Grampians Peaks Trail

[Jack Doolan]

[quote="stevage"

Bring extra guy ropes, occies etc to give yourself more options. If there are spare platforms, obviously you will be fine.[/quote]

Thanks for the great reply. According to my Grampian Walks guide (Monica and Phil Coleman), there are 2 types of hiker camps, Signature and Standard. Our section of the walk will be in Standard camps with smaller 3.5 x 3.5m platforms. It will be a squeeze and rain is forecast and we will struggle to get the vestibules up is so tight a space. Anyway, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Would be nice to have the place to ourselves but I doubt it.

[Biggles]

@Jack Doolan

Something your wrote stopped me in my tracks...

Phil Coleman...?

Now there's a name from the very distant past!!
When I lived and worked in Melbourne CBD in the 1980s, a regular Friday night fixture was Phil's enthusiastic drive from Melbourne to Bright in his ever-reliable Tarago, arriving quite late and staying at Cobden Cottage (still there in Cobden Street), skiing Hotham and Falls over the weekend, returning very late Sunday night. He was the owner of Outdoor Travel back then, so these group outings were both for friends and clients alike — all aboard for a weekend of fun. Newbies like me were learning to ski at Falls, preferring Hotham (JB Plain, Wire Plain) later. Gosh, it is going on 37 years give or take a couple!!

I knew Phil was in Halls Gap running a walking company, but had no idea he was involved with the Grampians Peaks walk. Visitors and walkers alike are in excellent hands with Phil!

[Jack Doolan]

Biggles, I just noticed you are a neighbour (of sorts). Any connection with Up the Creek Motors - restoring old cars? They have a shed just down the road from me.

[Biggles]

Biggles, I just noticed you are a neighbour (of sorts). Any connection with Up the Creek Motors - restoring old cars? They have a shed just down the road from me.

No, no connection — my car is a lot more modern (and faster...) than what you will find in there!

They're well over the Fryers Ranges from me, in Wesley Hill. Mostly very old and rare motorbikes in various stages of restoration — kind of like a Men's Shed, but on a grander, very dedicated scale! They can sometimes be found hanging out at the Cumberland pub. I think there is a connection with somebody there to the pricey, well-guarded collection of fast (and sparkling) cars at the manicured stately home in Fryerstown. Just a hunch...

I am staying in Geelong with my niece (from 28th September) recuperating from surgery.

[Lophophaps]

Gosh, it is going on 37 years give or take a couple!! ]

I knew Phil was in Halls Gap running a walking company, but had no idea he was involved with the Grampians Peaks walk. Visitors and walkers alike are in excellent hands with Phil!

I knew Phil in 1971, have not seen him for decades. He also ran Bushgear when Loch Wilson sold it in around 1980. On one ski trip to Falls Creek we parked in the day car park – the signs could not be seen. There was a lot of snow that week, over two metres. When we returned the following weekend his car was an ice block. They put one ticket on the windscreen and then could not reach it. Phil parked at Loch car park at the top for a weekend of skiing to Derrick Hut. When we returned on the Sunday the car was covered in ice, stuck on the ground. Our attempts to melt the ice with natural hot liquid did not work. He eventually got the engine to start and drove off, breaking the tyre-ice seal. We watched in horror as he skittered downhill on the ice, no steering. He stopped before he reached the bottom or hit anything.

Phil's car Falls Creek

Phils car Falls Ck.png (106.09 KiB) Viewed 11511 times

The car at Mount Loch car park

[Jack Doolan]

My daughter and I completed our walk of the last section and what a marvellous trip it was. She has done the northern section and suggests our walk was easy by comparison. Still, I found it challenging enough with some serious ascents and descents which were very hard on the knees and ankles.

I had some trepidation going in the about the timber platforms however they turned out to be fantastic. Worked really well and no dramas at all. The facilities overall are wonderful and a credit to the designers and workers.

I cannot wait to go back and do more.

