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Car Wreck
Removal from Mount Disappointment
Saturday November 6th
was showery
following several days
of rain
in
the Mount Disappointment State Forest just north
of Melbourne. So conditions
weren’t ideal
for recovering derelict motor
vehicles. Despite this, close to
thirty Club members turned up to
help out in this very
worthwhile, community-minded exercise.
I
was but one ….
 On arrival
at the appointed place
at 8 am things were
looking pretty miserable. Plenty of thoroughly wet tents and
people wandering
around in oilskins
and japaras
in the drizzle. My idea of
travelling up first thing
Saturday
had obviously been
the correct one! My first impression – the organizer of this event (Robert
Pepper) had set
a pretty high standard although the weather
could have been
organized a trifle better! Robert’s
organization included everything.
Liaison with the Rangers, the wrecker
where the dead vehicles were to be taken, full details of
all those attending plus recovery gear
available, contact details, full location of all vehicles to be recovered – even
a dedicated web site
to disseminate the information! After handing out copious
information
sheets and an
official briefing, it was time for
action!
By the way – did you know that close to 75% of Club members are
now on the Internet? Not surprising that more and more Club Communication is via
this medium. And it makes lots of sense – it’s easy, the info is up to date and everyone
is “in the know”
(except
the few who are not connected). Anyway, back to the
job at hand ….
I was placed in team E which
comprised
one Colin Orchard
and
Chris Brain
in Chris’s vehicle
SWAGGI, Andrew Mc
Diarmid in his Stage 1, Claus Salger in his Nissan
with tandem trailer. The addition of
my trayback Land Cruiser made up a real
mixed bunch. Between us we had all the
necessary gear though.
First task – travel along a few
forest roads and tracks
and
find a very
abandoned 1959 Holden FC. This proved to be easy
and the car was
right next to the track
pointing downhill. It was minus its running
gear and was
pretty rusty
so it wasn’t heavy.
A very helpful local turned up and was most impressed with our equipment
and what we were doing.
This sort of thing is
real
good PR for the 4WD movement.
Our wreck
was soon on the trailer with the aid of the Tirfor although
in the end it slid on so well that it looked for a moment
that
Claus would be wearing it in the back of his Nissan! Then Claus and I headed
for Broadford via Reedy Creek.
Soon it was off the trailer at the Wreckers
with the aid of a forklift. Too easy!
Phoned in to Robert’s Satphone to report that Team
E had delivered its
first car and was off to get the next.
 The next vehicle assigned to team E – in fact the next two – were near Doctors Creek Road
off Spur Road. The first pick up was the remnants
of the uteback
and cabin of
a late model Toyota
Hi lux cut up with an angle
grinder. The reader can guess
the history of this one. Stolen and not recovered. Oh what a feeling!
The next one was similar but
a Pajero – body neatly cut into about eight pieces – no mechanical stuff – at least the remnants were easy to load.
Also grabbed
sundry scrap steel at
this site. All off to the
wreckers.
Next task was
to locate and remove a virtually complete but very
sad Falcon XA wagon. Now these are
pretty big and
heavy but
it was parked in relatively flat bush from where
it was dragged out
and loaded relatively easily. The
process was
aided
by Chris in SWAGGI
giving the car’s rear a
none to gentle nudge! Off to
the wreckers. That was it for team E – the days work was done.
No doubt some of the other teams had some adventures – those
stories are for
them to tell. Tally for
the day all up around twenty vehicles to the
wreckers
then to Sims
for recycle. By the way – there are still a
few vehicles out there
yet to be recovered and
this is only one of
our many forests.
To conclude the
event, a very informative Email arrived early Sunday
from Robert wrapping
the whole thing up
concluding a very well
organized and
useful event. Thanks Robert!
Jeff Sparks
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