Our next intended park for the day was the Turriff Flora and Fauna Reserve VKFF-2466.   This was to be the first time the park had been activated for the World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program.

The park is located about 390 km north-west of Melbourne.

To get to the park we travelled east out of Patchewollock on the Patchewollock-Sea Lake Road.  We soon reached the little town of Speed which was named after William, Harold and Gordon Speed, who settled in the district in 1903.  Speed is the venue of the Mallee Machinery Field Days, first held in 1979. It is run over two days in August and has over 8,000 people attend.  The normal population of the town is only about 100 people.

The Turriff Flora and Fauna Reserve is about 617 acres in size and was established in 1981.  The park takes its name from the locality of Turriff which was settled in 1902.  In 1994 a meteorite with a mass of 0.28 kilograms (0.62 lb) was found in a field near Turriff.

The park is named after the nearby town of Turriff.  In 1901 the first settlers came to the Malle area where the town of Turriff was later named after Mr John Turriff, the Manager of Corrong Station.  There was no permanent water, no telephone, and roads were just sandy tracks.  In 1902-1903 the railway line was constructed through thick mallee scrub from Woomerlang to Nowingi.  The SEC power came in 1964.  In about 1912, 17,000 km of open channel was constructed by horse teams and scoops, which brought water to the are from storage in the Grampians.  This was completed in 1920.  Channels ran once a year to fill dams.

We accessed the park via Roberts Road which runs off the Sunraysia Highway.

The VK6 guys were still on 7.145, so once again I called CQ on 7.140.  First in the log was Grant VK2LX, followed by Adrian VK5FANA, and then Ray VK4NH.  Once I had ten contacts in the log I swapped the mic with Marija.

Marija’s first contact was with Steve VK5KSW on the Yorke Peninsula, followed by Peter VK3PF/m, and then Adrian VK5FANA.  It only took Marija about 9 minutes to get her tenth contact which was with Ian VK3VDX.

I then jumped onto the mic and logged a further two stations on 40m, before moving to the 20m band.  I there logged just the one station, Adam VK2YK.  Marija and I then moved to 80m where we spoke with Liz VK2XSE/p who was activating the Jerilderie Nature Reserve VKFF-1942.  I then moved down to 3.610 and logged Rob VK2VH.

We were a bit pressed for time, so we packed up and headed off to our next park.  We had qualified another new park for VKFF.

Marija worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-

1. VK5KSW
2. VK3PF/m
3. VK5FANA
4. VK2LEE
5. VK4NH
6. VK4DXA
7. ZL4TY/VK4
8. VK2VH
9. VK4AAC/2
10. VK3VDX
11. VK2LX

Marija worked the following station on 80m SSB:-

1. VK2XSE/p (Jerilderie Nature Reserve VKFF-1942)

I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-

1. VK2LX
2. VK5FANA
3. VK4NH
4. VK4DXA
5. ZL4TY/VK4
6. VK2IO
7. VK4HNS
8. VK3PF/m
9. VK2HGP
10. VK5KSW
11. VK2VH
12. VK4AAC/2

I worked the following stations on 20m SSB:-

1. VK2YK

I worked the following stations on 80m SSB:-

1. VK2XSE/p (Jerilderie Nature Reserve VKFF-1942)
2. VK2VH
3. VK4AAC/2

 

References.

Protected Planet, 2019, <https://www.protectedplanet.net/search?q=turriff>, viewed 13th November 2019

Wikipedia, 2019, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed,_Victoria>, viewed 13th November 2019

Wikipedia, 2019, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turriff,_Victoria>, viewed 13th November 2019