“MARY JANE” CANYON, Blue Mountains NP – 2 November 2023
In 2019, I did an exploratory canyon with Anna O-B and Rod S. It was the first time any of us had done this particular canyon (the actual name of the canyon, is not Mary Jane, which is a nod to the old weed plantation in the canyon). We didn’t know the way in, so just headed down where we thought the canyon would start and what do you know there was a cliff-line to get around.
We abseiled down and as luck would have it, landed at the base of an overhang. Not just any old overhang, this had a flat floor, a carefully constructed rock wall (retaining wall for the floor), and a fireplace, along with a lot of garbage, and a lot of long straight branches, resting on a tree. We’d abseiled into the drying cave for the weed crop!
Anna and I made a pact to return at a later date to clean up the plastic bottles (3l ones, not even suitable for a bong), and old metal tuna cans (their lunch or dinner). Then COVID reared its ugly head, soon followed by cataclysmic fires in the area and then unbelievable rain events.
I’d had a trip planned but the weather didn’t co-operate, so we opted for a quick trip down this particular canyon, even though it was still raining, wouldn’t matter as we’d be in the creek. We took a different route in to the one we used in 2019, and found ourselves a few hundred metres upstream. Which was fortuitous as it meant that we would walk through the planation, the first time I’d seen it.
Talk about a professional undertaking, there were terraced plots, and even a dam for irrigation (photo from 2021). You could see where the black and orange plastic had been melted and burnt and it was breaking up, when we did the canyon, we found bits of the orange plastic downstream.
There were even fire hydrants and hose for irrigation from the dam! (photo from 2021) Because of the regrowth, we didn’t find these fire hydrants this time, and probably it could be considered “historical” and left behind.
On the 2021 trip, we picked up as much garbage as we could and took it out, couldn’t fit much in our packs though. So, cleaning up this canyon was back on my wish list.
Between 2021 and now, I’d put it on the MSS calendar a couple of times, with no-one interested except Anna and me. Then I got the bright idea to see if UBMBC were interested, they’re canyoners, surely they’d be up for a clean-up. I got in touch with Geoff F, and he and I did a recce six months ago to see the best way in, and for him to have a look at what needed cleaning up. As easy as that, UBMBC were in!
The first time we tried the cleanup as a joint effort, we all turned up on the allocated day and it was raining, and cold, and we felt it wasn’t going to be a very productive morning, plus walking down a spur in wet, slippery vegetation isn’t a good idea.
A few months passed and Geoff put forward another date, November 2. So, it was full steam ahead.
We met up at 7.45am, the weather was good and were underway by about 8am. It took us about an hour to find the right spur and get down to the plantation. The native vegetation regrowth was really bad, you could barely see the terraces, but we had no trouble finding the dam. The dam wall had been breached in the last rain event that we had so it was nearly empty.
Everyone got to it, pulling up plastic that had been melted/burned in the fire. We left the historic items, the dam wall, a couple of spades etc in place but bagged as much chicken wire and plastic as we could.
Me crawling to the middle of the dam to get the plastic off at the back. See how the fire melted the black plastic right into the dirt. Was very fragile after the fire, breaking off easily. (image: Mark B)
One of the UBMBC members crawling from the other end (image: Mark B)
I had to get down into the dam to get a better angle to cut the plastic. You had to make sure you didn’t tread in the water as the silt was very deep. (image: Mark B)
Getting ready to pack up all the plastic. The weed growers were pretty determined to set up the site, imagine carrying all that plastic a couple of k into the canyon!
About 1/3 of the bags to carry out.
Not all of the plastic was walked out, we left behind some for another trip because we had run out of bags and walking 2k through the bush (and up a spur), would haven’t have been easy without bags to carry it in.
More bags of plastic.
I even resorted to putting some in my backpack!
Some of the guys packaging the plastic.
The guys took their abseiling gear out of their packs (they were coming back to do the canyon in the afternoon), and packed up as much garbage as they could and carried it back up to the fire trail, where they left the bags to be picked up on the way out.
The before photo.
Another before photo.
And the after photo (image: Mark B).
Nicole and I had a poke around (unsuccessfully) looking for the drying cave, then had a leisurely morning tea. We set off out at 11am along with our cache of plastic, passing the guys on their way back to the canyon. We were at the cars by midday (always takes longer than I think it will), the clean up itself, took much less time than I expected.
A huge thanks to Geoff Fox from UBMBC who made my wish come through, I feel bad that he couldn’t be with us to enjoy the clean up as much as I did.
And, a big thanks to the UBMBC members, Mark B, Grant E, Gary G, Rob H, Mick B and Nicole B (member of both MSS and UBMBC). It was a pleasure meeting you all and words cannot express my gratitude! Hope you all enjoyed the canyon!
The clean up was your idea. UBMBC canyoners are a wonderful group of people. They made it happen. It is so important to clean the area because fragments of plastic sheeting area being washed into Bowen Creek Sth.
Geoff
Ah, you know me Geoff, I like to keep a low profile! Yes, it was a very important project!