BTW, canary worms!. That's a first.

[Eremophila]

Oh yeh the worms seem to be common in moist areas in SW Vic. I found them strange at first too.

Thanks for the report, I was wondering a couple of days ago how you went. I very much enjoyed the small part that I’ve done and plan on having a go at the whole thing in the next year or two.

[Explorer_Sam]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has been up recently and knows whether there is water in the tanks at Sundial car park, Bugiga and Borough Huts?

Thanks,
Sam.

[Eremophila]

We've had plenty of rain down this way, and I think many of the bigger storms have gone north of us, meaning the Grampians would have received those. The BOM data for this month looks quite reasonable.

Obviously being Xmas holidays the tanks may have been hammered, particularly with people who don't know how to conserve water.

You could try calling Brambuk, on my last visit they actually had someone who seemed to know the trail. Otherwise try FB/Insta for threads discussing current conditions.

[Explorer_Sam]

Thank you so much. We're going to do a 40k loop in the Central section in a day (hoping to refill using those tanks) but we'll take enough emergency water to get us out of trouble if needed. I'll be able to report back this weekend.

[peregrinator]

Sam, it's been a long time between posts from you. So I was hoping to check out the blog you mentioned above. But it's stated as being no longer in use.

[Eremophila]

It’s looking warmish this weekend, the nights will be nice though.

The car park tank - as far as I understand it, any which are accessible by vehicle- should be maintained by rangers so shouldn’t be a problem. The campsite tanks are not, but they are pretty big.

Edit: yes, miss your cheerful trip reports and look forward to another.

[EGM]

I'm very out of the loop with the GPT, I wasn't shy about my dislike for the concept from the beginning. I am very happily surprised to see that they're updating policies on how camp sites are booked, opening up the track to more people. This is the way it should have been from the beginning but either way it's better late than never.

Glad PV are doing something good.

[nezumi]

I'm very out of the loop with the GPT, I wasn't shy about my dislike for the concept from the beginning. I am very happily surprised to see that they're updating policies on how camp sites are booked, opening up the track to more people. This is the way it should have been from the beginning but either way it's better late than never.

Glad PV are doing something good.

Possibly an indication of the response to the trail as a whole and the approach from Parks

[EGM]

From a casual walkers perspective I think there was generally a positive view towards the walk. And with the volume of walkers completing it I imagine they could've just left it as is and made a healthy profit.

But I guess there was some lobbying going on behind the scenes.

[Jack Doolan]

Hi, I am looking for recent (very recent or current) knowledge of water availability at Gar and Werdurg campsites please (heading there next weekend). I live only a couple of hours away and we have not had any decent rain up our way for a while.

Has anyone been there in the last couple of weeks and if so, how much water do you reckon is in the tanks? Please don't suggest calling Parks as I have and they won't tell you. Their blanket advice is to carry 4 to 6 litres per day.

I have never had issues before at any of the camps but it is summer and you never know how many bods have passed through.

Cheers

[Biggles]

Whether or not you can get anywhere within cooee of the Grampians depends on what happens with today's bushfire threatening Pomonal, and events over the next three days. Halls Gap has this morning been evacuated — all and everyone out with no scheduled return while the bushfire is being pushed in multiple directions.

It has been a very dry last month of summer after a sodden January, but even the Wimmera/Grampians area didn't get as much rain as for example the north-east and west Gippsland. As you are reluctant to ask PV for the status of the tanks, the best action for you is to play it safe and carry your own water of 4-5 litres and (hopefully) refill at the next stop or so.

This all assumes that the Grampians area will be open again by the weekend!

[Bill P]

I have found that the tanks that are filled from the road have always had water.The rainfall fed ones eg Mt Abrupt,Yarram gap etc have sometimes been empty after a dry spell. Both the Tractor shed and toilet tanks. Parks do generally put a note on the tank locations either side of an empty one advising you to fill up and carry extra.

