We then continued south-west on the Hattah-Robinvale Road and soon reached our third park for the day, the Wemen Flora & Fauna Reserve VKFF-2483. The park is located about 31 km south-west of Robinvale.
Again this was to be another unique park for myself and Marija, with Mike VK6MB previously activating Wemen back in 2019.
The Wemen Flora & Fauna Reserve is about 2.02 km² in size and was established in 1983. The area around the park has been cleared for agricultural purposes including almond and olive plantations.
The park takes its name from the locality of Wemen (pronounced Wee-Man). Wemen was established as a Soldier Settlement after the First World War. The Wemen Post office opened on the 24th day of November 1924 and closed in 1974. There were once three schools in the district.
The little town of Wemen can be located a bit further to the south on the Hattah-Robinvale Road. It is located on the banks of the Murray River. This part of the river was the closest river access for some aboriginal tribes.
Wemen is reportedly a great spot for Murray River Cray when in season.
We accessed the park via a 4WD off Collins Road. We found a small clearing in amongst the scrub and set up our portable station.
I called CQ on 7.144 following a spot on parksnpeaks by Marija. First in the log was Les VK5KLV. Contact number ten followed soon afterwards, with a QSO with Adrian VK5FANA.
Once I had ten contacts in the log and I had qualified the park for VKFF, I swapped the mic with Marija, who also soon qualified the park with 12 contacts. Contact number ten was with Adam VK2YK.
I then jumped back into the operator’s chair and pushed on to hopefully get 44 contacts. The 40m band had certainly improved since our first activation, and I logged a total of 40 stations on 40m before callers dried up.
To conclude the activation I called CQ on 14.310 on the 20m band where I logged 6 stations from VK2, VK4, and VK6. Contact number 44 was with Brett VK2HFI.
Marija worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-
- VK5FANA
- VK3PF
- VK2VH
- VK4AAC/2
- VK4BXX
- VK4/NN3Z
- VK2IO
- VK3CWF
- VK5HY
- VK2YK
- VK5GA
- VK5AK/m
I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-
- VK5KLV
- VK2VH
- VK4AAC/2
- VK3PF
- VK4SMA
- VK4FDJL
- VK5HY
- VK2YK/m
- VK5GA/m
- VK5FANA
- VK5NM
- VK3SRC/m
- VK1AD
- VK2VW
- VK2HFI
- VK4HNS
- VK5FILL
- VK2LAX
- VK4VCE
- ZL1TM
- VK3CU
- VK5NEC
- VK2MET
- VK3TKK/m
- VK3KV/m
- VK3HP/m
- VK3VRA
- VK2PKT
- VK4CZ
- VK2SS/m
- VK4HMI
- VK3SQ
- VK3NCR
- VK3EJ
- VK1DI
- VK3UP/m
- VK3MPR
- VK3DBP
- VK2BHO
- VK2HBO
I worked the following stations on 20m SSB:-
- VK4CZ
- VK4IDK
- VK2VW
- VK2HFI
- VK2BHO
- VK6AB
References.
Protected Planet, 2021, <https://www.protectedplanet.net/314771>, viewed 13th May 2021.
Robinvale Euston Visitor Centre, 2021, <https://www.robinvaleeuston.com/wemen/>, viewed 13th May 2021.
Wikipedia, 2021, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wemen,_Victoria>, viewed 13th May 2021.
VK5PAS 