b'fifteen weekend visits, planning commenced.After two years of planning, the track clearing Club Spotlightand rubbish cleanup took place on the lastweekend of November in 1985.With the trackconditions supplied by John Hasler, each club OFFROAD AND CAMPING CLUB was allocated tasks suited to their abilities.Base camp was set up at Muttontown, on the OF VICTORIAeastern side of Matlock.Thirty 4WD clubsattended the event whilst other clubs livingfurther away organised bush clean ups in theirown areas.The 300 club members who attended theThomson event supplied their own equipment(no funding was supplied) and carried outmany tasks including, clearing of timber andvegetation from tracks with chainsaws andother implements, slashing and blackberryclearance. Large areas of blackberry infesta-tions had runways cut through to prepare thearea for land managers to spray.The RedJacket Cemetery and Jericho Cemetery wereincluded in the clearing weekend.The area isbounded by the Matlock to Walhalla Road,Warburton to Woods Point Road and theThomson Valley Road. So, if you enjoy travelling in this area andexploring the various goldfields and cemeteries there are 300 4WD Club members from 1985you need to thank.Also refer to the Herald Sunarticle on Sunday/Monday 1st or 2ndDecember, 1985.(John Cribbes was a founder of the Macalister4WD Club and co founder of the now disband-ed Phoenix Club which concentrated onenvironmental issues and works). Easter Wimmera and Mallee exploration tripLake Albacutya photo by Jean BellisThis was the shakedown for the Simpson Desert trip the club isrunning in June/July this year.The group consisted of veryexperienced members, newer members and members who had littleor no sand driving experience.Some of the group had new vehicles and were keen to see how theywould perform.We were using this trip as a means of gaining sanddriving experience and finding out just what our vehicles could orcould not do.The cars on the trip included two Foresters, twoPajeros, a Prado, a Land Cruiser and a FJ Cruiser.Thursday April 1st:This was our travel day to all meet up atRainbow by 6:00pm.Everyone took a different route to visit differentplaces of interest or to see family or friends.We made our way to the local pub, The Eureka, for dinner which wasa great way to unwind after a day of travel, have a few laughs andstart to come together as a group. After a long day and with an early start the next morning, mostpeople headed to bed around 9:00pm.Some took a few momentsjust to stop and take in the brillance of the night sky.Friday April 2nd: We were all up early for hot showers and packedby 8:30am.We were treated to a beautiful sunrise.Some of us (thetrips leaders) took a bit longer to pack up, but by 9:00am we wereready for a briefing and off we went.TRACKWATCHJUNE 2021 15'