The repairs on the interface for the antenna took a little longer than expected. Many thanks to Ivan for all his hard work. Upon leaving Ivan’s house we headed to our ‘planned’ park activation for the day, the Cooltong Conservation Park 5CP-046 & VKFF-0823.
Cooltong Conservation Park is located about 262 km northeast of Adelaide and about 11 km west of the town of Renmark.
This was another park that Marija and I had previously activated and qualified for both the World Wide Flora & Fauna (WWFF) program and the VK5 National & Conservation Parks Award.
Cooltong Conservation Park is about 3,710 hectares in size and was proclaimed on the 8th day of April 1983. Cooltong is an aboriginal word meaning ‘short cut’. The park was dedicated to preserve mallee vegetation and habitat for various Mallee birdlife of the area including the Mallee Fowl.
The Cooltong Conservation Park is dominated by mallee vegetation. It has undulating dunes and shales. Mallee refers to various low-growing shrubby Australian eucalypts. Some of the mallee species found in Cooltong include Blue-leaf Mallee, White Mallee, Narrow-leaf Read Mallee, and Red Mallee.
Birds SA have recorded about 109 species of bird in the park including Malleefowl, Mulga Parrot, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, Purple-backed Fairywren (Variegated Fairywren), Southern Whiteface, Weebill, Grey Butcherbird, Chestnut Quailthrush, Spotted Nightjar, Black-eared Cuckoo, Black-backed Fairywren (Splendid Fairywren), Striated Grasswren, Redthroat, and White-backed Swallow.
Sadly the park has been used as a dumping ground in recent years by people who are just too lazy to take their rubbish to the appropriate places. See the story below on the ABC website…….
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-30/massive-illegal-dump-in-sa-national-park/12403946
The park is well signposted. We accessed the park via the Sturt Highway and then Santos Road.
We took a little 4WD track off Santos Road and found a clearing in amongst the scrub. As we normally do, we ran the Yaesu FT-857d and the 20/40/80m linked dipole for this activation.
First in the log was a Park to Park with Marty VK4KC/p who was activating the Bouldercombe Gorge Conservation Park VKFF-1483. Marty was a strong 5/8 and gave us 5/5 from his park in Queensland.
We then moved down to 7.150 and logged another Park to Park QSO, this time with Peter VK3TKK/p who was in the Upotipotpon Nature Conservation Reserve VKFF-2218.
I then started calling CQ and within 30 minutes I had 38 QSOs in the log from VK1, VK2, VK3, VK4, VK5, VK6, and VK7.
I then swapped the mic with Marija and it didn’t take long for Marija to accrue a mini pile-up. It only took Marija about 35 minutes to reach the 44 QSO mark, thus qualifying the park for the global WWFF program. Contact number 44 was with Gavin VK3MLU.
We also logged another Park to Park, this time with Hans VK6XN/p who was in the Leuwin-Naturaliste National Park VKFF-0283.
I then jumped back into the operator’s chair and logged a further 21 stations on 40m. Contact number 44 for me was Ian VK5CZ in the Clare Valley.
We were running short of time as we had a dinner commitment that night, so we apologise to those that were still calling on 40m. We wrapped up the activation with a quick 5 minutes on 80m where I logged 9 stations from VK2, VK3, and VK5.
Marija logged the following stations on 40m SSB:-
- VK4KC/p (Bouldercombe Gorge Conservation Park VKFF-1483)
- VK3TKK/p (Upotipotpon Nature Conservation Reserve VKFF-2218)
- VK3SRC
- VK3FOWL
- VK4NH
- VK4DXA
- ZL4TY/VK4
- VK4HMI
- VK3HJJ/2
- VK2HHA
- VK2LEE
- VK4FDJL
- VK5HS
- VK5CZ
- VK3GB/p
- VK1DA
- VK2PBC
- VK5FANA
- VK3ATO
- ZL1TM
- VK3CWF
- VK5HAA
- VK2DG
- VK2KMI
- VK2FA/m
- VK3PF
- VK1DI
- VK2PKT
- VK3ARH
- VK4HNS
- VK6XN/p (Leuwin-Naturaliste National Park VKFF-0283)
- VK2YK
- VK5GA
- VK2VH
- VK4AAC/2
- VK5CIA
- VK4SMA
- VK2IO
- VK3VDX
- VK5XB
- VK2NZ
- VK5PE
- VK6FBOS
- VK3MLU
- VK3ALF
I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-
- VK4KC/p (Bouldercombe Gorge Conservation Park VKFF-1483)
- VK3TKK/p (Upotipotpon Nature Conservation Reserve VKFF-2218)
- VK3PF
- VK3SQ
- VK2HHA
- VK2IO
- VK4NH
- VK4DXA
- ZL4TY/VK4
- VK3SRC
- VK3FOWL
- VK3YSP
- VK3MCK
- VK3MPR
- VK2XOR
- VK3CMC
- VK2KYO
- VK4BXX
- VK4/NN3Z
- VK4FDJL
- VK2EAC
- VK5HS
- VK4HNS
- VK2HRX
- VK2YES
- VK4HAT
- VK5PE
- VK3CWF
- VK3ARH
- VK3ATO
- VK3LF
- VK5ATJ
- VK2FPAR
- VK2FAPC
- VK1NV
- VK3ABI
- VK4HMI
- VK2AGB
- VK6XN/p (Leuwin-Naturaliste National Park VKFF-0283)
- VK5PL
- VK5XB
- VK5KKS
- VK7ALH
- VK5CZ
- VK2VH
- VK4AAC/2
- VK6YR
- VK5KLV
- VK2KMI
- VK3AJA/5
- VK3MLU
- VK3BBB
- VK2CCP
- VK4SMA
- VK5SCR
- VK3CRG
- VK5KHZ
- VK4PDX
- VK4LJB
I worked the following stations on 80m SSB:-
- VK5HS
- VK4PDX
- VK5KHZ
- VK5XB
- VK3CRG
- VK3BBB
- VK5FANA
- VK2HHA
- VK5LTD
Marija and I hurriedly packed up and headed back into Renmark to our motel. We had a quick shower and then headed out for dinner at Ashleys Restaurant at our motel with Ivan VK5HS and his wife Cheryl, Peter VK5PE, Danny VK5DW, and Di the wife of Larry VK5LY (SK). Larry was a very keen park activator and hunter and is sorely missed by all. It was an absolutely brilliant night out with plenty of ‘war stories’ and laughs with great people.
References.
- Birds SA, 2021, <https://birdssa.asn.au/location/cooltong-conservation-park/>, viewed 26th April 2021
- A compendium of Place Names of South Australia, 20201, <https://published.collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/placenamesofsouthaustralia/>, viewed 26th April 2021
VK5PAS 