PICS / VIDEOS — South Eastern Model Aircraft Club

8/11 Let’s get this out of here…..next time.

8/11 Stacking stuff for storage

8/11 The committee rolls up their sleeves. Len S, David W, Col V, Simon B, Geoff M

8/11 Fence posts and capping stacked for removal

14/11 Brendon brings the Bobcat to the MX main entrance

24/12. Track down the north side of the MX sheed down to ‘Gate 2’ after a trim by Brendon

5/11 Angelo swings away and removes 50 X 30kg concrete blocks with help from Rob B

8/11 Verandah awaits final disassembly

24/11 Brendon brings the Bobcat down on the paddock at MX

15/11 Col V, Bill S, Chris C and Simon bring down the dunny

15/11 Beside the site of the now vanished mower shed, the last tank is emptied for removal

15/11 The mower shed is laid to rest

15/11 Ben F gets to work bringing down the verandah frame with help from Paul D, Mark B, Nick C and Len S

15/11

15/11 Ben F with the pump he retrieved from the pit. Ben will clean it up for possible further use or sale

12/11 Rob B, Chris C, and Bill S at MX looking at the most recent work on the track at ‘Gate 2’

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12/11 Rob B, and Bill S at ‘Gate 2’. The new field is 700m beyond this gate

12/11 Further improvements to the track to ‘Gate 2’. This work was done for us by MX at no expense to SEMAC

12/11 Another view from the track back to MX. This area must be filled to enable truck access

12/11 Previously there was a trench filled with water under ‘Gate 2’ Now fixed for free by the landlord

12/11

12/11 Another view of the improvements

12/11

12/11 The farmer (Wes) to the north uses this entrance beside our Gate 2 to get his cattle to MX MX allows him to graze cattle free of charge

This gate must be kept closed at all times

12/11 Chris, Bill and Rob check the new width improvements at the corner between ‘Gate 1’ and ‘Gate 2’

12/11 No problem getting a car & trailer through now

15/11 Col V contemplates 15 years at Bangholme. Col was instrumental in finding the field and setting it up

20/11 Initially locked out at Jakupi. Problem now resolved with the landlord

20/11 Unloading fence posts carried in by trailer on our field at MX

20/11 Very, very close to now having truck access to our field at MulchXpress to bring in gear

20/11 Another pic of the work on truck access

20/11

SIMON’s SERMON - NOV 2020

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for being patient while COVID-19 has made an impact on our lives, favourite activities and especially our involvement in meeting up and flying at SEMAC. I hope that you are now slowly and carefully starting to bring life back to a COVID normal. Before I go into our detailed update on what has been going on behind the scenes of the club I would like to mention a few things.

My past experience with clubs has sometimes shown that committee members are not regarded as fellow members of a club due to the fact that they hold committee positions. I can assure you that everyone on the committee are very much members of our club and are just as eager to meet up and fly again. A lot of behind the scenes work has gone on over the past months with the committee agonising on how we can all get back into the air; safely with COVID and now with the move the Mulchexpress. Many hours has gone into what follows and I would like to draw attention to a few things.

Firstly, throughout the COVID restrictions Brendan has been working at the field under a Restricted Workers Permit maintaining the field in the hope that we would be able to return to the field and get back into the air. Unfortunately our lease ran out and since then Brendan has put a huge effort into preparing for our move. He has taken down all the SEMAC fences and pull all the posts out of the ground on his own. He as also done a lot of clean up around the club and has used his truck to take the scrap metal from the field to the recyclers and recovered some funds for the club. A huge thanks to Brendan for all the above work that he has done and there are probably other items that I have missed.

There have been some small working bees at the club by the committee and other club members and I would like to thank them for their contribution to our preparation for the move. There is another one scheduled for tomorrow and I would like to thank in advance the ½ dozen or so who have made their time available. I would also like to thank the committee for all the hard work that they have done to date in preparation for the relocation to our new field.

Now for the update, thanks to John and Len for their assistance with pulling the full update together.

