On Wednesday evening, 29th April 2026, my mate Chris VK5FR stayed overnight in preparation for our trip to Abury, New South Wales, for the 2026 VK Summit event, and the 2026 AGM for the Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA). My wife Marija cooked a beautiful meal, and we enjoyed a nice bottle of red. Chris also had some fun in my radio shack, making several contacts into the USA and Canada on the Southern Cross DX Net on the 20m band.
Bright and early on Thursday morning, the 30th day of April 2026, Chris and I left home and headed to Kyalite in New South Wales, where we had booked in to stay for one night at the Kyalite Hotel. We had 476 km to drive that day out through the Murray Mallee region of South Australia and into the Mallee region of northwest Victoria.
Our first stop was just down the road from home at the Strathalbyn bakery for some breakfast. We enjoyed a magnificent sunrise as we travelled along the way.
Chris and I stopped briefly at the Victorian and South Australian border to stretch our legs. We then continued east along the Mallee Highway in Victoria to the town of Ouyen, where we stopped for lunch. We then headed to our first park activation of the day, the Kookoombo West Bushland Reserve VKFF-5246.
The reserve is located on the northern and southern sides of the Mallee Highway at Manangatang, just to the east of Meridian Road.
The reserve is about 35 hectares in size and was established on the 1st day of May 1979. I have not been able to find the origin of the name of the park. The northern section of the park consists of a small piece of remnant scrub, while the southern section is grassland. (Dcceew.gov.au 2023)
Chris and I accessed the northern side of the park. We ran the Yaesu FT857, 40 watts, and the 20/40/80m linked dipole. Chris and I swapped the mic for this activation.
I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-
- VK3SMW
- VK2MAB
- VK2LUE
- VK3SQ
- VK2BD
- VK3JT
- VK3VIN
- VK2VW
- VK2HFI
- VK2AKA
- VK2BUG
- VK3BEL
- VK3BEB
- VK1AC
- VK3ZSC
- VK3BSC
- VK5WU
- VK1AO/P (VKFF-1392)
- VK2MET/P (VKFF-1392)
- VK3WSC
- VK1DI
- VK3PF
- VK3OTR (VKFF-3904)
- VK3FS/M
- VK3ATT/M
- VK3ETT/M
- VK3CJN
- VK3QHU
- VK2IO/P (VKFF-1386)
- VK2GEZ/P (VKFF-1386)
- VK3SWL
- VK2SWL
- VK1AD
- VK1NAM
- VK1OE
- VK3AMO
- VK5BJE
- VK7EE
- VK2YW
- VK4MGL/P (VKFF-0939)
- VK2PKT
- VK2KFT
- VK3PF (VKFF-6240)
- VK3ARK
- VK5AOK
- VK5EDY
- VK3BSF
- VK3APJ
- VK3AUX
- VK2GQR
I worked the following stations on 20m SSB:-
- VK4FNQ
- KG5CIK
It had been a very enjoyable and rewarding activation, and with a combined total of 108 QSOs in the log, Chris and I packed up and hit the road and headed to our next VKFF park activation.
References.
- Dcceew.gov.au. (2023). Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database (CAPAD) 2022 – DCCEEW. [online] Available at: https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/land/nrs/science/capad/2022. [Accessed 8 May. 2026]
VK5PAS 