Dargo Licola (Victoria) Look-See
Route,
Melbourne Dargo-
Licola Melbourne.
(driving time = 10:39 , Distance 765km max speed=121
av speed= 72.8, fuel=114lt @ 14.9lt/100km, Car GU 4800
You can do so much more without a trail of cars behind you !
Since our Xmas visitors shot thru we did MT Pinnabar area tuesday,
Mt Robertson area yesterday and with today free, our last workday holiday,
we thought we'd see what the situation is in
Dargo as road has recently been
re-opened, whats more yesterdays VicRoads closed roads page had the
Wonnagatta RD de-listed finally.
On the way to
Dargo we heard on radio that the
Licola rd had just
been re-opened again and managed to
check it out on our way back.
This is what we found.
---
DARGO ------------------------------------------
Light smoke from princess hwy north to
Dargo
Light fire damage began around Knots Landing area and continued
to around the Wonnagatta CV park area.
Fire damage was generally light, with large unburnt
patches, and in a lot of the area I feel it would re-grow ok.
There were some patches of intense fire.
A significant number of large burnt trees had been cut down on
roadside - no doubt to stop them falling.
Several healthy looking Wallabies were encountered.
Area was generally quiet.
We drove to Upper
Dargo rd
intersection , were road was closed
to High Plains completely and upper
dargo road was partly
closed.
Wonnagatta rd was closed fully South of CV park , and partly closed
North of CV park.
The track from Waterford
bridge on Wonnagatta which normally has
an old
gate , was padlocked.
Lower
Dargo rd was open.
Michell N.P. roads were open.
All tracks south of Waterford were not closed , although
some had fallen trees, and camping/4wding is possible.
In general the area had more green than expected particularly
in actual
Dargo township.
The Wonagatta river was dirty brown but no obvious
debris.
The
Dargo river was clear and quite drinkable.
The Pub still had its "
free camping by the river" sign up
and for the first time ever I saw no one camped their.
Had conversations with ->
shop worker, hotel worker, Parks Officer
and Dozer driver actually on a track.
The Parks Officer insisted that Wonnagatta rd was closed , and
wasn't in the best frame of mind when I showed that VicRoads
had it open.
I explained that some people might have driven all the way from
Melbourne
based on that report and he said that report would be changed.
Things could have gone downhill from here - however I dropped
the subject and left.
(As of this evening - Wonnagatta road has been re-listed as closed)
Other conversations revealed the following -
Wonnagatta rd is ok and being used by locals and clean up vechiles.
The
road block to high plains is actually spiked.
The
Talbotville camp ground is not burnt out.
Grant cemetry has been damaged.
Road down to
Talbotville has been severely affected.
Wongurra river has been affected most with large fish kills.
Locals are campaigning to have
Talbotville re-opened for
Easter.
South of Wonnagatta river we took a track to ridge top to look
up the valley and this confirmed some of the notes above.
P.S. Noted that CDMA signal held all the way to
Dargo, and that
coffee at
shop is still just average.
------
Licola---------------------------
The area from Glenmaggie to
Licola was in much worse shape than
Dargo, if you
want to see the damage a fire can do then its worth the drive and I know
the local
shop would appreciate the business.
The fires went thru
Licola area many days ago now, and think road
has been open for bits however a new flare up had occurred at Blankett
hill
just north of Glenmaggie and road had just been re-opened this morning.
Or hearing this we diverted to
Licola and as we drove thru this area logs
here and their were still on fire or smouldering with CFA teams cleaning up.
Up until the Macalister river at Cheyne
bridge the fires appeared to have
been moderate but as we headed up the pass to Bygones Gap things got a
lot worse with every tree fully burnt and area looked devastated.
By time we got to
Licola things didn't look so bad again.
The Mt Skene rd is closed just north of town.
The
Wellington river rd is open for several km to the NP boundry.
The Macalister river is brown but not as bad as Wonnagatta and in fact
I found the water drinkable, with the color of weak tea.
Nearly got clobbered by convoy of 3 school buses - then nearly got
clobbered again by two bikes under full noise as I began to head down
Bygones Gap.
Macalister river
camp area at Cheynes
bridge is untouched and you can
camp.
Drove thru river there (300mm) and needed lockers to get up the northern
chute.
Hickeys creek area has sign on it saying
"Tracks in area are closed till May 2007."
Camping area is untouched.
At Bygones gap on east side is small sign also saying
"Tracks in area are closed till May 2007."
Tracks on west (river side) have no signs.
Little light smoke haze, except at Blankett
hill.
Robin Miller