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 It " November " 26th Oct, 2nd November)
-Page 2 The Sydney Bushwalker September, 1988
-EDITORIAL
+===== Editorial =====
 TEST WALKS
 From time to time the question of test walks crops up in Club affairs. My profound knowledge of human behaviour leads me to suspect that the vexatious question of test walks has been cropping up for about 61 years.
-What are test walks and do we need them? Test walks are mentioned only once in our Constitution in Clause 5(d)iii where they are a requirement for membership. NEIthing. else is said, yet there is a constitutional requirement for test walks.
+What are test walks and do we need them? Test walks are mentioned only once in our Constitution in Clause 5(d)iii where they are a requirement for membership. Nothing else is said, yet there is a constitutional requirement for test walks.
 Of course most people reading this have undergone test walks or are related to such people or the Sydney Bushwalker has found its way into some waiting room or other. The SBW is a bushwalking club and it is reasonable to expect our prospective members to be fit enough to partake of the sport. Test walks therefore are simply walks which on completion indicate a certain level of fitness, ability and speed. If we had unlimited time most walks could be done by most people. Test walks also test a prospective member's determination to want to join the Club. Someone once said if a goal is too easily achieved it is not greatly valued. That takes care of why we have the test walks.
-What is a test walk? One of the beauties of bushwalking is the great variety of the terrain, thus we have tracks and no tracks, grades which vary between horizontal and vertical, ground cover varying between open grassland and dense impenetrable scrub and ambient conditions varying between hot, cold, wet and dry. Really a test walk should incorporate all these plus be long enough to indicate fitness. Over the years certain walks always have been test walks because they always were; something like the chicken and the egg. However test walks vary with time. ONe walk by one leader is a test walk while the same walk by a different leader is not. A particular walk is no longer put on and thus is lost. Or simply the walks change with tracks being made where once there was just bush. The Committee changes and with it a change in emphasis occurs. All these can lead to a change in the degree of difficulty of test walks.
+What is a test walk? One of the beauties of bushwalking is the great variety of the terrain, thus we have tracks and no tracks, grades which vary between horizontal and vertical, ground cover varying between open grassland and dense impenetrable scrub and ambient conditions varying between hot, cold, wet and dry. Really a test walk should incorporate all these plus be long enough to indicate fitness. Over the years certain walks always have been test walks because they always were; something like the chicken and the egg. However test walks vary with time. One walk by one leader is a test walk while the same walk by a different leader is not. A particular walk is no longer put on and thus is lost. Or simply the walks change with tracks being made where once there was just bush. The Committee changes and with it a change in emphasis occurs. All these can lead to a change in the degree of difficulty of test walks.
 How can we have consistent test walks? Some years ago there were things called patterned test walks; these were a product of the 1930s and were in the Constitution of the time. In 1968 patterned test walks were revived briefly and then the idea died.
-The notion of trying to quantify walks by distance and terrain is possible but I suspect difficult to apply. Perhaps the way to go is to review our history. Get all the past and present leaders of test walks to list and describe all the past and present test walks and assemble this information into a master list. So that the list would not be lost with the passage of time it could be published once a year (for example together with the membership list) and updated as necessary. Any new walks could be compared with the master list and if the comparison is favourable then we have a new test walk. In this way we will have contcriuity of walks, the maintenance of Club standards plus the discretion of the Committee to accept walks as test walks. There is a sub-committee looking into standing orders, I think this is just the job for them.
-September, 1988 The Sydney Bushwalker Page 3
+The notion of trying to quantify walks by distance and terrain is possible but I suspect difficult to apply. Perhaps the way to go is to review our history. Get all the past and present leaders of test walks to list and describe all the past and present test walks and assemble this information into a master list. So that the list would not be lost with the passage of time it could be published once a year (for example together with the membership list) and updated as necessary. Any new walks could be compared with the master list and if the comparison is favourable then we have a new test walk. In this way we will have continuity of walks, the maintenance of Club standards plus the discretion of the Committee to accept walks as test walks. There is a sub-committee looking into standing orders, I think this is just the job for them.
-LETTER TO THE EDITOR  by Errol Sheedy
-I would like to thank John POrter, Walks Secretary, who kindly phoned me to say that the Committee did not wish to accord Test Walk status to the two walks I offered to lead in the Royal National Park for the Winter Walks Program. As these two walks had been  Test Walks in previous years, this information was somewhat of a surprise to me. It made me wonder what circumstances had caused this reclassification of the Test Walks I had designed for prospective members.
+LETTER TO THE EDITOR
+by Errol Sheedy
+I would like to thank John Porter, Walks Secretary, who kindly phoned me to say that the Committee did not wish to accord Test Walk status to the two walks I offered to lead in the Royal National Park for the Winter Walks Program. As these two walks had been Test Walks in previous years, this information was somewhat of a surprise to me. It made me wonder what circumstances had caused this reclassification of the Test Walks I had designed for prospective members.
 I would be most grateful if the Committee would outline the present guidelines for Test Walks so that I may understand the reasons for the decision re my walks, and also so that perhaps in the future I may again aspire to lead a Test Walk for the SBW.
 Since this matter may be of more than passing interest to the members and prospective members who have accompanied me on what were once Test Walks I am asking the Editor to publish this in the Sydney Bushwalker.
