Oka owners group newsletter
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The next day I headed for Nelson, a short drive from Windsor to the home of Michael & Virginia Hession. I had spoken to Michael a few weeks before and told him I was driving my OKA up to Sydney on the 4th October. He invited me to visit them on the 13th October (Sunday afternoon). I got a nice surprise when I found out he did some ringing around and organised a few of the local Sydney area OKA members to come along as well. So after meeting Michael for the first time, I also had a chance to meet 5 other members of the OKA Owners Group. The members who attended were: - Jeffery & Merryn Burroughs Single Cab camper. Their OKA is currently off the road undergoing repairs, so they turned up in their car. - Bob & Sue Etherington – Bus seating 7 with large single hinged door on the rear. - Michael & Virginia Hession – Multi Cab, 9 seater with covered canopy on the tray to hold food and camping gear. - Warwick & Beryl Oliver- Bus converted into a camper with pop-top roof. - Rowena Paterson – Multi Cab with covered tray seating 6, room for sleeping in the cab. - Tony & Lisa Wallace – Single Cab with covered tray converted to a tipper and used in their landscaping business. - Owen & Sue Jones – Duel Cab with camper built on to the tray. It was a really great afternoon and it was good to see how each OKA was set up. We also had afternoon tea and it gave everybody a chance to chat to each other about some of their trips and experiences. Michael also gave us a talk on the OKA Jamboree that was held on the weekend before in Coonamble (Lloyd & Marj Parsons property). Michael & Virginia and Owen & Sue both attended and by the sounds of it had a very good weekend. I also took quite a few photos of the afternoon get-together in Nelson and have since scanned them in. If anybody would like the photos emailed or a printout sent to them please let me know. A big thankyou to Michael for organising and having the get-together on his property. After leaving Nelson I arrived back in Sydney staying with family for the second week of my holiday. I had a chance to visit the Sydney Aquarium, Darling Harbour and all the other tourist areas of Sydney. Just a reminder that the Victorian OKA Jamboree with be held on the Melbourne Cup Weekend of the 2nd – 5th November. Even if you can only come for a day it would be great to meet you. We will be bush camping somewhere in the Toolangi area near Kinglake in Victoria. We will confirm a site within the next week or so. If you would like to come, please give me a call after hours on phone 03 5823 2732 or email rowenap@g- mwater.com.au for directions. Rowena Paterson OKAs at Glenbrook Victorian Oka Jamboree Dear all, I wish to confirm we will be holding the Victorian Oka Jamboree on the Melbourne Cup weekend (2nd-5th November) at a bush camp at Toolangi. Please ring or email me for directions. I can be contacted on 03 5823 2732 or rowenap@g-mwater.com.au. Thanks, Rowena Paterson. VICTORIAN OKA JAMBOREE Murrindindi Scenic Reserve Bush Camp - 2nd to 5th November 2002 - directions - from the intersection of the Melba Highway (Yarra Glen Road) and Murrindindi Road (at Devlins Bridge), turn east and travel 12 km to the reserve. From Healesville drive 13 km along Myers Creek Road and turn right into Sylvia Creek Road and travel about 21 km to the reserve. The Reserve is approximately between Yea & Toolangi. Dogs OK but must be kept on a leash. OCTOBER (5, 6, 7th) LONG WEEKEND in COONAMBLE. Participants: Michael, Virginia and Sophie Hession – Nelson (Sydney). Multi-Cab with Covered Tray. Owen and Sue Jones – Beecroft (Sydney) Dual-Cab with a Camper Body. Lloyd and Marj Parsons – “Eulalia” Coonamble. Single-Cab plus Tray with a Bolt on Camper By Michael Hession We had decided to make it an extra long weekend and to travel up to Coonamble with Owen and Sue Jones on Friday the 4th. After packing our vehicle for the trip, at 10pm Thursday night, I drove to the service station to fuel up. After filling one tank I got in to turn it around, so I could fill the other tank. NO GO. The motor would not turn over. Luckily Virginia had driven our “old faithful” ’77 Rangie to fill up, so I was able to get going with a short tow. Back home I checked the starting circuit, it all seemed ok except for the starter motor. But as I had only replaced it with a brand new one in January this year, I didn’t want to believe that this was the problem. But unfortunately, on Friday morning the auto-electrician confirmed that the starter motor was the problem. He said he could have us back on the road within a few hours. So much for getting away by 8am. By way of information the Starter Motor was replaced with a reduction gear Nipendenso Unit that is used on Toyota Landcruisers. Much Cheaper $700.00, not $1100.00 for an