Beechworth

Saturday 1st November

Having passed through Beechworth on our return home from the High Country Trip, we decided this would be a great place to visit for the Cup Long Weekend.  So we packed up the extended family and headed off.

After Morning Tea at a very crowded Wangaratta McDonalds we arrived in Beechworth where we found our respective accommodations and settled in.  Shaz, Michelle, Arthur and Glenda spent the afternoon looking through the shops and galleries in the town while I took the kids up to Woolshed Falls.

The falls themselves where worth the trip, with plenty of water flowing over the cascades and over the larger drop into a deep pool.  We also went on the historic walk along Spring Creek where the creek was diverted for mining the richest gold field area in Victoria, and could see the diversion tunnel within the diversion, made to prevent the creek banks from collapsing as the water continued to undermine the heavily eroded soils.

After visiting the falls, we drove along the Gorge Scenic Drive, enjoying the views across Kelly Country, the Powder Magazine and spent some time exploring the granite tors.

We relaxed a while underneath Spring Creek Bridge with the cool waters flowing through large rock pools on it's way towards the cascades.  These were quite magnificent, well worth the walk down from the road to a viewing area near the bottom of the cascades. 

After a very full day, we met up for dinner at Beechworth pub to celebrate Shazzy's Birthday.  From the balcony we could see the thunderstorms coming through as we swapped stories of our day.  The girls apparently having the pleasure of watching a Buck's Party evolve on the streets, with a couple of the guys running up and down the main street in their jocks.

Sunday 2nd November

After breakfast, Michelle, Shaz, Glenda and Arthur went off on the gourmet deli trail to Millawa, while myself and the kids headed off for a walk to Lake Kerford.

We started at Lake Samba, which is the result of beautification works on the area after extensive sluice mining.  The walk took us past many mineshafts and tunnels as we made our way through the regenerated forest.  Some of the shafts were very deep, and venturing away from the path isn't really recommended.

We passed Silver Creek Caravan Park, which was were we were staying and continued along the trail to find the Heaven and Hell mines.

We were not successful in our search for Heaven and Hell, so will need to get better directions next time we head this way.  We continued past Patterson Dam and on to Lake Kerford through quite and scenic bush, with lots of evidence of the long gone gold mining along the way.

We ate our lunch on the shore of the Lake, having a good relaxing break before having to make the return walk.  As we packed up to leave, we saw that we weren't the only ones enjoying the sun on the bank of the lake.  A decent Tiger Snake was also sunning itself, just a few metres from where we had been sitting.

We continued back pretty much along the same path we had taken, though we took a number of dead end paths off the trail, still looking for the Heaven and Hell mines, again to no avail.  We explored some of the mines closer to Lake Samba and then headed back to catch up with the others.

Monday 3rd November

We had a lovely breakfast with the magpies before all of us headed up to Woolshed Falls, as Michelle, Shaz, Glenda and Arthur hadn't visited here yet.

We gave the historic walk a miss this time, but walked up to the viewing area over the falls, which we didn't do on our first trip here.  After the Falls, we left Beechworth and drove across to Bright, where we had lunch by the Ovens River.  From here the others made their way back home whilst I took all the kids off into the bush to camp over night.

We drove back through Myrtleford and then headed down to Lake Buffalo.  The dam wall was open to traffic, not like the last time I drove down this way!  We drove across the wall and down past the back of the Lake with beautiful views to Buffalo in the distance.  We drove on through Dandongadale and followed the Rose River to the Bennies.  We tried a spot of fishing and gold panning in the Rose River, but both were unsuccessful.  The Bennies looked a really nice place to camp, and was completely deserted.

We drove up Lake Cobbler Road, and headed 4WDing at Wild Horse Gap.  Wild Horse Gap track was a very enjoyable drive, with some challenging steep sections and glorious views back to Bogong and forwards to Buller, both covered in snow.  There also were great views of Mt Cobbler along the track too.

We descended down to Pineapple Flat on the King River were we set up our camp.  After gathering firewood for the evening, we settled down to dinner and a lovely campfire.

Tuesday 4th November

The kids spent the morning playing in the river, making dams and water races with the gold pans.  Liam got bitten on the neck by a nasty bull ant, which put a bit of a damper on the morning, but when we picked up the pans that the kids had been playing with we found a number of flecks of gold!  We must go back and try some real gold panning.

After breaking camp, we drove along King River and it's many river crossings to Kings Hut.  The kids thought the river crossings were fantastic.  Nobody was camping at Kings Hut, though it was likely that some had been earlier and had left by the time we arrived, as we passed a couple of groups of 4WDs along King River Basin Road.

We drove up to Craig's Hut, where we met up with a guy who had just bought a Hilux and was trying it out.  He joined us as we drove up to the Monument which was covered in snow.  The road across to Stirling was closed, and there was no way I was driving down Monument track in the snow so we retraced our steps down Clear Hills Track and made our way back home.

