Maranatha Lodge
The Thirroul Ski Club

The New Extensions Update
Location What's News? Maranatha Juniors Lodge History Lodge Photos Maintenance Update Race Results & Photos Upcoming Events Ski Season Events Committee_Members Membership Information	Latest Update of Maranatha Lodge - 25 April 2010 A brief update on some of the activities that have been undertaken by our working bee teams and the NPWS on Maranatha Lodge exterior grounds and surrounding area during the summer of 2010. Firstly the National Park & Wildlife Services (NPWS) have been very active in our area during summer.
		Contractors have constructed a new concrete road on Wheatley Road from Warrugang heading south in line with our lodge kitchen complete with improved drainage and bright guide posts. The new concrete road also extends up to our access lane and the access lane to Boonona and Oldina. Unfortunately it is our responsibility to maintain our access lane even though it is not in our leased area.
	While the contractor’s earth moving equipment was in the area the local contractors were more than helpful and assisted our working bee team to install a drainage pipe and grate to improve drainage in our access lane. Several truck loads of road base were acquired and with a borrowed bobcat and large mobile road roller we have ended up with a good access road for minimal cost.
		During the road construction contractors have installed a larger water supply line to our water meter and also new main gas supply line has been installed and terminated at Oldina. It is expected that ELGAS will install a large gas tank in the area within the next 12 months that will supply reticulated gas to several lodges in our area which will eliminate the existing gas bottles and hopefully reduce our operating costs.
	The timing of the commissioning of the reticulated gas system is to our advantage in view of the shortage of supply of heating oil and the expected future cost increases. Caltex refinery in Sydney is no longer producing heating and we have now secured 4,000 litres of heating oil for next winter from Shell in Melbourne. We presently pay $1.70 - $1.80 per lire which is expected to significantly increase in the future. It is worth noting that our boiler uses approximately 5 litres of heating oil per hour when in service.
		I have been investigating a number of options and costing for a future gas conversion of our boiler in case our heating oil supply dries up or if oil becomes too expensive. During summer we have also had good support from the NPWS with our weed management control program. NPWS have carried out extensive weed spraying on the north west side of our lodge. In addition NPWS supplied a large number of low growing plants, weed free hay and plant shelters.
	A team of club volunteers lead by Tom Hazel in March 2010 restored and landscaped the lodge surrounds with the new plants. The activities of Tom Hazels team are covered in a recent article including photographs in the SNOW SECRET April 2010. During our main working bee in April 2010 our team undertook the difficult task of breaking up large blue granite boulders and relocating the granite rocks away from the lodge. Moving the granite rocks provided good drainage and access on the south and east side of the lodge. This work a result of a direction from NSW Dept of Planning.
		A diamond core drill hired from Kennards Unanderra( at a good price ) was used to drill the granite . Large hammers and steel wedges were also used to break the granite. The working bee team worked in extremely bad weather conditions, wind, rain and snow. A big thanks you to the working bee teams, NPWS, Dept of Public Works and contractors that supported us. Regards, Kevin Masters Maintenance Officer