[Baeng72]

This page has a map with serviced water tanks marked: https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/places-to- ... eaks-trail
Hopefully the fires are extinguished quickly and not too many animals died and bush lost.

[ggorgeman]

Will be interesting to see how Barrigar fared in the Mt Stapylton > Dadswells Bridge fire yesterday. Also, the Coppermine Track area where GPT crosses, which has a watertank. Hopefully all hikers were well and truly out of the area.

[ggorgeman]

Map of the fire on Vic Emergency shows that the fire didn't get as far south as Roses Gap (and Barrigar). Probably not quite at the Coppermine Campsite and GPT crossing there. Hopefully all infrastructure there should be ok.

[Drew]

I'm planning a couple of nights on the GPT in October. I'm pleased to see that they're allowing more flexibility with booking. This has me wondering about a custom route, starting at the Mt Zero Trailhead, first night at Barigar Campsite, second night at Gar Campsite, and then taking the track down from Gar to Roses Gap Rd. But I have no idea if that track (pictured) still exists, and have a feeling that Parks have closed a lot of tracks to funnel people onto the Peaks Trail to make money. Does anyone know?

An alternative is just doing the standard Gar and Werdug section, but I'd like to walk that Mt Stapylton section.

Thanks.

[JamesMc]

The old track from the old Troopers Ck Campsite is now virtually non-existent.

[Drew]

The old track from the old Troopers Ck Campsite is now virtually non-existent.

Thanks. That's a shame.

I'm confused now though - I hadn't realised that the track I'd circled was the old one from Troopers Creek Campsite (which I've walked years ago before it was closed), because on that Gaia topo there's a campsite further north called Troopers Creek, which I think is now the Mt Gar trailhead. Did they just move that campsite up the road a bit and re-use the name?

[JamesMc]

The old Troopers Creek Camp site was closed years ago. Parks ripped it up with a back hoe or something to make it impossible to camp on - probably something to do with Cultural Heritage or its history as a former police post.

Then there was a severe bushfire about ten years ago. Following that fire, access was prohibited for a few years, and the bush re-grew over the track. Parks never saw fit to re-cut the track, possibly because they had long term plans for the Grampians Peaks Trail???

Rock climbers kept using the track for a while, and maintained the first half of the track but that ended when Parks prohibited climbing in the area about five years ago.

The new Troopers Creek camp site down the road near Dead Bullock Creek is a recent development, although people had been camping there for years.

[Drew]

The old Troopers Creek Camp site was closed years ago. Parks ripped it up with a back hoe or something to make it impossible to camp on - probably something to do with Cultural Heritage or its history as a former police post.

Then there was a severe bushfire about ten years ago. Following that fire, access was prohibited for a few years, and the bush re-grew over the track. Parks never saw fit to re-cut the track, possibly because they had long term plans for the Grampians Peaks Trail???

Rock climbers kept using the track for a while, and maintained the first half of the track but that ended when Parks prohibited climbing in the area about five years ago.

The new Troopers Creek camp site down the road near Dead Bullock Creek is a recent development, although people had been camping there for years.

Ah, got it! Thanks.

[Baeng72]

BigKev did the old track a few years back: https://goinferalonedayatatime.blogspot ... ional.html

[Drew]

BigKev did the old track a few years back: https://goinferalonedayatatime.blogspot ... ional.html

He doesn't make it sound too bad, but I imagine it's only got worse since. Shame, it was a beautiful walk.

[Baeng72]

BigKev did the old track a few years back: https://goinferalonedayatatime.blogspot ... ional.html

He doesn't make it sound too bad, but I imagine it's only got worse since. Shame, it was a beautiful walk.

He's a past-master at understatement. When he says the ledge was a bit airy or something, he was probably free-soloing.

[CraigVIC]

Two years ago the track up to the first escarpment past wind rock was still clear and well defined. The side track to the falls was intermittent and for practical purposes nonexistent. Beyond that I can't offer much but as noted Big Kev is very reliable.