IMMAItial"......1.311.416111Illawarra Road (01d) 164. Indi River 223. (elsewhere briefly referred to in
articles on Kosciusko area.)Jacobs River 1. 1980 Jenolan Ht. 28, 83. 84. Jenolan River 240 38. 46. 107. Joadja 137. 151. Jounana Creek 104, 219. Jounana Peaks 16. 104. Kanangra 2. 6, 8. 21, 27. 57. 156. 186. 193. 215 Kanangra River and Creek 8. 21, 30, 70. Kangaroo River (Lower) 229. Kelly Mt. 86. 113. 116. Kekeelbon Mts. 156. 226, Kindarun Mt. 226. King George Mt. 22. 60, 64. Kinglake Range (Vic.) 131. 224. Kosciusko & N.S.W. Alps) 1, 2. 6.11.15.21.99.101.102.103.110.135. generally 157.198.232. Kowmung River ( 7. 8.11.24.25.27.50.51.62.71.166.215.219. (221. Lacy,s Gap 192. 195. Lacyfs Creek 192. 195. Lamington Plateau 218. 220. 221. 222. Linden Creek 10. Lindsay Mt. (0,fland) 141, 162, Little River (Upper Cox.) 46. Lockley Pylon 22. SKYLINE. Allen A. Strom. The Great Dividing Range is a most disconcerting affair .. at times, neither Great nor a Range, yet somehow it always Divides. Have you ever pondered over your maps .. or better still, have you ever hazarded a guess as to its whereabouts when in the field? Take for example, along the Hume Highway en route for Goulburn from Yass. Somewhere there we go “aver the line” just when you'd reckon we were traversing a plain; and you'd never have known if it hadn't been for the gracious notice erected by a considerate Main Roads Board. Sometimes when you are far Vrom signs, it is most important to keep on that mighty watershed; and it's just at that time when you wrinkle the brow and ponder between Gungarton and the Brassy or in the timber between the Cascades and the Tin Mines. Of course, there are strips of range where youtd merit the proverbial Lead Medal if you made a mistake 'iv.. Cunningham's Gap in Queensland, the Main Range from Kosciusko to Dicky Cooper's Bogong or the Crosscut Saw that joins Howitt with Cobbler and the Barry Mtns 1,100410911, Ahp YO8i The Crosscut Saw! Now there's a pieeof mountain that's worth calling both Great and Range; and what's more, it Divides like a Saws Situated in the Victorian Middle Alps, the Crosscut is the centre of a land of mystery, mighty peaks', romantic snowplains and old warrior snow gums. Nearby are the sources of the King and Howqua ( flowing to the west); tho Wonnangatta and Macalister (flowing to the ease). 9 I 111 Some years back we had our first taste of this country when we “experimented” with the Baw Baws (a southern offshoot of the Divide where the Range turns east to back around behind Melbourne) and from these heights made out Mt Wellington on the skyline, Glen Maggie Reservoir and the Lakes an the coastal strip below. Coming home along the Princes Hightmy through Stratford and Bairnsdale, the jagged blue sky of the west whetted the appetite, and the following year, assisted with information from our good Melbourne friends, we approached Wellington from the south-east and were for some days, goggle-eyed at the beauty and mystery of Lake Tarli Yarng, the Wellington, Snowy and Hewitt Plains and of course, the Crosscut Saw which we traversed in order to go down to Whifield via Cobbler and the Bennie Homestead on the Rose River Well, there's been a hankering ever Si/133 and tis year plans were laid to follow up the Howqua River, go over Howitt and then over via the Wonnangatta and Wongungarra Rivers to Dargo Once again, we had some invaluable cietalls from OUP Melbourne friends and were able to get food paekca in to Howitt Hut by Fred Fry who has a holding an the Howqua whore we proposed to make a start on the trek. .2. The Coach took us through Mansfield to Merri jig where, camped on the Delatite, we were qdite close to the beginning with Mt Buller and Timbertop rising directly to the north of the campsite. OnGeon the Howqua, the walking or should I say the splashing… began. There were twenty four crossings in the first eight miles, at which point, a forestry hut .. the Eight Mile ..is established. In a day and a half we had progressed to he final flat at the foot of the Howitt Spur after a valley of great beauty and many flats clothed with fine Manna Gums. Ritchie's Hut at the 14 mile, is a veritable mansion complete with refrigeration and hot and cold running water. Bindareo Hut another forestry structure, is the last of the huts at about 18 miles from 17ry's. Views of the shape of things to coma are caught all along the valley floor…Buller, Magdala, Bowitt all above five thousand feet. The Howitt Spur is steep but not a killer .. perhaps its worse features are the wealth of scrub (largely young ash and Daviesia* products of the fire scourge) and the washed out and overgrown track .. all in, the earlier stages of the climb. As the elevation figures rise, a wild profusion of peaks begin to sort themselves out .. west and north are Buller, Stirling, Thorne, the Stanley Name Range, Cobbler, Koonika, Speculation round to the Crosscut; south and east are Square Gin Bluff, Lovick, Magdala and Big Hill whilst straight ahead is the groat massif of Hewitt getting more and more vertical. Gradually the track improves* becoming a well-graded zigzag and although the party ahead