This pocket gem has just been distributed to your club. Once again it is just bulging with information including a cold link to the World Wide Web; the Confederation Web Site address actually. This site will hot link you to bush walking clubs and information all over Australia. Naturally the Calendar shows dates but also all the NSW Public Holidays, School Holidays, Phases of the Moon along with Wilderness Rescue Training Dates and Confederation activities.

Who has the First Aid Certificate in your bushwalking group? Don’t know? Then why are you trusting your life with them? Our Confederation Insurance records show that injuries while rare can vary from sprained ankles to fatalities. Remoteness means help will always be slow to arrive. I have been involved in assisting two injured bushwalkers back to our vehicles. Both times the cause of the injuries was amazingly simple unlike the evacuation. Knowledge of First Aid helped us to decide whether and how to move our injured friends.

First Aid is not brain surgery but simple approved medical procedures that we can all learn in just one weekend. First Aid can save lives or just make the mildly injured comfortable until an Ambulance or rescue helicopter arrives.

Wilderness Rescue runs First Aid courses designed for bushwalkers at a discount rate. This course on May 29th/30th is the St. John Senior First Aid Certificate. WorkCover recognise this as a suitable course if you need to be a First Aider Officer in your workplace.

To book your place contact Keith Maxwell on 9622 0049. A deposit of $20 will be required to confirm your place. For information on our next St John Ambulance Remote Area First Aid Certificate course contact our First Aid Instructor, Mr David Sheppard on 0242 266 565. The Remote Area course is a higher standard that requires either three or four days training.

The only excuse for not not doing this course has to be that you already have a current First Aid Certificate! Save bushwalkers by training with bushwalkers.

Change of Date - Nav. Shield ‘99

The NavShield will be held one week later this year than in previous years. It now will be held on the the first weekend of July each year. For 1999 this means 3rd and 4th of July. The venue will be much closer to Sydney and north of the Harbour Bridge although you would probably not cross the Bridge getting there!

The terrain will definitely not be as difficult as in ‘98. We have listened to comments from participants in Sassafras ‘98 and will be improving the catering, lighting and course layout to be even better for ‘99. The NavShield is a great way to teach navigation to other members of your club or brush up own skills. We have many emergency services personnel who come back year after year because they enjoy it so much!

Six members of the Southern Highlands Bushwalkers attended this training weekend. On Friday 5pm, Mal, Marg and Michael arrived at the grid reference on the Wollangambe map to find they were the first there. Sat. 5.30am exercises started. The morning was spent learning abseiling, with Glen instructing along with some experienced Watagan Wanderers, first down a 15 metre cliff, then down a 30 metre cliff. After lunch some went on to a higher cliff and some returned to base for more exercises set up and run by David Shepherd. The first was a camp scene where an incident had occured. We had to deduce what from what was at the scene. We worked out that 2 inexperienced campers had tried to light a petrol lamp close to the fire and an explosion had injured at least one of them. First aid had been attempted. but not very well, then they had left for help. Most of us managed to deduce most of the story.

The next test was a line search an which we found every object planted. The object was to conduct a line search and stay on the compass bearing that David had given us.

We next played Kim’s game, where 17 objects were viewed for three minutes then covered, We then had to write down as many objects as we could remember. Most people got 14 to 16 objects. The small milkcarton seemed to be the most elusive.

Sun. A search for a missing bushwalkers was set up. 3 teams were sent out on 3 different routes. Margaret was the base radio operator for this exercise. Our team of five drove out 2 kms. to a start point and followed an easterly ridge line to the end. where we descended via a steep, scrubby creek to the major creek system. We then travelled up a canyon with dense rainforest vegetation for 500 metres following a single set of footprints, which we were certain were John Ffiver’s (the missing bushwalker ).

We smelt smoke and as we walked we heard John calling for help. We soon came to him and administered first aid for a broken forearm and snakebite to his leg . After a lot of radio procedure including relaying messages to base via team 1. who were up on top of very highcliffs at the end of the ridge that they had been sent out on. A helicopter was called and the exercise decided that John was to be winched out. Just then team 3 contacted us with the information that members of the team were stuck an a cliff and couldn’t get up or down.

We radioed for abseiling gear to be sent in and this was arranged. We walked back to base, meeting the team with the abseiling gear on the way, and finding Graham at his 4WD at the closest point to the trapped team. We put our packs on Graham’s 4WD and continued along the track to base, while team 3 was rescued. There was a short debrief at base then we left for home.