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Shepherds Hill Recreation Park VKFF-1744

Posted: 30 Jul 2019 05:10 AM PDT
https://vk5pas.org/2019/07/30/shephe...ark-vkff-1744/


Today (Tuesday 30th July 2019) I decided to head down to town to activate
two new parks for me.Â* The first being the Shepherds Hill Recreation Park
VKFF-1744.

The park is located in the foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges, about 9 km
south of the city centre of Adelaide.
Above:- Map showing the location of Shepherds Hill Recreation Park.Â* Map
courtesy of Protected Planet.

The Shepherds Hill Recreation Park is 77 hectares in size and was
established on the 1st January 1955.Â* The park is located in the south-west
extremity of a much larger area of remnant native vegetation stretching
across the foothills to Brownhill Creek. Much of that remnant vegetation is
on reserved land and Shepherds Hill Recreation Park is part of a complex of
public open-space land that protects native vegetation and provides a range
of opportunities for outdoor recreation. In particular, it adjoins the
Watiparinga Reserve managed by the National Trust of South Australia, and
the Saddle Hill and Ellis Avenue Reserves managed by the City of Mitcham
Above:- An aerial view of the Shepherds Hill Recreation Park, looking north
back towards the Adelaide CBD.Â* Image courtesy of Google maps.

The park was originally known as St Marys Reserve and was acquired by the
South Australian State Government in 1953 as public open-space for
recreation purposes and was managed by the South Australian Government
Tourist Bureau as a dedicated National Pleasure Resort from 1955 until
1972.Â* In 1972 it became the Shepherds Hill Recreation Park.
Above:- Article from The News, Tues 3rd November 1953

The park takes its name from William Henry Shephard (c. 1812-1848) who
arrived on board the Tam OShanter in 1836.Â* In April 1842 he registered the
purchase of section 8, Survey B, adjacent to the hill that was mapped as
Shepherds Hill.
Above:- William Henry Shephard.Â* Image courtesy State Library SA

The park preserves old-growth Grey Box Woodland and creeks lined with
old-growth River Red Gums.Â* The park includes the confluence of Walkers and
Wattiparringga Creeks.Â* The park also includes native grasses and a number
of rare plants occur in Shepherds Hill.Â* Â*Grey Box is considered to be
uncommon in the Southern Mount Lofty Ranges and Grey Box Woodlands are
limited in their distribution to the foothills and hill slopes south of
Adelaide.Â* Referred to in colonial times as the ‘Black Forest’ they have
borne the brunt of suburban settlement and invasion by exotics.Â* There are
only a few degraded examples in other nearby parks including Belair
National Park, Sturt Gorge Recreation Park and Onkaparinga River National
Park.Â* The Shepherds Hill Recreation Park, together with Watiparinga
Reserve, has the last substantial remnant of River Red Gum Woodland in the
southern Hills Face Zone.








There are some nice views of the city of Adelaide from the high points
within the park.



Native mammals that call the park home include the Common Brushtail Possum,
Common Ringtail Possum, Yellow-footed Marsupial Mouse, Echidna, Koala, and
Bush Rat.Â* About 15 species of reptile have been recorded in the park
including Cunninghams Skink which is rated as endangered in South
Australia.Â* About 38 species of bird have been found in the park including
the Tawny Frogmouth, Nankeen Kestrel, Red Wattlebird, Laughing Kookaburra,
Superb Fairy Wren, and Brown Falcon.Â* The park was alive with Rainbow
Lorikeets and Eastern Rosellas during my visit.Â* Some of the birds I
observed are shown in my photos below.








After leaving home I travelled west on the South Eastern Freeway and down
into the suburbs of Adelaide.Â* I travelled down Fiveash Drive and on to
Ayliffes Road and soon reached the northern section of the park.Â* The
carpark here was full so I decided to try the other side of the park.



I was hoping to access the park through the Womens Playing Fields on
Shepherds Hill Road, but the gates were locked.Â* So I then turned onto Mill
Terrace and parked at the end of Springwood Close.Â* There is an access
point to the park here.
Above:- Map of the Shepherds Hill Recreation Park showing my operating
spot.Â* Image courtesy of National Parks SA.

This appeared to be a quiet section of the park and there was plenty of
room to string out my 20/40/80m linked dipole without interfering with any
other park users.
Above:- An aerial view of the park showing my operating spot.Â* Image
courtesy of Google maps.Â*

Sadly when turning on the transceiver I saw that the noise floor was
strength 7 to 8 on the 40m band.Â* I realised then, why I had not activated
this park before, as I always expected that it would be noisy and busy with
people.

First in the log was Peter VK3PF, followed by Liz VK2XSE mobile, and then
Gerard VK2IO/5 who was near Oodnadatta in the Far North of South
Australia.Â* Deryck VK4FDJL/8 followed, with a good signal from near Alice
Springs.

It took me about 12 minutes to get 10 contacts in the log, qualifying the
park for the VKFF (Australian) program.Â* There were a lot of stations
calling, but many I was unable to pull out of the noise.

I logged a total of 24 stations on 40m from VK2, VK3, VK4, VK5, and VK8.Â*
This included a Park to Park contact with Mike VK6MB/3 who was in the Boort
Nature Conservation Reserve VKFF-2052.



I then headed to the 80m band and logged 4 stations there, John VK5BJE,
Steve VK5SFA, Adrian VK5FANA, and Mike VK6MB/3 in VKFF-2052 for a second
band.Â* Unfortunately, I had to put up with strength 7 to 8 noise on this
band also.

The 20m band was my next stop and surprisingly the noise floor was strength
2.Â* I logged 8 stations on 20m from VK2, VK3, and VK4.

To conclude the activation I moved back to 40m, with 36 stations in the log
and a further 8 stations for the magical 44 QSOs.Â* To my listening
pleasure, the noise floor had dropped down to strength 3 to 4 on 40m.Â* I
logged 8 stations just getting me over the line.Â* Contact number 44 was
with Keith VK3MKE.Â* I also logged Ian VK1DI/2 who was activating the
Washpool National Park VKFF-0521, one of the Gondwana parks.

Thank you to everyone who called and a BIG THANK YOU to those who took the
time to spot me.



I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-

VK3PF
VK2XSE/m
VK2IO/5
VK4FDJL/8
VK3GA
VK4NH
VK4DXA
ZL4TY/VK4
VK5BJE
VK2YW/m
VK2KTG
VK2VW
VK2NP
VK2LEE
VK3YW
VK4RF
VK4HA
VK3MCK
VK2ADB
VK5SFA
VK6MB/3 (Boort Nature Conservation Reserve VKFF-2052)
VK3SQ
VK3OHM
VK3ZMD
VK2KNV/m
VK4MWB
VK1DI/2 (Washpool National Park VKFF-0521)
VK3BBB/m
VK7FRJG
VK3MJR
VK2SLB
VK3MKE


I worked the following stations on 80m SSB:-

VK5BJE
VK5SFA
VK5FANA
VK6MB/3Â*(Boort Nature Conservation Reserve VKFF-2052)


I logged the following stations on 20m SSB:-

VK3OHM
VK4RF
VK4HA
VK2XXM
VK4TJ
VK4/AC8WN
VK4/VE6XT
VK2VW






References.

Department for Environment and Heritage, 2008, Shepherds Hill Recreation
Park Management Plan.

State Library South Australia, 2019,
http://www.slsa.ha.sa.gov.au/digitalpubs/placenamesofsouthaustralia/,
viewed 30th July 2019

Wikipedia, 2019,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepherds_Hill_Recreation_Park, viewed 30th
July 2019