Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

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Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby stu » Thu 17 Dec, 2015 4:33 pm

Anyone been in to Rhona or surrounds recently? Is the road in clear and free of fallen trees? Heading in on Boxing Day, hoping not to be on clearing duty again. Thanks in advance.
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby stristra » Sun 27 Dec, 2015 10:10 am

Hey Stu, did you end up going in to Lake Rhona?

I am planning on going in on the 30th Dec 2015, but read on the Forestry Website that Range Rd was closed (as of Dec 01) due to wind damage etc - I'd love to know if it has re-opened?

Thanks in advance, Steve
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby stristra » Mon 04 Jan, 2016 7:18 pm

For anyone wondering, my group and 30 or so other people were in at Lake Rhona over the New Year period - and although Range Rd was officially closed, it was easily passable.

Steve
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby Azza » Mon 04 Jan, 2016 9:12 pm

30 people!?? that is a bit out of control, considering the toilet situation up there.
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby stepbystep » Mon 04 Jan, 2016 9:28 pm

#deletedpost:p
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby tastrax » Tue 05 Jan, 2016 7:23 am

Azza wrote:30 people!?? that is a bit out of control, considering the toilet situation up there.


Its only out of control if people do the wrong thing and leave crap everywhere.
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby Azza » Tue 05 Jan, 2016 9:10 am

tastrax wrote:
Azza wrote:30 people!?? that is a bit out of control, considering the toilet situation up there.


Its only out of control if people do the wrong thing and leave crap everywhere.


Unfortunately people are doing the wrong thing up there and have been for quite sometime.
Last time I was there, a few years ago now there was toilet paper and poo all over the campsite and not a single spot in the scrub that hadn't been dug.
Difficult to find a spot to pitch a tent that wasn't on top of someones crap.
I've been told that the numbers going into Rhona had spiked a couple of years ago and it now receives more visitors than the Arthurs.
Time for a pod toilet.
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby tastrax » Tue 05 Jan, 2016 11:17 am

Azza wrote:Time for a pod toilet.


Or time for better walker education or poo tubes
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby stristra » Tue 05 Jan, 2016 11:26 am

From what I can gather - based on the NPWS signs in the area - neither a pod nor a composting toilet are likely in the near future. Funds are tight, and I doubt this is a priority area. Education and peer pressure are the key factors. I really can't see poo tubes being acceptable to the majority of walkers - except for the hardcore, and increasingly, the visitors to Lake Rhona are casual weekend walkers. Most (not all) people make a reasonable effort to bury their faecal waste, but seem to think it's OK to drop toilet paper anywhere. I think that a trend to "carry out toilet paper" (easily done with zip-lock bags) might be a useful alternative.
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby stu » Tue 12 Jan, 2016 3:32 pm

We went in on the 26th Dec, staying first night at Rhona; not a soul about on this night.
Gordon was low despite the rain, but we did have difficulties crossing one of the creeks along the Vale, using a log upstream to aid in what could have been a risky crossing;
(can only imagine how bad it would be to be swept down one of these narrow scrub bound creeks in flood, easy to get caught up & drown I'd suggest).
We came back out 9 days later after getting as far as Shining Mtn - Battlement Hills & yes, started to run into the hordes once back on the Rhona track.
It's certainly one of those areas in danger of being loved to death; funny how the 3 Capes project gets $25 million & these highly sensitive but obviously popular areas get a brass razoo.
I understand the budgetry constraints, but PWS can't bury their heads in the sand forever, maybe ask Dick again? :?
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby Strider » Tue 12 Jan, 2016 4:53 pm

I don't have the solution for Rhona, but note that Dick donated to Frenchman's due to its personal meaning to him (he and his wife spent their honeymoon there 25 years prior).

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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby stepbystep » Tue 12 Jan, 2016 5:03 pm

Strider wrote:I don't have the solution for Rhona, but note that Dick donated to Frenchman's due to its personal meaning to him (he and his wife spent their honeymoon there 25 years prior).

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Dick donated because he knew the track and had been there several times and saw the deplorable condition of the Loddons, nothing to do with sentimentality. I know, I asked him :)

It's a damn shame we don't have any decent philanthropists in Aus...not surprising when you see where the richest get there money....