Victorian High Country

Tuesday 30th September

We headed off early morning to North East Victoria for a complete contrast in scenery and climate to last weeks trip.  Our first destination was Bright and we arrived around lunchtime.  We had some time to kill before our check in at the Odd Frog so we relaxed on the banks of the Ovens River and spent some time looking in the small assortment of shops in the town centre.  I bought myself a decent pair of walking shoes and we sat and enjoyed a cappuccino.  Check in time soon came around so we drove up to the Odd Frog and made ourselves at home.  The apartment was very nice, being all architecturally designed with corrugated iron, tiles and timber.  Studios 2 and 3 would be the pick of the 3, being higher up the hill to take advantage of the great valley views over Bright.

We then went for a drive around Bright, where we made our way up to Clearspot lookout.  The lookout was perfectly named, having panoramic views from Hotham across Bogong and to Buffalo and beyond.  Seeing the snow capped peaks was magical without a sound to be heard apart from the Currawongs which seemed to be ubiquitous in Bright.

From Clearspot we descended down a 4WD track and made our way along various forestry tracks to the Buckland Valley.  We visited the Buckland Cemetery, and continued on into the forest through the valley to a bushcamp, where we tried a little fishing.  The river was flowing quite fast from the snow melt, and I couldn't find any deep calmer spots so the fishing was not a success.  With darkness falling we packed up and headed back to grab a Pizza for dinner which we enjoyed around a warm log fire.

Wednesday 1st October

Late morning we drove into Harrietville where we fitted the car out with chains.  The weather was fine with no likelihood of them being required but Vic Roads had extended the season an extra week so $27 was small insurance to avoid the fine.  From Harrietville we were soon ascending the steep Alpine Road, and I was able to see how much the trees had started to recover since my trip here 6 months ago.

The trees were all sprouting leaves from their branches and trunks, and though the trunks still showed where they had been scorched and the ground was quite black, there was a reassuring amount of green returning to the bush.

We continued on past Hotham where some late season people were still doing some skiing.  This was my first time to Hotham when there was snow here!  We looked around Dinner Plain with a light snow falling and made our way along the winding Alpine Road through Slippery Pinch and into the Victoria Falls Historic Area.

We spent a little time here near the campsite where I tried some more unsuccessful fishing.  We headed off down the road that used to be the aqueduct which served Victorias first Hydroelectric scheme.  The road took us past the deep gorge of the Cobungra River where we could see the falls clearly from the road.  The road ended at a header pond where the water then plummeted down pipes to the station, which supplied power for the Cassilis Mine.  We didn't make the walk down the track, so we don't know if any remains survived the January Fires. 

We returned back along the road into Omeo where we had our lunch.  My hamburger was dropped on the floor, but they cooked me up a new one as a light rain was falling outside.  The day was getting on so we made our way up the Omeo Highway towards our next rest stop at Anglers Rest.  We stopped at a few points along the road to try some more unsuccessful fishing and see how the trees were coming back in an area I thought was so badly burnt that nothing could have survived.  I was gladly proven wrong as the photo shows.

We arrived at the Blue Duck Inn, where we were warmly welcomed and told where the woodshed was if we wanted to keep warm tonight.  Thankfully the prediction of snow didn't eventuate.  I was carrying the wood back to the room when two horses galloped past; I thought they were going to crash into my car!  We certainly felt like we were in an episode of McLeod's Daughters.  Especially when we settled down in the pub for the best Chicken Parmagiana ever, what with everybody in Akubras and Dri-z-bones, and cattledogs walking around the tables looking for scraps!  The fishing that evening and morning was, as you guessed unsuccessful.

Thursday 2nd October

We continued up the Omeo Highway through a light drizzle and stopped at Big River Bridge campground for a morning cuppa and another unsuccessful fishing attempt.  There was so much water in all of the creeks and rivers we came across from the snow melt and they were all flowing high and fast.  We stopped off at the cemetery in Glen Wills, which in itself had an interesting story printed on a piece of laminated paper on a post:

