The Oaks update for 11 Dec

The Oaks Sunday 12 Dec,

Rode up to The Oaks from home (Glenbrook) on main trial; all good with a bit of chop and your friendly
tourist advising me that I was going the wrong way. I suppose 35 years of riding and running these trials
means nothing to the young folk of today, next time I shall mention the BMORC website details and advise of the true meaning of mountain biking in the lower mountains which includes wearing helmets for obvious reasons.

A concern: riding back up to the rangers hut from the causeway and noticed a poor blue tongue lizard had an unfortunate tangle with a car, but still alive. Local MTB riders from Richmond (yes, new BMORC members) and myself collected the poor fella and headed back up to the rangers hut expecting salvation from the ranger at the gate, arrived at the hut to be greeted with the comment, "not my problem" by the ranger. Well, after a couple of comments along the lines of, "what the $%*@", etc, order was restored. The ranger did provide the contact number of WIRES and allowed me to use the phone to contact my wife, Michele, who arrived and took the poor fella back home. WIRES was contacted and instructed us to take the poor fella to the local vet, thankfully the local vet is located in the street behind us. The prognosis by the vet on the poor fella was unfortunately not good, but we would be advised on the poor fella's outcome in the near future.

Now, I'm not having a go at the NPWS, these people do a fantastic job and they do have a great working relationship with the MTB community, but a little more compassion may be in order for a certain individual when people make the effort to try and save the life of the wildlife within the National Park.