Our fourth and final park for day twelve (Saturday 17th April 2021) was the Moss Tank Flora & Fauna Reserve VKFF-2394. The park is located about 31 km south of Robinvale.
This was to be our first activation of this park. Moss Tank has also been activated once before, by Mike VK6MB back in 2019.
We found the park without any problems. It was well signposted on the Annuello-Wemen Road.
Moss Tank Flora and Fauna Reserve is about 3.26 km² in size and was established in 1988.
The park is a piece of remnant mallee scrub which is surrounded by cleared farming land. It is located near the town/locality of Annuello which is believed to be an aboriginal word for ‘a camp of bearded men’. During the early 1920’s the Annuello district was subdivided into blocks for Soldier Settlement following the First World War. The railway line to Annuello was opened in 1921, followed by a school in 1924. The Annuello Post Office opened in April 1921.
A wheat variety ‘annuello’ adapted for low and medium rainfall areas was released in 2003, and is suitable for the domestic flour milling industry.
We found a little direct track running off the bitumen and pulled in there off the road. It made an ideal spot to stretch out the 20/40/80m linked dipole.
Within eight minutes I had qualified the park for VKFF, with 11 contacts in the log. Contact number ten was with Alan VK2MET. I then swapped over with Marija and she too qualified the park in quick time, with contact number ten being a QSO with the same park hunter Alan VK2MET.
I then jumped back into the operator’s chair and logged a further 30 contacts on 40m from VK1, VK2, VK3, VK4, VK5, VK7, and New Zealand.
I now had 41 contacts in the log and required just 3 more QSOs to qualify the park for the global WWFF program.
I moved to the 20m band where I logged 6 stations from VK2, VK4, and much to my surprise Canada. It was a terrific way to finish the activation with a contact with Karl VE6KDX in Alberta, Canada.
Marija worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-
- VK3KV/m
- VK2VOO
- VK3UH
- VK2FA/m
- VK2IO/m
- VK4HNS
- VK5FANA
- VK5KLV
- VK2LAX
- VK2MET
I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-
- VK5GY
- VK4HMI
- VK2BHO
- VK5CZ/m
- VK4SMA
- VK4WTN
- VK3PF
- VK2VOO
- VK5KLV
- VK2MET
- VK3UH
- ZL1TM
- VK2LAX
- VK4HNS
- VK4FDJL
- VK4VCE
- VK2KMI
- VK3SS
- VK2VW
- VK2HFI
- VK5IS
- VK2NJP
- VK2LWK
- VK7QP
- VK1DI
- VK4GCR
- VK2IO/m
- VK2BYF
- VK2VAR
- VK2CDS
- VK2TM
- VK2DJP
- VK2YW
- VK3KV/m
- VK2HAO
- VK4IDK
- VK2NCL
- VK4PHD
- VK2SRA
- VK2TMC
- VK3SQ
I worked the following stations on 20m SSB:-
- VK2IJS
- VK4KC
- VK4MAD
- VK4DOG
- VK4PHD
- VE6KDX
Marija and I had a 245 km drive ahead of us to get to Renmark. We drove back along the Hattah-Robinvale Road and then north on the Calder Highway. We then turned left onto the Millewa Road and through Werrimul.
We crossed the Victorian/South Australian border and back into South Australia. The sun was starting to set and we stopped briefly to get some shots of the amazing sunset. The photos below were taken looking over the Pike River Conservation Park just outside of Renmark.
That evening after checking into our accomodation, we grabbed some pizza and beer and headed around to the home of Ivan VK5HS and his wife Sheryl, and had a terrific night there.
Tomorrow we would head home, a journey of around 285 km ahead of us.
References.
Protected Planet, 2021, <https://www.protectedplanet.net/314747>, viewed 13th May 2021.
Victorian Place Names, 2021, <https://www.victorianplaces.com.au/annuello>, viewed 13th May 2021.
VK5PAS 