Finding a 4x4 tour to the source of the Murray river

the Murray is made up of two rivers the Murrumbidgee Riverwagga waggaand the darling rover that comes from the Menindee lake system and that is feed from Queensland Menindee lakes the rivers meet in wentworth just up from Mildura well worth a visit

Hi Don. Not sure if there would be a tour there but there was a post on here about a year or so ago where someone had been to the source up in the highlands and had put the co-ordinates up. He also put some photos. It may come up in a search. Cheers,Bob

Hullo Don G6
I am not aware of any company that does this trip.
Access to the source by vehicle is not possible as the track (the Cobberas Trail) has a gate about 6 kms from the source. The trail is 4WD only and is quite challenging in the dry, let alone if it is wet.
The alternative walking track (Cowombat Flat Track) is about 12+km each way. Vehicle access to the start of this track is not difficult and the walking is generally not strenuous -but it is a 25km+ walk and you would be advised to take supplies and some warm clothing / wet weather gear as even in summer, the weather can change for the worse with little warning (Cowombat Flat is 1200m).
Back in 1987 when I first visited this site, it was possible to do the round trip as Parks Victoria had not closed off vehicle access. But this trip took us the whole day.
As well as seeing the start of the Murray, there is also the remains of a DC3 that crashed there in the 1950s. One person, the co-pilot, was killed while the others survived. The co-pilot was unmarried and insisted that the rest (married) went to the back of the plane to have the best chance of survival.
The nearest accommodation (local pub) would be at Benambra.
If you haven't got it, I suggest you get a copy of the Hema High Country Victoria map - Eastern Sheet.
Cheers
Andrew

I searched with the text "murray start". If you do the same and find a string of posts by the user notso there is quite a discussion that talks about the actual start of the Murray.

In the meantime check this out: Forrest Hill Cairn at the source of the Murray

Unfortunately everything that I have read this morning says it is a good to hard walk.

I hope that you get there. I would like to but won't.

Go for it.

Phil

Hello Don

Check out 'OUTBACK TAGALONG TOURS'. They are based in Albury and often do tours of the Victorian high country and are a weath of knowledge. It might be a long phone call but at the end you will know all there is to know. Good luck
Peter

G'day Don

Can't help directly with tour operators, but a recent book, The River, published in 2010 and written by Chris Hammer, has a very good description of the walk to the Murray source using the Cowombat Track. He walked with his 10yo son, and the return walk was 10 hours.

Maybe fire an email to Vic Widman, of Vic Widman Tours. He may be able either to help, or to point you in the right direction. My guess is it'll be a one-off type tour, so it might depend upon how deep the other bucket is (the one with the $$ in).

Good luck
John

G'day Don,
To get there from the Vic side, you park at Moscow Ck and walk 7 km in to the source. No vehicle access.
Copiied from 'Black-Allan line Revisited'.
'The western end is particularly steep and difficult country and the line crosses the Snowy River and passes near the summit of Mt Tingaringy.'
It is a difficult undulating walk,and boggy as you get closer. To identify the exact source is not easy. I had rough coordinates and a friend had the best detailed map of the area.
From my gps S36 47.787 E148 11.685, this is where I think it was. It was fairly overgrown but there was a rock there with markings on it.
We passed at least one cairn which was used for triangulation. If you copy my coordiates to Google Earth you will see what the country is like.
I was surprised that the state border was not marked clearly.
We were camped in the High Country, and on the drive to the start of the walk I tore the lower front suspension mount off my diff in the LC and we battery welded it back on.
Depending on how keen you are, I think you could make it via Suggan Buggan, it looks about 50km from the start of the walk. You would need to search for some accommodation close to this.

Good Luck,
Bill

We did the walk on Saturday from the gate on Mcfarlane's Flat Track. This is the shortest access but there are some fairly steep uphill sections on the way to Cowombat Flat which took a bit over 2 hours with a 6 year old in tow.

From Cowombat it's another hour and a half or so following the baby Murray upstream to the source. The going is relatively easy until the last couple of hundred metres which are heavily overgrown and progress is difficult.

The Ben Cruachan Walking Club has previously run walks to the location, perhaps you could get in contact with them?

If you have the HEMA maps and the NSW 100k raster - look in 8524__JACOBS_RIVER