Bushwalk Australia

Hi all,

On the 27th of January 2020 I found myself at Mailes Cave just after the 2020 bushfires, but before the 2020 floods.

I decided to photograph the entire logbook for posterities sake as there was significant fire damage in the vicinity of the cave. The logbook went back almost 40 years so I thought it was worth preserving.

I had intended to do an analysis of these entries, however never got around to it. In part because I have difficulty reading cursive. A cursory analysis of the dates reveals that the cave goes through periods of more and less intense use, interest in this cave has ebbed and flowed over the years.

I have uploaded the photos here: https://imgur.com/a/1sRYwmj

Perhaps someone will get a laugh out of seeing their old entry, or feels inspired to perform their own analysis.

Of slight interest might be Andy Macqueen's entry from 1996 - there are also some records of some fairly extensive trips in there. Cudos to the people spending two weeks out in the Wollemi!

Cheers,

Richard

This is great, thanks! Maybe the logbook should be collected and placed in the state library before it is lost? There's already a fair collection their under Bushwalking NSW / Confederation of NSW Bushwalking Clubs archives. I might at least place a digital copy from what you've photographed in there

Log books get replaced, the old version going to archives (somewhere).
One of the pleasures of a log book is looking back over past entries, I find the new log books disappointing in that regard. It would be nice to have some copies of sample pages of the old log book/s present at the beginning of the newer log book.