appear to be crawling along an almtst vertical face, we move up eacii;Ly- into the snow gums (carpetted with flowering Snow Daisies), Finally above the treeline, COMBS the first crest .. a pleasant plateau of snow grass; and there across a shallow depression stands the cairn, the Howitt peak. The 3600 panorama from Howitt gives a large count of tops… the Great Divide from McDonald and Clear on the south to the Viking, the Razor, the Barnesi and a maze of folding blue ranges in the north .. in this maze are Hotham, Feathertop, Bogong and Kosciusko. But it is the masses of flat tops and plains that attract ., dropping off into terrific gorges .. of the Macalister, the Wonnangatta, the King, the Howqua,the Jamieson a virtual hub with rivers running out like the spokes of a wheel. The trail goes northerly round the Terrible Hollow ( the head of the Wonnangatta) passed Macalister Springs (where the river of that name finds birth) a happy campsite ringed by snow gums .. on to the Howitt Plain, a wide and long plain around five thousand feet above sea level. Away to the eastern end of this plain is the Howitt Hut, a hut apparently of great age, perhaps)ullt:by the Bryees, the pioneers of the Snowy Plains. ' * North again, from the Hewitt Plain the track goes down some 3v000ft to the Dry River.. This was nww country to us and we were amazed by the width of the valley floor which continued to broaden right down to the junction with the Wonnangatta. Here a terrific clearing greets the traveller the “home paddocks” of the Wonnangatta Station' The buildings of the old station still stand .. the I6-roomed homestead slowly decaying along with th furnishings, all 0 hand made on the spot. This is where the Bryce family took over in the 70's alongside the junction of the Conglomerate and Wonnangatta Rivers and from the homestead looking south up the valley of the Wonnangatta, stands Mt Howitt and the Cror3scut Saw, blue with haze in the summer and white-capped in the winter. Once the “Wonnangatta Run” covered all the grasslands and top: from the Humphrey River across the Snowy Plains to Mt Clear: For six months of the year, the Bryce family was cut off from the world by snow; then when the rivers went down, treks were made to Dargo for supplies, Before Dargo was established, the nearest supply town was Harriet- villa! Somewhere along the line, the pioneer spirit faded out and the Bryces left the district; Wonnangatta passed into new hands who put in a Manager. The old home was on the downward for soon after the Manager and his cook wore found murdered with only the silent hills and the ever-watching Howitt to solve the mystery. Downstream from the Conglomerate, the Wonnangatta slowly bottles up and as the Humphrey comes in from the west (and from under the feet of the Barry Mtns.) the trail climbs up the Wombat Mtn (to some 4,000 feet, unfortunately) and duwn on to the Wongungarra River. The views from the eastern side of the range give a panorama and an inventory of peaks seen nowhere else on the trip. These include the two Mt Kents and Snowy Bluff together with the valley of the Moroka and its background of high plateau land near Wellington. The Wongungarra together with its tributary the Crooked River, have valleys of great historic significance. Many hundreds once peopled such towns as Grant, Talbotville and Howittville .. now just names or a clearing overgrown with thistles, so elusive is the yellow metal. Thus the first section of our Skyline Tour finished as we boarded the coach at “Glen View”, the homestead on the junction of the Wonnaagatta and Wongungarra Rivers, beneath the great towering ridges, the foothills of a Uundrcid snowy peaks. Loathe to leave the wide plains of the high altitudes, the Coach made off through pargo , township and along the rapidly rising range, intothe snow gums and out on to the Dargo High Plains and the summer home of the Treasure family. Once these plains were the scene of much activity as the gold miners dug down through the basalt on “deep leads” .. but the returns weren'b worth the effort and so to soft quietude of the skyline the little plain (some twentyfive square miles)returned. 4 From the edge of Lankey's Plain, the plateau crumbled rapidly and the road runs out along a narrow backbone past Mt Freeze- out. The valleys of the Crooked and Wongungarra Rivers coming up to their sources on the left, the Dargo River on the right, whilst ahead and west, a north-south line, COMBS the Barnes,i the double massif of the Twins going on to Mt St. Bernard all bald and gaunt. Right on the very corner of St. Bernard, we join the Alpine Highway, coming up from Harrietville and going on to OMB around Blowhard, Hotham and Higginbottom. We nos 6 the vehiclu towards Hotham and up COMB a galaxy of -, peaks, best described from the cairn of Hotham. It's got to be seen to be believed. Wellington, Howitt, Bullero Cobbler, The Twins, a huge granite monadnock that is Buffalo, Feathertop flecked with snow, Fainter, the wide expanse of peaks and flats making up the Bogong High Plains, Mount Bogong (more snow), Kosciusko (the Main Range glistening; with snow patches), the