original CAV Unit. By this time Owen and Sue had arrived from Beecroft, so they had a long wait with us while the vehicle was fixed. We set off for Coonamble about 11.30am. Lunch was at Lithgow MacDonalds, Coffee break in Gulgong and then onto Coonamble arriving at about 8pm. We met our Hosts Lloyd and Marj for the first time and some of their friends who were also visiting. After having a quick sausage on bread we sat around chatting, before retiring to our tent. Owen and Sue have a camper built on the back of their dual cab. Lloyd and Marj live on a 6,000 acre plus property carrying sheep and cattle. Lloyd took us for a drive around the property and we saw hundreds of kangaroos (in plague numbers), emus, foxes and wild pigs. We had access to their motorbikes and quad runners, which Sophie really enjoyed. Sunday morning Lloyd gave everyone a great demonstration of low level flying in his Cessna 180, for which he helped set up a club. They have a “fly in” each April to their property, with people coming from all over Australia and even some overseas visitors. Several people who were interested in Okas dropped in to look at our vehicles. This entailed much discussion and measuring with tape measures to see what would fit, and to prove that the Okas are not as big as they look, not being much bigger than a Landcruiser, in width and length. We had a great time and enjoyed our visit very much and look forward to returning. A BIG THANK YOU to Marj and Lloyd for putting on the weekend. Details of the Vehicles: Michael and Virginia’s Multi-Cab - OKA #160 - 1994 - Standard Vehicle with seating for 9 people, - Covered Tray Back for storing all camping needs. Fridge and Food (Kitchen) on the Left Side with tents, clothing, recovery-gear, and camping needs on the right hand side - Water 100 Litres stored in Plastic Jerry Cans - Endless Air Compressor, motor driven, with a 30 litre air receiver tank. “Better than at a service station”. - UHF and VHF CB radios. - Front Aeon Rubber Springs cut in half by removing lower “bulge”, this allows much more wheel movement and removed “sharpness” from the front end over small bumps. - 16 inch rims running 900x16 Michelin XZLs. - Dual Fuel Tanks. Owen and Sue’s Dual-Cab - OKA #286 - 1995 - Camper Body to accommodate 2 in great comfort built on an extended tray (colorbond steel on steel frame). With inbuilt cupboards and storage, the bed converts to a table to comfortably seat 4 people. The roof hinges upwards to give a large airy feel to the whole area. - Owen’s own designed 22.5x8.25 inch rims with Pirelli 285/70 profile heavy-duty tyres gives the vehicle a very unique and distinctive appearance. - Dual fuel tanks, once again Owen’s own design. Spun from Aluminium each holding 125 Litres. - 75 Litres of water from fixed plastic drums with a Flojet pump to the sink and an external outlet. - 2x80 watt Solar Panels regulated to recharge the batteries – 6 Volt (2 Off) deep cycle and 2x12 Volt Starting Batteries. - 70 Litre Liemack Fridge with freezer from SA. - Glind heat exchanger for hot water is installed with snap fittings to connect the necessary fittings and hoses for that sought after shower. - External storage to allow for M’tea/Lunch to be taken with out having to get into the camper. - Reversing camera and monitor. - UHF CB radio - Garmin GPS connected to a Laptop to show you precisely where you are at all times. - 12,000 lbs Electric winch - Truck air bags (Firestone), acting as “helpers”, have been added to the rear suspension allowing for adjusting the rear suspension height in relation to the load being carried. The standard springs have been retained. - Lock-right automatic locking Diffs front and back. - Exhaust Brakes. - A number of additional gauges monitoring a number of different aspects of the motor and charging system.
Overall a very well thought out unit, professionally executed and one Owen can be very proud of. Lloyd and Marj’s Single-Cab - OKA #116 – 1993 - Lloyd uses his vehicle on the property and thus uses the tray body - Bolted to the loading board is 240 litre fuel tank; by utilising his air compressor to pressurize the tank and via Lloyd’s own designed cap and hose with a nozzle he is able to fill his main tank. - When they go away an aluminium/steel framed Camper is bolted to the back with 4 bolts - This camper is Lloyd’s own design and construction and in Lloyd’s words “built like a brick dunny”. The camper is built with a steel frame clad in checkerplate aluminium, glued and pop riveted. It has a pop-top, which is easily raised and lowered. It is a simple but very practical design with stove, bench area, a front opening fridge, easily accessible storage areas and a bed running across the width of the body at the rear. There is a storage area accessed externally from the rear, which holds all “your bits and