We had a mate's 60 series and my 40 series, camping at lake Bullene Mary just out of camperdown, vic. The plan was to leave camp thursday and spend the day in the forrest checking out some of the 4x4 tracks. Got up there abou 11am thursday morning and took Thompson's track. All was well, a few small fallen trees which we cleared, the about 10min later we came to an inpassable tree that had fallen, too big for the chain saw and the way it was sitting prevented it being towed out of the way so we had to turn back. We dropped one of our crew back in town to his car since he had to drive back to melbourne for an SES meeting. We then went back in and took a track that branched off of thompson's called Newcombe's Spur Tk. The gate was open so we proceded down the track. Was pretty easy for a while then the terrain dropped pretty steeply so we got out and walked the track for a bit to see what it was like. The ruts were pretty deep and on a very steep slope, went on for a while till we came to a huge bog hole. Long story short a light rain fell for about 5 min and that steep, dry rut filled track we came down became like ice and there was no way of getting the 60 series up again after my rig got bogged (high centered the diff when the wheels fell into a rut about 1 meter from the end of the mud). So with minimal water and food, only hand held UHF's and my girlfriend without her medication we were stuck there for 15 hours.
We walked out to the top of the track we we got sos calls only on the phone and 2 hours later the local copper rocked up and took us back to town. By this time its 10pm, still no food or water and no cars. Managed to get onto the ses bloke we dropped off to come back with some recovery gear and we planned to winch the trucks out in the morning. 1am came along and we get a radio call from the SES controller and two other blokes in their 75 series troopy saying they were out the front to come pull us out. so by 5am the next day we had our trucks out and were in serious debt to these fellas who drove 3 hours in the middle of the night to come help us. What i wanted to know from you guys is, shouldnt those gates at the start of the trackes be closed if conditions are bad?? if some one had of gone down there with less experience than us ( we dont have much by the way lol 
) what was a very frustratiing situation could have been incredably dangerous. Do Parks Victoria have a duty of care to the public to close the gates if conditions are seriously dangerous?? Just like it says on the sign at the start of the track "this track could be closed at other times of the year due to bad weather conditions" What do you guys think?? g'day all, just got back from an interesting trip in the otways state forrest, thought i'd come on here and tell you about it and ppl can let me know what you think.
We had a mate's 60 series and my 40 series, camping at lake Bullene Mary just out of camperdown, vic. The plan was to leave camp thursday and spend the day in the forrest checking out some of the 4x4 tracks. Got up there abou 11am thursday morning and took Thompson's track. All was well, a few small fallen trees which we cleared, the about 10min later we came to an inpassable tree that had fallen, too big for the chain saw and the way it was sitting prevented it being towed out of the way so we had to turn back. We dropped one of our crew back in town to his car since he had to drive back to melbourne for an SES meeting. We then went back in and took a track that branched off of thompson's called Newcombe's Spur Tk. The gate was open so we proceded down the track. Was pretty easy for a while then the terrain dropped pretty steeply so we got out and walked the track for a bit to see what it was like. The ruts were pretty deep and on a very steep slope, went on for a while till we came to a huge bog hole. Long story short a light rain fell for about 5 min and that steep, dry rut filled track we came down became like ice and there was no way of getting the 60 series up again after my rig got bogged (high centered the diff when the wheels fell into a rut about 1 meter from the end of the mud). So with minimal water and food, only hand held UHF's and my girlfriend without her medication we were stuck there for 15 hours.
We walked out to the top of the track we we got sos calls only on the phone and 2 hours later the local copper rocked up and took us back to town. By this time its 10pm, still no food or water and no cars. Managed to get onto the ses bloke we dropped off to come back with some recovery gear and we planned to winch the trucks out in the morning. 1am came along and we get a radio call from the SES controller and two other blokes in their 75 series troopy saying they were out the front to come pull us out. so by 5am the next day we had our trucks out and were in serious debt to these fellas who drove 3 hours in the middle of the night to come help us. What i wanted to know from you guys is, shouldnt those gates at the start of the trackes be closed if conditions are bad?? if some one had of gone down there with less experience than us ( we dont have much by the way lol ) what was a very frustratiing situation could have been incredably dangerous. Do Parks Victoria have a duty of care to the public to close the gates if conditions are seriously dangerous?? Just like it says on the sign at the start of the track "this track could be closed at other times of the year due to bad weather conditions" What do you guys think??
