Alpine Country
This walk was over a four day period in December 2004.
On our first day, we walked down the rather steep Brandy Creek Fire Trail (seven km past Mt Hotham on the road to Omeo) to the Cobungra River. Then we followed a very faint foot pad upstream and eventually crossed the river until we came to the base of Palings Spur. This area had been extensively burnt in the 2003 fires and the tracks were sometimes quite indistinct. The grasses were the first vegetation to re-grow and in places they were nearly waist high. We climbed the very steep Palings Spur (500 m) until it flattened out at the southern end of Young’s Plain. This left us with a four kilometre walk northwards through some very nice high plains country (even seeing a mob of brumbies) until we reached Young’s Hut, where we camped for the night.
On our second day we continued north, following the numbered snow poles across the Bogong High Plains. We made a short diversion to climb the low summit of Mt Jim and then continued on to the track junction at Pole 333 where we stopped for lunch and got some water from a small soak. Then we headed to the west towards Toowonga Huts. We dropped our packs at a place we would recognise and then walked down to the huts and back without our packs. On our final stretch for the day we cut across country to pick up the line of snow poles that headed down a spur to Weston’s Hut where we stopped overnight.
Our third day started with a steep descent to the Cobungra River, passing the burnt out remains of a timber camp and then past the Red Robin Gold Mine Battery. With a bit of careful navigation and keen eyes to follow the often overgrown footpad, we continued along a part of Dungey’s Track until we reached Cobungra Gap. After a short stop at Dibbens Hut, we followed the Cobungra River for a kilometre or so and then climbed over a spur to reach Swindlers Gap. We lost the track on a number of occasions but continued on towards Swindlers Creek which we then followed for a couple of kilometres to the junction of the Cobungra River at the foot of Palings Spur. We had a very welcome wash in the river and enjoyed the pleasantness of this pretty campsite.
Our final day consisted of a short walk back to the bottom of the Brandy Creek Fire Trail. a ford across the river and then a climb for a couple of hours up the spur and back to the road junction where we had left our car.
The total distance of our walk was a little over 44 kilometres.