pieces” – tools, spares, camping gear, chairs, table, recovery gear, etc. After many years of camping Marj and Lloyd wanted something that didn’t take any time to set up or take down, and they have certainly achieved that. A great unit that I am sure will be copied by many others when they see it. - Glind Hot water Shower heated from the engine. - Lloyd runs 825x16 Tyres - UHF Electrophone CB radio - Nippondenso starter (as fitted to Landcruiser, but with Perkins stud pattern and 10 tooth cog). This unit will fit straight on to OKA’s and is fairly readily available.. ************************************************************* The last of Jack & Viv Frost’s 2002 Newsletters: Leaving Cobbold we took a back road and went into the headwaters of Agate Creek - there were agate chips everywhere in the decomposed Ryolite lava. We were meant to be looking for thunder eggs, but as we really didn't know what the outside looked like in the raw, this wasn't a very fruitful exercise! Anyway the back road to Lyndhurst was fun - a real roller coaster with some particularly steep jump-ups and a whole lot of dry creek crossings. It had recently been graded which made thing a lot easier – it would be basically impassable in the wet. We spent a couple of nights at Porcupine Gorge - about 6Ok's north of Hughendon. We had camped here in 94 and not a lot has changed - the steep track down to the bottom of the gorge has been worked on and the February flood must have really roared through - most of the vegetation in the creek bed has been stripped and some of the waterholes have been silted up. As on the Fitzroy, it made walking a lot easier but a bigger proportion of the trees suffered. On the way to the coast we camped at Lake Dalrymple by the Burdekin Falls dam - a beautiful lake but camping is restricted to an area of the old construction village site - this was fine for the first couple of nights but the third night people parked their caravan right on top of us - we spat the dummy and fled!We had been fishing for sleepy cod – the dam is one of the ones stocked under Queensland inland waters fisheries scheme and a couple of fisheries inspectors arrived and said the Collinsville weir was a good spot, so there we fled. You have to have local knowledge to find it and not surprisingly we were on our own. The river is held back by the weir to form a linear Lake lined with trees and a few clumps of reeds and has lots of water birds, including four or five duck species – we even managed to identify some, with
the little cotton pygmy geese and the maned wood duck being the highlights. A couple of friendly locals arrived for a brief visit and reckoned you could catch barra on live bait below the weir, but we opted for a touch of luxury at Palm Bay lodge on Long Island in the Whitsundays. So here we are - a hideaway bungalow right on the beach. The last island we visited up here was orpheus - probably 15 plus years ago and before that South Molle on the way back from building the meatworks in Townsville 36 years ago! Long Island has walking trails and while the bay is fairly shallow, at low tide still has water in it, and visiting yachts were only three or four metres from shore. There were eight of them anchored right in front of us one night - the area is a yatching haven and there are lots of hire and selfsail outfit. Anyway the food was terrific, they have just been taken over by Peppers and will feature as one of their boutique hotels, the walks were great with some spectacular views and the bungalow superb - a glass of wine lolling in the verandah hammmock watching the sun set across the bay above Shute harbour. And we didn't get the D.T.'s, despite consuming our share of booze and four nights of pampering! Back to the OKA and we headed for Blackdown Tableland National Park (not far from Dingo). The area is a tableland with some spectacular gorges cut into it and cliffs nearly all round. The climb up is long and steep and the local rock decomposes to small round pebbles - in places it's like walking on marbles, and the road can be slippery and quite a few vehicles overheat. The sites in the campground are well spaced and at this time of the year not crowded - night temperatures hover around 2 degrees but the birds are used to being fed and the currawongs and kookaburras in particular are aggressively bad news'. All the walks end up at fantastic viewing spots and there are several creeks still flowing with the surrounding areas lush oases of palms, reeds and other water plants, clear cool pools and cascading sandstone cliffs and sculptured outcrops,,,, Rainbow Creek Falls are quite special, with deep eddy holes at the top - yes, Viv got sprung skinny dipping - and after 240 steps you can wander around amongst the lower pools before it tumbles into an inaccessible gorge and finally over the edge. We had four nights