A little exploring around the Whitfield area.

There are times when you plan a trip to an area you haven’t been before; you read all that you can about it from other 4WD groups trip reports, do all the research you can on the internet and everything turns out just as you had planned. This trip did not quite turn out that way. In saying that the company on the trip was excellent, the weather was perfect, low 20’s during the day with a fire keeping us warm at night as the temperature plummeted to low single figures.

We camped north of Whitfield at Edi Cutting on Friday night.

In the morning we set off for Black Range Track. I got a little lost trying to find the start of the track and after a short backtrack we let down our tyres and headed up Black Range Track. The first third of the track had been graded, and this should have been a warning for what was to come. The track surface was smooth and very dusty with low range only being required for a few of the rocky or steep sections. After the graded section the track became rockier. There are a few short tracks that head off down into the valley from Black Range Track. These may be worth using instead of the western entrance to Black Range Track.

The eastern end of Black Range Track comes out at Lake Buffalo; from here we headed south to Dandongadale and turned left up S.E.C Track. The short section of S.E.C Track took us to the start of Mt Buggery Track. From here there is a spectacular view of the western side of Mt Buffalo (thorough the power lines).

Mt Buggery Track had also been graded and there was a station wagon parked at the end of it. This was a bit worrying, but a quick look at its tyre marks indicated that it had come up S.E.C Track and gone no further. It was starting to look like someone had held a grader and dozer convention around the area a few weeks before. Mt Buggery Track was dusty, very dusty, well at least it seemed that way looking in the rear vision mirror (Jason, Mick and Rob may be able to comment more on the dust then I can). We continued along Mt Buggery Track and had lunch just after Mt Buggery (at a scenic lookout on the side of the road). The lookout looks south-west towards Abbeyard, Mt Cobbler and Wild Horse Gap.

As we were finishing lunch a group of 9 dirt bikers rode by. We continued on hoping to find that the grader had broken down, but alas this was not to be. We met up with the dirt bikers at the junction of Camp Creek Track, they were equally unhappy about the track grading and also covered in dust (Camp Creek Track had also been graded). After a short chat we headed left up Camp Creek Track to Buffalo Range Track (as this section on Camp Creek Track seemed less graded then to the right). Buffalo Range Track was less graded then the rest and provided some nice views; it was however not particularly difficult (with low range only used for a few sections).

At the south end of Buffalo Range Track we headed north-west down Schultz Track. Schultz Track had been described in one fairly recent trip report as being rutted at the top and should have provided some more fun than the rest of the tracks, except it too had been graded. The dust was deep and it was clear that it would have been a lot of fun in the wet (going either up or down). From the bottom of Schultz Track we headed south down Buffalo Range Road towards Penny Track. The graders had been here too and Buffalo Range Road was closed at the junction with Walshs Track. We weren’t going to get to Penny Track today.

Rob discovered a short in the wiring for his secondary battery and the stop gave him a chance to try and fix it. We could also work out what to do next. The decision was to head north and find somewhere to camp so Rob could complete fixing the wiring.
We camped the night next to the Buffalo River. There was a pile of rubbish left by previous campers. It had been there for some time with new rubbish being added as each new group came by. We set about finding some wood for a fire and setting up camp. Meanwhile Rob was busy fixing the wiring issue to his secondary battery. Mick decided to try a new recipe called ‘hobo stew’ for dinner. It looked very tasty and hopefully he reveals the finer details in his cooking segment in the In4mer soon. The fire was warm but the night was cold with the temperature dropping to 3 degrees.

Tracks for Saturday:

Sunday morning Jason instigated a clean-up of as much of the rubbish as we could reasonably carry, leaving the camp site quite a bit cleaner than when we had arrived. After cleaning up the campsite and packing up we headed north for Abbeyard-Lake Cobbler Track. Abbeyard-Lake Cobbler Track has a clay base and was rutted and had one or two interesting bog holes on it, but no more. The graders had been here too. Some rain would have made the track extremely slippery but it was also dry and dusty. From here we headed to the junction of Dan Buffalo Divide Track and headed north. For the most part Dan Buffalo Divide Track was not graded with some rocky sections and very scenic views from one lookout.

Our aim was to go down Mccreedy Track and check out Dandongadale Hut and the campsite. Then return and finish off Dan Buffalo Divide Track. However Mccreedy Track had been closed for seasonal burns and so we continued north. The north end of Dan Buffalo Divide Track is steep in sections and also a clay/dirt base that would have been interesting with a bit of rain on it. But it had been graded and was also dry and dusty. At the end of the track we met a guy doing some recon for an Easter trip. He was hoping to camp at Dandongadale Hut, no luck there.
At this point Mick was starting to run out of fuel so we discussed options for acquiring some more in the hope that we could do a few more tracks before ending the trip. This was not to be, most places would take us too far from the tracks and the Whitfield petrol station is only open during the week. We decided to head instead for Benalla which was the closest place to get fuel. We arrived with Mick only having 5lt left in the tank. After filling up we had lunch and headed back to Melbourne.

When I got back I again checked the DSE web site (in particular) for track closures and found that none of the closed tracks that we had encountered were listed on their maps. I guess it goes that way sometimes.

Geoff.


Tracks for Sunday: