but at least they're asking. So, please, if anyone notices a major issue - serious erosion, spreading bogs, braiding, overgrowth, damaged duckboarding, etc - on any formal, mapped walking track [excluding the biggies like the Overland and the (Two Out of) Three Capes], please make a submission and maybe we can actually get some proper maintenance done.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdwyYSJTOiWj8BiD34h2LKKfPO-rzd22_7gVqZsIAqVhOSaOQ/viewform

[Tortoise]

What about the track into Pine Valley? I haven't been in for 18 months, so would need an update, but last time it looked a very neglected track in places, given it's advertised by PWS as a side trip from the OLT.

[north-north-west]

What about the track into Pine Valley? I haven't been in for 18 months, so would need an update, but last time it looked a very neglected track in places, given it's advertised by PWS as a side trip from the OLT.

Exactly the sort of thing they're talking about. If you can collect info - assuming you know someone who's been there recently enough and can give some detail? Then either you, or they, can fill in the form and submit it. It will be added to the database and *fingers crossed* some action may be forthcoming.

And that reminds me that I neeed to check out the Gould Plateau and Lake Marion tracks -- the bog near the junction was getting so much worse last time I was there.

[tassietramper]

What about the track into Pine Valley? I haven't been in for 18 months, so would need an update, but last time it looked a very neglected track in places, given it's advertised by PWS as a side trip from the OLT.

Went in two weeks ago - track 'felt' to me to be in similar condition to previous years.
The track up to the Acropolis Plateau could possibly do with some work but I'm one of those that believes in 'not making it too easy' also.
So I was happy enough with the way it was - traversable but a little difficult and you need to be relatively fit and very prepared if you want to go to such places.

[headwerkn]

Thanks for sharing this NNW. Shame the form only allows for one track to be entered at a time. This is going to take a while....

What about the track into Pine Valley? I haven't been in for 18 months, so would need an update, but last time it looked a very neglected track in places, given it's advertised by PWS as a side trip from the OLT.

Went in two weeks ago - track 'felt' to me to be in similar condition to previous years.

I've been in I think 5-6 times over the past 4-5 years, wouldn't say the track is getting noticeably worse, but given its proximity to the OLT and regularly side-tripped by (at a guess) a couple of thousand pairs of boots a year, it's definitely in a much poorer relative state, with a number of widened bogs, broken raised duckboards and vague areas through open forest that really need additional marking to narrow up the pad. Same with the Lake Marion/Gould Plateau tracks. I would have thought they'd come under the separate funding model for the Overland Track though. I can understand why PWS show minimal love to the Cuvier/Byron Gap Tracks, but that's another that would benefit just from better track marking, at least out to Lake Petrarch.

[north-north-west]

Thanks for sharing this NNW. Shame the form only allows for one track to be entered at a time. This is going to take a while....

Yeah, sorry about that. But feel for me as well, because I'll probably end up having to add it all to the main database ...

Re Cuvier: south of Petrarch the marking is fine - or it was last time I went through. The stretch to the north and through the forest could do with some better marking and a bit of hardening around that one deep mud hole on the slope. Otherwise it's best left more or less as is - it needs to be at a lower standard than Lakeside.

Wonder if anyone's done the Anne circuit recently. I might add the badly overgrown section around the side of Sarah Jane if it hasn't had any work done yet. That was ridiculous for such a well-known walk. Ditto the broken duckboarding on the way into Junction Creek.

[Lostsoul]

The influencers are going to need multiple copies of this form

[north-north-west]

The influencers are going to need multiple copies of this form

How many influencers actually give a rat's about track maintenance?

[headwerkn]

The influencers are going to need multiple copies of this form

How many influencers actually give a rat's about track maintenance?

Guess it depends how you define 'influencer'. I don't consider myself 'one' though no doubt some might (and NNW, too, for that matter).

But given rarely a week seems to go by without me discussing something with PWS in regards to track issues and infrastructure management - constructively too, not just yelling at them and saying they're useless - I suggest the answer might be "many rats"...

[headwerkn]

That's in addition to the actual hours I've spent doing track maintenance - formal and otherwise - over the past decade. Hoping to achieve a lot more this spring once I'm finally chainsaw-ticketed (frustrating legal/insurance requirement, given I've been using 'saws since my teens, but understandable I guess).

Which brings up a good question: how many people here are actually willing to donate their time - on a regular-ish basis - to volunteer on coordinated track maintenance efforts, either through PWS/NRE or local clubs? How many people are actually willing to get themselves qualified to swing a chainsaw etc. to lend an effective hand?

In the other thread we're bemoaning the state of the Yo-Yo Track. Simple truth is all that is required to make and keep it clear are regular small groups of keen and suitably equipped individuals humping 'saws out there and chipping away at the mess until the route is cleared, repeating every 1-3-6 months to keep it that way. Not exactly rocket science, just time and hard work.

PWS will realistically never have the funds to pay for salaried or contract workers to achieve this AND every other pressing need on their plate. Even if they did I'm not sure the state actually has enough professional track workers/builders available to do the work anyway (based on what I was told re: staging of post-SW fire track remediation works due to resourcing, might be wrong here).

That leaves - rightly or wrongly* - volunteer efforts. Most of the (bush)walking clubs do reasonably regular working bees coordinated through and with the approval of PWS. NRE have a volunteer program which AFAIK seems to be very underutilised currently, possibly due to the onerous OH&S requirements that's just part and parcel of our world today, and the fact that PWS/NRE still need to coordinate/manage such efforts. Whether such efforts align with their long term picture is a whole other matter, but one can't help but wonder what a few dozen properly motivated, equipped, authorised and coordinated individuals working in teams across the state could achieve with a minimal hit to the budget.

Anyway, just a gentle reminder that Actions > Complaining.
'Something something, be the change you want to see in the world, something something...'

(* Whether or not you believe governments should be funding/handling such things, the fact is most of the world's best known and best maintained trails are only so due to concerted volunteer efforts.)

[Lostsoul]

The influencers are going to need multiple copies of this form

How many influencers actually give a rat's about track maintenance?

The ones that don’t like walking anywhere unless it’s a well marked footpath

[Nuts]

Yeah. A hindrance or a deterrent. Better access, a new bog-hole frontier. Unusual for a degraded track (in itself) to contribute more than localised environmental damage, in the rub.

[tastrax]

Plenty of Wildcare groups do track maintenance and get assistance with getting the required work plans, tickets, approvals, tools, grants etc etc

https://wildcaretas.org.au/

[phATty]

I can understand why PWS show minimal love to the Cuvier/Byron Gap Tracks, but that's another that would benefit just from better track marking, at least out to Lake Petrarch.

The Cuvier Valley track would add some great value to the Lake St Clair side of the Overland Track, it's such ashame that the main track (without side trips) turns to garbage past Windy Ridge. I understand there'd need to be some money put into this but it'd be great to put some duckboard in on the plains, harden the way up to the gap and add the Byron summit into the mix. Restrict camping at Lake Petrarch for conservation and I reckon the section could be done in a long day.