of-this - on-the fourth night a large group of bikies arrived and set up next to and overlappping onto a site occupied by two girls - they returned from walking and were virtually forced to shift camp. We prepared for a really bad night, but other than this one bit of thoughtless rudeness, they were reasonable. One night at Lake Maraboon was enough - the lake isn't as attractive as Lake Dalrymple, not helped by being less than 50% capacity - Emerald is a cotton growing area and this is a rapacious crop in terms of water usage. But the smallish campground was jam packed and wasn't our scene. We were told Lake Theresa ' about 10Ok's north is beautiful and quiet as well, but we are trying to work our way south, so opted for Expedition Range N.P. instead. The track into the Park is nominated as 4WD, but had recently been graded and was pretty gentle. We were here in 1995 - Viv can't remember the road in, the campground or the walks, but when we get back home she'll find she's taken exactly the same photos, from just the same spots! (Well we do have a bet on!) Anyway the campground borders a little creek, is about 200 metres long by 30 metres wide - a fair bit of it has a light grass cover, there are plenty of trees for shade-as well as sunny areas if you want firepits, toilets and a rainwater supply. We've been here 4 nights and have the place to ourselves - it is classed as 'remote', but people don't know what they're missing. The Robinson gorge is the centrepiece of the park and all the side creeks, including Starkvale where we're camped. run into this, generally via high waterfalls, when they're flowing. A 2k track from the camp takes you to a lookout and the only access into the gorge, which is via a fairly rough steep trail and several sections where small steps or footholds have been chipped into the sandstone. The views from the bottom are great, with sheer multi-hued sandstone cliffs both sides, well over 100 metres high. The gorge floor is a mixture of sandy areas, well rooted by feral pigs, boulders and permanent pools and a very diverse vegetation - cycads, tall cabbage palms, acacias covered in pendant sprays of small fluorescent yellow pom-pom flowers at the moment, and lots of eucalypts including one they call an apple tree. which has tall straight trunks with a smooth pink hued bark. In the other direction a 4WD track takes you to a lookout at the downstream end of the gorge where the river flows through a narrow cleft called 'cattle dip'. Again the sides are sheer, right into the permanent pool - cattle would be pretty tired if they tried to get through – it’s well over 500 metres long. From here a track takes you to the highest point in the park, Shepherds Peak, 510m high - I think this is the R.L. not climbing height, but I left Viv to carry the flag. We met the ranger and he told us about a new track he'd virtually finished except for a few metres and signage - he gave us enough clues to find it on our last day here. A 3k stroll through the forest and then a real scramble down a side creek that is virtually a series of rapids and small waterfalls, not flowing at this stage, so passage down is by sliding on your behind. By the time these got to 4 metres high I called it a day, but Viv carried on like a mountain goat, to the main gorge called Waterfall Creek. I could see the junction and gorge walls but the thought of spider walking back up these c1iffs wasn't encouraging - no trouble to Viv but, National Parks in all states are petrified about Public Liability issues - there have been some big claims settled in favour of what seems to us to be sheer irresponsibly stupid behaviours resulting in accidents. The results are so far a curious mixture - some parks closed totally, some very ugly view spoiling signs and fences, and in other areas deletion of more tasteful signs and barricades, apparently on the basis that they represent an admission of danger and therefore liability and/or can't cover every situation - if courts are going to keep giving huge payouts, I hope governments fix the problem with decent legislation and soon, or there won't be any wilderness areas available for people like us who want to get a bit off the beaten track, don't want to heft 40kg packs and like to retain some lifestyle comforts. After a night at Dalby to reprovision - motel fine but restaurant terrible, we've headed up Bunya Mountain National Park. The last time we were here it was wet and misty, the firewood wouldn't light and we didn't linger. Now an architect has got involved in the campgrounds - they look pretty, but there is nowhere level to park a camper and the barbecues have been deliberately designed to prevent use as fireplaces. With temperatures hovering around zero, we opted for a villa, complete with fireplace, spa, electric blankets, sunny verandah and spacious. The