As you will all know we have so many club trips on private farmland & properties, and most of us come & go and never meet the owners. Well it was nice to be able to return a favour in a positive way.

Saturday August 30th, and eight trucks and about twelve people met at St. Arnaud Community Hall. Trip organizer, Bob Dickinson, primed us with a piece of freshly cooked fruitcake (thanks Jill) and we made our way to Lake Station. It was there we saw our first evidence of fence damage from the recent heavy snowfall in the area. There were big branches of mainly beech trees down everywhere, which had wiped out some fences in places and covering others so that it was impossible to see if they were damaged.

After lunch the list of helpers was added to with the Newport boys & Sav arriving after work.

We spread out in groups on Lake Station, Speargrass Station and Phillip Borlase’s property, and working together we were able to clear fences very quickly.

The day had absolutely perfect weather while back in Nelson we were told it was a cold & dismal day.

Sunday August 31st, and we were stunned at the response when about fifteen trucks turned up at the meeting place followed by three or four late arrivals. This gave us a team of about thirty workers for the day and Bob split us into three groups.

One small group led by yours truly (yes, driving a Cruiser because it’s cheaper to run than the Jeep) went back to the Borlase farm. Group two, led by Bob headed off to Alistair Nicholls’s property at Kikiwa. Group three, the bulk of the workers, headed to Lamb Valley.

My cheerful little group was happily working away when we received a call on the PRS from Kevin Page. "I’m at the St. Arnaud store getting a pie. Would anyone like one? And where the hell are you?" Kevin and Dianne had come to take some photos for the records and collect some firewood while they were there. It sure was nice to see Kevin back out on the trail. We switched his tandem trailer onto Gordon Jacket’s Nissan and left Dianne to follow us with her camera, not having to worry about towing Kevin’s four-wheeled beast around. The highlight of our day was to see Gordon towing Kevin’s trailer, with about sixteen inches of clearance, over the only patch of boulders in one paddock, which were about thirty inches high. The consensus of opinion was that Kevin’s trailer is like a bumblebee. They are both aerodynamically unstable.

We had one unfortunate accident when Dianne tripped while loading wood onto the trailer and the log she was carrying fell onto her hand. Brent & Sandra Lindqvist took her to A & E while Chris Baird took control of Kevin and the Toyota.

By nature farmers are a pretty independent lot and to ask for outside help is not something they do, so it gave us great pleasure to be able to assist when they are at a time of the year where they have their time cut out with lambing etc.

We were unable to contact other farmers who help with land access for our club and I’m sure that if they need help we could organize another outing.

Thanks to all the people who turned up, and special thanks to Bob Dickinson for organizing it all and to Gordon Jackett for not only supplying a bunch of chainsaws but also 25 litres of petrol to run them.

The farmers were very appreciative of our help and would like to pass on their thanks to all who came.

I hope you are mending well, Diane.

Cheers to all,

Lex Bloomfield

Photos here