Between August 1894 and August 1920 97 burials took place at the Glen Wills Cemetery, on the Omeo Highway, North of Omeo and South of the Mitta Mitta township. This Cemetery is now cared for by the people of the near by Glen Valley.
During those 26 years this Cemetery served the mining areas of Sunnyside and Glen Wills. To stand on the site of the long gone township of Sunnyside is an eerie feeling. "Sunnyside is situated on the Sunny side of nearby Mt Wills and is approximately 4000 feet above sea level. Today there is little more than blackberry bushes and a few very ancient fruit trees to mark the place where once was a thriving township. A Hotel, Stores, Catholic Church, School and Mechanics Institute and a population of around 600 people.
Sunnyside was reached by a rough bush track from Omeo known as the Knocker Track. Mail was delivered by coach and heavy goods by Bullock Wagon. Farmers from Benambra would make trips to the township with fresh meat, vegetables, butter and other produce, which was much in demand. Mr George Fitzgerald of "Shannon Vale" supplied oats to feed the horses. By 1924 the ore had become difficult to treat financially and water was also causing a problem, and not long afterwards the town was abandoned.
The Cemetery records illustrate the hardships experienced during these years - isolation, the severe weather conditions in winter, primitive housing and no doctors. Of the 97 persons buried, 40 were infants - sometime twins, sometimes a mother had died and soon after her baby. No baby formulas to feed a motherless baby, whooping cough and other illnesses would account for young children dying. Several young men were buried "by order of the Police In Charge" - I wonder what the story behind that would reveal? These truly were the Pioneers of this land.
Some years ago, due to the efforts of Mr Cecil Cooper, a sign was erected denoting Glen Wills Cemetery and a fence along the roadside. By this time only two graves were marked - one unknown and another marked by a fence in which a tree denoting the grave of Mrs Phillis Emmer Bittner, aged 43, who was buried in 1916.
In recent years (1985) a firm of bridge builders were constructing a new bridge over the Mitta Mitta river at Glen Valley. The mother of the bridge builders (of Italian descent), was visiting her sons and was amazed that there were no crosses in the Cemetery. Before leaving the area, they built a large cross on a square slab and promised that one day they would come back and erect crosses to commemorate the grave sites. This they did in the summer of 1991. As there is no plan of the actual sites of the graves, they were placed in a double row consistent with the two graves visible.
It is hoped that a dedication service of this hallowed ground will take place in the Autumn of 1992. Many people in the area have relatives buried in the Glen Wills Cemetery.
Betty Fitzgerald (Shannon Vale)
We continued from Glen Wills to Sunnyside, another old gold mining town of which little remains.  We spent a considerable amount of time exploring around the old town site, finding many old relics, pieces of broken crockery, crumbling chimneys and bright daffodils from long abandoned garden beds.

On the roadside further north from Sunnyside we came across a glorious site: an old mine shaft on the roadside with a crystal clear mountain stream gushing from within.  I presume the water entered the mine further up via a ventilation shaft and made it's way down to the mine opening where it came out near the road.  The recent fires had opened the forest right up and there were many old artefacts from the mining days clearly visible from the roadside which I would presume would have been previously hidden in the undergrowth.  We could see tracks cut through the hillside with many pieces of rusting iron sheets, as well as trolley wheels and ore buckets spread through the forest.

We stopped at Mitta Mitta General Store, where we picked up pies and pasties for lunch, which unfortunately turned out to be cold.  We headed off to Dartmouth Dam to check it out.  We returned from Dartmouth via Mitta Mitta again, and continued on to our destination of Corryong.  Mitta Mitta looks like a great place to spend some time, with reportedly excellent fishing, lots of mining history, and various walks including one to Bogong, Victoria's highest peak.

Along the way, we stopped off at a nice place on the Mitta Mitta River to try some, wait...  You guessed it, unsuccessful fishing.

We passed a Sea Eagle soaring over Tatonga Inlet, and we stopped at the lookout over Old Tallangatta where the old railway and foundations of some of the houses that used to make up the town prior to its relocation still remained.  Passing through a cutting of the Murray Valley Highway a hawk or kestrel swooped down and took some animal from the embankment.  Further along the road I spotted an Eastern Snake-necked turtle making it's way across the road.  We stopped the car, picked him up (boy do they smell) and popped on the side of the road where he was heading, down towards a small swampy area.  I also spotted an Echidna digging his way into the roadside embankment.

We soon arrived in Corryong and settled into our accommodation at the Corryong Country Inn and enjoyed a relaxing spa.

Friday 3rd October

The weather finally came good on our last day of our holidays.  We made an early morning drive further up the Murray into Biggara Valley, a beautiful green valley full of cows.  We sat on the banks of the river at a picnic spot there for breakfast, watching a pair of Nankeen Kestrels as they hunted for food.  For reasons unknown, I tried fishing again, giving up when I finally lost my lure on a snag.

We continued towards Tintaldra where there were spectacular views back across the green valley to the Snowy Mountains in the distance.   We stopped in Walwa for some lunch, they make the best Sweet Chilli Chicken Wraps and the Foccacias were pretty damn good too!  We drove up to the start of the Pine Mountain walk, Pine Mountain apparently being Australia's largest monolith, 1.5 times bigger than Uluru.

From here we drove out to the Murray Valley Weir, and wasted half an hour plus, looking around Wodonga and Albury for a Shell Service Station.  Giving up we drove down to Beechworth were we spent the afternoon visiting the craft galleries, picking up a very nice new vase.  We also had a quick look around the cemetery, including the Chinese Burning Towers were I was swooped by a very aggressive magpie!

On the way home we stopped off in Millawa, picking up some cheeses and having dinner at the Deli there.

Big Desert - Mallee Country

Wednesday 24th September

School Holidays and I was off with my boys for a camping trip to the Mallee, my first visit into this area of Victoria.

Leaving home at 7:30, we drove up the Western Highway, stopping at Ballan for a Maccas Breakfast (I did have the the kids with me!)

Approaching Ararat we noticed a wind farm that wasn't here a year ago when we last up this way.  Mount Buangor and Langi Ghiran both looked worthy of exploration on a future trip, but we continued on through Ararat and Stawell, past Mount Zero at the top end of the Grampians and into Horsham for a fuel top-up.

