Bushwalk Australia

Due to water inundation over the tracks from the big Wet, The Great Walk has been Closed till further Notice. apparently from what i've been told one person has complained they had to wade through a bit of water, so DERM closed the track till further notice.

I had a Hiking trip I was leading which i've had to cancel today till further notice. My first trip leading mission for the local Bushwalking club, was so much looking forward to it. Had everything planned.

I walked half of the Great Walk apx 7 weeks ago and there was hardly any water I've had to walk through. Apparently there's less water now over the tracks than there was 7 weeks ago. People just amaze me at times. One person complained they had to walk through water, i've been told, so DERM closed the track.

*&%$#! tourists.

*&%$#! hell
I seriously just booked flights for september last monday.

wobbly wrote:*&%$#! hell
I seriously just booked flights for september last monday.

I'm sure by September you'll be fine, so long we don't get heaps of rain in august. It's normally dry that time of the year here. Bookings for the great walk camps can be made online from July.

Phillipsart wrote:DERM closed the track.

Easy, just dont use the track.

And in news just to hand Tasmania has been closed indefinitely on account of creek crossings, muddy spots, some white stuff on the hills and it generaly being a bit nippy in the air

You gotta wonder sometimes, these Government departments, with some decisions they make. It's crazy, For example a walk as far back I can remember in a popular area of Fraser Island between Central Station and Lake McKenzie, Now has this sign on it.

This was regarded as a relatively easy walk in the past, Now they call it a extreme location. any normal person would think twice about this walk now, But than again, there's probably not as many normal people as there used to be. Honestly I think the new generation are starting to get stupid. What hope does the future have.

I recently taken this photo At Lake McKenzie on the start of the walk to Central Station. Within a few km's of this walk there is a lake with plenty of fresh water, and Central Station with Facilities such as Tables, Chairs, Cover, Hot showers, Camp, Toilets, Phone etc within 10km from this location. I can understand a sign such as this on the more remote part of the Great Walk, but in a area that used to be regarded as a must do walk of relatively easy walk. I don't know.

Maybe these signs are aimed for the new generation of stupid people in this world. Some of the overseas backpackers I've had to assist in the past come to mind.

I must be a great walker as shown on the Sign, Great walkers supposedly look like those figures, I kind of look like one of them. It's official according to DERM i'm a great walker.
Your's Truly. Photo taken on this very stretch of walk on a wet rainy day.

Cooloola Wilderness trail is also closed "until further notice" ( north of Harry's Hut through to Mullens Carpark)... apparently for the same reason - water over the track. We hoped to walk it the week before Easter but it was closed. So we thought we'd do it in the June school holidays but EPA staff said it could still be closed then if we get more rain. Fraser Is. was our next choice - but it too is closed, as is our third of the Throsborne trail AND our fourth @ Carnarvon Great Walk. So much for the tourism campaigns reminding us that QLD is back on deck & open for business!

wobbly wrote:And in news just to hand Tasmania has been closed indefinitely on account of creek crossings, muddy spots, some white stuff on the hills and it generaly being a bit nippy in the air

Yeh this thread isnt doing much to rid the tag of "soft" us Tasweigans place on you mainland folk...

You dont have a great walker hat Phil?
Those signs are spookingly communist like..

These days, 'remote' just means there isn't any mobile reception. So the youngsters panic: OMG! I'm going to die!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In regards to Fraser Island Hike, the Great Walk has very large volume's of water over it. Hikers have had to traverse parts of the Great Walk prior to the track closure holding there packs over there head in waist deep water.

Chances of the track being opened prior to July is very slim. I myself believe it could be sometime before the Great Walk is open, as the water has no where to go, the water filters through the sand at a very slow rate, evaporation is it's best chance, being it's coming up to winter, evaporation is very low compared to summer days. Bookings are being taken from July but that will be under constant review.

Fraser Island has recently received a lot of rain in the past month including overnight. Let's just hope the rain will stay away from now on, particularly at Fraser Island. Fraser Island receives a lot more rain then we do on the main land.

I had no idea that the water was that high, I've received word on this earlier today via a reputable source, DERM.

