Victorian Winter Walks

[J M]

Hi everyone.

Any suggestions for good 1-2 night walks within Victoria during winter? Preferably not snow walks, but anything else is fine.

I've been looking at doing sections of the great ocean walk, great south west walk, grampians, maybe even down to the lighthouse and back at the prom.

Any ideas?

[madmacca]

The Goldfields Track is a fascinating walk if you are into history at all.

[Snowzone]

I just spent a magnificent weekend in the Black Range just west of the Grampians but anywhere in the Gramps this weekend would of been perfect. Both days were full of winter sunshine. Very enjoyable.
Also a good time of year for The Little Desert and The Brisbane Ranges a bit closer to Melbourne is another option.

[andrewbish]

Hi Jack

What's with the no-snow constraint?

If you are happy to walk and camp on snow, the options get much more interesting..

[J M]

What's with the no-snow constraint?

Thanks for all the suggestions...and the 'no snow' constraint is more due to the fact that my parents don't want to!

[bmak]

Mt cole/Buangor? Been exploring a bit lately and there are a lot of tracks people arnt using anymore and are becoming overgrown to the point of being lost forever

[Snowzone]

Mt cole/Buangor? Been exploring a bit lately and there are a lot of tracks people arnt using anymore and are becoming overgrown to the point of being lost forever

Brad, which tracks are you referring to? I have been involved in doing some track work on the bukkertillable track recently to get that re-opened and would be keen to hear of any other tracks that you feel need some use.

[bmak]

I've been doing a bit of work on the track from chinamans to reservoir track that's basically non existent apart from the arrows.
There are a couple of other locations ill have to think about but I've seen the arrows in my travels.
All of this is in mt cole as I find the lower half is maintained by dse so either tracks are maintained or they place signs for closure

[Snowzone]

Yes I know the track. DSE no longer recognise this as a tracked walk so it is not maintained. A friend of mine was suggesting we should do this walk again as we have not done it for 4 or 5 years so I might suggest it to her again, the more foot traffic the better on it.
Parks and DSE are really just concentrating their efforts on a few walks in the area. Unfortunately their budget for tracks in this area is pretty minimal. We (Ballarat Bushwalking) had to do a lot of lobbying to get permission to re-open the bukkertillible track and we have made a committment to maintain the track into the future. We are having another working bee on it soon.
Back on topic, it is a great area to walk in through winter. There is often a great deal of cloud around which makes for some great photographs of the granite tors shrouded in fog.

[bmak]

The whole area is really under used and unfortunately it is starting to show signs of not being maintained.

[J M]

Just did a walk at Mt. Cole on the weekend, the loop from Richard's, camping at Beeripmo Campground. Very nice to be able to have a fire, as it was very cold! However, the walk itself was very nice and not too challenging for my parents...

The views from atop Mt. Buangor were very good, and the aforementioned cloud (which was below us at the time) made for a few good photos. All of the tracks we were on and saw were well maintained and very clearly marked, apart from a few trees that looked to have only recently fallen over.

Mt. Buangor Lookout

All in all, a great walk!

[Hallu]

If you're looking for more, Murray Sunset has a 3 day circuit, and at Little Desert you can tackle sections of the Desert Discovery walk, the Desert Lodge can organize drop-offs and pickups. Wyperfeld has also a 2 day walk, but the return route is on 4WD tracks. All these walks are described in the parks' leaflets on the Parks VIC website. They're very easy walks, very flat terrain but lots of wildlife (birds and kangaroos mostly, I wouldn't expect many reptiles in winter).