On the Sunday afternoon of the Oceania DX Contest (Sunday 6th October 2019) I decided the noise floor at home was that horrible, that I would head out to activate a park.  I chose the Cox Scrub Conservation Reserve VKFF-1701 which is located about 65 km south of Adelaide and about 8 km south of the town of Ashbourne.

Above:- Map showing the location of the Cox Scrub Conservation Reserve south of Adelaide.  Map courtesy of Protected Planet.

The Cox Scrub Conservation Reserve is not to be confused with its ‘bigger brother’, the Cox Scrub Conservation Park (which was formerly a National Park).  The Reserve is located a little further to the south on the Goolwa Road and is much smaller than the Conservation Park which is about 563 hectares in size.

Above:- Map showing the Cox Scrub Conservation Reserve, and the much larger Cox Scrub Conservation Park.  Map courtesy of National Parks SA

I have been unable to find any information on the Reserve on the internet.  The majority of the adjacent Conservation Park was previously owned by the late Mr. V. COX of Ashbourne, who preserved the area in a natural state for overwintering his honey bees.  In 1969 the land was purchased from Mr. COX on the condition that he was allowed to keep bees in the park.  This agreement was upheld until he passed away.

The Cox Scrub Conservation Park has an active Friends group who have a good website.  It can be located at…….

http://www.communitywebs.org/FriendsCoxScrub/history.php

During my visit to the Reserve, many of the native plants had started to come out in flower.  I only had my i-phone on this visit, and not the Nikon, so I apologise about the quality of the photos.

I drove down a narrow track running off the Goolwa Road and set up in a small clearing in amongst the scrub.  With a little bit of ‘bush bashing’ there was just enough room to string out the 20/40/80m linked dipole.

Above:- An aerial view of the Cox Scrub Conservation Reserve showing my operating spot.  Image courtesy of Google maps.

I headed to 7.144 and found Ian VK1DI/3 calling CQ from the Lake Tyers State Park VKFF-0761.  I logged Ian who had a great signal, and Ian then kindly handed the frequency over to me.  Next in the log was Geoff VK3SQ, followed by Garry VK3VLA, and then Deryck VK4FDJL/6.

As this was a contest I was unable to self spot on parksnpeaks, and as a result, it was very slow going.   I logged 28 stations on 40m from VK2, VK3, VK4, VK5, VK6, and VK7, before moving to the 80m band.

Just three stations made it into my log on 80m.  The first being John VK5BJE, followed by Adrian VK5AW in the Riverland, and finally Adrian VK5FANA on the Yorke Peninsula.

I went back to 40m and had a tune across the band, but heard very few DX stations.  Somewhat disappointed I packed up and headed home.

I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-

1. VK1DI/3 (Lake Tyers State Park VKFF-0761)
2. VK3SQ
3. VK3VLA
4. VK4FDJL/6
5. VK3PI
6. VK2HHA
7. VK7HCK
8. VK3TNL
9. VK3XPT
10. VK3PT/m
11. VK3NBL
12. VK3AUQ
13. VK3PF
14. VK3RU
15. VK2NSS
16. VK2VH
17. VK3MB
18. VK7OT
19. VK3MET
20. VK3AVV
21. VK3YAR
22. VK5FMAZ
23. VK2DWP
24. VK5QD
25. VK3FWDS
26. VK2UXO
27. VK3AQZ
28. VK4FOMP/p
29. VK3CLR
30. VK3QA
31. VK4PDX
32. VK2KNV
33. VK3ZM
34. FK4QX
35. VK2AU
36. VK3KJ

I worked the following stations on 80m SSB:-

1. VK5BJE
2. VK5AW
3. VK5FANA

References.

National Parks and Wildlife Service South Australia, 2019, ‘Cox Scrub Conservation Park PDF brochure’.

Wikipedia, 2019, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cox_Scrub_Conservation_Park>, viewed 27th October 2019