AAWT and routes near Tantangara

[Lophophaps]

Advice is sought about routes at Kosciuszko NP near Tantangara Reservoir

The plan is generally southbound on the AAWT. After Oldfields Hut the AAWT does a loop to the north past Pockets Hut, over Harrys Gap and on to Boundary Creek. There's a track from near Morris Creek 503509 south to Old Currango Homestead. My very old Rules Point 1:25,000 map has a route marked from where the Murray Gap Trail from Oldfields meets the Blue Valentines Trail, 571504. The route goes west and south-west to the Old Currango Homestead.

If this is open plains then it should be okay. However, there are swamps marked on my map and feral horses may have chopped up the plains. Also, Sally Tree and Mosquito Creeks have sizable watersheds and could be big enough to create a challenge.

Is the route from 571504 to Old Currango Homestead viable?

Starting from the homestead it is possible to go north to Morris Creek and then on the AAWT to Boundary Creek. Another option is to go south. My Tantangara 1983 edition 1:100 has a road going south to Port Phillip Trail, which is taken north-west over Port Phillip Gap to the Boundary Creek campsite.

An alternative is to go southish over Dairymans Plain and west to Dairymans Gap to meet the AAWT south of Dairymans Creek. I'm aware of a party that did this but have scant details. Is this route viable?

The final alternative is to go south on Dam Trail, a bridge across the Murrumbidgee, and Nungar Creek Trail. If there's no bridge it will be too risky. Is this way viable?

[paidal_chalne_vala]

Do you have the
most up to date AAWT guide book?

[Lophophaps]

I do not have the latest guide book. The AAWT is more or less the same for most of the sections I will be walking. Also, the routes cited in the first post are not on the AAWT.

[north-north-west]

I tried your first alternative about twelve years ago and ended up following the edges of the timbered sections because the open plains were so awkard - wet, lumpy, tussocky, just very hard walking. The old maps do show a route crossing the plains, but even when I first went into that area it had pretty well disappeared.

An alternative is to go southish over Dairymans Plain and west to Dairymans Gap to meet the AAWT south of Dairymans Creek. I'm aware of a party that did this but have scant details. Is this route viable?

I dont have up-to-date info on this, but the track from the Mosquito Ck FT to Old Currango used to continue a bit SE and then mostly S, before turning back SE at 510473, to cross the Tantangara Reservoir. I walked that roughly 2km section and back and it was good going with the odd wet and muddy bit that you have to expect in that sort of terrain. From there it should be easy enough to continue SW and S on the open ground beside the reservoir until joining (or crossing) the Port Philip FT. The scrub bash from there to Dairymans would be a lot less pleasant, although you could follow the fire trail until it crosses open ground.

I never did Dam Trail but I have walked that stretch of the Murrumbidgee and a) there wasn't a bridge then and I wouldn't try crossing it without and b) it's not the easiest going beside the river. Nungar Creek valley was mostly easy walking, but I dont recall the fire trail going all the way north to the river ...

[Lophophaps]

NNW, thanks. I had my doubts about the first route. I'll see if I can go south to Old Currango and down to the Port Philip Trail, then NW to Boundary Creek.