Carlon's Farm for sale

[wildwanderer]

I never really understood the decision to ban horses from many areas of the Blue mountains.. Alpine grassland and wetlands/rainforest I can understand the prohibition... I can also understand culling herds of wild horses.

Alot of the blue mountains is thick vegetation, eucalyptus and scrub on a dry soil and sandstone base. Pushing through all that scrub on less popular tracks, Id be glad if a few well managed horse treks came through and cleared the track so I could walk without getting ripped by vegetation. I hate scrub bashing and I bet more people would walk if there were more longish tracks free of scrub. A good example is the US, less thick vegetation = more walkers.

There are any number of tracks that are disappearing due to lack of regular use. don't see why horses trek tours (limited! under a management plan) couldn't be used to keep those tracks open.

An even better idea, close the now redundant fire trails to vehicles, let nature narrow them.. and then have horse treks keep the path open for walkers and other users.

Not advocating a free for all... and Im probably drifting significantly off topic

[ribuck]

An even better idea, close the now redundant fire trails to vehicles, let nature narrow them.. and then have horse treks keep the path open for walkers and other users.

And what better place for that than the Narrowneck Fire Trail? It's just a pity that the horses can't make it up Carlon Head.

National Park workers sometimes use horses along the Kowmung for pig eradication and trackwork. I don't know where they start from, but it won't be from Carlon's.

[rcaffin]

I suspect you have not seen the damage steel-shod horse feet can do to some of the terrain we have. They can turn a smooth flat track into an eroded gully in quite short time. Even unshod catle can trash an environment quite quickly when they move around in herds.

But ultimately the problem is over-use. If you let one horse-trekking company in, then you have to let them all in - and there would be a lot of them if it was open slather. And if you let the horseys in then the trail bikes will be demanding 'equal access'. Then the 4WDs will want in. It's no use saying you would draw the line somewhere: political compromise after political compromise is what you would get. Am I suggesting that the pollies and senior bureaucrats are spineless and venal? Who, me?

You might ask why didn't this happen around Green Gully. Well, it WAS happening in some places (on some tracks), but Green Gully was PP so the commercial hordes did not have access.

National Park workers sometimes use horses along the Kowmung for pig eradication and trackwork. I don't know where they start from, but it won't be from Carlon's.
Actually, I think it has been from Carlons at times. I have seen the horse trucks going past.

Cheers
Roger

[wildwanderer]

An even better idea, close the now redundant fire trails to vehicles, let nature narrow them.. and then have horse treks keep the path open for walkers and other users.

And what better place for that than the Narrowneck Fire Trail? It's just a pity that the horses can't make it up Carlon Head.
.

Should be fine. They just need one of these at the base of Carlon head...

[puredingo]

image.jpg (15.36 KiB) Viewed 7046 times

Operation pig cull, horse deployment Carlon head, 64'.....we were just kids dammit!!!

[GPSGuided]

Should be fine. They just need one of these at the base of Carlon head...

Bad idea! That leads to lazy and fat horses...

[johnrs]

Guys
Its probably time to bring the thread back to the departure of the Carlons from Green Gully
It sad to see the family leave after more than a century there.
Yes things do change, including the ideas and values of our own time,
however respect and historical knowledge remain important.

And talking of change here is some of Myles, one of the founders of the Blue Mtns national park and good friends of the Carlons walking kit.
John