The beginnings of this move was precipitated by a mooted increase by Frank from a current rental of $12,000 in 2018/19 to a demand of $20,000 for 2019/20. This was unsustainable and negotiations took place with Frank finally dropping to $15,000 but with protracted negotiation we managed to have this reduced for that year to $13,000 which was still in excess of what our fee structure could sustain. Indications were that the following year’s rental would increase once more so moves were put in place to secure another field for the Club.

Much time was spent searching within approximately a 5 km radius with Len luckily finding Mulchxpress and on contacting the owner, John O’Connor, secured the site rent free. We obtained a lease agreement with John O’Conner which effectively guarantees our use of the field indefinitely unless he sells the property at some time in the future (which is extremely unlikely given his huge investment in the MulchXpress business).

John Julian and Len then set about the formal paperwork and requirements to relocate our Club, attending to meetings at the Dandenong Council Chambers on the first occasion with Councillor Angela Long and a follow up meeting with Councillor Long and the City Planning and Engineering officer. What had been anticipated as a straightforward process of moving the club 450m while continuing to operate under our existing Council permit proved in the end to be a major exercise as Council insisted on a completely new permit application including an objection process and exhibition at VTAC. This meant the preparation of professionally drawn up plans and months of back and forth with the Council Planning officers.

The site was not without its issues, namely substantially covered in low height gorse and soft wet land to traverse to get to the tract of land allocated to us. Contact with adjoining owners both north and south achieved helpful success with farmer Wes on the north property who offered access through his property as a last resort for the initial move only.

Access to the rear of the property we had been granted, required a gate in the fence at the back of MulchXpress’ work area. We obtained quotes in April and successfully had a gate installed.

However, fate intervened with the arrival of Covid 19 Virus and then the Autumn and Winter rains came, making the land impassable. Behind the scenes activity however continued, including Geoff selling the Atco, the removal and stockpiling of all our fencing by Brendan and a number of general clean up working bees. The Committee researched types of containers suitable for our requirements and has the relevant specifications and costings on hand ready to proceed as soon as access is reasonably available, bearing in mind the wetness of the land at Mulchxpress. One will act as a cookhouse while the other will be storage for equipment and mowers etc.

Time ran out on the lease and we were now into a period from August 2020 onward without legal tenancy. With the lifting of the travel restrictions we were able to meet with Frank on his property in early November to find out what was acceptable to him to allow us to finish up at the property bearing in mind we were now into the third month without any rent being paid. The Committee’s suggestion was that we offer to leave behind the hard to move cookhouse. Frank also wanted the three water tanks and some form of shelter for the animals. As the veranda had already started to be dismantled and the transmitter pound was determined expendable, we were able to wipe the monetary debt of our overstay by agreeing to leave behind the cookhouse, the transmitter pound and only one water tank as well as gaining an extra month of occupancy, i.e. December.

While all this was taking place various members of the Committee were obtaining quotes from multiple sources for fencing the field and a gravel road from MulchXpress’ work area to our flying area, spending time on site with the interested parties. The quotes came in far in excess of anything we could afford.

SITUATION AT PRESENT

In order to get car access through the gate which had to date been impossible, contact was made with Glen (Mulchxpress foreman) to see if there was anything he could do. By afternoon a photo came through showing an all-weather gravel path through the gate and onto the field. He advised he had already driven his ute up to our area, albeit slowly. At Glen’s suggestion John O’Connor was contacted at Morwell knowing he had the intention of bringing down his large heavy-duty cultivator/mulching machine to MulchXpress the week commencing 16th November.

He has agreed to use the machine on our area which should provide us the basis of a cleared flying field which with luck can be further enhanced with the use of our bobcat and MulchXpress’ heavy roller already offered to us. With the mulching complete and to define our field and prevent further ingress of cattle, we now require secure fencing and fencing contractors have been contacted for quotations both of whom will use our posts that have been removed by Brendan. We will need to transport them to the new site.

To make our new flying field happen we need All Hands On Deck which will be to everyone’s benefit. We have a short window of time to complete this task before Christmas. Everyone will benefit in the coming months and years. All members need to contribute whatever they can to the best of their ability. Please contact a Committee member to get involved.

Forward to Victory…. UP UP AND AWAY!!

Simon Bole-Brown

SEMAC President