This walk was organised and led by John T as a CBC exercise:

Broom clearing 16th year @ Cotter Hut – Saturday 8 November 2008. The club’s long-term project aimed at removal of this invasive species from the Upper Cotter area will take place again this year. Each year club members go to the area around the Cotter Hut and locate and clear any new broom plants that can be found. The seeds of this species can stay in the soil for well over 20 years and each plant can produce thousands of seeds. Our contribution has involved searching the area to locate infestations, removal by digging and detailed mapping. You will have the opportunity to travel to the Upper Cotter by vehicle and spend the day in a remote part of Namadgi. No special skills needed - if you have ever dug up weeds then you know what to do! Map: Rendezvous Creek 1:25,000. Leader: John T. Transport: $12.00.

Absolutely wonderful to be picked up from home, driven to the meeting point at 8am and to be chauffeured to Cotter Hut. 16 of us were involved.

.gdb file of GRs from KT converted via GPSBabel to Ozi, spot checked against text file and uploaded to GPS. Example plot segment sent to JT.

Walk

A unique way to travel the entirety of the Cotter Hut Road, which I'd walked before on 3 Oct 05. As soon as we'd arrived and sorted ourselves, John gave us an excellent briefing and divided us into 2 suitably equipped groups. It was in the kitchen of Cotter Hut, another bonus of the day being to see inside. We were even given a demonstration of 'broom killing' - which, for me and other newbies, was a necessary start to the day.

Each group had a map of locations, a record sheet, a small whiteboard sheet and marker to identify any sites to be photographed for further attention and a GPS to guide us to marked sites. Our group was allocated the area NE of Cotter Hut on the E side of the river in the morning and it was again a unique experience to be driven with dry feet across the Cotter River ford.

Out first few sites were easy to identify via the prolific, yellow flowering broom (see pic 1) and the local knowledge of old hands. Each site was also marked by a star picket and tag. We were soon picking and cutting away, the plant only needing to be separated from its source of nourishment to effectively end its career. We covered a number of sites, photographing those which had too many broom plants to dig out and which would require a return spray We wrote the plot number on the whiteboard and included it in the photograph. Records were made of the number of plants dug out and an estimate of the number remaining. The GPS was useful in locating the not so obvious sites.

Back to Cotter Hut for lunch. A chance to glance at the wonderful photograph albums and technical reports available in the hut.

After lunch our group drove a way down the Yaouk Trail, then worked our way back to Cotter Hut, visiting the sites and digging, recording and photographing.

John finished the day with a debrief, putting our individual and team efforts into perspective and indicating what we were able to contribute as a club to the conservation of the area. Further bonuses of lovely cake contributed by some of the ladies.

It was a lovely surprise to meet someone with whom I'd corresponded via this blog. As we drove off, she and a friend began the walk out, to camp overnight at Pond Creek and exit via the AAWT on Sunday.

All in all an excellent day. An opportunity to pull some weeds, to experience unique travel to and from Cotter Hut, to intimately experience the area around Cotter Hut (see pics 2 and 3) which one normally just passes through, and to enjoy good company. I'll be back next year! Thanks John and all.

Distance: 5.5km  Climb: 80m.  Time: 10am - 3.30pm (5.5hrs), with 1hr of breaks.
Grading: S/M; E(4)

KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: Broom Clearing