Conservation Overview
Guidance for Bushwalkers - Minimum Impact
Melbourne Bushwalkers members practice minimum impact bushwalking in all their activities and encourage all walkers and visitors to follow these important guidelines.
Minimum Impact Bushwalking motto:
'Take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints'.
This means all walkers must:
- carry out all litter including vegetable peels and cores,
- bury human waste at least 150mm deep and 100 metres from a water source,
- use unbleached toilet paper,
- tampons, sanitary pads and nappies to be carried out in plastic bags,
- do not use soap or detergent near water,
- minimise trampling of vegetation,
- use a fuel stove wherever possible, and
- leave your campsites in better condition than you found them.
Particular attention should be given to the
minimisation of the spread of phytophthora
fungus.
Walkers are referred to
Bushwalking Victoria's Conservation
Policy.
Guidance for Bushwalkers - Camp Fire Policy
Melbourne Bushwalkers recognises that campfires are part of the outdoor experience. Used responsibly they can be useful for cooking, for keeping warm and for socialising.
However the need to minimise the impact of bushwalking activities, particularly
in sensitive or heavily used areas, means that campfires must be treated as a
privilege rather than as a right. The purpose of this policy is to enable all
of us to enjoy a campfire, where it is appropriate, while maintaining respect for the bush.
Policy:
- Walkers must be aware of regulations
in force, particularly total fire bans. To assist this the Club endeavours to have up to date copies of regulations available in the clubrooms.
- The Club follows the guidelines set out in the Minimal Impact Bushwalking Code.
- Fuel stoves are encouraged.
- Any fires to be kept to a minimum size.
- No rubbish to be burnt on fires.
- Fires to be completely extinguished before retiring or leaving camp.
'Fuel stove only' walking areas
include:- Mt Bogong, Mt Feathertop, the Baw Baw plateau, within one
kilometre of Lake Tali Karng, Wilsons Prom National Park and above
1700 metres in the Kosciuszko National Park (NSW)
Interests And Affiliations
Many club members have an active interest in their bushland surroundings. Bird-watching, tree, shrub and flower identification, geology and natural history are all very much encouraged. Protecting our bushland for future bushwalkers is also very important to us. The Melbourne Bushwalkers Inc as a Club, and indeed many of our members
in their own right, supports to the following conservation agencies:
Current editions of their magazines, Habitat, Park Watch and Wilderness,
are on display on the Club noticeboard for easy access by members.
Melbourne
Bushwalkers delegates attend Bushwalking Victoria's 'Bushwalking Environment Committee'.
This Committee is very pro-active on tracks, huts, park management plans and
current conservation campaigns. Updates on issues, campaigns and events are
supplied via our monthly
Newsletter and clubroom noticeboard.
Conservation Activities
Melbourne Bushwalkers supports the conservation projects of Bushwalking Victoria
 Track
maintenance is also important to us. We schedule these fun and friendly
activities on a regular basis and assist park rangers at the Alpine National
Park, Grampians National Park and Mt Buffalo National Park. We also
support track maintenance activities organised by
Bushwalking Victoria.
We
support the
Regent Honeyeater Project in the Lurgi Hills near Glenrowan.
Click here for a list of conservation
and track maintenance activities.
Conservation Issues
Conservation success stories include:
- Participation in the campaign to protect the Wongungurra River wilderness (Alpine National Park),
- Protesting on the threat to Burramys habitat (mountain pygmy possum) at Mt McKay (Alpine National Park), and
- Participation in the 'Hands off the Prom' campaign (Wilson's Promontory)
Ongoing issues include:
- Alpine cattle grazing (Alpine
National Park) See the
Victorian National Parks
Association website for more details.
- The proposed expansion of the ski tows into the Rocky Knolls (Alpine National Park)
- Melbourne Bushwalkers Inc opposes the mooted 'forest park'
multi-use zone in the
Otway National Park.
- Barmah River Red Gum Campaign - The Melbourne Bushwalkers Inc
supports efforts to preserve the
The
Barmah-Millewa forests and wetlands.
- More national parks for the Box-Ironbark forests of central Victoria,
- The aesthetic concerns with the proposed 119, 100 metre tall wind turbines on Cape Bridgewater (Great South West Walk).
- The spread of phytophthora fungus.
- Call for new
River Red Gum National Parks on the River Murray.
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