Wonnangatta Trip Notes

[Mike57]

This might belong under general discussion but I just got back from a trip into the Wonnangatta Valley and thought I would post up some notes.

We drove from Licola to Dargo through the Wonnangatta. I used 26 litres of fuel in the Jimny and covered 189km between the fuel stops.

The route we took was this:
Licola to Zeka Spur - this took about 2 hours. The entire length of this section was quite rocky with the soil having been washed away.
Zeka Spur to Wonnangatta Homestead - Another 2 hours. Very slow going. Driving over rocks the whole time. Not fun at all in a Jimny. Not difficult but very uncomfortable. Like all the other roads the soil has been washed away.
We then took the Wonnangatta Track out of the valley to the east. There are two parallel tracks one next to the river and one on higher ground. We took the lower road and regretted it. This section had a lot of flood damage. Some big bog holes generally with bypasses. Large ruts that we had to straddle and some sections took a bit of thought about how to get through. Take the high road which was probably not flooded.
We opted to take the Herne Spur track and the 5 river crossings next. River levels were very low. Only got up to my doors on one crossing. All smooth with no obstacles. Herne Spur was the worst I have ever seen it. Very rocky and I used the rear diff lock a lot to get up. I am assuming that all the steep inclines are like this with all the soil having been washed away in the heavy rain last winter and in January. Would not suggest the inexperienced take this track at least not going up. I almost stalled out in first gear low range with a loaded car in one section but I made it through.
We then followed Cynthia Range track to Eaglevale track. Cynthia Range was in better condition and not all that much worse than I recalled but certainly slower going.
Eaglevale Track was also not in good shape but not the worst I have seen it. Again very rocky.
When we got to Eaglevale the river crossing was a breeze. We then decided to take the easy way out to Dargo as it was getting late so we followed the Crooked River road. This was basically a graded 2 wheel drive road and they have done a lot of work on it since the floods. It was very scenic and there were some good camping spots along this road. Anyone wanting to camp at Eaglevale could easily tow a camper in along this road.

So basically if you are thinking about a High Country trip be aware that the floods and rain have done a lot of damage to the roads partricularly any road that follows a river and all the slopes are badly eroded. However the river levels are very low currently. I did not find the trip as much fun as in the old days (say 5 years ago). Basically it was a lot of hard work. Wonnangatta Valley is still a delightful spot though especially mid week when we were pretty much the only ones in the valley. Hope this is of use.

[Slug]

Zeka spur in the 70s was a winch up and sometimes down as well there were marks on some of the trees to show which one to use
But then I was driving a series 1 land rover with a PTO winch

[Jonno]

Great write up, thanks for the info Mike!