Phillipsart wrote::shock: You gotta wonder sometimes, these Government departments, with some decisions they make. It's crazy, For example a walk as far back I can remember in a popular area of Fraser Island between Central Station and Lake McKenzie, Now has this sign on it.

This was regarded as a relatively easy walk in the past, Now they call it a extreme location. any normal person would think twice about this walk now, But than again, there's probably not as many normal people as there used to be. Honestly I think the new generation are starting to get stupid. What hope does the future have.

I recently taken this photo At Lake McKenzie on the start of the walk to Central Station. Within a few km's of this walk there is a lake with plenty of fresh water, and Central Station with Facilities such as Tables, Chairs, Cover, Hot showers, Camp, Toilets, Phone etc within 10km from this location. I can understand a sign such as this on the more remote part of the Great Walk, but in a area that used to be regarded as a must do walk of relatively easy walk. I don't know.

they have these signs on all of the great walks i think. there is a very similar sign on the gold coast great walk, right outside the binna burra lodge. pretty funny seeing a sign like that within view of a warm restaurant serving woodfire pizza and wine

Great Walk partial re-opening: Fraser Island Great Walk camps at Central Station, Lake McKenzie, Lake Wabby and
Valley of the Giants have re-opened. All other Fraser Island Great Walk camps remain closed. All tracks along the Fraser
Island Great Walk have re-opened EXCEPT the sections from Dilli Village north to Central Station, and Valley of the
Giants north to Happy Valley. This is due to serious inundation of large sections of track which won’t improve until the
water table lowers naturally.

I think it will be a while before the other sections of the track is opened.

I believe as off today 1st July 2011, the Fraser Island Great Walk has fully opened.

No as at 1/9/2011condition report it is still half closed - or half open - depending on you demeanor.
"Great Walk partial re-opening: Fraser Island Great Walk camps at Central Station, Lake McKenzie, Lake Wabby and Valley of the Giants have re-opened. All other Fraser Island Great Walk camps remain closed. All tracks along the Fraser Island Great Walk have re-opened EXCEPT the sections from Dilli Village north to Central Station, and Valley of the Giants north to Happy Valley. This is due to serious inundation of large sections of track which won’t improve until the water table lowers naturally."

The entire track is closed as of the 19/11/11 due to wildfire risk. nomore fraser trip this year

Yes, that is true, I've never seen so many restrictions placed on the island as there has been this season. As soon there's a mere slightest of risks, they close. Unfortunately, I think a lot of it is down to the stupidity of some people. I wonder if the island will ever be the same now. If we get more rain this season, I can't see that track ever opening for a very long time.

Your best hope would be the central part, once this bush fire risk is over. Forecast is for rain here in a couple days.

Could a moderator change the title of this thread to "Fraser Island Great Walk-Track condition"

As off today, still the whole Fraser Island Great Walk in not opened. It's now been closed for a year and a half.

I'm planning a 6 night hike for early July, when I started booking the sites last week, I noticed that the Hikers Camp ground North of Valley of the Giants and south of Central Station where available on the DERM and accepting bookings.

Does this mean the full Great Walk is scheduled for opening on the 1st July?

On the phone, called the taxi service on the island, this is news to them. They had not heard anything, so I tried calling the Rangers on the island. No answer, Left a message if they could call me back to confirm the track opening on the 1st July. 4 days later no response, So I presumed the fact that these sites are open for bookings from the 1st July, I assumed that the full track opening is scheduled for the 1st July 2012.
Not hearing back from the Rangers on the Island, I tried a little experiment and booked one of the Hikers camp that's been closed for the past year and a half, and noticed sites had been booked by other hikers. I booked a night and it all went through, Got the permit in the email. You beauty I thought. The full walk is open. So I proceeded on the following days to book the remaining Great Hike camps. I've got all the permits here.

Big turn of events today, I received a return call from the Ranger at Fraser Island informing me that the full great walk hike will not be open in July. I informed the ranger that bookings where available on the DERM website for the closed sections and that I succeeded in booking the complete hike and have the camping permits emailed to me. The ranger was a bit surprised with this, and informed me to contact the DERM for a refund if possible, because there's no chance the complete circuit will be opened in July.