Stu is right TasPAWS needs to pull their head out of the sand, the issue is now well and truly out of hand. There should also be loos at the trackhead for Frenchmans and the Anne Circuit. It's disgusting what a large number of walkers think is acceptable. I'm personally ashamed to be stuck in the same basket as them.

I've said it before, but until it's fixed I'd be happy to see Rhona access closed. it's the most beautiful lake in Tasmania and it's being badly trashed. TasPAWS should be utterly ashamed of their custodianship of the area.
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby dee_legg » Wed 13 Jan, 2016 10:05 am

I was at Rhona recently and thought it was mildly hilarious that PWS have installed two signs (one maybe 500m from the lake, the other 150m before the lake) that both say the same thing; don't crap inside the catchment, dig a hole but also 'consider using a poo tube'.
I can see it now. Random bushwalker: 'Oh yes, I've just walked 16km to get here but I might just dash home, grab that poo tube I have lying around and return'.

I was in a party of 2, and we saw 10 others over the three days we spent in the area. As far as I could tell, we were the only group using a tube.

Dee

P.S from what I had heard and read, I was expecting the campsite to be literally riddled with exposed faces that I would be dodging like landmines. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn't see or smell any poo, though it was obvious from the 10 or so abandoned pieces of toilet paper lurking in the bushes that proper wilderness toileting etiquette is not being observed. Didn't drink untreated water from the lake. Saw others doing so but no idea how they are faring now.
To be honest, I was probably more distressed by the evidence of fires being lit in the campsite and axe marks in one of the beautiful old gums that fringe the beach.
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby stristra » Wed 13 Jan, 2016 10:42 am

that's re-assuring Dee, although a shame about the evidence of campfires.

The toilet paper is distressing, but I think we just need to do a bit of education. We all stress how important it is to bury our No 2's etc, and to be fair, most people make a reasonable effort to do so.

However, my experience is that plenty of people that require toilet paper for their No 1's (who do the right thing with their No 2's) simply thinks it's ok to drop that bit of paper at the scene.

Perhaps we should be actively encouraging either drip drying or carrying out of our No 1's toilet paper.

It's not all about No 2's is my main point.

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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby north-north-west » Wed 13 Jan, 2016 6:54 pm

dee_legg wrote:To be honest, I was probably more distressed by the evidence of fires being lit in the campsite and axe marks in one of the beautiful old gums that fringe the beach.

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last time at Oberon, there was a small pile of partially burnt - and obviously chopped - wood at the beachside campsite. Plus a couple of pieces of chopped live wood (pine and myrtle) dropped on the flats. WT *$&# carries a hatchet into a place like that?

Sometimes I really hate people.
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby johnrs » Wed 20 Jan, 2016 4:57 pm

Dear NNW
its off topic
but Oberon was just beautiful last week.
Some litter at Junction Ck but absolutely zero beyond there.
And the sedge deltas above the lakes had very minimal signs of impacts.
So for an interloper from NSW the management standard is amazing.

While the degradation at Rhona is distressing
I am sure it will get sorted eventually.
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby Strider » Wed 20 Jan, 2016 5:52 pm

When I walked the Overland in September I passed a bloke carrying a 20lb axe on the side of his pack. WT *$&#.

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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby Azza » Wed 20 Jan, 2016 6:43 pm

johnrs wrote:And the sedge deltas above the lakes had very minimal signs of impacts.
So for an interloper from NSW the management standard is amazing.

Off topic but....

Minimal signs of impact - I don't think that is the case at all.
http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/file.aspx?id=39202

There are aerial photos of Lake Oberon camp site in 1970's or early 1980's somewhere, comparing to today the degradation is substantial.
Unfortunately I can't find them online anywhere, but this excerpt from Grants document:

"Large format landscape photographs by Peter Dombrovskis illustrate the Lake Oberon
lakeside campsite (OBE-06) in both the mid-1970s and mid-1980s. These indicate that, in
the mid-1970s, the site showed little significant impact and appeared to retain vegetation
cover. By the mid-1980s, extensive bare soil was exposed and, by the early 1990s survey,
soil loss had exposed extensive bare gravel and sand. "
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby north-north-west » Wed 20 Jan, 2016 6:58 pm

To continue off-topic:

