The link below is to an article that reveals some interesting information on the terrible disease causing havoc for the Tasmanian Devil population.
For more visit:
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/humans-didnt-cause-devil-disease-study-finds.htm
The Hunt for Malcolm Naden Continues
The hunt continues for Australia’s most wanted man in the Barrington Tops region of New South Wales. For those travelling to the region, the latest information can be found below.
Today I have uploaded the first episode in what will be a growing series of documentary-like videos for my YouTube channel (Kevin’s Wilderness Journeys). This series of videos will focus on national parks and reserves in Australia (especially New South Wales), with a view to providing useful information for people who may be interested in visiting the national park being considered in any particular episode. I am hoping to provide a preview of the main attractions in each national park and the facilities available for visitors. Hopefully these will whet the appetite for those who view the videos and provoke a desire to actually visit the national parks under consideration.
This first episode focuses on the Cathedral Rock National Park, with a look at the Cathedral Rock Track and the Woolpack Rocks Track. There will be more episodes to come, including episodes on Dorrigo National Park, Bongil Bongil National Park and Myall Lakes National Park – among others. Hopefully in time better equipment will improve the quality of videos available – but none-the-less, I do think the videos are useful to some degree as they are.
The actual size of the video I have in my archives for the first video is 2.85 GB, so there is a fair reduction in file size (and therefore quality) to get the videos online and within the limits of YouTube file sizes and length.
My holiday planning is now going ahead with the now settled ‘NSW North East Wilderness Walks 2011.’ This trip will include walks in both the Cathedral Rock National Park and Dorrigo National Park. I have begun work on a web page for the trip, which will continue to be uploaded with the latest information and news leading up to the trip, during the trip and post-trip.
The page can be visited at:
http://kevinswilderness.com/NSW/NSWNorthEastWildernessWalks2011.html
The introduced fungal infection ‘Myrtle Rust’ has spread from gardens and nurseries into the Dharug National Park. The Mill Creek Camping Area has been temporarily closed in consequence of the spread, with National Park and Wildlife Service staff carrying our control measures during the closure in an attempt to prevent any further spread of the disease.
For more information see:
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/media/DecMedia10112604.htm
The historic Mountain Maid Goldmine in the Copeland Tops State Conservation Area has reopened to the public. The historic site near Gloucester has been extensively redeveloped and reopened on Friday the 15/10/2010. Free tours are available on Sunday as part of an open day. For more information on the mine that is located near Gloucester and the Barrington Tops National Park, contact NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Travellers to the Barrington Tops are being warned that outlaw and modern bushranger Malcolm Naden is suspected of hiding out in the remote wilderness area. There is currently a $50 000 reward for information that leads to his capture. He is the most wanted person in New South Wales, suspected of being involved in the disappearance of his cousin Lateesha Nolan and the murder of Kristy Scholes in 2005 at Dubbo.
Naden has sought refuge in the bush in the region bordered by Dubbo in the west and Kempsey in the east since 2005. During this time he has broken into homes, stealing non-perishable food items, camping gear and other equipment required to survive the bushland in which he hides and lives. He is known to be an expert bushman.
Naden first hid in the Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo and has since been known to have been in the vicinity of the Barrington Tops. In 2008 he was known to be in the vicinity of Stewarts Brook, in the western Barrington Tops area. In January 2009 he was known to be at Bellbrook, west of Kempsey. Three months ago he was known to be at Mount Mooney, in the northern Barrington Tops. It is thought that he is also responsible for similar break-ins around the Mount Mooney area in late August 2010. There have been a large number of break-ins across the region this year. He is believed to be armed, with a rifle having been stolen in one of the break-ins. Not all of the break-ins are confirmed as being committed by Malcolm Naden, but they all seem to bear his signature.
According to local newspapers, it is also believed that kangaroo carcasses have been found in the Barrington Tops, butchered in an expert manner. Naden was an abattoir worker and similar carcasses were found at the Dubbo zoo when Naden was hiding there.
The area in which Malcolm Naden is thought to be hiding was once the hideout for the bushranger known as ‘Captain Thunderbolt.’ Naden seems to be following in Thunderbolt’s footsteps in more ways than one.
