Lake Wallace and Dunns Swamp

A two-ground camp has been in the planning for a couple of weeks and last Friday it was time to get it happening. Dave and I once again packed our vehicles and headed west, this time with the plan on staying at a free camping area on Jenolan Caves Road, Hartley for a night, then heading to Dunns Swamp on Saturday. The turn of events, followed by a swift change of plans, meant that the first night would be spent at nearby Lack Wallace, in the shadows of the mighty Mt Piper Power Station and the Old Wallerawang Power Station. Lake Wallace supplies cooling water for both stations, which means it is affected by algal blooms at times. There is a sign at the lake's shoreline stating to what level the algae is concentrated in the water. The lake is used by boaters and anglers looking for trout, european perch or bass.

Above is a photo of the lake, taken on Saturday morning, with the cooling tower from the Old Wallerwang Power Station in the background. This station no longer operates but is in a state of decay and partial demolition.



Here's one of the Lake Wallace camp. My car is looking somewhat scrunched up, but that is just me being too close with the 8-15mm lens I was using at the time.

We didn't race to break camp, as it was only the first night but ended up being out of the Lake Wallace ground by about 10:30. As there was a bakery in nearby Portland, we headed there to try out the fare. I had a curry pie, sausage roll, lemon meringue and apple turnover because I was absolutely starving from the recovery job carried out the night before.



On that subject, as said previously, the first night was supposed to be spent at a small unposted camping area close to the Hartley historical site. On approach to the ground, I took the wrong track and as it was dark I didn't see a fairly deep hole in the track and I got myself bogged. I borrowed one of Dave's MaxTrax to see if this would assist however the car's belly was on an adjacent hump, which ultimately required a flat tow of around 5 metres. Dave's Hilux did the job admirably and that saved the night for both of us. Due to the need to work on freeing my car, our tea, purchased at the Blackheath hamburger shop, was stone cold and we only ate half our meals before disposing of the remainder once finally in camp at the lake.

The humble and evergreen Holden Commodore is a fantastic car, being sold to the Australian public in 6 and 8 cylinder form between 1978 and 2017 and there is bags of room inside. They just don't do the really rough tracks well due to a lack of clearance and ultimately, more care should have been taken. The good news is that there is no damage to the car and all was well with the motoring side of things for the rest of the weekend.

The first photo has been lit up a bit to highlight the nature of the bog. The track was pretty much just river sand and there was no support at all under the wheel. The second photo shows the hole left, taken the next day. The photo does the hole little justice and is deeper than it looks there.



After finishing our meal we headed to what will be a future campsite for us down the track. The place is called Woolshed Flat and lies alongside the Turon River near Capertee. When we arrived, no-one was around so we explored a bit and got the drones out for a quick flight.

Once that was done, we headed for Dunns Swamp to set up camp for the second night. The ground is fine, save for some noisy campers but everyone had observed quiet time by 22:00hrs so all was well. We managed to light a fire, which created the correct atmosphere between tea time and bed time. The camping spaces we hired were extremely small, being more suited to a smaller car and smaller tent but we both made our gear fit in reasonably well. Dave is calling Dunns a 'oncer' but I am going to head back in the early spring and put a kayak on the water and see how big that lake is.



As is sometimes said, the most important meal of the day is brekky. I didn't disappoint either, with a semi-mixed grille on the menu with bacon, eggs, sausages, onions and some hot potato chips. This went down well, needless to say.



We slowly packed our camps and headed into the nearby town of Kandos, a place once known for cement mining and manufacturing, to dispose of our rubbish and get a drink out of our fridges before heading on another explore near Portland. This would be followed by lunch at the Portland milk bar and then a rather slow trip home, due to the number of people on the road that could be classified as idiots.

It goes without saying that the coronavirus lockdowns of a few years ago have meant that a lot of people have forgotten how to drive correctly and their selfish attitudes mean that habits like hogging the overtaking lane and being completely oblivious to the long line of traffic behind them has become far more commonplace. It is also a sad fact that the road toll has increased across all states and territories in the same period - again due to selfishness and inattentiveness. It's time that the highway patrol did something about it. There is no excuse for cruising in an overtaking lane at 20km/h below the posted speed limit.

Apart from that fiasco and getting bogged, it was a great weekend and even now I am thinking about the next camp and where it may be.

Written at 20:51 on 16 April 2024 by Brad.

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