Be warned. There a huge shambles going on with the Fraser Island Booking system.

I noticed that the error on the DERM website, showing and accepting bookings for the Closed Sections of the Great Walk has been rectified.

I don't know about you, but I don't think it's fair that I might be out of pocket of over 31.00 for camping fees, whereby the error was on the part of DERM and not myself. Spoke to DERM yesterday and there's no promise I will receive a Refund, they told me you accepted the terms and conditions at time of booking, so it's basically stiff *&%$#! to me. If it was any higher I'll jump up and down and not let it go.

Spoken to a park ranger, there currently rebuilding the tracks around the lakes in the closed sections, the old tracks are still under water. ETA for completion of the track rebuild is September the earliest.

Hi Phil

Mate QNPWS and DERM are sounding more and more like a natural disaster everyday. Left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing and the right hand not even aware that there was a left hand.

I believe it will only get worse - cutbacks are being rolled out throughout all governement departments under the new government so expect less funding for National Parks (an oxymoron if ever I heard one).

If I were in your position I would just go and walk what I booked and paid for. What are they going to do? Arrest you? Send in police and helicopters and SWAT? I reckon they wouldn't have the resources or the inclination to move against you they are that strapped for cash, manpower and sadly morale. Even the Labour government bled QNPWS service dry preferring to spend the taxpayers $ on desk jobs instead of field personnel. What a waste of very scrace and precious natural resources - just take a look at all the weed infestations that they are doing nothing about.

Anyway have a great trip!

Maybe walking a closed track and avoiding rangers could add to the excitement!.
Hint, They do not do track work on the weekends I think.
Of course I have never done that and I do not recommend anyone do this too!!

I'll be back at Fraser Island in less than two weeks for 9 days. Will check out the lakes causing the issues with the Great Walk while I'm there, should get a pretty good idea when the ETA of the Great Walk full track opening, will be interesting to see if anyone is working on the tracks. As I mentioned before, I spoke to parks rangers recently and was informed that there hopeful of a full opening in September. You could probably add a few months to what they predict to be on the safe side.

Hey Phillipsart! I'm so glad I found this thread....

I'm traveling to Fraser island July 11 with plans to do as much of the great walk as possible. I'm super bummed to hear about so much of the trail being closed. Could you please fill me in on your experience? Any advice on planning my trip would be greatly appreciated!!!!! Thx!

Lowercase_t wrote:Hey Phillipsart! I'm so glad I found this thread....

I'm traveling to Fraser island July 11 with plans to do as much of the great walk as possible. I'm super bummed to hear about so much of the trail being closed. Could you please fill me in on your experience? Any advice on planning my trip would be greatly appreciated!!!!! Thx!

PM me your email address and I'll advise the best plan of attack. Half the great walk tracks unfortunately are still closed, but I have a great circuit you can do without going through the closed sections.

Your going to miss me by two days.

Lowercase_t wrote:Hey Phillipsart! I'm so glad I found this thread....

I'm traveling to Fraser island July 11 with plans to do as much of the great walk as possible. I'm super bummed to hear about so much of the trail being closed. Could you please fill me in on your experience? Any advice on planning my trip would be greatly appreciated!!!!! Thx!

Hi, I just noticed you only sent one post message thus far, for this reason, you might not be able to send PM message, I'm not sure what the rules are with this on the forum.

I'm happy to offer advice here if you wish, other's might be interested.

First off, How many day's you planning on hiking Fraser Island?

hello im of to fraser island in aug for 6. 7 days walking what route would you reccomend thanks

pchallen wrote:hello im of to fraser island in aug for 6. 7 days walking what route would you reccomend thanks

Depends if the full Great walk track is open or not, I doub't it will be.

If you want to stick to the great walks track. which I recommend you do. a good itinerary is:

Take the barge from River Heads to Wangoolba Creek. Walk to Central station stay the night.
Than hike to Lake Wabby camp.
Lake Wabby to Valley of the Giants
Valley of the Giants back to Lake Wabby
Lake Wabby to Lake McKenzie
Lake McKenzie to Kingfisher bay resort.
Return to River heads on the barge leaving Kingfisher Bay resort.