From Horsham we headed north to Dimboola, bypassing the Little Desert and followed the Wimmera to Jeparit we were detoured to investigate Lake Hindmarsh, which was completely dry.  So the fishing rod stayed in the car whilst we braved the wind swept sands for a photo.  As there was no water I ditched the plans to drive up the western shore and headed back into Jeparit, on through Rainbow and to Lake Albacutya which is normally dry, and was guaranteed to be as much based on Lake Hindmarsh.  Albacutya only fills when Lake Hindmarsh overflows into Outlet Creek.

We drove along the Eastern shore of Albacutya and looked at OTIT campground to see what it was like.  Here we saw a father emu and his young chicks running off away from the car, much too fast for me to get a photo.  Lunch time was approaching, so we made our way through Nypo into Wyperfeld National Park.  A quick chat with the Ranger and after paying our fees we made our way to the campground, spotting our first of many Stumpy Tailed lizards sunning himself on the roadside.

We arrived at the campsite around 2 in the afternoon and after choosing a nice shady spot to set-up camp that was not too far from the toilets we had some of my Mum's delicious rissoles for lunch.  Once the campsite was established, we set off for a short bike ride to explore the campground, riding up to Baby Cameron's grave and then down to the information centre.

We spent some more time relaxing around the campground, as well as playing some ball games before heading off for a drive around the Eastern Nature Drive where we saw wallabies and emus, as well as going on a short walk to a Mallee Fowl nest.

After the drive it was back to the campground for a BBQ dinner and the joy of relaxing under an amazingly clear star filled night.

Thursday 25th September

I awoke in the morning to the sound of rain on the tent; so much for being in the Big Desert!  But when I had gotten up, there was no sign of any rain!  After a sustaining bacon and egg breakfast, we all headed off for a bike ride down one of the management vehicle only tracks.  The going was quite tough on the sandy track, and there was no way we would be able to ride to the start of the Desert Walk, do the walk and then ride back.  It also started to rain lightly again, so we sheltered under a large tree until the rain stopped before riding back to camp.

Leaving the bikes behind, we drove to the start of the Desert Walk; an 8 kilometre walk through various differing vegetation types of the Big Desert, with scrub at the start of the walk, progressing into Mallee and Box Pine along the flood basin of Outlet Creek, and then back into the arid scrub as we ascended up and along a large sand dune.  Some of the plants we saw included Desert Banksia, Black Box, Flame Heath, Slender Leaf Clematis and Golden Pendants.  Liam made it about half way along the walk before I had to carry him the rest of the way.

Back at the campground we had a simple salad lunch and a lazy afternoon with the kids playing around the sand dunes near the campsite.

Dinner was a roast chicken and potatoes cooked in the camp oven.  A small chicken takes at the least 1.5 hours, possibly longer.  I'll get this camp oven sorted out eventually.

There were numerous birds around the campsite, with some very big Ravens that were quite tame as well as many Cockatoos, galahs and wattlebirds.  We also say Red Rumped Parrots, Mulga Parrots, Currawongs, Magpies and Regent Parrots.  Oh, and of course more emus, as well as more parent emus with their young chicks!

Friday 26th September

I packed up camp early after a simple breakfast of cereal and we made our way along some very sandy 4WD tracks, including North South Track, Eagle Track and Moonah Track.  I had planned on going up North Callitris Track, but this looked quite step as it climbed  a sand dune and I didn't fancy digging a bogged car out of sand so we followed Moonah and Freeway Track into the relatively deserted Casuarina Campground.

From the campground we took a shortcut along Wool Track and ended up at what I believe was the O'Sullivan's Pine Plains Lodge, but it appeared to be a large working property where we saw some Peacocks.  My planned route was across Wirrengren Plain but the track was closed so we continued along Gunners Track where we saw a pair of Bearded Dragons sunning themselves on the track.

We stopped for a little bit of civilisation in Umberbool, enjoying ice-cream and picking up some fresh bread and a paper before exploring the Pink Lakes.  These salt lakes have a pinkish colouration due to the algae that live in them.  They truly were pink, and we walked down to Lake Hardy as well as Lake Crosby, which has a nice campsite on the southern shore.  A quick explore of the salt mine and lunch at the campsite on the northern shore near Lake Becking where we spotted yet another Stumpy Tail.  After lunch, we headed off through Sunset Country across the sand dunes on Honeymoon Hut Track to our next campsite location at Lake Hattah.  We got slightly lost along the way with some locked gates, and a wrong turn near Wymlet but we made it out in the end.

We arrived at Hattah about 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and picked up some ice from the store before heading into the National Park to the campground.  Whilst I was filling out the camping permit, a number of Choughs and Apostle birds welcomed us to the campsite, and remained our constant companions for our entire stay.

Not surprisingly, there was no water in the lake.  The last time it held water was reportedly 2000.  We setup camp and enjoyed the birds company while we waited for our spaghetti bolognaise to cook.

