Jordan River Valley

Saturday 27^th January

This was a trip initially in the footsteps of last weeks trip, but an opportunity for Michelle and the kids to come along as they missed out last weekend. It was also a trip of exploration into the Jordan Valley to see Jericho and Red Jacket that I had wanted to do for many years, long before I had a 4WD to get me down there.

We stopped for breakfast at Cambarville.  We spent a little longer there this weekend, looking at the old houses, some still being lived in whilst others in complete ruin.  Prior to the time of the sawmill and the timber getting there must have been some huge trees in this area.  Apart from the rare tree surviving from that time, the rotting stumps with the notches in the side the timber getters used are the only clues to how large these trees were.  One day we will have to take a walk to the Big Tree.  I wonder which is bigger, the Big Tree or the Ada Tree?

We drove from Cambarville to Matlock and shortly after Matlock headed down into the Jordan Valley.  The turn off was unmarked, and there was some uncertainty that this was the right direction, however a little further down the track we came across an information board with some of the history and photos of the Gold mining towns of Jericho and Red Jacket.

The road down was not steep, and just bordered on requiring a 4WD vehicle.  Eventually the valley floor came into view, and was a lovely verdant green.  The nature of this green was soon to reveal itself, and it was anything but lovely.

The entire floor of the Jordan Valley was completely over run with Blackberries.  There was a small cleared area in Jericho in which to camp, but river access was pretty well denied.  Some access was available where the tunnel was, however the river main could barely be seen.  It certainly wasn't possible to explore around looking for relics or signs of the town that once was.  We headed further upstream, but the story was the same.  Blackberries everywhere.  This was extremely disappointing, as I had wanted to explore these old sites for many years.   We had always believed this area to be idyllic; we headed down stream to find our lunch site.

We stopped on the river for lunch at what was presumably Red Jacket.  I had heard that there was a cemetery here, as well as some ruins.  All we could find were Blackberries.  There was a small cleared area at the side of the track were we set up for lunch.  After lunch we continued across the Jordan to see if there was any sign of what was once Red Jacket, but apart from a piece of rusting iron, we saw nothing but blackberries.

We continued further down the Jordan, and were finally rewarded with some indications of this area's past.  There were many mullock heaps and excavations on the side of the road, stone walls and water traces as well as other signs of diggings.  We continued down towards Violet Town, where again we saw no signs of it's existence before making the steep rocky scrabble out of the valley.  On our ascent we passed a small convoy of 4WD vehicles coming down, fortunately we met at a portion of the track that enabled us to move to the side.  We made our way back to the Walhalla Woods Point Road, and headed back towards Matlock.  We passed a tin hut, in which Michelle left our names on the wall.  Whilst scanning on the UHF, we picked up a young girl (Jessica?) singing.  James talked with here along most of our trip back to Matlock.   At Matlock, we headed down towards Jamieson looking for a suitable camping spot, the plan was to stay at the same location as last week.  We might even find that missing shoe…

Unfortunately it was a long weekend, and that campsite as well as pretty much every other one was already taken.  Tunnel Bend was completely crowded, and every small track off the side of the road led to somebodies tent.  We eventually found a spot that looked half descent.  We got out and checked the river access and it was all looking good until some guy rolled up, parked near our car and got out to do some fishing.  Rather than wait and see if he was going to set up his tent right next to us, we continued our search.  I found what appeared to be the perfect spot.  Too small for anybody else to join us, and right near the river.  We emptied everything out of the car, and I started to clear some brush from the tent site, as it was a fraction too small for our 6 man dome tent.  Unfortunately one of those plants was the roof to a Jumping Jack ant's nest, and the ant on the leaf I grabbed was none too happy with me.  Those things can bite!  I've still got the sore 2 weeks later.

Everything was quickly thrown back into the car for one last look for a campsite, else we were going to drive back home tonight.   Michelle saw a promising track, which we turned back to explore.  This was the best campsite on the river.  We set up camp for the night, had some dinner, had a swim and an unproductive fish, and then went to sleep with the sounds of the Goulburn.

Sunday, 28^th January 2001

Michelle, James and Liam went for an early morning fish while I tried to catch up on some sleep.  They didn't catch anything, but the bottom caught and kept our Rooster Tail lure.  The search is now on to replace it, but we haven't yet found them anywhere.

