MT PINNABAR (Victoria) RECONNAISSANCE TRIP
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GPS TRIP DETAILS 8/1/2007
Distance 1053km time driving 15:50 hrs Av speed 67kmh
Left 5am 8/1/2007 - back 11:30pm (18 1/2 hours)
Max speed 171.6 kmh - not really, gps errored in a treed gully.
CAR DATA -- Trip 1014km Odometer 127276
( applied tyre correction factor 4%)
ROUTE
Melbourne ,Wodonga ,Corrong , Mt Pinnabar
Colac Colac , Wodonga
FUEL
Shell Wodonga 110.5lt ($1.125-10%GST)
Croydon Safeway 66.8lt ($1.125-4c)
TOTAL 177lt 1053km 16.8lt/100km 4800 manual 2002 Patrol
Like a lot of potential Xmas campers our holiday plans
have had to be changed to skirt around the constantly
changing Victorian fire threat.
The area we have camped in (around
Dargo) for the past 6 years has
been closed off to campers because of the potential danger.
While our actual
campsite area appeared ok, all the access
roads were closed and we had to make alternate plans.
We choose to stay west of
lake Eildon where we own bushland
and re-acquaint ourselves with the many many tracks in the area.
Xmas was very hectic with a constant stream of visitors and we lead
several trips into some tough tracks and generally had a ball of a
time, tackling them and making new ones.
But we hadn't found any time for doing any new exploring !
After 2 1/2 weeks of this, we decided to just pack for an
overnighter and head off via
Omeo to the large Mt Pinnabar
state
forrest some 500km from
Melbourne as it has so far
remained free from fire.
Mt Pinnabar is a must do destination as its the highest
point you can drive to on a public road in Australia and
we like many others often drove around it to more
well known
places like the Davies high plains and Murray crossings in
the
Tom Groggin area.
Two days before setting off the fire websites began reporting fires south
of
Omeo and next day sure enough the roads were closed.
Not put off we picked up the newly released Rooftop
"Corryong-
Omeo-Thredbo" adventure series map and planned
another alternate route via Corryong.
With only 1 or 2 days to explore the area and at least a
1000km of driving we planned to leave early (5am) from
Melbourne.
At 7pm on night before we left a
check of fire websites listed
a small fire on Nariel crk right on our planned drive path just
to west of Corryong.
Again we planned a new route further to the east via Thowgla
on the chance that the small fire would be contained and we
could do a loop taking in the best 4wd tracks.
Leaving Knox 4:50am arrived at Wodonga 312 km later at about 8:30
In order to convince the wife to get up early, I promised her a
Soya-chino at Macdonalds, however no Big-mac could be found in
our casual drive through this town of 30,000 (impossible).
Knowing better we got one at subway , which after 1 sip we
returned and got our money refunded and prompt wrote Wodonga
off our list of approved tourists stops.
Arriving Corryong 428km at 10:45am (almost 6hrs trip time)
A couple of weeks prior to this my brother had spent several
days in the area and with this input we planned a loop thru
the heart of the
forrest via Mt Pinnabar which took in the
best tracks as follows -
Corryong-> Thowgla Upper and on to Walkers log road.
Checked out Gray's and Bullockys camping areas , both of these were
empty with lovely little clear mountain creeks with room for 3-4 lots
of campers, and driveable nearby tracks.
Walkers log rd became Dead Finnish track which are
hard gravel 2wd.
At Mt Pinnabar/ Dead Finnish track jn the track became 4wd and
surface changed completely to
soft dirt and there was recent
logging at this
junction.
As we left
junction for the climb to top we were heard a call
on our UHF which was set to scanning by a {"with-it") driver
half way up the mountain who had spotted our white GU below.
Our 4800 patrol loves big hills and by the time we reached the trig
point at top of the easy 4wd track we had caught up with the driver.
It was now 1pm and 7 hours and 485km from
Melbourne (Knox)
and we were on top of the 4wdrivable world.
The other driver and family turned out to be a NSW visitor and
we had lunch with them at the highest point (1780m) and enjoyed
360 degree
views of the white smoke haze.
Still while the valleys were at 35c it was 22c up there and quite
delightful.
This was the only vehicle we saw in the entire 4wd part of the trip
and he had just driven thru from
Falls creek via Dunstans log rd,
Gibsons hut on his way to Thredbo for the night. He had 2 months
ago acquired a 4500 GU after his Pajero had begun to fall apart
and was loving the new car. (His words)
Said goodbye as he headed for Tom-Groggin and we took the harder
"Upper Shady Creek " track west.
This proved to be a lovely track which made the whole trip
worthwhile by itself, its medium level and a showroom
floor
patrol could drive it safely dry ,but you'd need a set of chains
if wet.
This 15km (2hr) track begins at almost 6000ft altitude amongst 2m high
snow gums and is often rocky and narrow with small ledges.
Many trees were down with diversions in place and the track
winds thru open lush grassy country with steep drops before
beginning a long steep downhill section.
In
places it was overgrown to the extent that shrubs scrapped both
sides of the car at the same time.
Being lush and green at this altitude they caused no damage.
Track appears little used, but on most of it we had CDMA
phone coverage and access to a couple of UHF repeaters.
Onto Wheelers hut, via Cattlemans where we parked the car in the
river crossing and washed it down a bit and had afternoon tea
in the deserted but very good condition hut. This
camping area
could take a dozen cars at least and is probably the best spot in
the area for a base
camp.
Checked out tracks in area and found another nice but unlisted
spot nearby where "Paddy's joy" track insects with the river.
Nearby tracks worth driving include six mile ridge and Zulu creek.
All tracks were sign posted and had no trouble following the map.
We checked out two or three other small campsites by creeks and
the now 2wd dirt road (Wheelers creek log road) turned north and
joined the main Benambra Corryong dirt road which winds down
into the valley.
In the valley there seemed to be more campsites and the road became
bitumen again.
One large
free camp area was marked "Stacy's Bridge".
This lovely spot had a full sized RV as its only occupant.
The good road winds north thru the valley for another 20km
with more camping areas, all vacant before coming out to the
main Hwy again at "Colac Colac" just west of Corryong which
we reached at 6pm, 13 hours into our trip which was now
essentially over.
The main Mt Pinnabar 4wd country is
hard and steep with campsites
generally small, with the valleys south of Colac Colac generally
larger and easier.
All in All this area can be recommended as a 4wd High country
destination outside the more
well known and currently not
accessible central areas.
Robin Miller
P.S. Wodonga was restored onto our approved stop list
after we brought petrol there at 112.5 cents after
paying 113.9 the night before near bottom of
Melbourne cycle.