Saturday 27th September

We again awoke to the company of the Choughs and Apostle Birds as we cooked our hearty Bacon & Eggs breakfast.  The plan for the morning was to drive down to the Murray, and explore along River Track.  We found many great campsites along the river and a very nice beach where the kids played for an hour.  We spotted many birds as well, with the usual parrots as well as a Black Kite and a darter perched on a tree that had fallen into the river.  It was getting close to lunch time, so we cut our trip along River Track short, and cut back to the camp ground along Chalka Track stopping in at Mournpall campsite, which we agreed wasn't quite as nice as Lake Hattah.  We visited Jack Mahon's grave site, which is near where he drowned crossing the flooded Chalka Creek, which at present is bone dry.  Liam of course climbed the sand dunes.

After lunch, we drove along the nature drive where we actually got to see some of the lake bed, as well as the pumping station where water was drawn from the lake and pumped back to Hattah and the railway station to supply the trains as well as the town's water.  We saw more emus, and also walked around Blackbox Waterhole, which did have water in it.  We saw a Blue Billed duck here as well as Cockatoos and other assorted parrots.

We spent a lazy afternoon back at the campground enjoying the antics of the Apostlebirds, as well as the company of two very friendly Pied Butcherbirds.  One quite happily perched on the back of James chair, while the Apostlebirds were quite happy to walk across my legs as I reclined in the camp chair.

We downgraded to tinned food for dinner since I had left one of our meals at home, and the Butcher Bird helped himself to some of Liam's fruit salad when he wasn't looking.  We spent the evening around a very toasty campfire under another perfectly clear star filled night watching a possum in the tree near our tent.

I could hear the call of a Southern Boobook owl, and went for a walk to investigate, finally spotting him high in a gumtree.  I also saw another owl flying off away from my investigations, as well as hearing the unnerving sound of one or more Tawny Frogmouths.

Sunday 28th September

With the campsite all packed up we headed off to Mildura, spotting a Nankeen Kestrel hovering by the roadside at Hattah.  We stopped at Red Cliffs to see Big Lizzie, a huge tractor sent to the Mallee from Melbourne to assist all of the returned Diggers in setting up their farming ventures after the First World War.  It apparently proved quite useful in pulling out many Mallee stumps as well.

We continued onto Wentworth and then to the Perry Sandhills where the kids got a taste of what they thought a desert should really look like.  They played on the sand dunes for quite some time before we drove around the sand hills and then headed back to Mildura for lunch.  Lunch was an assortment from the bakery, topped off with the most delicious Vanilla Slice.  Though I've heard that Ouyen is the place to go for Vanilla Slices, so perhaps next time.

From Mildura we headed into New South Wales to explore Mungo National Park.  80 something kilometres of dirt road, and one stumpy tail later we arrived at the Park Visitor Centre, which told of the earlier animal, aboriginal and geological history of the area.  We explored around the walls, which in actuality are a large sand dune system, before doing the park circuit nature drive.  The latter was a mistake given the length of the drive, and the length of our trip home.  Not to mention that there wasn't a real lot to see that we hadn't already seen on the 100 K plus trip to get to the park.  Though the ruins of Zinco Station were interesting.

We started our long drive back to the border along which we saw many Ring Neck Parrots, Mulga Parrots, Galahs and a bearded Dragon, and after an eternity we finally got off the dirt tracks and into Robinvale for well earned ice-creams.  From Robinvale to Chinkapook, the sun was setting with the most glorious display of magentas and oranges that lasted for ages and which was beautifully offset by the gentle rolling fields of grain.  We passed Lake Tyrell with the last of the light as we continued across country to the Sunraysia Highway when I just barely made it to the petrol station at Bungaree.  We had a very late dinner at Mum's where I left the kids for the next few days of the school holidays as Michelle and I were heading up to the Victorian High Country.

4WDing in the Toolangi State Forest

Henric - Pathfinder

Mark & James - Patrol

Well, off to Toolangi again.  Henric was free, most of the tracks in our preferred destination of Lerderderg were closed, so Toolangi it was.

Turning off The Melba Highway just before Marginal Road brought us to a little track than ran back down  parallel to the highway.  This track was a little wet with a small boghole at the start but it posed no problems, apart from being narrow in parts, and climbed quickly quite high up from the highway.  A quick scoot back along the highway brought us back to our starting point. 

Most of the other tracks from this point led to dead ends, so we attempted Rocky Track.  This is aptly named, looking like a huge rut chiselled directly into solid rock, with all of the rock fragments left on the track.  I was able to make it a short way up before reaching a rock ledge which I knew would be impassable, so after reversing down we continued up Marginal Road to the steep track that connects up to Wee Creek Track.  Though I had climbed this track previously, today we were not able to make it up with the ground perhaps being a little wetter than last time.  So back down again up Wee Creek Track the easier way.  The southern end of Wee Creek Track proved as slippery as ever, with Henric at one point doing the better part of a 180.  After a little fun in the clear felled logged area, we gave the truck bending Victoria Range a miss (it was Seasonally Closed anyway) and made our way down Gutter Creek Road.

