Why Yankee Hat remains one of the ACT’s must-see hikes

The Canberra Times

Namadgi’s treasured Yankee Hat Aboriginal rock art site is reopening with a new fire-resistant viewing platform, safeguarding cultural heritage after the 2020 Black Summer fires came close to destroying it. Tim the Yowie Man

Transcript

00:00The six kilometre or so bush walk to the Yankee Hat rock art site here in Namajee

00:05National Park has to be one of the Canberra region's premier walks. You may

00:10encounter dingoes, goannas and kangaroos and that's virtually before you leave

00:15the car park. But don't take my word for just how good this six kilometre return

00:21walk is. Parks officer Adam Henderson has spent hundreds of hours out here

00:26managing the upgrade of the walk and the viewing platform at the Aboriginal art

00:32site following the Black Summer fires five years ago. I caught up with him while

00:37his team was putting the finishing touches to the revamped track. So the walk up to

00:44Yankee Hat one of the the best walks in in the National Park do you think? Yeah I

00:49think so I think it's got everything for everybody really it's a it's a it's not

00:55too long it's a lot of flat areas it's not too steep beautiful scenery and lots

01:02of wildlife and lots of spots just to sit and enjoy nature. This is called Bogong

01:08Creek starts up in the mountains up here and joins up with Middle Creek and that's

01:15where the Gudgeon Bee River starts. We're at a point here we we've got a little seat

01:19here you can you can rest and then take the final walk to the art site and then

01:26there's a loop track at the outside and then return along the same track. So Adam

01:30we're here at the Yankee Hat viewing platform you can hear a bit of

01:36construction noise going on in the background we're a couple of weeks away

01:39from completion of the track how will the track and the platform be different to

01:44the old wooden platform that that many Canberrans would remember here. You know

01:49the first difference they'll notice is that it'll be built out of steel and not

01:53timber and obviously steel is not flammable so that reduces the risk of

02:00another bushfire coming through and the impacts from like a burning timber

02:05platform on the art panel itself so in other words it'd be fireproof. It's also

02:10going to be a very strong and durable material and it also aesthetically will

02:16look quite nice being built out of that weathered steel so it blends in quite

02:21well with the natural environment. They realized once the fire comes through here

02:25and the wooden platform catches a light it would potentially damage you know the

02:32heat the radiant heat from the flames would damage the artwork itself so they

02:37raced here removed at all and in hindsight it was absolutely the right decision to

02:43make because the fire did come through here at quite a high intensity and the

02:48artwork has avoided all damage from that fire in fact Yankee Hat is a great place to

02:57visit at any time of the year

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