High Country Plains, Peaks & Poetry - HCPPP Event Cache

This years djcache event will take place over the ANZAC Day weekend and will explore the country around the headwaters of the Murray River – in all likelihood involving a few crossings of it too.

From Friday the 21^st through to Tuesday 25^th we will explore country from Tom Groggin in NE Victoria to Benambra & Omeo. The trip will encounter a variety of terrain from rolling high plains to steep & sometimes rocky inclines. We will be exploring peaks offering 360° views of the Victorian High Country and up into the Kosciuszko complex, and flora ranging from pristine Australian bush through to areas of haunting beauty which were ravaged by the now famous 2003 Alpine fires. The area plays host to a variety of native fauna, and the introduced species includes brumbies.

The formal/important stuff:

Due to the difficult nature of running trips in such terrain and the complication presented by large groups there will be a limited number of vehicles (16) allowed, and places will be offered first to vehicles belonging to cachers who participated in the History, Mystery, High Country Event (GCM9GM) in 2005, After that places will be on a first come, first served basis. (4 places have been reserved initially for NSW teams at this stage, as the location was chosen to encourage interstate participation, those places will be opened up to others if not taken by NSW cachers.) Even with limited numbers it will still be necessary to split the group to more managable convoy sizes as I did for HMHC.

Teams will need to post firm event Will Attend RSVP’s () on the event page by Feb 15^th 2006 to secure their attendance, in order to allow additional interested cachers to fill any vacant places. A list will also be kept up to date on the forum thread and on my website where relevant maps and other info will be available for download.

It is the responsibility of individuals to ensure that their equipment is mechanically sound and capable of undertaking the trip safely, and that the driver/s of the 4wds are capable of completing the trip which will require a reasonable level of 4wd experience. That may require doing your own research as to the type and difficulty of tracks we will be travelling. There are many sources on the internet to undertake such research - a good place to start is either Parkweb or ExplorOz.com's trek notes (under trip planning) & in their forum. While certified 4wd training is not a prerequisite it is recommended. Skills required will include steep ascent/descent techniques, recovery (hopefully not) and moderate to deep water crossings. Conditions in the high country are constantly variable and the conditions of tracks in the area vary according to the conditions. What is easy in the dry can be difficult to treacherous in the wet. Recovery of vehicles (& people) from remote parts of the high plains is costly and will be undertaken at your own expense. (While I'm on the unpleasant but necessary stuff - pay your ambulance subscription! The helicopter costs $2500 to turn the key & $45 per minute thereafter.)

djcache will be carrying emergency communications equipment (HF Radio & Satphone), and first aid equipment. All vehicles will be required to be fitted with/carry a UHF CB radio for intervehicle communication.

Camping equipment and clothing required will need to cover the range from unseasonably warm autumn conditions through to near/sub-zero & snow which is not uncommon in the high country in late April. Climate conditions can be found on my website.

We will be travelling predominantly in the Alpine National Park, so no dogs, cats, generators or firearms please. (The use of generators except for emergency management is prohibited.) Vehicles will need to be high clearance 4wd with a low ratio transfer case. This trip is not suitable for soft road AWD’s.

The interesting/fun stuff

The trip will be starting near Tom Groggin  in NE Victoria, approximately 440km from Melbourne which is accessed via the Hume Fwy and Murray Valley Hwy (approx. 120km east of Wodonga.) Access from NSW is via the Alpine Way or Khancoban. We will either camp at Tom Groggin or at Geehi. This is still to be decided as I need to research the Geehi site a bit further. For now the cords for the event are at Tom Groggin.

Local Towns

Nearby Corryong is a delightful high country town where some may wish to spend the Friday if they have the time, with a population of approx 1500 people and is the heart of Man from Snowy River Country. This is a claim of some legitimacy given that the cemetery at Corryong is the final resting place of Jack Riley who spent much of his life nearby. Jack Riley is widely thought to have been the inspiration for Banjo Patterson’s Man from Snowy River.

Khancoban is a small town on the Alpine Way built to house staff for the construction of the southern part of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme. It is a haven for fishing, bush walking, white water enthusiasts and is set in a picturesque valley near Khancoban pondage. Nearby Scammell’s Lookout and Olsen’s Lookouts provide spectacular views.

The trip will finish in Benambra & Omeo, two towns with a history in mining & cattle. Benambra is yet another remote rural town in decline, with a population of 60 supporting a further 150-200 in the surrounding area. Omeo has now a population of 300 and is a quiet hamlet on the Great Alpine Road from Wangaratta to Gippsland.

Contrary to logical reason Omeo, & in fact Gippsland, were not discovered from the coast but from the north through Benambra, much the same way we will arrive. In 1834 they were observed as an open plain and the following year George McKillop travelled south seeking the new pastures that James McFarlane returned to, to set up what was probably Victoria’s first cattle station “Omeo B” at what is now known as Benambra.

