BETWEEN FRIENDS

Hello Friends

Welcome to the first of the biannual newsletters for 1996. The previous newsletter in November 1995 was a record 7 pages of information and contained reports on four of the Friends weekends held during 1995 and included the 4th Annual Report of financial matters.

The features for this edition are the announcement of the calendar for 1996 and the report on the activities of the Annual General Meeting weekend at Buchan. Also included is a letter from Kim Van Dyk, on behalf of the S.E.S. cave rescue team, thanking the Friends for a donation of $1000. There is also the news that the Friends have succeeded in obtaining another grant for work at the Potholes Reserve.

As you read this I hope you are preparing to be in Buchan, bright and enthusiastic, for the first of this year's working-bee weekends, on April 20th - 21st. The meeting place is the Guide Hut between the Royal and Fairy car-parks, at 10AM on Saturday morning.

We have gained some new faces this past year, which pushes the membership numbers up into the 70's. It would be great to see these, and as many old faces as possible, participating on the weekend. Too many members have been sitting on their bums in recent times, and it seems like the same loyalists are only ones showing up.

Some complaints have been raised that we have been concentrating on above-ground projects too much, and not providing enough opportunity for people to carry out under-ground work in the caves. The revegetation and rehabilitation at the Potholes is extremely important, and fits our brief, and it will continue for quite a while. But what we have for this year is a selection of small to larger projects which will operate in caves in the main reserve. These essential involve removing rubble, cleaning calcite formations, walk-way construction and other special tasks in caves visited by the public such as Fairy Cave, Royal Cave, Federal Cave and Moons Cave.

Now that I have said my bit, let's see what can be achieved by the end of this year.

2 - 3 December 1995

by Peter Ackroyd

Present:

Peter Ackroyd	Thomas Maggs	Lyn Sebire
Glenn Baddeley	Jude Matthews	Norma Sebire
Dale Calnin	Spot Matthews	John Van Dyk
Geoff Hammond	Alan Oldroyd	Josh Van Dyk
Erica Maggs	Ian Sebire	Kim Van Dyk

Introduction

The idea for some information signs for the Buchan Caves Reserve came from the (then) Ranger in Charge, Graham Parkes, in early 1994. At that time I was the treasurer of the Friends of Buchan Caves Inc and, as Graham discussed his idea with me, we decided that the Friends would apply for a community programs grant from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. In May 1994 we learned that we had been awarded the full amount applied for, $4,800. The terms of the grant were that we were to manufacture and install five information signs in the Buchan Caves Reserve.

The doings

At first glance this did not seem to be a huge undertaking. I knew a fair amount about the Caves Reserve and for those bits I did not know I knew who to ask. Such are the musings of one who doesn't know what he has let himself in for.

As the months wore on I was to discover that the initial steps of writing the signs, deciding what the topics were to be and where to place the signs were as nothing compared with creating signs in which the wording and overall appearance were such as to encourage people to look at and read them. This latter, I was to discover, is where the real art of creating good interpretation signs lies.

In early 1995 I had finished the detailed design of the frames that would support the signs (see Between Friends No 7 page 1). I then engaged a graphic artist to draft some of the more complex and artistic graphic images, based on a series of panoramic photos I'd taken of the geological and historical features in the Caves Reserve. By working closely with her I was able to avoid the expense of having her travel down to Buchan to draw from 'life'.

By May 1995 a first draft of the five signs was produced and sent out to some of the Friends and other interested parties for comment. Little did I know then that this was only the first of several revisions before the final artwork was prepared and sent off to the selected sign manufacturer.

The final design of the signs also rested with me and, after speaking with members of the Department and making excursions to look at other signs (going as far afield as Ballarat and the Grampians), I decided on vitreous enamel signs mounted on tubular steel frames. Signs such as these should keep on looking fresh and new for up to 30 years.

There were then some technical details to work through. I wanted the radius of the bends in the frames to be quite tight for aesthetic reasons, so heavier than normal steel tube was specified to allow this. The mounting system consisted of stainless steel, vandal resistant screws. The size of the signs I decided should be quite large and I settled on a format that was 420 mm wide by 600 mm high, angled back at 30 degrees, standing only 1.2 metres high overall. This design allowed adults to view the large sized text from a comfortable standing height (see photo) while also permitting children of reading age a chance to view the signs. The choice of sign colours was not so hard. A light green background with a dark green, powder coated frame seemed to blend with the colour scheme used elsewhere in the Reserve.

