The Kunghur Flying Fox
ver the old Nightcap track where they brought the mail from the mid Richmond to the Tweed in the 1870's there lies a little more to the west in the Nightcap National Park, the remains of the Kunghur Creek Flying Fox, which operated between 1949 to 1955.
The Kunghur flying fox was the steepest in the Southern Hemisphere - 540 metres to the valley floor.
This structure was the brainchild of Doug Cook who owned the mill at the bottom of the mountain. The structure was reported to be the biggest and steepest in the Southern Hemisphere, perhaps the world.
Logs were sourced from the Nightcap Border Ranges, the Blue Knob Range and private property. Two bullock teams owned by Allan and Ron Burger supplied the logs to the mill. The idea was to access timber that was inaccessible for bullock teams.
Cook devised an innovative idea of expediting the journey to the mill by erecting a giant flying fox to lower the two-ton logs 518 metres down a mountainside to the milling site. It was considered the biggest, steepest flying fox in the Southern Hemisphere.
Before the flying fox, known as a cradle or zipline, moving a log down the mountain by tractor took up to six hours, whereas the flying fox took only five to seven minutes. The wooden launching platform was carried up the steep rocky slope by a tractor over a zig-zag course and positioned at the cliff’s edge.
A Port Kembla cement works wire rope was one and a quarter inch thick and a mile long. When the rope was first attached, it was two and a half chains from the top when the end clamp gave way and ended up in the valley in a tangled mass. It took four days to get it back up the mountain and attach it.
A Dangerous First Day for Bob French
After many months of preparation, the flying fox was ready for a trial run. Tractors hauled the logs to the flying fox, where they would be hitched to the wire to start their journey. The first log started and successfully broke into a slow stop at the mill. The second log hurtled down in only two minutes. The brake wouldn’t hold the log. An ex-army telephone had been rigged up from the flying fox to the mill below, and when the log seemed to be unstoppable, the mill was warned of impending disaster and was quickly evacuated.
The braking system was running hot, and sections of the ramp were set on fire from the friction, and it looked as if this would be the end of the flying fox after only one successful trip. A worker tried to slow the log by putting a lump of timber in the mechanics. The friction burnt the timber but slowed it enough to pull the log up at the mill. The brake system was then modified.
During the operation, the main wire rope was suspected of unravelling, and the flying fox would have to be dismantled, putting the mill out of action for about a week.
However, one of the mill workers, Bob French, said to save all the trouble of dismantling the flying fox, he would ride a log down and inspect the wire as he went. Bob was fitted into a rope harness, and Jimmy Goward was responsible for operating the brake. Bob carried a white flag to signal Jimmy where and when he wanted to stop to inspect the wire. He even carried a camera with him!
With a wink to his mates, Bob was off. Part way down, he signalled to stop. The brakes were applied, but he was not prepared for the yo-yo effect of the two-ton log going up and down, and neither was his stomach. However, Bob arrived at the bottom safely and sound and reported that the primary wire was in good condition and that he never wanted to travel that way again.
