Please be advised our usual Quarterly Meeting has been called for the end of March. Details are as follows:-
Date:- 30 March 2025
Time:- 10.00 am.
Place:- Cobargo Hotel.
There are number of issues requiring discussion and decisions and the Committee looks forward to seeing you there.
AFA Discussion Zoom/Google Meeting with Peter Smith for SOS (Save our Summits) - TUESDAY MARCH 18 2025 7.30pm AEST
It is a virtual or zoom meeting that you can join and watch via a PC, laptop or phone. It will be from 19.30-20.00
Our Peter Smith will be joining the group SOS “Save our Summits” as part of their series of short talks highlighting the injustice of summit, track, trail and crag closures across Australia. Many of you will recall the visit and talk by Marc Hendrickx from SOS to our recent AFA AGM
Peter will be discussing the access to bridle tracks in NSW High Country and work done by AFA to prevent more trail/track closures. Unfortunately there may have been technical issues in joining the virtual meeting "live".
More recently the YouTube Podcast of the meeting has been posted and can be viewed at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnG1V3Ljg9g
The meeting lasts for about 45 minutes and be loosely broken down into segments:
- The first 2 minutes is the meeting getting going and introducing Peter Smith
- From 2 to nearly 8 minutes is discussing the announcement of Wilderness areas in 1999 and the formation of AFA
- From about 7 minutes 50 secs for the next 5 minutes, Peter Describes the numerous Bridle Tracks in SE NSW using slides of the different tracks
- From 12 min 40 seconds approx Peter discusses what "Wilderness" is and its limitations.
- At 14 minutes plus there are some pictures of various AFA meetings and work with politicans. Also the Trials of track use finding no damage.
- From about 18 minutes the "New Management of NSWNP" is talked about
- After a few images of families using some of the tracks Peter elaborates on the Legislation issues where it is proposed that all of the NSW NParks be handed over to indigenous peoples.
- From about 25 minutes into the Podcast there is a discussion between the few (mainly SOS members) on the points raised by Peter. There is mention of a broader "Conference" being an action - possibly in Canberra.