After breakfast, we packed up and started towards Jamieson.  We kept an eye out for the lost shoe, but never saw it anywhere along our journey.  James and I fished a little in the Goulburn, but with no luck.   I saw a reasonable size fish follow the lure once, but there wasn't any action to speak of.  We also fished in a nice spot on the Goulburn Arm, north of Jamieson, but there were no fish there today.  Through Mansfield and onto Bonnie Doon for a lunch stop (how's the serenity?) and we made our way back home through Yea.

Big River

Mark
Nissan Patrol
Henric:
Nissan Pathfinder
Nathan/Dana:
Toyota Landcruiser

Saturday 20^th January

Henric and I departed from my place in Eltham approx 7:30am, and headed East through Yarra Glen Healesville, through the magnificent Mountain Ash forest of the Black Spur to our fuel stop at Narbethong Shell.

From there it was a short drive through Marysville to our breakfast stop at Cambarville.  Some houses of Cambarville still remain, and some are even still in use.  Most of the town was destroyed by fire in 1970. Close by is the tallest living tree in Victoria, and the second tallest in the world.

From Cambarville, we headed East past Cumberland Junction and turned left onto Eildon Warburton Road.  We then turned right into Big River Road, which we followed to Stockman's Reward.  Along the way we explored some bush camping sites along the Big River.  One site had our first 'water obstacle', a large puddle close to some campers by the river.  After checking for depth, and considering whether our driving through might upset the nearby campers, Henric went through followed closely by myself.  The kids watching thought it was great.

Miners Flat Camping Ground wasn't very picturesque, and was missing the single most important feature of a good bush camping site:  river access.  It did however have an interesting shortcut out being a steep climb, which again gave both Henric and I a chance to try some 4WDing.

Of the bush camping sites investigated along the Big River heading towards Frenchmans Creek, only 3 stood out as anything special: Dairy Flat Camping Area (considered the best, and I also managed to catch a small brown trout here), Gang Gang Gully Camping Area, and McClelland Camping Area.  In between scoping for future bush camping sites, and since we had some time to kill before our scheduled rendezvous with Nathan and Dana, we decided to do some 4WDing and headed up Snowy Track.  The Snowy Road Camping area was another possible camping location, but not up to the standards of the spots along Big River we were to discover.  I also managed to catch a small Rainbow trout in the river here.

Turning left out of the camping area onto Ely track we headed for some off-road driving.  A short pause to air down the tyres and we were off.  The track was slightly rutted, but nothing too taxing.  We followed this track to it's end, then turned right onto an un-named track running parallel to Frenchmans Spur Track.  Proceeding along this track gave some enjoyable views to the valleys on either side, and our first bog hole.  I was in lead, and pulled up to check the solidity.  It appeared nothing more than a slight dampness of the track, looking perfectly solid.  I was about to find a stick and confirm that this was the case, but as we had two vehicles and could snatch each other out if there was trouble we just drove through.  The crust quickly gave way to the weight of the truck and the Patrol dropped into the thick mud.  Nothing that slowed us down though and the Pathfinder followed through easily as well.  That would be the worst of the mud we would see on this trip.

We continued along this track until it came to the Frenchman's Spur Track at Short Cut Number 2.  We turned left onto Frenchman's Spur, and doubled back on ourselves to Big River Road.  Frenchman's Spur Track was a good quality road, easily suitable for 2WD, at least on the portion we drove upon.

We had just investigated Specimen Creek camping area, and were onto our meeting point when we got the call on the UHF from Nathan, who was at the rendezvous point, and most surprisingly on time! (Am I a little too cynical?)  As a bonus he had received our SMS sent from Cambarville to bring roast chickens for dinner due to the declaration of a total fire ban.

We all had lunch at Frenchman's Creek Camping Area, and reviewed the plans for the rest of the days driving.

After lunch, we headed back out of the camping area and turned left onto Frenchman's Creek Track.  The track soon became a bit scrubby but was easy driving.  Our first water crossing, being over the creek was very shallow, however the exit point was steep and gave some interest.  The track continued along the creek, and we diverted left onto Monument Creek Track.  This brought us quickly out of the valley up a spur where the track followed the ridge, bringing us to an altitude of 1000 metres at the junction with Boundary Track.  We passed numerous trees bearing delicious red berries, however nobody would believe me that they weren't poisonous and so the rest of the group missed out on this bush tucker delight. Following Boundary Track brought us back down again to Frenchman's Creek Track, a drop of approx 440 metres.  We continued along Frenchman's Creek Track until Two Mile Track.  This was our steepest ascent so far, a loose rocky track that brought us out of the valley at 600 metres to an altitude of 1127 metres, in probably 2 kilometres?  The track joined Frenchman's Spur Track, which we followed onto Warburton Woods Point Road.