national park centre is located on top of the mountain, after a very steep climb, at Dandabah. The immediate surrounds are a natural grassy slope called 'balds' and privately owned, so there is this village of holiday lodges rather like a ski resort, nestled within the rainforest. There are lots of walks - most relatively easy through the forest, past permanent streams and falls and taking in views from the edge of the escarpment out to Kingaroy, Dalby and the surrounding plains below. The village green is home to a large number of small grey wallabies and the females all seem to have little joeys in their pouches - the really small ones put on an entertaining sideshow when they emerge briefly and dance around. Lots of birds with the rosellas, king parrots and wrens appearing quite tame and the currawongs, as usual in these areas, obnoxious. The area is named after the Bunya pine - huge trees which produce a crop of edible nuts that were a favourite food of the aboriginals and now feature on the village menus. We had four nights of this, before heading back down the mountain for Sundown N.P.' almost on the border with N.S.W. near Texas. Huge areas of eastern Australia are in drought conditions and this is just one of them. Big trees at both Expedition and Bunya N.P.'s are dying through the combination of drought and an intensely cold winter. At Sundown there were no small birds around the camping area and we didn't see any deer either. The Severn River is dry and the big permanent waterhole a few k's upstream of the camping area has water in it but is 2 metres or more lower than last time we were here. If they don't get rain before summer they'll have to close the park. Still heading south, Viv found an obscure bush track that got rougher and narrower, until we emerged via a ferry at Maclean on the Clarence River. We stayed a few nights with John and Carmel at Sapphire Beach- (close to Coffs Harbour) ---had some -great, oysters and prawns, went beach fishing or perhaps I should say surfing - the waves nearly swept me away and my inexpert casting technique didn't give me much of a chance to successfully snag a fish! Hit the toy shop, Mo Tackle is the largest tackle shop in Australia, and managed to conjure up 4Omm of much needed rain for John and Carmel - not enough to avoid yet a further imposition of water restrictions but! Yes, we are heading home, but back across the mountains first, to Warrumbungle National Park via Dorrigo. We'd hoped to stay at Cathedral Rocks NP. but decided it was too wet - another one for next time! The rain ran out just short of the Warrumbungles where it is desperately needed - the campground has been upmarketted since our last-visit with bitumen roads and new composting toilets as well as the main amenities block with showers, flushing toilets, etc . The herd mentality was strong everyone congregated in or adjacent to the powered sites just like a caravan park - with the temperature still close to zero at night, we camped about 400 metres away - last of the sun, first of the sun, a magic view and a fireplace - it really wasn't the time to search for shade! There are some fantastic walks in the park as the mountains are rugged and feature large remnant spires. tors and other spectacular outcrops. The most popular hike is the Grand High Tops/Breadknife circuit, which is about 13k's, so we trudged around this - easy for the first few k's and then nearly straight up. Breadknife is an extremely narrow ridge with vertical sides and a jagged serrated top, that you clamber around the base of, as you climb towards the Tops. Another example of the 'safety problem' - they've now laid about 2k's of the track with brick pavers - some of this is on slopes close to 1 in 3 and we both found this harder to cope with than the dirt track with the odd rock steps. We must have been fitter when we were here in 95 when we walked everyday and Breadknife was the shortest hike! The drought is making the conservation policy of nil or very limited and controlled culling of kangaroos an increasing problem. There must have been over a thousand in the barren fields around the campground and most of them appeared quite lethargic - even in a good year this would be close to maximum density and given the present situation is ridiculous. We saw another example the next day when we called in on Lloyd and Marj Parsons just outside Coonamble - Lloyd is a third or fourth generation farmer and their 6000 acre station usually supports a prime herd of cattle, now reduced to eight prize bulls and a handful of cows and heifers. These now have to be fed on grain and hay whilst thousands of kangaroos turn the area into a dust bowl - the very situation they were trying to avoid, Yüklə 2,02 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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