BETWEEN FRIENDS

Salutations....

Another successful Annual General Meeting came around in December 1993 with no change to the stable executive committee. Membership renewal was due at this time, so if you have not paid for 1994, contact Peter Ackroyd and he will be happy to accept the $2 yearly membership fee.

For the the first time in nearly two years, a General Meeting will be held very soon in Melbourne. It is vital that a continuing contribution and discussion of ideas occurs within the Friends to keep us busy and stimulated. Input and critique is invited from all members.

Graham Parkes has kindly provided a feature article on the revegetation project in the Potholes allotment. The planting of seedlings will see another major milestone reached by the Friends group.

To be held on Wednesday 25th May 1994, starting 800 PM at Glenn Baddeley's. The address is 964 Riversdale Road, Surrey Hills, about 200 metres west of the Warrigal Road intersection, on the south side. Tea, Coffee and nibbles will be provided by the Friends.

The agenda is to concentrate on discussing the future directions of the Friends. This includes the type of projects which will be suitable and would be of most benefit to the Buchan Caves.

by Graham Parkes, Ranger In Charge, Parks and Reserves - Buchan

The geomorphological value of the Potholes has long been recognised. Recently the vegetation of this amazing reserve has received closer attention.

When consultant botanist Randall Robinson studied the reserve as part of the Buchan Caves management planning process he noted that other than tree cover, the occurrence of native vegetations was surprisingly high.

As a result, the management plan recommended a planting program which would restore tree coverage to sections of the reserve, but leave the central doline field open for easy viewing.

Recently the Friends group won a grant of $1000 for fencing out a section of the reserve to prepare it for planting. These works are now complete and the site is ready for the planting to commence.

This program will be carried out on the Friends weekend of 16 & 17 July 1994.

We now have prepared seedlings of Yellow Box Sheoak and Buchan Blue Wattle ready to go in to the ground.

Just prior to the weekend we will spot spray each seedling site with weedicide. This will enable the seedlings to compete against the existing grass cover.

When the seedlings are planted they will be fertilized, and protected with a tree guard.

After this area is successfully planted we will be able to look at extending the protective fencing to include a larger area.

by Peter Ackroyd

A pretty good turnout marked the commencement of our seventh year. On the Saturday (4th December) everyone worked at removing mud, grime and rubble from the area near the Spaniel's Ears in Fairy Cave.

Brett Wakeman and Margot Watson's new Friends display board was admired in the Kings Chamber of Fairy Cave. Already this information board is attracting a lot of attention, and donations!

By the afternoon a lot of vacuuming, rubble hauling and mud scraping had gone on and so a quick shower was taken by most people before the famous Graham Parkes Barbecue commenced at 7 PM.

Graham and Diane Parkes put on another fantastic meal, assisted by Veronda and Jack Lewendon, until, when no-one could fit in another sausage; the meeting was called to order by our retiring (well fairly shy) president.

Between 830 PM and 930 PM bureaucracy held sway while the financial statements were officially distributed and accepted, the 1993/94 committee was elected and a vote of thanks for the work put in by Graham, Diane, Veronda and Jack was carried with acclaim. The elected committee is listed at the end of this newsletter.

On the Sunday (5th December) a few hardy souls braved the Fairy Cave rubble removal program again while a few less hardy souls checked out the Potholes revegetation plot in brilliant sunshine. They also managed to check out a small cave in the process!

Friends who attended this weekend were:

Peter Ackroyd	Sheren Elliot	Leo McBain
Mick Adler	Bryan Gardam	Graham Parkes
Glenn Baddeley	Peter Greenhall	Diane Parkes
Paul Brooker	Geoff Hammond	Peter Robertson
Dale Calnin	Jack Lewendon	Peter Stewart
Bronwyn Carter	Veronda Lewendon	Roger Taylor
Cathie Cranston	Erica Maggs	Brett Wakeman
David Cranson	Mike McBain	Margot Watson
Bill Cuffe	Gaby McBain

by Peter Ackroyd

This Friends weekend was a happy affair with lots of tea drinking, biscuit dunking, and the occasional bang, all to the accompaniment of the sound of the counting of money in the background. In other words, a typical working bee!

Graham Parkes had asked Peter Ackroyd at the December get together whether he thought it possible to blast the old concrete machine base near the workshops without also demolishing the new Guides Centre near by. Peter gave it some thought and indicated that with small, well placed charges he could. Graham also revealed that a D-6 bulldozer had made no impression on the base whatsoever.

Came the big weekend and Ken Judd had the distinction of co-ordinating the work on behalf of the Department. A total of three jobs were set for the weekend; the removal of the concrete base, the installation of the gate at the Potholes stock exclusion plot (prior to revegetation) and the construction of two bat pamphlet display boxes.

Ken took a small group up to the Potholes to commence gate installation. Peter started drilling shot holes in the concrete base using a hired Hilti drill, paid for by the Friends. Brett Wakeman started out on the pamphlet display boxes.

The day went well with the Potholes party overcoming a huge problem, the shot firing party removing chunk after chunk of rock and concrete from the machine base and loading it onto the one tonne trailer, and Brett, assisted by Margot Watson, manufacturing some truly marvellous display boxes.

The highlights were the gate being hung by Saturday afternoon, Gary Foad (the local policeman) driving past the machine base demolition party while the work gang was levering loosened rocks up and asking "that looks like hard work. Why don't you put a couple of sticks of geli under it?" and also the look of wonder on Graham Parkes face when he beheld two perfectly made bat pamphlet display boxes.

The machine base was removed using 14 small charges. Its dimensions were 2.0 x 1.5 x 0.6 m deep, and it weighed 3 tonne, complete with old forged hold down bolts and reinforcing.

$202 in donations was collected from the donation bins in Fairy Cave and Royal cave and counted.

1994 Executive Officer Contact List