We continued along the road to Woods Point until we reached Pheasant's Creek Track, a sharp left turn.  This was an easy track with good views.  A smaller track veered off to the right, but keeping left kept us going in the right direction.  We eventually came to an old mine, a vertical shaft at the side of the road.  A dropped stick gave an estimated depth of 100m to 150m.  Pretty deep.  Wonder how accurate it was?

The map indicated another mine further along, but we didn't see the shaft.  There were plenty of mullock heaps along the side of the track to indicate that the area was indeed heavily mined.  The track descended as we came closer to Woods Point, and it was evident that there was a lot of mining activity still taking place; signs of Entry Prohibited, fences and tracks all over the hills, etc.  We chose the right track on the lower side of the hill at every junction, saw a very large black wallaby, and eventually came out on the track between the two toilets at Woods Point Camping Reserve.

Time for the obvious and then Henric headed into Woods Point for a refuel, whilst Nathan and I got the fishing gear out.  I caught a small brown trout in the river, my 3^rd fish for the weekend.  That Rooster Tail Lure is a sure winner – Thanks Michelle!

On Henric's return, we headed down the Mansfield Woods Point Road towards Jamieson, looking for a campsite for the evening.

We had heard that Tunnel Bend was a nice spot, however on passing it did not classify as Bush Camping.  A good place to camp with the family and kids, but it can get a little crowded.

Henric, Nathan and Dàna continued down the road whilst I turned down an embankment at a promising spot to try a bit more fishing.  Eventually the others returned and though no fish were caught, it was decided that this was an ideal spot to set up camp for the night.

Tents were soon up, and after a swim in the warm Goulburn River, dinner was served. Thanks be for BBQ Chicken.  Henric's car fridge also afforded us the luxury of ice cream and raspberries!

Henric's difficulty in finding some condiment that was on the centre of the table all along brought forward the classic line, “Are those eyes painted on?”

For some reason the watching of a DVD on the laptop never happened, and one by one we all made our way to our tents.

Sunday, 21^st January 2001

Morning brought bacon and eggs (the fire ban was off), a most refreshing river swim (which one member of the group did in secrecy of the others for reasons unknown), and an interesting tale of goings on through the night:

Nathan had gotten the call of nature in a big way through the pitch black of night.  I guess he just new that this was not the sort of "steamin' demon" to plant within smelling range of camp, nor was this the sort of beast to leave above ground if given the choice.  A pit toilet was called for, and recollection had one not too far down the road at an established campsite.  That was the plan.  Dana recalls Nathan leaving at about 01:00, and was woken by his return at 03:00.  It was an overcast, star-less, moon-less, light-less night.  Somehow Nathan found his way back up the path and embankment and onto the roadside.  The walk to the pit toilet however was longer than the urge allowed, and the rest would be obvious.  Why he didn't take a torch????  Anyway, somehow he made it back to camp to tell the tale.

Packed up and on the road again, we drove into Jamieson.  We stopped in the reserve by the Jamieson River for a civilised toilet stop.  It was then observed that one of Dana's shoes was on Nathan's bull bar.  These things normally travel in pairs.  The other was somewhere between Jamieson and the campsite 30 kilometres back up the road.

A stop in at Granny's Flat was called for to check out how steep one of the access tracks was.  It was steep.  The Landcruiser with heaps of engine braking and an extremely low low first had no problems.  The Patrol got down without too much drama, but the wide tyres contributed to some slide out of the back of the truck.  The auto PathFinder also had no major issues.  A quick look around Grannies Flat, which is a magnificent camping area, and then we drove through the Jamieson River and started making our way towards the Howqua.

