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Operations Manager Update

The year keeps on rolling and the cold weather has arrived, with plenty of snow falling already. Alongside the colder weather brings the upcoming Seasonal Road Closures, be aware of these and make sure to check tracks are still open before you travel. You can read more about this in the article below.

Just because the seasons are changing doesn’t mean FWDV have slowed down on volunteer work. We are still working hard helping out the communities that are still dealing with fire affected properties from earlier this year. MJOC are helping FWDV orgainse this. If you want to help, click on the link to register in the article below.

We’ve recently been operating with a smaller team than usual and appreciate your patience during this time. If you’ve contacted us and are still waiting for a response, please rest assured that we’ve received your enquiry and are working through them as quickly as possible. When calling the office, if prompted for an option, please select option 2 to get through to Daniel quickly.

Thanks to all who contributed info to the fuel cost survey below. If you are still interested in putting forth some info, please do with the link below. This information is helping FWDV represent our clubs and how choices being made at levels higher than us are affecting our clubs as well as providing ideas and solutions for this.

FWDV - Rising Fuel Costs – Fill out form

We have our Regional Rep meeting coming up this weekend in Horsham, on the other side of this meeting we look forward to sharing the outcomes from it. We also have our upcoming Presidents Meeting in June, be sure to check the What's On to make sure you are aware of these events.

Events Calendar - Four Wheel Drive Victoria - revolutioniseSPORT

With the office running on less staff than previous, if you feel ike you have contacted FWDV and not heard a response. Please email me, operations@fwdvictoria.org.au and I will get in touch with you to assist.

Lastly, as I know this is something of great interest to many clubs, the Mt Skene Permits are back again this year. They will operate as they have previously with permits applications being submitted through the FWDV website see more below.

Meetings with DEECA and Parks Vic

Since March, both myself and our President, Simon van den Berg, have attended several meetings with both Parks Victoria and DEECA.

We’ve had some really positive discussions with DEECA around both current and future funding arrangements. With the late timing of the 2025/26 funding agreement and related KPIs, there’s been some flexibility applied to help make the process more workable.

We’re looking forward to sharing more information about future funding programs over the coming months. There’s a great opportunity ahead to make sure future KPIs create even more volunteer opportunities and activities for our member clubs.

We have also had great discussion around our ongoing arrangements with Land Manager partners. Giving great strength to these and ensuring that programs such as Clean Up the Bush, MVO track access, our Regional Rep program and others are able to continue and show the strength of the organisation as well as just some of the great benefits of being a member.

What's On

Check out What's On via the events tab as per the following:

https://4wdvictoria.org.au/index.php

Seasonal Road Closures

Presidents & Delegates Meeting

The next President's and Delegate's meeting is set to be held on the weekend of the 20/21 of June from 10:30am, please mark this in your callenders.

As mentioned at the last meeting, clubs will be asked to vote on whether they would prefer the meeting to be held on a Saturday or Sunday.

Please cast your vote here for your preferred day. The final result will then be announced via email to all clubs on 25 May.

VOTE HERE

• General labour, clean up, moving what needs to be moved
• People with and who can drive trailers
• People with chainsaw and chainsaw tickets (full PPE must be worn and certificates sighted by leader on the day)
• People with a good attitude who are happy to show up and help others

Please Submit Your Club Volunteer Hours

A reminder to use the volunteering data submission link: submit hereThe data is for activities such as track clearing, hut-rebuilding, clean up the bush, flora and fauna projects, disaster relief, community/special work, and much more.

Data will frequently be updated to the Government, Parks Vic, DEECA and other relevant bodies.

Note that the FWDV link will not replace the Parks Victoria (PV) ParkConnect (PC) platform, as that is for approved PV activities. Clubs, members, and groups are encouraged to still use and submit via PC, but our preference is to submit via the FWDV link as a priority and step one.

We thank all of our clubs and 4wd community that have been involved in the recent volunteer Fire Recovery work either located around the Alexandra area or other areas across the state, a massive contribution has been made to the various communities.

Mt Skene Permit System

The Mt Skene permit system is back for 2026!

The permit will be run the same as last year with the scheme opening on the 1st of June for online submissions. Permits application can be submitted by any FWDV Club member as long as they are a financial member of an affiliated club.

Please note, as this causes issues every year, your club membership — along with the membership of all members listed on the permit — must be current and valid for the date of your permit.

Thus if you place your permit before 30 June, and your membership lapses and your club had not reaffiliated before the permit date, your permit will be invalid and can be rescinded.

If you have any further inquires on this please email us at: operations@fwdvictoria.org.au

Trackwatch Magazine

The review of Trackwatch is still underway. This review will assess advertising opportunities, as well as production and distribution costs, with the aim of delivering an improved publication for our members moving forward. We are looking for feedback on the magazine, so please if you are able, fill out the following survey to provide feedback. Thank you to those that already have, the more that can fill out the survey the better the feedback we have to use to create the product that the clubs want.

FWDV - Trackwatch Review – Fill out form

Don't forget to check out the previous Summer edition of Trackwatch on the FWDV website: Summer Trackwatch

FWDV welcome your club articles, please share with us what your club has been up to, what trips have you been on lately, what activities have you been involved in. If you have any other great ideas for Trackwatch please feel free to share them. Email your stories along with separate photos to office@fwdvictoria.org.au

New office address

If you missed it in the last issue of Ridge and Ruts, FWDV now have a new temporary office.

Please use this address for all mail and if you want to drop by for a visit:

9/653 Mountain Hwy

Bayswater VIC 3153

Other details remain the same along with the Office phone number: 8872 7300, please select option 2