Macca tradies visit Green Gorge hut via boat.

Macca tradies visit Green Gorge

Mission: Tradies’ R&R and D Day

6 June 2014, Macquarie Island

After departing Hobart on the 25 March and heading south to Macca, the three-person building trades team had been busy on and around station for ten weeks now so a group decision was made to head down-island for some well earned rest and recreation at Green Gorge (and carry out some hut maintenance work at the same time).

The chosen date was the Queen’s Birthday long weekend (6–9 June), for four days which included an overnight stay at Brothers Point hut on the way back. The plan was to walk to Green Gorge — some 15 kms — and take in the scenery and sights, and then rest any sore feet on the Saturday. But, as luck would have it, 5 June finally provided the station with a weather window to conduct our boating induction, therefore allowing us to do boating trips down-island after completion of the training.

Also as luck would have it, there was a weather window for Friday 6 June, D-Day, that allowed a boat trip to Green Gorge to drop off some food supplies and work materials, and also drop off the three building tradies consisting of Greg Gerbich (plumber), Paul Deverall (electrician), and Graeme “MacGuyver” Freeman (carpenter, building services supervisor).

And so it was, that we awoke at dawn and headed down island in our zodiac inflatable rubber boats for a crucial beach landing with coxswains Pete Raymond (diesel mechanic and trip leader), Chris Howard (ranger in charge), Ian Whitehead (field training officer) and Sean Reynolds (BOM technician) as the return boat crew.

The trip south was slow as the boats were loaded up and close to capacity. But after 45 minutes the landing beach was in sight and we went for for a text book assault on the beach with the three tradies leading the way in boat number one. All went to plan and we received very little resistance upon reaching shore. The inflatable rubber boats and Green Gorge hut were unloaded and reloaded quickly, and without fuss, so we turned around, ready to head back to station. Although it must be noted that Paul did have a slight altercation with an underwater pothole whilst helping relaunch the boats — such dunkings are of course part of the fun.

After the boat’s departure, plans were put in place, and we set out to have an enjoyable weekend. This included an eight kilometre return walk up to Pyramid Peak on the Saturday to have a look at some of the island past Green Gorge. As with all tradie trips, the menu for the weekend was drawn up and consisted of T-bone steaks, deb potato mash plus greens, making up our meat and two veggies as a staple diet for the weekend’s outing.

Sunday had the team rested up and ready to head to Brothers Point for the night, where upon arrival it was decided to just relax for the remainder of the day, followed by Paul’s specialty for dinner — T-bone steaks, deb potato mash and greens — but this time with super flavoured gravy that “MacGuyver” found hidden under the floor.

All was enjoyed and we rested some more, knowing that two of us had the arduous task of supervising Greg replace and repair the damaged stop valve on the water tank. The sweat was pouring off Paul and “MacGuyver” whilst Greg carried out this difficult task, so much so that a few selfies had to be taken to break the tension.

After that, the team headed back to station via the coastal walk and took in the selfies, wildlife, history and scenery, and as it is with all good trade groups we were picked up by Pete (diesel mechanic) in the Polaris four wheel drive tradie ute at Gadgets Gully and driven the last kilometre back to station in typical tradie’s style. 

Graeme “MacGuyver” Freeman, Macca building services supervisor/carpenter 

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