We headed up Master's Track, up the spur and came to Stony Creek Track/Mitchell's Track (depending which map you look at, which we followed a ways and headed down Symes Track.  A flying log took out the rear wheel flare on the Patrol, there is a lot of plastic on these cars. But again this is beautiful country, as was the drought affected Howqua at Running Creek Camping Area, where a river crossing brought us to a picturesque lunch location.  Apparently BBQ chicken and ham off the bone is an acceptable sandwich combination.  A swim and a fish later, and we were back in the cars looking for some action.  The river crossing at the other end of camp had a steep entrance, but posed no problems.  Nor did the river, which was as shallow as all the other rivers we had crossed that weekend.  The other side of the river held some tracks, which pretty much went nowhere.  We drove down the river bank and came out on a stony river flat in the bend of the river.  Henric believed the embankment exit too steep to afford a passage, and started heading back, however I decided to give it a go, and the Patrol went up no problems (Diff locks were used, just in case).  Seeing this, Henric gave it a go, but the Pathfinder ended up spinning its front wheels and sitting on its tail.  Good thing that driver's side window was closed!  A quick snatch and it was up, our first recovery for the weekend.  The Cruiser made it up a little further back down the bank at another exit without any drama.  Back across the river, and that steep exit also proved just a little too much for the Pathfinder, requiring another quick snatch up.  The Cruiser also had some troubles (“it was all wet, and river pebbles had been moved around”), but luckily the embarrassment of the Patrol snatching the Cruiser was avoided.

We left the camp area and headed up Steiner's Road towards the upper Howqua.  Steiner's Rd was an easy drive, and if it wasn't for the crosscut drains, quite suitable for 2WD cars.  We also saw a Blue Tongue Lizard, crossing the road.  We turned down Howqua Hills track heading towards the river, which was much more of a 4WD track.  There were some steep sections but again, nothing too hairy.  The drive along the Howqua was great, with various flats we never new existed and some worthwhile shortcuts to explore when next we are up that way.  We soon arrived on the road between Sheepyard Flats and Fry's Hut.  We drove up to Tunnel Bend before calling it a day, and heading home via Mansfield.

Lazarini Spur Range Rover Club Trip

Mark/Michelle/James/Liam: Nissan Patrol
Many others from the Range Rover Club, Land Rover Club, and Pajero club in various vehicles.

This was our first club trip.  Technically we hadn't yet joined the club when we went on this trip.

The trip was organised by John Hasler and Jim Parker, and I was so impressed that I plan to go on many more of John's trips in the future.  We had to alter the planned itinerary of this trip due to the heat and risk of bushfire, which meant that we dropped most of the planned activities for the Saturday, and moved straight onto what was planned for Sunday.

We all met at Cumberland Junction, near Marysville.  This was a large convoy of trucks, with some 18 various trucks making up the trip with members from the Range Rover Club, Land Rover Owners Club and the Pajero Club.  We headed towards Matlock on the Warburton Woods Point Road, and John gave us much interesting commentary over the radio on the area, with details on the construction of the Thompson Dam, flora in the area and some of the mining history.   We drove down to Woods Point where we stopped for morning tea, then continued on down the Woods Point Jamieson Rd until we reached Knockwood, were we turned off the good quality gravel (though very dusty) road, and got into the 4WD terrain on Army Track.  This track was a little scratchy, and was also overgrown in some sections with blackberries.  We followed Army Track onto Lazarini Spur until we came to the Goulburn River, where we stopped for lunch.  Seeing the Goulburn here made me regret not bringing the fishing rods.  We tried a little gold panning but the kids had more luck catching tadpoles.

One by one we made our way over the river crossing, with varying levels of success on the exit.  I think only one car required recovery, but many had some difficulty.

If I can get my video converted to AVI, I'll add some more multimedia to these pages.

Further on we had another crossing, the track down had some steep ledges to travel over, and another steep exit cut into the bank.  One of the cars hit the embankment with its rear; a lessoned to be learnt is never assume that your wheels are straight before heading off.

We continued along Lazarini Spur Track, which took us up some steep sections as we climbed to the top of the ridge.  There were some magnificent 360-degree views at a helipad on the track.  This track took us through many varying forest types, woolly barked gums, smooth barked gums, and snow gums.  Some parts of this track were quite intimidating as the amount of dry fuel amongst the gums was horrifying.   The practise of no controlled burning is sure to lead to a repeat of the 1939 fires which destroyed much of the bush in this area.

Lazarini Spur Track eventually led us to Mt Skene, where we all stopped to enjoy the views across the high country.   From there we continued down the Jamieson-Licola Road towards Jamieson and our campsite at Grannies Flat.  The track we took into Grannies Flat was very steep, though some members on the trip reported going down steeper tracks that could not be climbed back out of.