The worst thing about Oberon (and Cygnus) is the section of supposedly hardened track between the tent platforms and the dunny. Even in dry conditions much of it is three inches or more under water, and it's over mossy, boggy ground. Not only are those spots being badly churned up, but a lot of people obviously detour around them and pads are starting to form and the degradation spreading.
Raised duckboarding would be highly visible from above, but it's the only way to stop the situation worsening.
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby Tas Tom » Thu 21 Jan, 2016 5:03 pm

north-north-west wrote:To continue off-topic:

The worst thing about Oberon (and Cygnus) is the section of supposedly hardened track between the tent platforms and the dunny. Even in dry conditions much of it is three inches or more under water, and it's over mossy, boggy ground. Not only are those spots being badly churned up, but a lot of people obviously detour around them and pads are starting to form and the degradation spreading.
Raised duckboarding would be highly visible from above, but it's the only way to stop the situation worsening.



FYI the majority of the boggy section at Oberon now has raised duckboarding on it. 90% better than it was previously. Nothing changed at Cygnus but was never as bad as Oberon anyway.
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby north-north-west » Thu 21 Jan, 2016 5:15 pm

They've done that in the last month?
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby Tas Tom » Thu 21 Jan, 2016 6:15 pm

My wife and I were there mid last week. Looked pretty recent but not sure exactly when it was done
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby north-north-west » Thu 21 Jan, 2016 6:54 pm

Photos above were taken in December. If that is now duckboarded it's been very recent.

Well, that's good to hear. If only they could do something about the mess that is McKays (and the OPD into Junction) . . .
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby johnrs » Thu 21 Jan, 2016 7:24 pm

Dear NNW
I was refering to the management standard & the sedge plain which has vastly improved since my first visit in the early 1980s.
By NSW standards the management is excellent.
In particular the emptied pod toilet system.
Good things will eventually occur at Lake Rhona.

And Hi to Tas Tom from last weeks Lake Oberon family walkers
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby north-north-west » Fri 22 Jan, 2016 7:52 am

johnrs wrote:Good things will eventually occur at Lake Rhona.

Not without a decent input of funds.
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby scrub boy » Fri 22 Jan, 2016 11:41 am

There are four options to all of this: 1)should these areas be open to walking at all? The damage is irreversible so as walkers we should confront this moral question 2) should there be a permit system to limit numbers to the natural carrying capacity (which is low) 3) retain open access but substantially increase infrastructure (high cost for relatively few users, likely increase in numbers as standard of track increases and loss of wilderness experience) or 4) a combination 2 and 3. The damage in these areas can't just be put at the feet of government, surely we all share responsibility? I'm certainly not occupying the high ground here and accept responsibility as I too have walked and camped in these areas and yes would like to do so again but its pretty stark I think; all walkers in my experience are relunctant to give anything much away in terms of our ability to go wherever whenever.
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby Binder » Sun 24 Jan, 2016 7:03 am

G'day all

Just regarding the Oberon work, it was done on the 15th December, piggy backed with the Sputnik swap over. The previously installed stepping stones had sunk so we went roughly over the same line with parallel planking. This caused far less disturbance to the site than trying to relocate the original rocks (which were huge). The timber itself was the cheap bit, mostly leftover from other jobs, but the helicopter time adds up very quickly. Not a bad office to work in for the day I must admit...

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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby johnrs » Sun 24 Jan, 2016 11:56 am

Beauty Bunder!
And the Sputniks are great.
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby north-north-west » Sun 24 Jan, 2016 4:32 pm

Binder wrote:G'day all

Just regarding the Oberon work, it was done on the 15th December, piggy backed with the Sputnik swap over. The previously installed stepping stones had sunk so we went roughly over the same line with parallel planking. This caused far less disturbance to the site than trying to relocate the original rocks (which were huge). The timber itself was the cheap bit, mostly leftover from other jobs, but the helicopter time adds up very quickly. Not a bad office to work in for the day I must admit...

Cheers

Great! My psychic complaint about the situation worked. :wink:

Good job. Now, is there any chance of fixing some of the worst bits of McKays & the OPD?
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Re: Richea Creek Track (Lake Rhona)

Postby devoswitch » Wed 09 Mar, 2016 2:26 pm

Hi all, I'm heading into Rhona just before Easter but only have one night/2days of walking. I would really like to get up to Reids peak etc but would I have time? Was thinking of walking in and camping and next morning first light I'd head up Reids with a daypack and then back down pack up and out. Doable?
Also does anyone know what road access is like at the moment?
Thanks :)
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