View all news articles below, or select a news category to the right.
Re-routes notifications updated
Thanks to a recent audit of the published re-routes, the re-routes page has been updated to include some minor re-routes that had previously been omitted.
Details have also been published about two recent re-routes in Mt Crawford and one near Marrabel. Details of the recent re-route near Deep Creek as mentioned in the news article on 8 April will be available soon.
View re-routes page.
Upgrade of 4km of trail through Deep Creek
Trail Upgrade Opens
By Lisa BachmayerWalkers will this weekend be able to plant their footprints on the upgraded four-kilometre stretch of the Heysen Trail in Deep Creek Conservation Park.
Open this Saturday, the $90,000 upgrade aims to make the badly eroded section of the trail more environmentally sustainable and provide a more spectacular trek for walkers.
The trail previously hugged the coastline and led its walkers up steep hills, causing significant erosion.
…
The Victor Harbor Times
08 April 2008
Map details of the re-route will be available soon.
Opening of the Walk Season 6th April 2008
What a magnificent day for walking. The Friends’ had 2 groups walking and arrived at Stirling, outside the new library, in time for the 1pm opening. Other groups also walked in and many walkers and the public were present, so there was a good crowd for the official part of the day. Many groups had informative displays, including The Friends Of The Heysen Trail. Thanks to Jack Marcelis and David Rattray for dedicating their time to manning our stall. Many of our Friends’ visited during the day and there was a lot of “catching up” amongst walkers. The sun shone on those walking after lunch, reminding us that while daylight saving may have finished, we are not far from the summer heat.
At last – we can now get on with our 2008 Walk Program.
Autumn 2008
Issue 107
March 2008
Special Discount
From a discussion this morning with Roscoe at Flinders Camping in Rundle Street. All new and existing members are offered a 15% discount from now until EASTER.
Go in and check out their range. Don’t forget to let them know you’re from the Friends of Heysen Trail.
Caravan and Camping Show 2008
The show is over and the fat lady has sung.
Thanks to all our vounteers for the hours they put into personing the stand under somewhat trying conditions (particularly Sunday)
.
Ably led by Jack Marcelis the event was a great success with some sales being made and quite a lot of interest being shown in walking, the walk programme and the Friends.
Thanks to walking SA and Chris Bushell.
Caravan and Camping Show 2008
Join Walking SA and the Friends at the Caravan and Camping Show, Stand K45-46, Wednesday 13th to Sunday 17th at the Wayville Showgrounds. Come and see all the latest in Caravans and Camping and pop in and say hullo. We are opposite the indoor helicopter stand, near Orienteering SA, at the Leader Street entrance.
A Fresh Entrance
Members and visitors to the Pitt Street Shop/office will now be greeted by a bright fresh entrance to the basement.
A working Bee on the weekend has given a make-over to walls, handrail, and a large new sign on the wall above the entrance.
Thanks to our volunteers – Colin Edwards, Julian Monfries, Jim Alvey, Sandy Melbourne, Robert Alcock and Jeremy Carter. Many thanks to Colin who is the instigator and driver of this make-over, and the overseer (taskmaster) on the weekend. Without his vision and energy, we would still have a gloomy entrance to the shop.
To further improve the entrance, we have ideas for a few paintings for the walls. We need help. Anyone with artistic flair, or knows of where we can get help with the painting of wall Murals, please contact the office.
Freshwater Weir Campsite
The Freshwater Weir campsite just north of Spalding has been closed by Water SA pending re-evaluation of the weir after some flood damage, last year. Closest water, accommodation is in Spalding. It is planned to re-route the Trail through Spalding in the near future.
New Website Feature
A Interactive Maps interface has been created that allows users to view a dynamic map of the Heysen Trail.
Users can zoom in and out to see more or less detail. Layers can be selectively turned on to provide additional information such as:
- accommodation options along the trail
- panoramio user photos
- re-routes
- end-to-end finish points
- tourism regions
- fire ban districts
A help file has been provided to explain features of the map interface in detail.