Grannies Flat is a great camping ground, and I plan to go back there for a weekend some time soon.  I think the boys would love to float down the Jamieson River in some old inner tubes.

This was pretty much the end of the trip due to the extreme heat and fire danger, so everybody headed off their own way in the morning.  After the boys had a swim and the tent was all packed up we headed back to Melbourne via Mansfield.   We explored the Running Creek camp ground on the Howqua River, but after seeing Grannies Flat, I wouldn't bother with Running Creek given the choice.  We stopped for lunch at Bonnie Doon, a regular lunch spot for us now when returning from this area.

From Yea, we detoured in search of the Cheviot Railway Tunnel, which is on an abandoned railway line which follows the road virtually all the way from Mansfield.  We found the tunnel taking a gamble when the road ended at a number of gates.  Luckily we chose the right gate, which we presume headed through crown land, with the track taking us right through the tunnel.  Once through the tunnel we continued through some beautiful dry pastureland before returning onto the Melba Highway and back home.

Cathedral Ranges

A day trip to the Cathedral Ranges North East of Melbourne

This was a getaway trip for just Michelle and myself.  The kids were all up at Mum's for the week, so we could just drive without the 'are we there yet…'

We headed up to Murrundindi. I wanted to investigate if it was an easier route through to Eildon by heading up the Melba and crossing the Black Range across to the Taggerty area rather than heading up via the Black Spur and Narbethong.  We ended up heading down all sorts of tracks so I never really determined if this was an easier or quicker path.

We drove along Murrundindi Road by the river and looked at all of the campsites along here.  They were all very nice campsites, and you would probably only choose one over another based on the number of other people already camped there.  We drove down Bull Creek Rd, and planned to shortcut along Jackson Tk, however this track was way too rutted, muddy and steep for us to tackle, especially on our own, so we continued down Bull Creek Rd until we reached Black Range Rd, which we followed to Friday Creek Rd and out near Taggerty.

We then headed into the Cathedral Ranges, which has many fine camping sites and was quite popular (lots of people camping here this weekend).  We followed Tweed Spur Rd, a 4WD track leaving Cooks Mill campsite.  This was a fine 4WD track, with lots of challenges to keep it interesting, but nothing too serious to have us worried that we were on our own.  This track eventually got us out onto Blue Range Road, which was a good quality gravel road, winding along the edge of the range giving us magnificent views.   We followed this north until we came out near Rubicon, and then we headed back home on the bitumen via Black Spur.  Black Spur has to be one of the most scenic roads in the world, meandering among the tall Mountain Ash Forest.

Toolangi State Forest

A 4WD trip to the Toolangi State Forest, Victoria with:

Mark:
Nissan Patrol
Nathan/ Dana:
Toyota Landcruiser

After the Warburton trip, this trip was conducted completely at my own pace, allowing me to travel tracks that I felt comfortable on, and with some guidance and direction from Nathan.  It was a good trip, because I picked up some valuable skills and experience.

We entered Toolangi Forest via Marginal Road, and after dismissing a track on the left that was way too steep and rutted we headed off right up Wee Creek Track till it's end.  We travelled back down Flat Rock Track and Gutter Creek Rd to Marginal Road.  We stopped along Marginal Road and walked down a closed trail that Nathan had been down on a previous trip.

We spotted a snake as we walked down to what could only be described as The Bog Hole of Despair.  An impassable example of a bog hole that was no longer accessible.  We walked back to the trucks and then headed left off Marginal Road onto Martins Road and across Kalatha Creek.  The hill climb here was too steep, so we backtracked onto Kalatha Creek Track, then crossed the creek via Campsite Track, which we followed to the top. Coming back down Campsite Track I managed to drop the back wheels into the ruts, while leaving the front wheels high on top of the ruts.  With help from Nathan, I was able to get the front wheels into the ruts without hitting the embankment using the tyres to keep the truck away from the steep track edge, and continued on down the hill.

This was a most enjoyable trip, where I picked up some new 4WD skills.

Aussie Trips 2001

The year 2001 saw us join a few of the Range Rover Club Trips, and we really enjoined the trips run by John Hassler and Jim Parker. My favourite trips though are the ones where friends all travelled and camped together. The Big River trip was an awesome weekend.