Information for a Western Australian Bushcrafter

[bloffy13]

G'day all,
My name is Paul but better known as Bloffy.
I have been a long-term member of the sister site Bushcraft Oz and an occasional lurker in the background here.
I live in Albany, Western Australia, and like to get out bush whenever I get a chance.
I am writing in the hope that someone might be able to provide me with some information.
In my work-a-day life, I work for an outdoor recreation camp run by the Department of Sport and Recreation and we offer a range of activities including archery, raftbuilding, canoeing, rogaining and geocaching etc for our patrons.
As Albany is on the south coast of Western Australia, it does get a bit cold and blustery here (Maybe not by your standards but definitely by Australian standards...)
What I am trying to find is either some unique "Winterproof" type activities which can be conducted during the wetter times, or, alternatively, find the name of some similar types of recreation camps which I can research what they have on offer.
I have tried the interweb thingy but with little success and was hoping that, as like-minded folk, you might be able to point me in the right direction.
Anything you can offer me would be greatly appreciated.
I will check back in a couple of days to see if there is anything.
Thanking you in advance.
Cheers
Bloffy

 

[baggins]

Hey Bloffy, welcome to BCUK. you don't mention in your post who your clients/students are. Children, folk with disabilities or adult learning. There are plenty of differing activities available, but depending on who you are teaching can depend on what you offer.
Skills based such as carving, whittling. basket work or rope making. can be done inside or under shelter. camp cooking and baking perhaps. i'm sure others here will have some great ideas to add on too.
Good luck and enjoy your summer. snow forecast here tonight!

 

[crosslandkelly]

Good ideas above, you could also add making natural cordage, fire by friction, flint knapping and trap and snare making.

 

[bloffy13]

Thanks guys,
Great ideas.
We service a range of clients from children as young as 8, through to some who are still young at 80. Mainly middle school aged children, so all of those skills would be awesome.
I've been tossing around a bush craft skill based session and the basket work and natural cordage would feature strongly, I think.
Knapping is a skill I don't have, so that could be a great something to learn and then pass on. Hmmm. So much to ponder on.
Even simple things like building shelters and making a fire without a match can be challenging. It's amazing how many kids these days can't even strike a match.
Trapping and snares are illegal in Western Australia so that might not be the best idea. Lol.
@ baggins, is the snow a good or bad thing? It's a true novelty here in WA and the few times a year we get a light fluttering on the slopes, people travel all over the State to go see it before it melts at about 8am lol.
Again, thanks guys. Keep em coming.
Cheers
Bloffy

 

[bloffy13]

Um,
What happened to my reply post please mods?

 

[bloffy13]

Thanks for that, guys.
Our camp caters for 8 year olds through to those who are still young at 80.
Mainly middle school-aged children though.
I have been looking at a bushcraft skills session and basket weaving, natural fibre cordage and even knapping (of which I know little of but would love to learn) would be great ideas. Proper shelter building and then sleeping in them, would be interesting.
Fire making, with or without matches, is always good. So many children don't know how to strike a match, let alone make a friction fire.
Could be interesting. Snares and traps are illegal in Western Australia so I might have to skip that one. Lol.
Thanks guys, keep the ideas coming.
Cheers
Bloffy

 

[bloffy13]

Oops double post

 

[mrcharly]

Hmm, you have probably thought of most activities.

Knowing what the rain can be like down Albany way, I think I'd try to ensure there was decent shelter from the rain. A friend ran green woodworking activities in Lancaster (very wet area) and had an outdoor green woodwork workshop, under a canvas roof. Just some poles to prop it up, heavily guyed out. Room for 20 kids, lathes and shave horses under there. The roof was a copy of a berber tent style - if you google that you'll get plenty of images.

Do you know the museum up at Yarloop? They have quite a lot of resources there, the saw doctor's workshop etc are set up as they were when it was an operating mill. I think it would be interesting for modern kids to see and be shown how to use old style saws, axes and other hand tools. That's something that could be done under a berber tent roof. Some of the volunteers at the yarloop museum worked with the old tools and might be interested in giving you some info.

 

[Arya]

What a dream job! Welcome

 

[Corso]

What a dream job! Welcome

Indeed and in a great place too - sounds like he wants to know what we do in the summer months

 

[mrcharly]

Albany is a lot colder, windy and can be very wet - so more like a very mild UK winter in some ways.

 

[bloffy13]

That's why I come to you guys. Figure your camps and outdoor activities might be more similar than other camps in WA. And I'm not into reinventing the wheel. Plagiarism is rife in this industry. The bushcraft aspect is definitely interesting and I will eventually wear my boss down....lol.
Mrcharly, not familiar with that museum but will check it out, thanks. Would be interesting to have an old-fashioned workshop set up with some various working displays. Where I work is a former quarantine station and is 140 years old (young by UK standards, old by WA standards). Would fit in perfectly, I think.
Keep em coming guys. Loving the feedback.
Cheers
Bloffy

 

[mrcharly]

The museum is one of the best I have ever seen in the entire world. The site originally had a full sawmill, all the supporting maintenance stuff (such as the saw doctor) and a full foundry. They are still trying to catalogue the wooden forms but think that they have the forms to cast every part of a full steam engine. Oh and there are steam engines.
Definitely an absolutely terrific resource for info on bushcrafting during the settlement period of WA's history.

 

[bloffy13]

Just looking back on old posts and came across the chat about the Yarloop Steam Workshops museum.
Unfortunately, this and the majority of the town of Yarloop (about 95 properties) were destroyed in a bushfire in January 2016. I just did a quick Google search and could see where there was insurance and plans for rebuilding (maybe not in the original format) but I couldn't see a when. A shame when heritage like this is lost.
Cheers
Bloffy

 

[gra_farmer]

It is a shame to hear about the destruction of yarloop, pains me to hear when this sort of events happen.

As for my input, challenges are quite good, and gets everyone involved. There is a really good 3 fire back to back challenge that was run here a few months ago

The 3 fires challenge

trying to alleviate some lock down boredom (even more bored as I've sustained an injury to my leg, swollen a bit shin splints I think) so I was thinking of setting up a BCUK challenge if folk fancy it The challenge is to create 3 fires from the following 3 methods: Magnification (i.e. fresnel...

bushcraftuk.com

And one of my favourites is the 24 hour £10 bushcraft challenge, just the clothes on your back and £10 worth of kit to see you through, I.e. mora, cord, cheap tarpaulin, cheap fire steel.

You have to do all or most of the bushcraft tasks, from making cord, fishing, carving, fire lighting and of course, build your shelter for the day/night.

Challenges are fun and get people thinking outside the box

As for carving with younger children I wrote this thread a little while ago https://bushcraftuk.com/community/threads/carving-with-children-guidance-and-tips.155693/