Along Pine Track and Martins Road to the Bush camping site where we had lunch, drove through a few bogholes and crossed Kalatha Creek where we attempted climbing Campsite Track.  This also proved too steep for Henric, though I made it up this one with some trouble, though not requiring winching as on one of my previous trips to Toolango.  So turning around we attempted another track unnamed and unmarked on the map, which proved even more hairier, with me sliding back down in the mud, and barely missing a tree on the side of the track.  With some careful manoeuvring I escaped unscathed and we watched some others attempt the hill, requiring a snatch at the very top to get through.

After crossing Kalatha Creek again, I managed to roll a tyre off the rim, and came way to close to giving the other front tyre the same treatment, with a considerable amount of mud scooped in between the rim and tyre.  Only having one spare which was most enjoyable changing on the track in the mud I have finally come to the conclusion that I have explored pretty much enough of the Toolangi State Forest.

We retraced our tracks to Twin Hills Road and made our escape, tired, wet and slightly scuffed around the edges.

In search of the Wolfram Mine & Mt. Strickland

Mark & James

James and I set off early on Saturday morning in search of the Wolfram Mine, near Marysville. Wolfram is more commonly known as Tungsten, and is used in light filaments. I had seen the mine marked on one of my maps, and it had appeared easily accessible, with a 4WD track leading directly to the mine site.

After gathering some supplies, we made our way towards Marysville, turning onto Anderson Mill Road which ran along the ridge top before descending to an old mill site. There were no signs of an old mill site remaining, however there was still a lot of active tree milling occurring in this area. We were not able to find any remains of the timber tramway or other ruins that were marked on the map, so we investigated the Bicentennial National Trail camp site prior to driving up past Three Towers Lookout and onto Keppel Lookout were made a rest stop.

Keppel Lookout gave us views over the valley to Marysville, and on to the Cathedral Ranges in the distance. As we were enjoying the views, a pair of Wedge-tailed Eagles circled low overhead.

From Keppel Lookout we drove across the top of the range along Paradise Road past cleared areas around Mount Kitchener before descending to Wilkes Creek Road. The track here became quite steep and there was no sign of the side track to the mine. We drove up and down the track a number of times unable to find any indication that there was ever a track here, there being a quite steep drop-off from the side of the track which was quite thickly overgrown. We couldn't even see any signs of the building ruins that were marked on the map opposite to where the track should be. I decided to leave finding the Wolfram Mine to another day; perhaps approaching the mine along the creek bed, either upstream or maybe better heading downstream from Boundary Road where the approach seemed less steep and overgrown.

We continued down Wilkes Creek Road to the creek, but as the track onwards was quite wet and boggy and not suited to travelling without a companion vehicle, we backtracked and then continued on up to Mt Strickland.

Coming out of the Woollybutts on the top of Mt Strickland was a cleared area covered in frost, and further on we came to a roadside puddle that was frozen over with tadpoles happily swimming beneath the ice.

We passed Lowering Gear Track, which appeared permanently closed and soon came to a locked gate which marked the boundary of the water catchment area. We backtracked to the edge of a clear felled area, and set-up our lunch spot on a small sidetrack.

With Lowering Gear Track closed, we made our way down to the Acheron Way along a well constructed logging road which brought us out at the lower end of Lowering Gear. From here we explored up White Hill Track, which continued west as opposed to it's northward deviation as marked on the map. No sign of the north path remained, and our westward travel was eventually halted by a locked gate. The map also indicated a walking trail, which went on to Cleft Rock, but this was also elusive.

We backtracked to Acheron Way and caught up with White Hill Track where it was part of the National Bicentennial Horse Trail. The track climbed steeply to the top of the ridge where we travelled it for about a kilometre before deciding that the track was too wet and boggy. It would be an enjoyable drive with friends, but without a winch or another vehicle I decided to ere on the side of caution and leave this track for another day.

Higganbotham Mine

Mark, James & Liam

James, Liam and I were out on a boy's day, exploring the Black Range State Forest for old mining relics and sites.  After stocking up on food supplies, we headed along the same route as my previous trip to Higginbotham.

Exploring along Grant's Track, we investigated the old diggings on the top of the ridge above Higganbotham, before continuing to the end of the ridge, just before the track descends down to private property.  We stopped trackside, where we set-up for our BBQ lunch.  We got a small fire going on the top of the ridge, and kicked back to the magnificent views of the mist and low cloud blanketing the valleys.  Liam described it best, "It looks  like a huge bubble-bath, with the mountains peaking through like islands."

After lunch, we backtracked along Grant's Track and drove along the next ridge across on Beatsons Track, which brought us back to Grant's Track which descends steeply down in to the valley where the Higganbotham Mine is located.  The track branched off near the gate into private property backup along the valley, which we followed until we reached the first of many large gumtrees which had fallen down across the track.  We clambered over these trees to only be confronted with at least another 4 or 5 such obstacles across the track.  Looking across the creek to the other side of the valley showed numerous trees which had been either uprooted, or snapped and brought down.  It looked as though some mini cyclone had passed through the area.  As we continued along the path, we caught site of a wombat running through the bottom of the ravine.  He clearly knew there was somebody else down here with him, but he couldn't see where we were.  We watched him for a while as he sat outside his wombat hole, wondering what was going on.

