Curiosity Rocks, Lake Jindabyne

The Rocks have not looked like this since Lake Jindabyne started filling in 1967, it shows the impact of the current drought cycle that began in 1996 compare. The dam was at below 50% capacity when this was taken with a 19-35 mm lens and polarising filter. With only average snow falls this year, the inflow will have little impact after draw down for hydro power, irrigation and environmental flow for the Snowy River below the dam. more

Those snags in the water are festooned with line and lures, some of which are now part of my angling history display in the den. Some of the old classic lures which haven't seen the light of day for 20-30 years were cleaned up and given a swim with new hooks and still worked well.

I guess the Rocks looked much like this before the dam when the valley was a pioneer grazing community, home of The Man from Snowy River, and even before then when the Ngarigo people roamed here and visited the high country each summer for the bogong moth feasts.

As the weather heats up in October, the moths, Agrotis infusa, more migrate to the cooler mountains to aestivate, the reverse of hibernation, in their thousands, up to 17,000 per square metre, in the cool dark cracks and crevices in the great boulders and scree slopes. They were easily smothered with smoke and scraped off the rocks into nets and skins then carried back to camp, roasted and eaten whole or pounded to a paste, made into flat cakes and cooked on hot stones. High in protein and fat, their taste was described as rich and sweet and similar to roasted walnuts.

This abundance of food encouraged great inter-tribal gatherings for trade and exchange, feasting, ceremonies and dispute settlement. Early European observers commented on the people going up onto the mountains looking gaunt and miserable from the winter and returning after a few months sleek and fat, even the dogs were fat! Not forgetting that the mountain pigmy possum, Burramys, is also partial to a feed of bogongs.

Recently however it has emerged that the moths may contain traces of arsenic probably from insecticide absorbed by the larvae which feed on the roots of pasture plants, so recipes for bogong moth omelette should be treated with caution.

Spencers Creek, Rainbow Lake and Snow gums & granite at Charlotte Pass

No trip to the high country is complete without the pilgrimage up to Charlotte Pass; from our camp at Lake Jindabyne the road climbs up to the snow line and then through alpine tussock meadows, over Spencers Creek which is usually worth a stop for a few casts and lunch, past the track to Rainbow Lake, built by the early gold miners as a water supply, where the half hour walk is rewarded with a lovely fishing spot, past the parking bays where the skiers stop to put on snow chains, the road side guide posts change from white to orange and are two metres high for visibility in the snow, up to the highest point accessible by road. A boardwalk skirts these ancient gums and rocks leading to a small lookout with a view of Mt Kosciusko and the glacial tarn, Blue Lake, what a view.

The area around Charlotte pass is one of the last haunts of the Mountain pigmy-possum, Burramys parvus, once thought to be the rarest animal in the world, until it reappeared after 60 years of "extinction" with several populations found living within Kosiusko national park. It is the only specialised alpine and sub-alpine Australian mammal, although often sharing its habitat with the more widespread broad-toothed rat and antechinus. Burramys is the largest of the pigmy possums with an average weight rising from 40 grams to 70 grams as it fattens for winter, and grows to 28 cm including a prehensile tail of about 16 cm. more