b" Club Spotlight owner and he came down to fill us upwhich was much appreciated.The next morning we headed to KowPlains Homestead. It is a lovely oldhomestead with surrounding buildingsrestored by the Mildura Shire. Nextdoor is a huge limestone pit withmany interesting and home madedevices for mining limestone.BAIRNSDALE 4WD CLUB The mine operated from 1962to1985. After looking around, weVictorias Deserts Trip headed back to the Border Track anddown to Scorpion Park where the big,difficult dunes start. The sand wassuper dry and soft so it was quite aOn the 30th of April, members of the challenge to get over them. It wasBairnsdale 4WD Club left for a trip to great fun with most of us having aVictorias Deserts. Attendees were. couple of tries before ascending theTrip Leader, David Raeburn - Ford bigger ones.Maverick with passenger Joe Crisp, We spent the last night in the desertDave BourkeToyota Ute, Ross at Red Bluff camp ground. It isBorehamToyota Ute, Andrew and maintained by the Wimmera 4WDJack JohnsonGQ Nissan Patrol, hole of lime dust. It is like white bull Club and is as good as you'd findNick Burch and passenger Mark dust about half a metre deep. It anywhere. We had a visit from a tinyRykersNissan Patrol. exploded all over the Maverick native mouse as soon as we pulledThe group travelled to David covering the car completely and up. He continued collecting crumbsRaeburns family property near blotting out all vision. The wipers around our camp and even got intoBeaufort for the first night. Monday we cleared it enough to see and we were Dave Bourke's swag during the night.headed north through St Arnaud, far enough in front to warn the others He was obviously used to people andWycheproof and to Ouyen. After to slow down, but we all had a big saw us as a good food source.refuelling and stocking up on cleaning job that night. Before dark, a Nissan Patrol pulledsupplies, we headed towards Pinaroo We turned left toward Renmark to in and asked us if we were fromturning off to the Pink Lakes at Linga. Meringur where there is a great Bairnsdale as they were as well. TheyWe camped the night at Lake Crosby, pioneer museum put together by the had recently moved to Bairnsdale andwhich was a nice tidy campground. local people depicting the early life in are interested in joining the 4WDTuesday dawned clear and cold and the Mallee and Millewa areas. We Club. The last day in the desert, wethe campfire was enjoyed by all. After spent several hours looking around travelled over the last dunes and thenbreakfast we headed north , stopping and set up camp in the museum on to Serviceton on the Southto look at some of the machinery left grounds for the night. There are very Australian border. The railway stationbehind by the salt mining operations good facilities available. One of the there is a huge structure that was builtin the area. From there we travelled local ladies even bought us some as a customs station on the border inthe Honeymoon Hut Track and the wood for a fire. 1889 and closed in 1986. On arrival, aMopoke Track to the Mopoke Hut. Wednesday, we headed to the local came over and gave us a com-This hut is maintained by the Mildura border for fuel and then down the plete tour of the entire complex.4WD Club and is neat and tidy. Border Track. The Northern end of the From there we travelled backIt was originally built by the Henske track is a fairly easy drive, but there through Horsham and Stawell to ourFamily who leased a huge area before are quite a few interesting things to place near Beaufort to spend a lovelyit was taken back as National Park. see, including an old eucalyptus warm night by the fire before headingThe tracks were very dry and some distillery and house with lots of inter- home the next day. It was a great triphad patches of boggy sand. We esting buildings and relics left behind. with good friends and lots of adven-turned right into the Nowingi Track We arrived at Murrayville on the tures. We look forward to the next tripwhich was originally the railway line Ouyen-Adelaide Highway mid after- before too long.from Rocket Lake to Nowingi, built to noon. The caravan park is neat and David Raeburncarry Gypsum from the Brunswick tidy and a bargain at $15 per nightplaster works and salt from the Raak with hot showers and a camp kitchen.Plains to the railhead at Nowingi. One Some of us went to the pub for aof the huge hoppers used to fill the good meal and others chose to cookcarriages is still there and in fair at the camp. One of the locals saidorder. It looks like something from there was fuel available at a depotWar of the Worlds sitting there. between 4.30 and 5pm, so we wentAfter looking around, we headed and waited, filling in time looking atnorth to Raak Plains mining area. This the old army tanks at the depot. Theis a large area that has been mined local policeman turned up and askedfor various minerals, including lime- us what we were doing. He told us thestone for roads and lime and gypsum. fuel was only available Tuesday andOn one of the hills we drove into a big Wednesday nights so we rang theTRACKWATCH SEPTEMBER 2021 27"