I had no real indication of what, if anything we would find; nor exactly where to look so we continued along the path where we eventually came to a hollowed out semi circular area, the walls of which were lined with stones.  Exploration further along found a square cut out flat, likely housing some machinery or a small hut.  I continued further upstream trying to locate the mine I believed was in the area, coming to a junction in the creek but still no sign of any shafts.  It was clear I was in the right area, and looking up to the top of the valley was what was pretty definitely the diggings we had explored earlier, but still no mine shaft.  I walked up some of the feeder creeks, climbing up the valley sides, which were strewn with tailings, a good sign I believed, but still no mine shaft.  Giving up in this area, obviously having travelled too far up stream we headed back to where the ruins where.

South of the stone circle, there was a small gully which I climbed along.  This was looking more promising with a significant amount of tailings.  I eventually came to the foot of a tailings heap, which I climbed up to find the shaft of the mine.  Well, it would have been the shaft at one time, however the entrance was completely caved in.  I called the boys up to have a look around; not what they expected, but at least we found it.

We made our way back down, and climbed over many fallen trees again on our way out.  We drove out north, via Limestone where we came across a paddock full of Highlander Cattle, including calves.  Magnificent!

Cathedral Range Camping Trip - Queens Birthday Long Weekend

Mark & Liam

Oiyee

Mark

Shirley & Marty

Julia & Andrew

Saturday

We arrived late on Saturday afternoon to a surprisingly packed campground.  I arrived first and setup the tarp between the trees and waited for Mark & Oiyee to arrive.  We setup our tents, and started preparing dinner, which as usual was a culinary feast.  Tonight consisting of Chinese Dumplings as an entree. followed by Lamb Curry with roti.  We had little luck getting any significant fire going, having only redgum timber and an extremely wet fireplace.  We enjoyed various cheeses and chocolate around our small fire before we retired to beneath the tarp to play cards into the evening.  A light drizzle continued through the night, resulting in Mark waking up wet in the morning due to a hole in his tent.  Oiyee and myself also woke up through the night to the sound of running water close to our tents.  We were both much relieved to find it was water overflowing from the tarp, and not what we first believed!

Sunday

Warm porridge for breakfast and a relaxing morning whilst we waited for Julia and Andrew to arrive.  We all headed off for a walk upstream along Little River, which took us through a fern filled gorge.  The track was quite difficult to follow at some points, being unmarked with a slippery scramble down.

The area was very wet and green, with a vast assortment of fungi, toadstools and mushrooms growing along the track and on fallen logs and trunks.  We continued along the river for a kilometre, climbing over granite rocks and fallen trees, but it was evident we could not reach Little Falls and walk back out again in time for us to do our other planned activities for the day so we gave up going any further and headed back to camp.

The trip back out found Mark, Oiyee and myself all attacked by leeches.  A rather vicious one had attached itself to my neck, which Andrew most bravely pulled off.  The sound of a Lyrebird added a more peaceful and relaxing tone to the rest of the walk back to camp.

Lunch was left over dumplings and soup.  Shirley and Marty arrived in the afternoon and setup camp.  We left them to enjoy the campsite as we headed off to the Buxton Trout Farm to catch our dinner.  We caught 3 good sized Atlantic Salmon, 2 full of roe.  Liam caught the biggest fish of the day; so big that the line snapped and the fish got away!

We said our farewells to Julia and Andrew, collected some decent firewood and returned to camp to start the cookup.  We cooked the salmon in foil over the fire with ginger, garlic and lemon which I thought quite tasty.  We sat around the fire and chatted till late, gorging ourselves on cheese and chocolate again and then returned under the tarp to play cards till very late.

Monday

No rain overnight, so we awoke to a reasonably dry campground.  Oiyee and Mark headed off for an early morning run, whilst I got the campfire going.  We had a huge bacon & egg breakfast, including Italian sausages, hash browns and baked beans.  Shirley and Marty had corned beef.  After breakfast, we relaxed around the campfire watching the kookaburras, currawongs and choughs before setting off for a walk downstream along Little River towards Ned's Gully.  There were some magnificent red toadstools with white spots among the pine trees, as well as the sounds of lyrebirds.

We returned to the campsite for a relaxed lunch, before heading on home late afternoon.

Wombat State Forest Range Rover Club Trip

Trip Leaders
Mike Farrow & Sermin Tanyeri	Range Rover
Participants
Neil Buttigieg	Discovery
John Cunning	Land Rover
Kwok Chan	Range Rover
Gareth Brown	Discovery
Mark Fitzgerald	Patrol
Tail End Charlie
Manole Ioannou	Patrol

Report: Mark Fitzgerald

We all met at the Mineral Springs Hotel, just short of Spargo Creek at 9:00, and after quick introductions, a run down on the convoy procedures, tyre deflations and a radio check we were off by 9:30.