-* * * * * * * *
 NOTES ON "PATTERN TEST WALKS"
 by Kath Brown
 . When the Club became incorporated in 1987 a new Constitution was adopted, but until then all members were ruled by the old Constitution including prospective members applying for membership. In a 1945 copy of the old Constitution in my possession, and also in a copy dated 1967, the following paragraph appears (among others) under "Membership":-
-(e) In order to qualify for membership, the prospective member shall prodouce evidence to the Committee that he has satisfactorily accomplished two day walks and one week-end walk approximately equivalent to prescribed pattern walks in mileage, hours walked, and nature of country, and that such walks be done within the probationary period.
-Such walks shall be properly authenticated and approved by the Committee as test walks. The pattern walks shall be laid down by a General Meeting, and shall be alterable only by a three-quarters majority of members present at a General Meeting. Fourteen days notice of such proposed alteration shall be given to each member.
+(e) In order to qualify for membership, the prospective member shall produce evidence to the Committee that he has satisfactorily accomplished two day walks and one week-end walk approximately equivalent to prescribed pattern walks in mileage, hours walked, and nature of country, and that such walks be done within the probationary period. Such walks shall be properly authenticated and approved by the Committee as test walks. The pattern walks shall be laid down by a General Meeting, and shall be alterable only by a three-quarters majority of members present at a General Meeting. Fourteen days notice of such proposed alteration shall be given to each member.
 The new Constitution as from 1987 makes no mention of "pattern test walks".
 . In the July 1968 General Meeting a revision of the "pattern test walks" was made and by a three-quarters majority the following were adopted as pattern test walks (as printed in the July issue of the magazine):-
 "1. FULL WEEK-END.
-(a) Kanangra Walls, Gabes Gap, Mt. Cloudmaker, Tiwilla BUttress, Stockyard Spur, Kowmung River, Gingra Trail, Kanagra Walls. 25 miles (40 km) 4,000 ft of climbing.
-(b) Carlon's Farm, Carlon's Creek, BLackhorse Range, 'Playground of the Dingoes', Splendour Rock, Yellow Dog Ridge, K.==nangaroo Clearing, Cox's River, Iron Pot Mountain, Canon's. 24 miles (39 km) 4,000 ft of climbing.
+(a) Kanangra Walls, Gabes Gap, Mt. Cloudmaker, Tiwilla Buttress, Stockyard Spur, Kowmung River, Gingra Trail, Kanangra Walls. 25 miles (40 km) 4,000 ft of climbing.
-(c) Wog Wog Creek, Corang Trig, Bibbenluke Walls, Monolith Valley, Mt. Owen, Bibbenluke WAlls, Corang River, The Gorge, Wog Wog Creek. 25 miles (40 km) Approx. 1,500 ft climbing with easy open country, walking and a reasonable amount of difficult sidling and creek walking.
-Page 4 The Sydney Bushwalker September, 1988
+(b) Carlon's Farm, Carlon's Creek, BLackhorse Range, 'Playground of the Dingoes', Splendour Rock, Yellow Dog Ridge, Konangaroo Clearing, Cox's River, Iron Pot Mountain, Carlon's. 24 miles (39 km) 4,000 ft of climbing.
+(c) Wog Wog Creek, Corang Trig, Bibbenluke Walls, Monolith Valley, Mt. Owen, Bibbenluke Walls, Corang River, The Gorge, Wog Wog Creek. 25 miles (40 km) Approx. 1,500 ft climbing with easy open country, walking and a reasonable amount of difficult sidling and creek walking.
 II. SATURDAY AFTERNOON/SUNDAY WALKS.
-* (a) Bgackheath, Govett's Leap, B4ue Gum Forest, Grose River, Victoria Falls, Mt. Victoria. 15 miles (24 km) 2,300 ft of climbing. [Note- this distance would include walking from and to railway station. K.Brownj
+* (a) Blackheath, Govett's Leap, Blue Gum Forest, Grose River, Victoria Falls, Mt. Victoria. 15 miles (24 km) 2,300 ft of climbing. [Note- this distance would include walking from and to railway station. K. Brown]
-(b) Carlon's Farm, Breakfast Creek, Cox's River, Kdights Deck, Blackhorse Range, Canons. 11 miles (18 km) 2,700 ft of climbing.
+(b) Carlon's Farm, Breakfast Creek, Cox's River, Knights Deck, Blackhorse Range, Carlons. 11 miles (18 km) 2,700 ft of climbing.
 III. ONE DAY WALKS.
 (a) Waterfall, Mt. Westmacott, Woronora Trig, Woronora River, Scouters Mountain, Woronora River, Sabugal Crossing, Engadine. 12 miles (20 km) 1,100 ft of climbing.
 (b) Woodford, Upper Glenbrook Creek, Sassafras Gully, Numantia Creek, Linden. Rough creek walking in Upper Glenbrook Creek. 9 miles (15 km) 1,100 ft of climbing.
 (c) Cowan, Cole Trig, Cliff Trig, Porto Bay, Brooklyn. 10 miles (16 km) 1,000 ft climbing, no tracks, low scrub.
 Original pattern walks as 'adopted at the Half-Yearly General Meeting, September 14, 1945'.
 . The new Constitution, however, only says under "Membership Qualifications" (a) iii.:- Satisfactorily accomplishes two test walks, each one day in duration, and one test walk of at least two days in duration involving such distance, time and terrain as approved by the Committee.
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 BELVEDERE TAXIS BLACKHEATH