This was WICEN’s 10th year being involved with the Stockman’s Rally, with over a dozen WICEN operators headed for the Big River State forest on Sat 26th October. As it was an early start on the Sunday morning most of the attending members camped together the night before and enjoyed a roast cooked on a webber by Ian, VK3SV. The event was sold out and expecting over 450 riders, so Sunday was expected to be a busy day.
As we gathered at the Big River Bush Campground, the first concern were the weather conditions. Many members experienced snow and ice on the roads up from Marysville – yes, even in late October there was snow and ice on the roads. The weather was expected to improve on the Sunday, with Saturday being in the low teens with rain and drizzle throughout the day and night. It was good to see many familiar faces, including some old hands such as Peter VK3YG attending, whom we hadn’t seen for a few years. Alan VK3FABT and John VK3ZRX departed camp early evening on the Saturday to transport and set up the WICEN 2M repeater on Mt Duffy. Navigating on wet tracks while towing a repeater trailer is best done when there is light.
Sunday morning, most of the team were up and out by 7AM. Gerard VK3GER and Mark VK3MDH reached 80% of the way to their control point, Monument, before finding a 1.5m tree across the planned route, so had to find a Plan B approach. From base camp, it one hour and 50 minutes to ascent to 1000 metres after airing down, once they left the Big River Road.
Ian VK3SV and Ross VK3SF advised around 0930hrs that the first wave of riders had left. The event had two loops of around 35 kilometres each, with riders doing one or both. Every 100 riders or so they embed race officials (sweeps) in case of any immediate issues, either mechanical or medical. WICEN has solid radio comms across the course and we fill the gaps monitoring UHF CB, as the riding race officials carry UHF CB handheld radios.
It can often be a juggle operating two radios, going from a controlled net using correct operating procedures and languages, then to UHF CB and getting a ten four big buddy from riding race officials. This system of filling the gaps with input from others, while not ideal, does work, as there is no cell phone coverage except for the highest hilltops. It proved effective time and time again, with messages from riding officials and medical staff. In one event a rider had sustained a knee injury needing medical intervention and the medical staff where contacted on UHF CB, and directed to the location of the patient. He was seen too and driven out by 4WD to a rendezvous point, where he was taken back to base camp to be seen by Melbourne Ambulance Victoria.
Without intervention, he may have ridden out sustaining a worse accident and causing harm to himself or others. If he’d managed to ride the 30 kms back to base camp his injury may have been exacerbated. The extraction of his bike was coordinated in a similar way and we wish patient “T” a speedy recovery.
The event ran very smoothly with no life-threatening injuries, and all WICEN operators made it in and out safely. As always, the Victorian High Country brings it fair share of challenges, with the weather, the trail conditions and the hilly topography making radio comms a challenge. WICEN Victoria is proud of its work and association of ten years with the Stockman’s Rally.
The Stockman’s Rally is conducted by the Motorcycle Racing Club of Victoria Inc (MCRCV) as a non-competitive motorcycle off-road trail ride.
