Draught Relief – Deddick
Date – 7-8th August 2004
Participants - James Schuster (Trip
Leader, passenger)
Greg Love NL
Pajero
Ralph Longley GU Patrol
Peter Dyna (mite) truck.
Mario Peters Truck Jockey
Some Background 1st
In June 2003, Autron Electronics donated
6 state of the art cruise controls to 4WD clubs for the specific purpose of
raising money for draught relief. The Pajero Club was registered into the
raffle by Karen Ingram, and then James Schuster took on the responsibility of
raffling the cruise control as Karen went on a well deserved holiday. Now the
nice people at Autron Electronics donated an extra cruise control unit as a
special prize for the club that sold the most raffle tickets. Well to be
expected, the Pajero Club raised $1200.00 putting them ahead of the other
clubs and winning the additional cruise control which was used as a very
special raffle prize.
This now leads me into the Trip Report
and how the $1,200.00 was put to good use.
The adventure begins - -
As per usual, the alarm goes off just as you drift into the deep
sleep – 5:00am!
Up – stagger stagger, shower, coffee – pack bags – then, phone
rings.
It’s James and he’s not his normal bubbly
self! “My Patrol is coughing and spluttering – Think I’ve done the motor in”!
So at 5:45am I inform Pam that she hasn’t got the car for the weekend – It’s
now required on DR duty. Out into the very cold morning I go and off load all
the work gear out the rear of the Patrol and in goes all the basic 4wd’ing
gear. 6:15am off I go to pick up James.
6:45am I pick up the ‘Not So Happy’
James and all his gear before heading off to meet Peter and Greg at
Bairnsdale to load the grain for the farmers.
Arriving 10:30am (made good timing) at
Bairnsdale Grain & Feed Supply, we load the sixty bags of maze and 1
‘King Size’ hunk of hay onto the truck and off we go.
From Bairnsdale we head North East
through Bruthen (very picturesque) to Buchan where we decided that a nice
counter meal would be in order. Definitely recommend a trip to Buchan not
just for the beautiful scenery but the Buchan Caves a worth a Buchan look.
After we all had an enjoyable lunch it’s off we go towards the Snowy Mountains. We progressed on what can be described as reasonable dirt roads which is very
narrow, and has very sharp corners and has a very long drop off
the side. Just perfect for Peter’s 6 ton tray top to be travelling. We did
stop along the way to take in the magnificent sights of the Snowy Mountains. Due to a phenomenon called altitude, you find yourself not looking up at the
clouds but rather looking across at them. The sight of the Snowy River snaking its way along the valley floor hundreds of metres below is breathtaking.
 Soon we arrived at
the famous McKillops Bridge which the locals fondly describe as the longest
straight on the road! Photos and video was taken for the publicity side of
this special trip at this location.
One interesting point – the bridge has a
red dust type covering which as James explained is not from the dirt roads –
but is a fire retardant. Gosh he’s really informative – could be on ‘Who
wants to be a millionaire’!
By 3:00pm we arrived at Deddick Spring
where we were greeted by some very enthusiastic and appreciative farmers. Now
this is the out reaching part of the Snowy Mountains so unusual things will
happen. Eg – Like the dunny that just blew over and two baby bunnies fell in
the pit! Not that funny until you see the enthusiasm of the two local
children that had to – and did rescue them! Would
have loved to cuddled the bunnies but they were just a little on the nose, if
you know what I mean!
After loading maze onto some of the
local’s tray tops, we headed off to explore the property and do some 4Wding.
Though the grass is very green it has no length. All the dams are as good as
dry. You can still see the scars from the big fires though the re-growth on
the tree trunks is amazing.
After the exploration of the property it
was time to off load the last bags and settle in for the evening. Our hosts –
Tom and Pat had the bunk house all organised for us guys and a lovely double
bed with pretty doona and cute fluffy pillows for James! Pat’s a great cook
and the fresh turkey for dinner went down a treat.
For the evening’s entertainment – we went
for a night drive to spot and observe the nocturnal wild life. Yes we saw the
full complement of foxes, wild cats, kangaroos and bunnies by the dozen. Most
spectacular would be the night sky. Not a cloud - just billions of stars seen
in the perfect darkness that only this environment can provide.
There were so many stars it was virtually
impossible to see any satellites!
The next morning we awoke to the smell of
Pat cooking bacon and eggs – what a great start to the day. Soon enough after
the compulsory group photo it was back on the road and back to Melbourne. The weather in the Snowies was superb and the blue sky remained until we got to
Bairnsdale.
James, Peter, Greg and Mario – I had a
great relaxing and rewarding weekend. Thank you for your company. The farmers
in the Deddick area really did appreciate the effort that the Pajero Club put
in to bring them a small but very positive contribution to a big problem.
If you would like to know more about
Deddick or any of the surrounding country side, give James Schuster a call.
James has spent lots of time in the area and will gladly assist you in any
trip planning.
Ralph Longley 829
|