Doug Pocock
 

In April 1960 the Club celebrated its 20th anniversary with a walk from Belgrave South to Mt Morton and on to Sherbrooke Forest. A large birthday cake was cut with due formality and Egon Donath spoke about the Club in its early days, mentioning how pleasing it was to see the Club thriving and active and how its members could look forward to its 50th anniversary.

Bill Thompson, the President, led the Club Easter trip in 1960 across the `dry' Barry Mountains, an area with a reputation for scarcity of drinking water. The party of 30 walkers was possibly one of the biggest ever to do this walk. Maps of the area were rudimentary - in fact, Fred Halls planned to use this opportunity to correct the errors on the map current at that time. When camp was reached on Easter Saturday, the wind was howling through the trees. Next day the cloud was down and it rained and blew all day, which caused the party to split into three smaller groups. By the time darkness fell one group was caught out on a side spur, while the other two had joined up and camped at a Forests Commission camp. By Easter Monday all parties were trailing out of the bush at the Alpine Road - Dargo Road junction. Sam Larsen, whose legs had stiffened up on him, walked out slowly. `They wouldn't let me stop for lunch in case my legs seized up,' he said. 'So they gave me this packet of bird seed [sunflower seeds] to eat and told Inc to keep going.'

On the Bogong High Plains SEC construction activity for the Kiewa Scheme slowed down in the 1960s. The area was now much more accessible and could be reached by the Mt Beauty - Falls Creek Road and by a ring road from Falls Creek to Rocky Valley, beneath Mt Cope, to Pretty Valley and back to Falls Creek. Langfords camp was eventually demolished in 1962, and some of the material was acquired for Wilkinson Lodge. The road to Shannonvale was completed in 1965 and the ring road was subsequently closed. Other roads constructed in the early sixties