Alpine National Park - Victoria

No loos at Beveridges Station though. Can't for the life of me work out why not.

Dave

There are some areas up in the Rubicon area that are worth a look too, and the camping areas in the Cathedral Ranges.

No where you can go in 2wd is quiet over Easter though. And many of the areas you can get to in 4wd are as bad.

I was in the Talbotville & Wonnangatta areas on the Labour Day weekend. (I normally avoid long weekends like the plague but had no choice.) I was very surprised how quiet it was.

Is it the diesel prices, interest rates, or just how close Labour Day was to Easter this year that put people off?

Wonnangatta Station at lunch time on Saturday was as near to empty as I've seen it on a long weekend - maybe half a dozen groups. And on the way there from Talbotville mid morning we passed no-one which was very surprising. No big groups of bikes, not even a heap of radio traffic.

I'm not complaining. I like it quiet up there, but to coin a phrase - where the bloody hell were you?

Dave

I'm with ya Dave. Had 3 trips this year into the High Country & have seen barely anyone. A few weeks ago we did Jamieson to Matlock looping around Aberfeldy, Mt Useful & Mt Skene & wouldn't have seen any more than 25 4x4's over the entire weekend.
It's so quiet I'm risking going into Wonnangatta over Easter, something I haven't done for 10 years :-))
Initially I put it down to the fires, flies & sicada's but I think you may be onto something with many people simply no longer able to afford it camping closer to home instead. If that's the case I'll be selfish & ask they put fuel & loans up a couple of % so the bush is left to the locals ;-)
Cheers Craig............

G'day Craig.

I hope you don't bust my theory.

I think I'm right though. For a family of four travelling from Melbourne I reckon the fuel bill into the 'gatta via Myrtleford towing a camper would be close to $285 for a weekend - allowing for 45 litres to get to Myrtleford, 20 litres into the 'gatta and same again to get home. That's 130 litres.

Allow another 60-70 litres for two short day trips - probably more in low range for say a trip to Talbotville and maybe a trip up to the Howitt Hut and back.

There's an easy 190-200 ltrs. Fuel in Bright on the long weekend was in the high $1.5x's. So my $285 might even be a bit optomistic.

$90 for a slab of Bundy & a slab of beer. $150 for groceries that would have cost you about $80 two years ago....

Before you even consider that the truck should be serviced before you go and there might be something that needs work, you are looking at about $550-600 for a long weekend.

My trip on Labour Day weekend I filled up with $220 in diesel (though I've still got 40 ltrs in jerrys on the camper I didn't use), bought $90 worth of cans, $240 in groceries (fed 3 adults and 4 kids) and spent $200 on a service. That's $750.

I reckon on that basis you'll have a quiet weekend.

When people are paying out $150-200 a month more than they were paying a year or so ago on the mortgage they don't have much under the mattress for long weekends.

Dave

It's not the $500 I'm spending camping this Easter that I'm worried about Dave. My wife & kids are going to stay with her folks, spitting distance from Chadstone shopping centre. Imagine the damage my credit card could suffer over 4 days ;-))
Cheers Craig..........

Haha.

Don't fret too much. I took the kids, as did my mate, and the girls went to Melbourne on a shopping trip. I was a little worried when the Minister for Finance told me she'd spent quite a bit.

She's always been conservative, and she didn't disappoint. I was thinking "alot" was going to be in the $800-$1000 mark but she came in under $500.

:o)

I can't complain at all. With what I spend on power tools and the 4wd....

Dave