THE LAKE WITH NO NAME

[Lynchy]

It all comes back to Dave winning Lotto doesn't it Dave?

[David Leikvold]

Well, I'm not getting any younger and I'm tired of waiting for the Lotto gods to smile upon me so I was hoping Clive might take the hint and get started on the project NOW But if it has to be me that wins it big then so be it. I'm ready!

Cheers
Dave

[Stayt`ie]

Heres something of interest, go to Google Earth and find Midge Point (on the coast approx 20k south of Proserpine), about 5k up the road from Midge Point you can see what appears to be a paved two mile long runway,,, this is what remains after an entrepreneur`s failed attempt to establish a international airport to service the Whitsunday`s,, all the earth works were done, i had a look at it about 18 months ago and it was overgrown with grass and there were small ruts everywhere from water runoff ,,, had this airstrip gone ahead it would have made the established Proserpine airport redundant, and at just over 2k long would have been an ideal little LSR venue

[David Leikvold]

It looks good. If only he'd waited until it was tar sealed before he went broke

Cheers
Dave

[project100]

.... all we need is a couple of miles of uninturrupted paddock on a clay pan , southern to mid nsw has lots of this type of country , some of it in marginal farming areas and cheap...

And a slight name change perhaps ???

[grumm441]

The braking area looks a bit damp
Saves washing though
G

[gazzas landy]

There looks like a unused airstrip just south of Tobacco Rd at Inglewood Q.L.D. next to three round crop fields[not crop circles]. F.G.

[ROSS BROWN]

gazza
Might have to get the "dry farm racers in" and start with some bellytank pulls..... to rid the place of some of those trees.

Keep looking

[project100]

Some interesting reading here...

http://www.ozatwar.com/airfields.htm

[gazzas landy]

Ross,i also know of a salt lake near Charters Towers,trying to find out more.Has anyone checked out Cowely Beach, i am still waiting back from brother. Cheers F.G.

[gazzas landy]

Lake Galilee,Lake Buchanah,Galilee looks like it has access.Been out flying with google. F.G.

[Stayt`ie]

I have been out to Lake Buchanan a number of times over the last ten years monitoring it, has promise only in dry times, with all the rain we have had this year i recon it will at the moment be very soft, if not under water. At seventeen miles long and five miles wide, flat as a billard table ideal for LSR,,, Lake Galilee, i have only seen from a distance and what i seen wasn`t good, seems to be very undulating, but dont take my word for it,,,

[ROSS BROWN]

Just done some homework...
Lake Buchanan
The "DIRT" road leading into the joint looks to be about 101 kms,
and on the way in your not to run over 16 different endangerd "WEEDS"
and once there you are not to have your way with the "VUNERABLE" Buchanans fairy shrimp
Currently there is a meter of water covering the racing surface. the water usually arrives at the end of summer...



The lake is unlike any other salt lake in Australia as it is high in elevation.....
Heres a picture of it in race prep.
But can,t see it being like that for a while

[gazzas landy]

I hope you blokes don`t mind,i`m not a payed up member yet,but i`ve been searching for possible placers to have a meeting a couple of times a year,fingers crossed may have one.Will make another phone call tommorow,the chat i had today sounded very promising,it`s a sealed airstrip,town pop about 100,has a pub,camping ground,would love to have some fresh money in town.The down side is it`s 1160k`s nth west from Bris.There is also another town a bit further out i`ll be contacting.As i said ,hope you all don`t mind. Cheers F.G.

[David Leikvold]

Gaz, I think at one time or another most of us have looked for other venues or opportunities to go hard in a long straight line more than once a year and somewhere closer to home, regardless of where we live. This topic was red hot in 2007 and 2008 after Speedweek was cancelled two years running because of water on the lake. From time to time, when the mood takes me, I've tried to find something useful in SE Qld but to no avail, which explains Lynchy's Lotto joke! The airstrips are too short to have a decent go and there really isn't anything else, unless we find a public road we can use, which will probably never happen in this litigious age.

If someone, sadly not me, was wealthy enough to buy a farm to build a track (readers of Rapid will know what I mean) the flat area and length needed (not to mention the other considerations) means you really have to look west of Toowoomba or Warwick before you even get close to finding something suitable in size, let alone price. Last night I found one west of St George which was about 100km by 100km and in every photo as flat as a lake, I forget how much it was but it wasn't cheap. I just found, purely as an example, a place at Charleville, 37,500 almost completely flat acres for only $1.5m. At 640 acres to the square mile, that's just over 58 square miles, so finding a good spot somewhere there would be easy. Charleville is about 800km (11 hours) from here, 1300 km (16 hours) from Sydney and 1500 km (19 hours) from Melbourne. As I zoom out more on the Google Map I can see that Charleville, deep in the channel country, is built in what from time to time must surely be a river bed. Scratch that one, keep looking, keep dreaming.

A much smaller farm with an existing airstrip would be perfect because they are generally built in a much larger area of flat land, away from trees and hills. The cold reality of none of us having the money to firstly buy such a place and then turn it into our own "Field of Dreams" means we aren't likely to be racing anywhere but Lake G for the foreseeable future. I've still got my fingers crossed for Lake Omeo, hairy anchors notwithstanding. The most likely scenario would be if someone did buy such a farm, with the intent of running it as a farm and had a beautiful piece of bitumen laid somewhere useful for us and the operation of the farm. If you google "rural real estate" you'll find literally hundreds of potential properties, some of them are grazing, some of them are cropping, some are mixed. I think the cropping or mixed would be the better choice because you could grow lowish crops right up to the edge of the bitumen, whereas with cattle or sheep you need barbed wire fences. Apart from giving the farm a sealed road to somewhere, it would also be a very useful all weather airstrip.

Another problem with letting cattle into the strip area I discovered at Philip Island in 1977 when it was also a cow paddock. We did our usual track walk before the race weekend and tried to clean the many cowpats off the track. They came up easily enough (if you were careful enough to only pick up the dry ones!) but they had dissolved the bitumen underneath. We removed them anyway because we decided it was far better to hit a pothole than cop a flying cowpat in the face at speed! But I digress.

If you can find a new venue that ticks enough of the boxes we would be forever grateful. And if it doesn't work out, at least you're trying.

Cheers
David