A shadow of its former self, Benambra has at times hosted several butter factories and a flour mill, but it was and is grazing that became it’s most important industry. Hereford cattle are favoured for the climate and the first cattle saleyards are recorded here in the 1920’s. In 1946 the first calf sales held in Victoria occurred in Benambra, with all cattle previously sold as grown animals. The practice is now widespread and nearly all cattle are traded under 12 months old.

The discovery of gold brought further settlers to mine the riches of the area, but due to its remote and inaccessible terrain it did not see the rushes that even nearby Talbotville experienced. It was so remote that little authority existed, with the gold warden only visiting the seventy miners twice a year from distant Yackandandah – the return trip taking the best part of a month.

The first magistrate, Judge Browne, better known as early Australian novelist Rolf Boldrewood (famous for his novel Robbery Under Arms), regarded the Omeo goldfields as the roughest in Australia.  Later with the opening of new goldfields at Dart (now underwater), Gibbo and Dry Gully more miners arrived and the township established itself.

Angus McMillan spent time in the district prior to 1840 when opening up what was to become Ensay Station for Lachlan McAlister, from where he explored the surrounding area. McMillan is famous for government survey work that opened up much of the region through to Dargo and Talbotville, detailing gold in large quantities which would prove a rich source of income for Victoria. Anyone of you who has perused maps of this area, and in fact all of Gippsland will recognise possibly all of the names mentioned in the past few paragraphs.

Mining has a long historical link with the entire area of this trip. The nearby Mt Murphy Historic Area is famous for gold & wolfram (tungsten) mining in the 1890’s. Tom Groggin saw mining of gold, and the Limestone Creek area was mined for gold, other base metals and of all things world class marble. Many mines were short lived providing massive finds but for only a short time. The marble deposits were of high quality rivalling some of the best in Italy but it wasn’t economically viable due to transport, logistics and distance costs.

The Peaks

Whether it be from one of the many vantage points around the tracks as we travel, or from one of the many peaks that (conditions permitting) we will visit the views in this part of the world are nothing short of sensational.

Mt Gibbo provides a view from it’s unusual trig structure which is hard to beat anywhere, and nestled in the snow gums the rock cairn & corrugated iron trig marker is one of my favourite trig points any where in the alps.

Mt Pinnibar, will be our first stop on our Saturday day trip and is reputedly the highest location trafficable by vehicle anywhere in the Alpine National Park. Leaving Tom Groggin Station and the Murray flats we begin to climb. As we climb admire the magnificent Alpine Ash forests, many too large to be cleared forcing the track to deviate and wind it’s way up the ridge. At about 1500m the Ash gives way to snow gum in a characteristically definite transition. After the steep climb - which probably doesn’t begin to describe it - from Tom Groggin through the vegetation transitions, and a last rocky pinch we will arrive at the summit of 1772 metres. With an unparalleled 360° view this site is only marginally higher than my Rocky Rooftop cache at the Blue Rag trig.

The Plains

Access to these areas has been a contentious issue in the last 50 years. Much debate has taken place ranging from locking all except foot traffic out of the area almost in it’s entirety, to removal of cattle grazing on the Victorian side of the river in line with the removal that occurred in the Kosciuszko region in the early 1950’s. At present cattle still exist in some areas south of the border, logging is still allowed in certain parts and the wilderness areas which have been declared have borders allowing passage on Davies Plain Track, but have unfortunately closed the Davies Plain Loop & Cowombat Flat region to vehicle access. King Plain Track was closed after the 2003 fires and will probably remain closed indefinitely.

The history of Alpine grazing in the North East started in the wake of the bushfires of Black Thursday in 1851. The fires wiped out their low country feed for their cattle, forcing many squatters, to search for new grazing country. They found it at higher altitudes and the practice was firmly entrenched by the 1870’s around the Dargo High Plains, the Bogong High Plains, and Gibbo-Pinnibar region. After such a long time mountain cattle grazing is now part of Australian folklore and it is that romantic association with pioneering hardships and the characters like Jack Riley that now make it’s eradication challenging for legislators.

For the record, after a long association with the High Country as a local, and involvement at a level beyond emotional media, sound bytes and political point scoring, djcache is strongly opposed to the retention of cattle leases in the Alpine National Park. They don’t prevent blazes & in some areas make them worse, promote weed species traffic into the high plains (the removal programs for which cost the Victorian taxpayer hundreds of thousands of dollars a year,) and are preventing small struggling communities in the alps from fostering a wild flower tourism industry to rival all others in Western Victoria and Western Australia. They are merely a government subsidy for a select few landholders on token value leases, allowing the running of substantial herds which their lowland farms are incapable of supporting on a year round basis.

Luckily for us we can still travel through some of this amazing country. Throughout the trip the flora will range from Alpine wet heathlands in the tributaries of Limestone Creek on Davies Plain, Snow Gum woodlands above 1100m, Alpine Ash forests 1100-1400m and forests comprised of  tall, open forests of eucalypts predominantly Manna Gum in wetter slopes below 1200m.