We headed off the main road and were soon on the dirt, heading along Werribee Track, which was wet and only slightly rutted.  This track was of a reasonable standard, having a solid base and no clearance issues and was easily traversed in 2WD.  The track took us past a burnt area of forest which was set up as a Forest Effects Research Area.  Signs at each end indicated that this area of the forest was divided into 5 separate sections.  One area was left unburnt as a control and each of the other 4 areas were burnt at different set intervals.  From memory, one area was burnt every autumn & spring, one each year, one every 5 years and one every 10 years.  This was done to study the effects of fire on the forests regeneration.

At the end of Wombat Track, we turned right onto a 2WD gravel road and then turned left onto another track which took us past some farmland and up past Edwards Hill.  Again, this track was solid and posed no problems or challenges, being only slightly potholed, even though the track was quite wet from the days drizzle.  We drove past some recently logged areas, and areas signposted as being set aside for commercial logging as well as domestic firewood collection areas.

We took a right turn onto Mayhers Track, which soon started to climb with the track became rockier, prompting a precautionary recommendation to drop down to low range.  The track became in parts slightly overgrown; nothing too serious however with only some soft shrubs encroaching the track.  The track turned out to still be quite tame, having a solid base with a little water in some of the larger ruts.

From here we turned right onto a 2WD gravel road, which took us past Wombat Creek Road where it was getting quite misty and foggy.  We made our way right onto Leynards Hill Track, another 2WD gravel road then left, at a crossroads keeping us on Leynards Hill Track when the rain started to come down quite heavily.

We soon crossed a marker indicating the Great Dividing Range, with an elevation in the low 700s before turning right onto Post Office Track.  This track took us down to some more serious 4WDing.  We passed through some more heavily logged areas with the occasional Pink Heath along the track edge.  The track started to descend through some forest that didn't appear to have been logged for some time, the trees being much taller, thicker and denser than what we had passed earlier today.

The track was becoming wetter, with a number of bogholes; none which gave us much trouble as they all had quite firm, solid bases.  A left turn into Paddock Track brought us to some more substantial bogholes.

Gareth got stuck in one of these bog holes.  Mike and myself listened on the radio to see what the hold up was, and returned back through a couple of bogholes to see if any recovery assistance was required.  Everything was under control, and John performed a snatch recovery of Gareth out backwards.  Gareth's front diff was hanging up on the top of the rut in the soft clay.  He was easily able to bypass the obstacle by straddling the ruts on the left hand side.

Two bogholes further on however proved far more disastrous, with Gareth getting well and truly bogged.  He ended up taking on a good bit of muddy water to the inside of his car before being snatched out.  Mike made it through without any serious problems.  I got stuck half way through where the bottom had become quite soft and had to use both front and rear diff-locks to reverse back out and try it a bit faster; making it through.  John gave it an unsuccessful go, and I was able to snatch him out forwards, while the rest of the group drove around this one.

A number of other bogholes along this track were all passed without incident or need of recovery, as we continued through the mist shrouded gums.

We stopped for a late morning tea near an old rundown bridge.  The bridge ran across a steep railway cutting, which at one point in the past the rail line to Daylesford passed through.  Now it appeared to be a dumping ground for stolen and abandoned cars.  A track ran up and around a nearby graded mound, providing a very steep section which a number of us practised ascents and descents on before we all pulled up for a warm coffee and snacks.

After our tasty beverages, we were all back in our cars descending  a steepish track alongside the gas pipeline.  Climbing up the other side brought us to some more heavily logged areas, with the ubiquitous logging tracks meandering in all directions, many of which we took before finding ourselves on a track that seemed to have more trees growing on the track then along the sides of it.  A bit more backtracking and we were heading in the right direction, giving all of the cars an opportunity to show-off their turning circles.

We passed even more logged areas, where the track was well graded and covered in crushed rock as it was likely used by the logging trucks; but it soon became rougher.  We descended steeply into a lovely valley through some thick forest; the muddy boghole at the bottom of the valley had a small steep exit, but everybody made it through with no dramas.

We were now driving on the other side of the logged areas, and the track had become quite slippery.  There was a layer of wet clay on the track surface which clogged the tyre treads.  Kwok felt this the most, having to make a number of attempts around a sharp corner as he was running road tyres.  Everybody else with All Terrains or more aggressive got around the corner without problems.

We then arrived at our lunch stop, where we relaxed, ate and chatted until 2:15 when we packed up and departed as a light drizzle began to fall.  We turned right onto a 2WD gravel road alongside a clear felled logging area, and surprisingly at this late hour it was still quite foggy.

Turning left down Batson Still Track took us through some very scenic forest, which included a clear grassy area surrounded by trees which would make a good campsite.  There were a number of muddy patches, but the track was quite firm and not slippery and easily driven in 2WD.

We came out of the forest into farmland and private property, passing a number of very old rusting cars and truck bodies.  Before we knew it we were back at the Hotel, pumping up tyres, and giving our farewells and thanks to Mike before returning home.