Busy Bee @Moitch

Sunday 27^th February 2022

Attendees:

Richard & Naomi – Patrol (Trip Leader)

Matt – Pajero

Simon & Jacob – Triton

Jon K – Pajero

Alex – Colorado

Lin – FJ

Jon M & Morgan – Patrol

  As part of our adoption agreement with Parks & Wildlife of the huts on the Coastal Plain Walk Trail DBCA agreed to start allocating funds for maintenance due to All Tracks having a presence out there. On of the first things done by DBCA was the replacement of the broken fire pits with steel ones, unfortunately sometime during January some moron decided to try and remove the one at Moitch, thankfully the substantial concrete base meant it wasn’t stolen but it was left on an angle rendering the hotplate useless.

As per our adoption I filed a report with DBCA detailing what I believe had happened and suggested a plan for All Tracks to hold a Busy Bee on-site to do some maintenance on the new fire pit and the previously vandalized bench. Once the works were agreed to Parks and Wildlife organized the materials required which I could collect on the 25^th. At this point I really want to thank everyone that was able to help out with such short notice and make their time available to help out.

            My plan was to dig around the base of the concrete plinth and wrap a sling around the fire pit and slowly winch it back into the upright, level position. Once achieved we then returned and compacted the soil around the base.

Whilst this was happening attention was turned to the bench that had been half ripped out of the ground under the trees. It appears someone had tried to snatch it out, but found it was substantially concreted in, unfortunately in the process they had damaged the metal frame.

Part of the busy bee was to relocate the bench under the veranda of the hut to better protect it. In the process of digging the new footings we found the original ones from the last bench that was stolen.

With everything all squared up and level it was time to concrete the legs back in the ground.

Whilst this was all happening some other industrious workers were pruning back the overgrown path leading to the long drop as well as around the door. With the area all spick and span now, it was time for a group Photo of the happy workers and a photo of the finished clean camp area.

The feedback I’ve had from the Rangers is that they are really pleased with the work and how neat Moitch is now looking. Our adoption and volunteering is making the upkeep and maintenance of these huts much easier.

            With everyone pitching in we achieved our goal quickly and everyone was out and airing up within a couple of hours (Photo K). As the bench frame had been damaged when somebody tried to steal it, I had to return a week later with some brackets and tek screws to reinforce it. Unfortunately, with current fire bans welding insitu was not an option.

Upon my return it was good to see the table had not been further damaged, all I had to do was jack up the base rail, pull it across into position and tek screw a plate on both sides to hold it securely. With this done it was another quick tidy up before heading over to Ridges to check on that. Once again, thank you to all our awesome members for your help on this and all the other projects we undertake for DBCA.

All the best

Richard Cooper