Travelling the area one cannot help but notice the infestation of the blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) in some gullies and hillsides. Looking at the devastation of this aggressive weed you can’t help but wonder what on earth Baron von Mueller (arguably early Australia’s finest botanist) was thinking when he promoted it’s introduction – so that early settlers may enjoy the tastes of home through blackberry jam. I wonder if he turns uneasily in his grave if he can still consider the damage it has done, considering has now over run some 8.8 million hectares of Australia.

Davies Plain forms the largest sub-alpine area of the Alpine National park not accessible by 2wd roads. It’s past uses include cattle grazing and brumby running. Brumbies are still to be seen in the area and much work is still needed to control numbers. As we travel down the Davies Plain Track which is subject to lengthy seasonal closures, we will be rewarded with substantial views over rolling alpine plains.

Poetry - The Man from Snowy River

Tom Groggin Station, which is now situated on the Alpine Way where it meets the Murray River will be a focal point of this event. It has in infamous though often forgotten role in Australian folk history. Like Wonnangatta Station, the focus of last years event, it was a remote cattle station in the late 1800’s.

 As a point of interest it has since been immortalised with Banjo Patterson in microprint as an anticounterfeit measure on the Australian $10 note. Those without exceptional eyesight may need a magnifying glass but the poem is reproduced on the note as the very fine lines running horizontally into the images on Banjo’s side of the note.

In 1914 thirty years of bush life took their toll and Jack fell ill. He was found by Will Findlay mustering cattle around the Tom Groggin area in a poor state and Will offered to take him the 60 odd kilometres to Corryong to seek medical attention. Jack refused. Will and a few others returned to Tom Groggin days later after mustering and with others later told that “We looked in, a few days later, and here is the poor old fellow lying on the floor just about at the end of his tether. So we knocked together a bit of a stretcher…and we set off to carry him to the doctor.”

Early on the 14^th of July, in the grip of winter, they left Tom Groggin Hut carrying Riley on the stretcher, the men taking turns on the handles. The trip down the valley for 7 or 8 km proved not to be troublesome but the team struck trouble trying to climb out of the gorge over the Hermit Hill. The snow was thick and the crew sheltered at the junction of Hermit and Surveyors Creeks in a miners hut. Jack was reported to improve in spirit and they thought he’d now be okay, but as the fire warmed their weary bodies Jack Riley died.

The report of the rescue in the Corryong Courier concluded, “The bush asks big things of it’s men and they never fail to respond. Sometimes – as in this case – the task proves impossible and a higher power intervenes; but the credit of a galliant attempt is theirs – and there are some failures which are finer than many successes.” Jack was buried at Corryong Cemetery on 16^th July, 1914.

The attempt to bring Riley to safety is now commemorated in the annual ride from Tom Groggin Station to Corryong in “Riley’s Ride”, as part of the Man from Snowy River Bush Festival.

Whether Riley was the Man from Snowy River, or whether it was Lachlan Cochrane of Adaminaby, or Jim Troy of Tumut, or maybe Hellfire Jack of Jindabyne is still a topic for local families and campfire discussion today. Make up your own mind or enjoy the folklore as you explore this magnificent country.

Aboriginal History

The area also has a rich aboriginal history spanning several tribes. The history is uncertain and recent discoveries of huge volumes of artefacts where they were not expected to exist during the construction of the Mt Hotham Airport have meant a rethink on the way the aboriginal tribes of the area use the high plains.

It was previously thought that they gathered at the higher altitudes only to harvest Bogong Moths when in season (a rich fatty food source), and to perform limited trade at such meeting points. It is now thought that the history in the area spans many tens of thousands of years of habitation, rather than only four or five thousand years of visitation.

The details at this stage

The trip will commence at Tom Groggin unless otherwise noted here and in the forum, at a location in the proximity of the posted coordinates.

The Tom Groggin camp will be our base for two nights and is easily accessible by 2wd on bitumen, allowing participants to arrive late into Friday night. For some this may be impractical and they may choose to forgo Saturday’s activities to travel and arrive Saturday.

Sunday night will see us camped at Davies Plain Hut. A substantial area around the hut will accommodate a group of our size even if we don’t have it to ourselves.

Monday night is to be spent on Limestone Creek at the site of a cave complex and past mining activity. There is access to some of the caves so bring a good torch.

On ANZAC Day the trip will conclude when we travel out through Benambra to Omeo. Work permitting djcache may spend a few extra days around Omeo and anyone else with time would be welcome. There is much to see around the town and in the old mining areas.

Choice of route home obviously depends on your ultimate destination, but options range from returning via Bruthen & Bairnsdale, descending off Hotham via Dargo and out to Gippsland or over to Harrietville and out to Wangaratta. The NSW guests may choose to head back toward Corryong and proceed north from there.

Footnote

For those of you who are wondering after having read the history above, who was Tom Groggin – and why didn’t he rate a mention here?

Tom Groggin is thought to be a derivation of the aboriginal word for water spider.

See you in April if not before,

DJ

This page and the other website will be updated as required in the lead up to the event.

Time, work and fuel budget permitting there should be a few more caches in the area by the time the trip starts. Should that not occur we'll still have a great trip. DJ