Tamara had journeyed from Brisbane to Canberra for Easter and jumped at the chance to do some ‘light’ 4Wdriving and camping in Deua National Park in the southern NSW hinterland near Bateman’s Bay. Weather was brilliant – clear blue skies - but the nights promised to be cold.

The western approach into Deua was quite deceiving. Previous experience around the park fringes and the map suggested that the dirt track into Bendethera Camping Area was nothing to be concerned about. And indeed, most of it was 2WD. However, there were a few tricky bits, bordering on hard – more by the steepness than anything else – and they caught me a little by surprise. More than once Tamara got to experience that knot in the tummy when you have to back down a viciously steep, dry rocky hill, to have another go – even with a turbo under the bonnet of the L-Wagon. I took the hill a bit too casually and didn’t quite give it enough herbs. It was a good introduction to 4Wdriving for Tamara though - while she had heard of our previous exploits, she had not experienced first-hand the pleasure of taking on some seriously steep hills while rattling around in the back of a ‘little ‘ol Subaru’.

On this track we saw very few vehicles (most had turned onto the ‘highway’ toward Moruya) but we did pass two Landrover Discoverys - one towing a camper in the face of some impossible hills – difficult even for us, unencumbered by trailer. We learned later that they had major difficulties getting the van up some of the hills and one vehicle ended up breaking down.

In club parlance, this trail would be rated medium with some hard to very hard spots – mainly because of the steepness of the dry, rocky descents, on what was essentially an unmaintained fire trail. Deua NP, or the vast majority of it, is due to be locked up in October and the fire trails will no longer be accessible. Road authorities are getting in early by not maintaining the trails in advance of the closure.

The hole

Snow Plowin'

It was on this fire trail, in a poorly maintained section, that our Moruya nightmare began. We were coming down a very steep sand and gravel  hill with three large ‘whoa boys’ cut across the track. On cresting the second, we lost visual contact with the ground in front and fell unsighted into a big hole carved out by large 4WDrives that had scrambled up the hill in the other direction. 

Ordinarily, it would have been an adrenaline rush and then carry on regardless but this time the car made a sickly crunching noise and turned into the bank, defying all steering commands. A quick nappy change and a close inspection revealed that the bottom of the RH steering knuckle had come down heavily on a rocky edge and had shattered around the ball joint pinch bolt. The wheel was leaning in on the strut and pointing outward at about 30 degrees – snow-plowing relative to the other. This was a major breakdown and in a really bad location – half way up a seriously steep hill and in a blind spot for descending traffic. 

The cavalry arrives

My brother, who assisted in the recovery, gasped when he saw the steepness of the hill for the first time from the front of the Land Cruiser rescue vehicle (courtesy of the local Beaurepair dealer) but was almost panic-stricken when we began the descent in the Subaru. I don’t think he has the nerves for this sort of thing – at least not in a Subaru.

So the nightmare did continue – but not forever. We got the car down – albeit with an extra day or two off work and a lot of messing around.

I have not heard of a steering knuckle breaking like this b efore. I’m not sure if it was just bad luck landing on the rock or if I contributed to the disaster by fitting a dual suspension up front, making it too rigid to recoil from heavy shocks. Had this happened in the Simpson Desert or Cape York, it would have been a real show-stopper. For long club trips such as these it may pay to have at least one RH and one LH steering knuckle among the group of travellers – just in case. Food for thought.

Moruya – the nightmare is over.

 Danny Williams SC412