After three major drafts and many minor drafts and after lots of trial and error shuffling of layout and text, the signs finally looked in a completed state by early October 1995. Lyn Sebire had prepared a draft Fairy Cave sign as part of her V.C.E. graphics course. This draft had undergone a considerable trans-formation while the four other signs had been written, reviewed and finalised from the ground up. The secret is to get detailed and sometimes difficult concepts across in very few words. Near the finish, a change to a single word necessitated major revision due to the delicacy of the balance. The sign manufacturer required a six week lead time so I gave him eight. As it turned out, this was just as well. Geoff Hammond and I collected the completed signs on our way down to Buchan for the December 1995 working bee that was to install them. The signs had been completed only that morning!

So, on Saturday 2nd December 1995 the five signs were installed in their selected sites by the voluntary labour of the Friends. The weather was not too hot and only one of the sites selected had more than the expected number of large rocks to deal with. The site at Fairy Cave required much swinging of crowbar, shovel and finally sledge hammer, with a modicum of colourful language, before the sign could go into its designated spot.

Installing the 'Geology and the Landscape' interpretation sign on
Moons Hill, one of five installed by the Friends in the Caves Reserve that day
Photo: G Baddeley 2 Dec 1995

The project costs

This project was much larger than I initially anticipated. It could have been completed with less effort but, I believe, with a much less satisfactory outcome. After careful analysis of the time spent, and using a nominal hourly rate of $24 to evaluate the voluntary labour, the estimated total cost of the five signs was $11,452. Thus the D.C.N.R. grant covered 43% of the overall cost, with individual Friends donating their time and labour to make up the shortfall.

For those who are interested, the breakdown in costs was $4,872.50 for the manufacture of the signs and $6,579.50 for the artwork, design, layout and electronic output of the signs, and for their installation. The number of volunteer hours, not counting materials, put in by the Friends was 258, of which 214 were my own.

Conclusion

The concept of Friends groups for caving areas doesn't appear to have been explored in areas other than at Buchan. In 1987 when the Friends of Buchan Caves was first formed the goal was to enhance the experiences of visitors to the Buchan Caves Reserve so that they came away with increased awareness of, and empathy for, caves and karst. I believe these five signs will be doing just that for many years to come.

Report on the Annual General Meeting

That evening the Friends held their Annual General Meeting and BBQ under a starry sky and with plenty of food and drink. In the absence of our president, who was unwell, the meeting was ably chaired by Jude Matthews. 22 people were present.

Those elected to positions of power were:

President:	Mick Adler
Vice President:	Wayne (Spot) Matthews
Secretary:	Erica Maggs
Treasurer:	Jude Matthews

by Glenn Baddeley

In October 1995, the Friends applied for a $4020 grant through the D.C.N.R. Conservation Grants Program for 1995/96. This was to continue the revegetation, rehabilitation and maintenance work at the Potholes Reserve through to 30th June 1997. The application was approved by the Department in January 1996, and by the following month we had the cheque for the full amount.

The April working-bee will include looking at and commencing projects for this year, and the formulation of a more detailed plan to put the grant to good use at the Potholes. The main item in the plan is the extension of the existing well-established revegetation plot and boundary electric fence to double its size to about 4 hectares. Other activities will include the planting of native species, improvement of fences and access paths to the allotment, weed control, cave entrance stabilisation and the cleaning of formations in caves. All this will occur in liaison with the D.C.N.R. rangers at Buchan, who also become involved in the volunteer work.

To:
Friends of Buchan Caves Inc.
C/O Jude Matthews
Moe

Dear Friends of Buchan Caves members,

I am writing on behalf of the Buchan and Bruthen State Emergency Service cave and cliff rescue team to express our appreciation to the Friends for their generous donation to our team.

The team are keen and train on a regular basis but have been limited by a lack of equipment. Your donation will certainly assist in redressing this situation.

The main portion of the donation will be used to purchase:

• 50 metres of 11 mm static Bluewater Plus rope
• 25 metres of 9 mm static Bluewater Plus rope
• Spelean large rope pack

The pack with the ropes in it will be well marked as "Donated by the Friends group" and stored in the S.E.S. building to only be used in the event of a real cave or cliff rescue.

The Buchan unit will be purchasing the same quantity and type of rope to be used for training. When our training rope needs to be replaced, the new rope we buy will be exchanged for that stored in the pack ensuring that the rope for call-out use only will always be less than 3 years old.

The remaining money from the donation will be used to purchase pulleys, tape, karabiners and a rescue mate that will be used for training as well as for call-out.

I will send a list of goods purchased with this money to you when I have received the order.

I would again like to express our sincere gratitude to the Friends of Buchan Caves group. The donation has not only given our team much needed money for equipment it has also shown the team that our efforts are noticed and appreciated. It has added greatly to the teams morale.

Your sincerely,