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September October 2009 Trail Mail Newsletter Download
"Call a Councillor" - add your voice to the request for funding for a Trail Manager position.
The Rail Trail Management Committee has lodged an application seeking funding from the East Gippsland Shire Council via the Discretionary Fund of the Council's Economic Development Advisory Board. A number of local businesses, schools and other agencies have already provided letters of support for the application or contacted Councillors. If you are interested in supporting this effort you might consider making a phone call or sending an email to a Councillor. And if you do not live in East Gippsland, so much the better! The bulk of the maintenance effort to keep this Rail Trail in working order is done by volunteers, whether it is weed spraying, removing fallen trees after a wind storm, re-vegetation works, grass cutting, efforts to reduce the fuel load, or many of the other things required to keep the Trail 'open for business'. There is NO dedicated paid person assigned to carry out these sorts of jobs or to assist with coordination of other volunteer or agency contributions. The Management Committee, and the Trail, urgently need support in order to keep this outstanding Rail Trail in good condition. Visitor numbers are growing and that is good news for local businesses but the Trail is increasingly also popular with locals, as a commuter route and use by school groups.
If you can help, a list of all the Councillors and their contact details can be found here : EGSC Councillor contact details(40 KB).
Planting at Burn Rd
September 28th. The Burn Road parking/shelter shed area has had more planting attention, with Sue & Michael providing guidance to the Bairnsdale Community Correctional Services work crew who added 100 plants, spread mulch and cut weeds. This was the second week the BCCS crew were assisting on the Trail. They will provide 8 week days of assistance this year, with an understanding the arrangement will continue next year. A large scale version of the new Trail map (1.2 x 0.5m) was also installed in the shelter. Nicholson River rehabilitation Project
The Nicholson River rehabilitation project (next to the bridge) continues to grow with more plants added. A couple of recent working bees have weeded, planted and mulched, but after several hours of back bending 'exercise' a sit down at the Friends picnic table was well earned. And thanks also to Norm & Lorraine Broad for additional assistance.
Adventurous Journey
A group of four students Joanne Rogers, Nathan Dubbeld, Nathan Young and Emma Clark walked the railtrail from Saturday through Tuesday. They had initially hoped to finish the entire walk but had to finish at Bruthen on the last day because of blisters. They did the walk as their final adventurous journey for the Gold Duke of Edinburgh that they're hoping to be presented with at the end of this year.They are all year twelve students at the Warragul Regional College and have been doing Duke of Edinborough for several years now.
The walk began with mild weather and they walked all the way through to Partellis Crossing Road. Day two began ok but started to get really wild and a lady from Parks Victoria told them that it was too dangerous to be walking so by 12 o'clock they had to pack it in and went to Lakes for the afternoon. Day three was still quite cool and windy but barely a drop of rain. There were several fallen trees that were too heavy to be moved. Day four was beautiful blue sky as they walked into Bruthen.
Road side signs update
The Committee has ordered replacement panels for most of the large road side signs between Bairnsdale and Tambo Upper Road, to add Orbost where relevant. When these signs were installed the idea of getting the Trail all the way to Orbost was just a dream. Instead of changing each whole sign a new sheet steel panel is being made which will be fixed over the existing names panel.
Kilometre marker posts
The installation of kilometre marker posts has been a project a long time coming. It seemed an easy thing to do but rather complicated in reality. Markers will be at one Km intervals for 5 Kms each side of towns and then at 5 Km intervals. Routing of the numbers on each post has been generously donated by T & L Carved Signs (Louise & Tony McCarthy). The '0' mark will be the east bank of the Mitchell River. The new Green Corp team have expressed interest (with assistance from Andrew Sharpe) to establish the GPS reference points onto a map and then install the markers.
Places to take care
There are several places where visitors do need to take special care. The access points each end of the Stony Creek bridge are steep, especially the eastern side but that was last year treated with a roughened concrete screed to ensure stability and stop erosion. It should be obvious to any visitor that these inclines are to be taken with care. The other potential 'problem' location on this section is at Drivers Break, a large cutting just west of Nowa Nowa which had collapsed several years ago following the laying of the interstate gas pipeline. A great deal of cost and effort has been expended to try and halt the erosion and provide a reasonable path. It is just a couple of hundred metres long. At times here it can mean walking bikes rather than riding.
Just east of Nowa Nowa the present road works are also adding some difficulties. At any time if a problem is encountered on this Trail the details can be reported to the Committee via the email Comment facility on this site. Meanwhile, spring is a great time to be visiting this Trail