For more on Malcolm Naden visit:
http://www.police.nsw.gov.au/can_you_help_us/wanted/malcolm_john_naden
http://coastmick21.blogspot.com/
http://www.australianmissingpersonsregister.com/Naden.htm
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=4884239637&topic=7725
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/publics-help-sought-over-murder-cases-20100904-14v5u.html
If you are anything like me and love to travel, you will have loads of articles, magazines, newspaper clippings, brochures – you name it – relating to places you want visit, etc. Over time (and generally a short time for me) a collection of these resources becomes quite the stockpile and there is then a major storage issue. Where do I keep all these things? How do I store them? Should I keep them?
Let me offer you a solution that works for me – or rather, I should say, will work for me (I have only just started to do this after all). Let me introduce you to Evernote:
Evernote is a place that allows you to remember everything (they say that), simply by storing every note at Evernote.
Evernote is a web application that allows the user to store just about every type of note you can think of on their site – for free. There is a Premium account option (which I have) which considerably widens the usefulness of Evernote, but the free version is also very valuable.
How do I use Evernote? I use Evernote in a number of ways – but for the purpose of this posting I’ll limit the description of how I use Evernote to just the one simple way.
At Evernote you can use a ‘notebook’,’ which is really just Evernote’s way of saying a folder, to store various ‘notes’ in. These notes can be anything from a photo, to an article, to a clipping, to a receipt, to a … well it just goes on.
So I have a notebook devoted to ‘wilderness and travels.’ In this notebook I keep articles, brochures, leaflets, clippings, etc, of all pieces of information relating to destinations and places of interest. I no longer need to store them around the house, as I have them neatly stored away at Evernote, which is fully searchable and easily accessed. So now all of the clutter, boxes of articles and magazines, etc, will become a thing of the past as I store them all away at Evernote for future reference. I may never use all of them, but they will be there should I ever need them.
Check out Evernote and I’m sure you’ll find a 101 uses for this great application and site.
I have been doing a little work on the planning side of things for my holiday. There have been some changes and these will be explained below.
Firstly, I have decided to push the holiday back a bit. There are a few public holidays during January 2010, so I think I can cope with a few extra weeks at work before needing the break. So instead of taking the holiday at the start of February, I am thinking of taking the holiday for two weeks in late February – early March 2010, or maybe a week or so later than that.
The later time for the holiday will also allow me to save for the trip and ensure I have everything I want for the holiday. I may even be able to get a digital video camera by then, which will be a great plus.
Secondly, the destination has also changed. I won’t be going out west as temperatures out that way are sure to be very hot and somewhat unbearable for any bushwalks I would want to do. The out west option will need to be looked at for a winter holiday (even though night temperatures are bound to be quite cold then). I do have a plan underway for that option also, which will probably mean a holiday in about August – September 2010 (but that is another story for another time). So to make sense of these two possible (probable) holidays in my Blog posts, the earlier holiday will be called the summer holiday 2010 and the later the winter holiday 2010.
So instead of going way out west for the summer holiday 2010, I’m thinking of going west a little (and to the south), before heading back to the southeast and travelling through the far southeast of New South Wales.
Are there any solid plans? Solid may not be quite the word for it, but I am settling on what I’d call a fairly sure itinerary for the first couple of days of summer holiday 2010. The date is certainly not fixed and that is really quite flexible at the moment. The itinerary for the first few days will probably be:
Day 1 Destination – Dubbo
Day 2 Destination – Conimbla National Park
Day 3 Destination – Wagga Wagga
So the next stage of planning will be to iron out the itinerary for these first three days before moving on towards my planned far southeast New South Wales travels.
For information on Conimbla National Park:
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/NationalParks/parkHome.aspx?id=N0053
On several occasions I have been able to walk across the Barrington Tops in New South Wales, Australia.
For more information on the Barrington Tops and on the treks themselves (including photos) visit my web site at:
http://www.kevinswilderness.com/NSW/tops.html
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BELOW: Videos I have made with photos from the treks:
October 1996
October 2003:
Kevin's Walk on the Wild Side 
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