Summer 2008
Issue 106
December 2007
Win for Walkers – article from the Victor Harbor Times
Republished from the Victor Harbor Times
http://victorharbor.yourguide.com.au/
news/local/general/win-for-walkers/1078165.html
31 October 2007 – 8:29AM
Win for walkers
INMAN VALLEY – A protest by walkers has persuaded the District Council of Yankalilla not to privatise a public road at Inman Valley.
Although few walkers currently use the road, it will remain open because of its value as a potential future access point to popular walking areas such as the Heysen Trail and Myponga Conservation Park.
The road runs through RP and PM Lander’s property at Inman Valley.
At its latest meeting, council considered transferring the road to the Landers, so their land could be made into one allotment, rather than two sections split by the road.
The Landers had agreed to pay the council $12,430 for the land transfer, and have also had to cover costs for preparing a preliminary plan and schedule, advertising, survey, plan preparation, conveyancing, lodgement and transfer fees, and other charges in regard to the road.
Council commenced negotiations and legal work for the road’s closure following a decision made back in December last year.
In March, public submissions were called for regarding the closure, and two objections were received, from the Walking Federation of South Australia, and the Office for Recreation and Sport respectively.
Thelma Anderson from the Walking Federation’s Walking Access Committee spoke against the closure at the meeting, explaining the "virtues of walking" to the council, and urging council to consider the future recreational value of the road.
She encouraged the council to go what she said was the local government trend of privatising unmade public roads.
Cr John Hughes agreed, saying "it is important to keep these roads in public community ownership".
A division was called following a vote, with Crs John Hughes, John Sanderson, Mandy Aistrope and Janet Jones voting to leave the road open, while Crs Allan Barnes, Bruce Spilsbury and Andrew Gebhardt wanted to close and transfer it.
Chief executive Roger Sweetman said council has many hundreds of unmade roads, and suggested that information about which ones are of value would aid in future decision making.
Spring 2007
Issue 105
September 2007
Highlights include:
Second Kokoda Track trip – July 2008
Due to popular demand, a second trip has been organised along the iconic Kokoda Track.
Visit forum post.
Outdoor Australia Magazine article
View magazine article published in the Aug/Sep 2005 edition of Outdoor Australia magazine.
New Website Feature – Accommodation Forum
A new website feature has been released today – a forum dedicated to accommodation options along the Heysen Trail. Although primarily focused on campsites, huts and shelters along the Trail, you can also view and comment on other facilities near the trail (like caravan parks, motels, B&B’s etc in nearby towns).
So if you’ve used or seen some of these facilities along the trail, please use the forum to view and leave a comment. It would be good to hear about your experiences using these facilities, we’re also keen for people to include photos of the facilities (especially those currently without a photo).
View Accommodation Forum.
Collecting Your Experiences from the Sea to Summit
I’m collecting people’s experiences and photos from last Sunday’s and next Sunday’s full and half hikes for the Sea to Summit hike.
Check out this forum post for more detail (under the Trail Starter/Walker Walks
Winter 2007
Issue 104
June 2007
Website Maintenance
This website is now being maintained by Paul Davill.
General maintenance requests can be entered into the
General -> Website Issues/Feedback forum.
Alternatively, you can email your request direct to Paul by emailing the email address on the Contact page.
New forum feature: Upload single photos
A new feature has been added to the forums. You can now upload a single photo to a post. This service is provided by a third party, but this third party postimage.org does not have access to any personal data.
You can use the feature by selecting the "Add image to post" link appearing immediately below the area you enter your post text in. Photos can be up to 4MB, as a smaller image will be displayed with the post forum, and users can click on the photo to view a larger version (with advertising). The feature adds the necessary code to display the image (only the line of code will appear in the area you type in, but once submitted your photo will appear to yourself and other users viewing the post).
Please note: You can’t add a whole series of photos, aka an online photo album of your day’s walk, although this may be a future possibility. This feature is for uploading single photos.
Example only of how code will appear in your post (when you are typing it) when using the photo uploader feature (you can ignore how this code works, the feature ads the code automatically):
[url=http://upload8.postimage.org/335531/photo_hosting.html]
[img][http://upload8.postimage.org/335531/IMG_0955.jpg[/img]
[/url]