Pilot, the Cobberas, the Bowen Mtns and the Nunn, iong Plains .. indeed a complete circle to sea and a magnificent day to enjoy it. We got out to Mt Loch aboard the Coach and stood by to commence the third ana last stage of our sojourn on the heights. Begongr High Plains are well known to Sydneysiders thoGgE-Mirrarrty does not detract from the magnificence of being On them. But the changing scene is here apparent as the Kiewa Schema with painful slowness takes over Pretty Plain and Rocky Valley.. Our route went from Mt Loch to Dibbin's Hut to Mt Jim and then Mt Cope. Few visitors realise the value of Mt Cope and pass on leaving its peak unchallenged. Not that it takes great fortitude to climb it; but rather that hero one gains a Dress Circle view well worth the effort. The snowpole route was followed past Wallace's Hut and Basalt Hill to the major shock of the trip, the tremendous damage and waste brought about by Man in Rocky Valley. Last time that we were hero, it was a place of quietly grazing cattle now the scone of upheaval and squalid waste. From Rocky Valley on the land grows bald and mighty. At Mt Nelse one looks out towards Bogong, notes the great depth of the Big River that separates the two masses and scans the huge rifts on Victoria's highest peak; then slowly one picks up the gear and moves on to find Roper's Hut, thinking (but only in the most secluded inner self) “will we ever make it?” Bogong is a little world of its own. The northern and western faces dive down in a terrific plunge, the south is bordered by the deeply entrenched Big River whilst the east tapers away along the Long Spur to Mount Wills. Here are little glades and plains 0.6 SOMO treed, sonic bald. In keeping with the majesty of the mountain, Bogong's top is marked by a large cairn giving a front stalls view of the Murray's source .. Kosciusko and the Main Range and some near at hand peaks of nota,2a4Lmbra, Gibbo and Wr[n s. . 5 It was Wills that attracted most of our concern at this stage, because alongside that Mountain (and connected to it by a low saddle) ran the Long Spur sob an unexpertmdnted line of descent. Prom the Cleve Cole Hut the start of the LongpSpur was readily located by snow poles going up past “Hotel Ae/tex” and out along the spur itself. Then followed a'well-defined track for some miles, the Mitta Mitta Route going down the Mulhaussen Spur to the Northi The early stages of the Long Spur are narrow like a backbone; but slowly as the altitude drops and the slopes of Mt. Will are appreached the Spur widens, snow gums give place to groves of Mountain Ash and we come upon a small log cabin Hodgkinson's Hut. It is from here that difficulties arise since apparently, the track is lttie lased even though the drop is gradual and the route an excellent one, There are traps for the unwary and very scrubby patches. Parts of the scrub have bean cut at some time in the past and the track although undoubtedly present is difficult to locate, But in all this scurrying to fin rind keep the track a full day passes and the altitude in lose a 2,t2l clden descent. Coming off the Long Spur to the ect;:, brir p one on to Kangaroo Creek (it rises between Mt Wills and the Lang Spur back at the connecting saddle). a tributary of the Big River Just above the junction a road and water race runs down the Valley of the Big River to the Maude and 'Yellow Girl Gold Mine at Glen Valley on the Omoo Highway. At this point our Coach was awaiting us bringing the Third Stage of the Skyline Tour, to a close and commencing the homeward trip through Tallangatta and the Hume Weir. 00000 1000 000 And now we have conic to the time to reminisce. The difficulties of terrain, of attention to provisions and of personality repercussions, have passed; no doubt those factors are extremely important for they all add up to a determination of our sincerity of purpose and bring into relief, the impressions that are made u-oon our follows; no doubt too despite the many difficulties, we would welcome another opportunity to be t'Dgeth or if it 'meant the of the great plains and onowgams or the tumultuous call of The birds in the mornings as we awoke alongaiJe the swiftly flowing mountain streams It is the romance in our soul, the search after the infinite that impels the truly cultured to =oat on when lesser men would throw in the towel. The effort, the inconveniences have left us with a Lasting satisfaction a satisfaction that we must not hold too selfishly lest, we forget that there are others, filled with a similar but unsatisfied impulse to enjoy what we have onjoyod. Besot by many difficulties, those folk need our assistance! May I ask you to think about a vast Alpine National Park stretching f-pom Mt Erica (The Baw Paws) along the Groat Divide through Mts Matlock, Skone, MncDonaldo Magdala, Hewitt; The Hewitt, Snowy and 'Wellington. Plnius ; The Barry Mtns; The Dargo, Bogong and Anyhow, we are at iviz zuruurut uy wl-pu _ stores could be taken on and the route that we followed across the High Plains to the Bogong,Peak.(or similar) ,followed. Many routes wilmar……………………. 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