Visiting Victoria

[Zzoe]

Hello All

I'm hoping I might be able to gather suggestions from those familiar with walking in Victoria. I'm going to be in Melbourne for five weeks for work. For middle of those weeks I'll be working very minimally, and will be joined by my two sons aged seven and nearly eleven. They are great walkers and we do a lot of multi-day hiking, mostly in Western Australia. My husband is not joining us for this week, and much of it will be spent in Melbourne visiting the gallery and museum. We're also planning a visit to the Healesville Sanctuary.

But we're very keen to get into the bush for a couple of days. We won't be bringing any of our tent/sleeping bags/fuel stove etc... So just day walks. The plan is to hire a car and find a small town with a cottage, hostel, B&B or similar that we can spend a couple of nights in as a base.

We'd love to see some snow, or failing that- bush that feels very different to the South West of WA. They have both seen snow and hiked in it in New Zealand and in Europe, but snow on eucalyptus forest is particularly special.

Any suggestions about where we might go? Many thanks in advance!

[Zzoe]

I should have added that we're not particularly keen on a ski resort or field experience of snow!

[Lophophaps]

Zzoe, welcome to the forum. Can you please advise when you will be visiting? If you don't mind driving for about four hours, Halls Gap is an option, many places to stay. There's heaps of day walks nearby. Most are tourist walks, but I think that going on a more remote walk with children as a first Grampians venture is ill-advised. Mount Rosea is a spectacular walk, an easy day of walking up big drops. The second day could be Briggs Bluff. Both have good tracks, although care is needed in some places on Briggs Bluff. Try not to fall off either cliff. These peaks are somewhat off the tourist haunts, so there will be less people than the walks behind Halls Gap. Another walk is Hollow Mountain, about 30 minutes north of Roses Gap, which is the start of the Briggs Bluff track. If you go to Hollow Mountain, Summerday Valley is a short pleasant walk.

[alanoutgear]

You could buy yourself a copy of Glenn Tempest's "Victoria's Goldfields Walks" and base yourself somewhere around the Castlemaine/Trentham/Daylesford area and choose any number of the walks to do. There are lots of places to stay in Central Victoria and it's only just over an hour from Melbourne.

There are 20 day walks of varying distances and grades to choose from and you can download the gpx files if you want from the website. The book provides excellent walk descriptions, reasonable maps and other information. Not all are circuit walks, but the majority are. Most of the walks are through significant areas from the early days of Victoria and you see many relics of the past.

I'm a particular fan of the Golden Gullies walk, the Babbington Hill walk, the Welsh Village walk, and the Creswick Forest walk, but the others are excellent too.

PM me for more information if you are interested.

[ChrisJHC]

Mount Macedon is a good day walk, about 19 km.

A big incline at the start and descent at the end but apart from that mostly flat.


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[MickyB]

We're also planning a visit to the Healesville Sanctuary.

We'd love to see some snow,

The plan is to hire a car and find a small town with a cottage, hostel, B&B or similar

Warburton might be a good place to stay for a few days. There are a number of walking tracks and snow on nearby Mount Donna Buang. Warburton is approx 30 minutes from Healesville.
http://www.visitwarburton.com.au/activi ... rest-walks

[Zzoe]

Hi All

I feel very rude for not responding with thanks to all the replies posted here, but wanted to pop my head in now- hopefully better late than never- and let you know how grateful my boys and I were for the suggestions. We ended up spending three days based in Warburton, and had a truly wonderful time. There was a lovely amount of snow on Mt Donna Buang and the kids had a great time. My thrill was seeing lyrebirds in the wild, which was a first for me... and marvelling in the beauty of a eucalyptus forest in the snow.

Thankyou for the tips!

[paidal_chalne_vala]

You were lucky with the snow on Mt. DB. They had quite a bit last white season. Often they get none .