Our second park for Boxing Day 2020 (26th December) was the Springs Road Native Forest Reserve VKFF-2895 which is located about 100 km south of the city of Adelaide.

I have activated this park once before, but this was to be a unique park for Marija as an activator in the World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program.

Springs Road Native Forest Reserve is part of the Second Valley Forest Reserve and is located on the Fleurieu Peninsula. The reserve adjoins a pine planation and there is also a large area of privately owned scrub (Heritage Agreement) to the north and west of the Reserve.

The land on which the Reserve is located was originally land granted to Edward Stephens in July 1854. In April 1912 the land was transferred to the Crown. On the 29th day of May 1975 it was transferred to the Woods and Forests Department as a Forest reserve.

The Reserve is about 89.6 hectares in size and is located about 2 km north-west of the Range Road and Springs Road intersection. The Reserve consists of native vegetation which once covered the Fleurieu Peninsula. Just 15% of that now remains.

The Springs Road Native Forest Reserve forms one of the headwaters of the Anacotilla River which flows to the north-west into the Gulf St Vincent.

In 1904 an early survey by the Department of Lands described the area as:-

“hilly country heavily timbered with large stringybark and thick undergrowth of yaccas and ferns.
The gullies were low tea tree swamp with light, sandy soils”.

The nationally endangered Southern Brown Bandicoot has been recorded in the park, as has the endangered Southern Emu-Wren.

The park is well signposted. We parked at the gate on Springs Road and walked a shot distance into the park to the shade of some gum trees. It was particularly warm afternoon, with the temperature now reaching 32 deg C. We ran the Yaesu FT-857d and the 15m dipole & 20/40/80m linked dipole for this activation.

Marija and I decided to kick off the activation on the 15m band. Marija spotted me on parksnpeaks and I called CQ on 21.244. First in the log was Peter VK3ZPF, followed by Fred VK3DAC and then Andrei ZL1TM in New Zealand. I logged a total of 12 stations on 15m including Gerard VK2IO/p who was in the Bouddi National Park VKFF-0049.

I had qualified the park for VKFF with 10 contacts, so I swapped the mic with Marija who very quickly qualified the park on 15m.

We then lowered the squid pole and took down the 15m dipole and placed up the 20/40/80m linked dipole. I then called CQ on 7.144 with Geoff VK3SQ being the first caller. Band conditions on 40m were still poor, and I logged just 12 stations on 40m from VK2, VK3, VK4, and VK5. The South Australian (VK5) stations from the Riverland, Port Augusta, the Yorke Peninsula, and the Clare Valley were very strong.

I then moved to the 20m band and much to my surprise, my first caller was Ivan VK5HS in the Riverland with a 5/9 signal. This was followed by Ian VK5CZ in the Clare Valley who was also 5/9, and then Les VK5KLV at Port Augusta who was also 5/9. I then logged Peter VK3PF/p who was on SOTA peak VK3/ VE-113.

I logged a total of 16 stations on 20m from VK2, VK3, VK4, VK5, and New Zealand. I now had 40 contacts in the log and needed just 4 more QSOs to qualify the park for the global WWFF program with 44 QSOs. I moved down to the 80m band where I logged 4 stations, with Mike VK4MWW being the 44th contact.

Marija worked the following stations on 15m SSB:-

1. VK2IO/p (Bouddi National Park VKFF-0049)
2. VK7RG
3. VK3SQ
4. VK4NH
5. VK4DXA
6. ZL4TY/VK4
7. VK4SMA
8. VK3DAC
9. VK4MAP
10. VK4KC
11. VK3ZPF

I worked the following stations on 15m SSB:-

1. VK3ZPF
2. VK3DAC
3. ZL1TM
4. VK4CZ
5. VK4KC
6. VK3DET
7. VK3PI
8. VK4NH
9. VK4DXA
10. ZL4TY/VK4
11. VK4SMA
12. VK2IO/p (Bouddi National Park VKFF-0049)

I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-

1. VK3SQ
2. VK2JDS
3. VK4FDJL
4. VK3BBB
5. VK2CCP
6. VK5CZ
7. VK5FANA
8. VK5DW
9. VK5KLV
10. VK5HS
11. VK3VET
12. VK3CU

I worked the following stations on 20m SSB:-

1. VK5HS
2. VK5CZ
3. VK5KLV
4. VK3PF/p (SOTA VK3/ VE-113)
5. VK3SQ
6. VK3VET
7. VK3GH
8. VK5DW
9. VK2LX
10. VK4NH
11. VK4DXA
12. ZL4TY/VK4
13. VK3DAC
14. VK4FE/3
15. VK4KC
16. ZL1TM

I worked the following stations on 80m SSB:-

1. VK5CZ
2. VK5HS
3. VK5FILL
4. VK5MWW

References.

Forestry SA, 2016, ‘Second Valley Forest Reserve Management Plan’.