Four Wheel Drive NSW & ACT, INC
ABN: 51 879 448 402
PO Box 1371, Parramatta, NSW, 2124
Phone: 1800 646 630
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NSW-ACT 4WD Association Newsletter - July 2012

Reminder – Association affiliation fees were due on the 1st July.

Any Club reading this who has not received their invitation to re-affiliate either by email or in the mail, would you please advise Ron Owen on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or on 02 9614 1447

Old Association Website now directed to new website.

After many months since the new association website was launched the old association website is being closed down and a redirect has been made to the new website www.4wdnow.com

If you haven’t been to the new website you will need to register even if you had registered on the old website. Because it is not a public website this will mean that your membership of your club has to be validated with your club. Over time there were many thousands of out of date user names and out of date information that needs to be removed – hence the need for a new website.

Quarterly meeting August Saturday 18th.

The quarterly meeting is being held at Concord RSL club starting at 9.30am sharp.

Address:
Nirranda Street
Concord West NSW
2138

Agenda for the meeting will cover such topics as listed below amongst other things.

• DTU
• Training track
• Secretarial service
• Positions in Association in the new association year. As is normal practice all positions will be declared vacant and nominations will be sought for positions.

The current public officer and the president will not be re standing for those roles.

Abercrombie River National Park

You may be aware that the Silent Creek camping area was damaged by a bunch of hoons a few weeks back. This damage was encouraging the National Park rangers to put bollards all over the area which would stop damage in the future but make camping quite difficult.

Fortunately club members and association contacts with National Parks lead to an urgent working bee being organised in a matter of a couple of weeks to help the ranger cordon off the damaged area till it regenerates in the spring. There is a follow up weekend planned to remove the temporary fencing that was erected. Members from Black Diamond, Triple Diamond and Sydney District attended.

The response from the ranger was extremely positive. She was impressed with the commitment and organisation of clubs and the association, and was interested in a number of ideas of how our skills and presence in these parks could be used to mutual benefit, such as patrolling and reporting on tracks.

Lands issues

The next meeting with the Lands committee is not far off (attended by National Parks, Forests, Lands and the association) in August. At this meeting we will discuss the revised MOU that now will include all of the land management agencies. There is some greater commitment to use this agreement and examples such as the Abercrombie River NP working bee we hope to will assist in this development.

Also there is a significant enquiry that you should be aware of. The association is hoping we can put in a submission.

INQUIRY INTO THE MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC LAND IN NEW SOUTH WALES

Link http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/committee.nsf/0/18B4C6B001E0D367CA2579E9000215C2

TERMS OF REFERENCE

That General Purpose Standing Committee No 5 inquire into and report on the management of public land in New South Wales, including State Forests and National Park estate, and in
Particular:

1. The conversion of Crown Land, State Forests and agricultural land into National Park estate or other types of conservation areas, including the:
   1. Process of conversion and the assessment of potential operational, economic, social and environmental impacts
   2. Operational, economic, social and environmental impacts after conversion, and in particular, impacts upon neighbours of public land and upon Local Government
   3. That the following cases be considered in relation to Terms of Reference 1(a) and 1(b):
      • River Red Gum State Forests in the Southern Riverina,
      • Native Hardwood State Forests in Northern NSW,
      • Yanga Station in the Balranald Shire, and
      • Toorale Station in Bourke Shire.
2. The adherence to management practices on all public land, that are mandated for private property holders, including fire, weed and pest management practices.
   
3. Examination of models for the management of public land, including models that provide for conservation outcomes which utilises the principles of “sustainable use”.
4. Any other related matters.

COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP

The Hon Robert Brown MLC Shooters and Fishers Party (Chair)
The Hon Jeremy Buckingham MLC The Greens (Deputy Chair)
The Hon Rick Colless MLC The Nationals
The Hon Greg Donnelly MLC Australian Labor Party
The Hon Scot MacDonald MLC Liberal Party
The Hon Dr Peter Phelps MLC Liberal Party
The Hon Peter Primrose MLC Australian Labor Party

Holden Colorado Ad

Also a few weeks ago Holden put some ads on TV showing its new “powerful” Colorado pulling out some other vehicle with a chain connected to the tow ball of a vehicle! The association contacted Holden promptly to explain the safety issue and the ad was pulled.

Further discussions are under way by DTU with Holden as to how to correctly carry out such recoveries. This should lead to a video being produced at the training track in the near future.

ACMC (Australian Confederation of Motor Clubs)

After the initial meeting in April some committees have been formed and have had first meeting

• Safety committee
• Regulations

A bit early to report progress yet but we will be informed as things progress.

Adventure Show

Just a reminder as it comes around quickly!! So you should be thinking about organising your club stand. The association will be after volunteers for show hosts, association stand and the training track.

There is a form on the website for volunteers to fill in. You need be registered on the site to sign up and it can be found at the following URL: www.4wdnow.com/index.php?option=com_forme&Itemid=62

Driver training Unit

There has been a change in the nature of the training courses implemented by the DTU. This has meant rewriting of training material by Tony Vaughan and Gorge Cottee. The association is investing in the updating of active trainers in the DTU to ensure our training is current.

In a future newsletter we would like to outline a detailed description of the courses and what this means for our 4wd training.

Training track

A willing band of workers is required for a working bee. Possible dates September 9, 16, 23 and 30 have been proposed. Watch the website for more current details as we get closer to these dates.

There are some dates available in September for training days and club days. Please contact a committee member and we will forward you Ken Timmins contact details to organise the event.

Track Classification

During the last month we had track classification training with Blue Mountains 4wd club and another is being planned for the Illawarra region.

Now it is time to look at doing some classification for real. As we have groups of track classifiers in Canberra, Sydney and Hunter and Central coast  One thought is to classify a round going from Yarrongobilly Cave to Port Macquarie making an excellent 4wd touring route.

Another thought is to classify the tracks around Abercrombie River Park as the ranger there can see the usefulness of providing such information. And it is a clear identifiable project that can be developed presented to land managers.

Newsletter

A big round of thanks to Chris Keys for putting this together. He is trying to build this into a regular monthly information newsletter that we can send out to all our association members, so we hope the day job doesn’t interfere too much. As with newsletters it is impossible cover everything, so remember that the website is there with a lot of the information you might require.

If there is anything else that you would like to see please do not hesitate to contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any ideas.