The Burgoynes track should be put down as an iconic track and a track that should be done in the Victorian High Country. Sandhurst has tried the track a couple of times, once coming in from Black Range side and the other from Mt Margaret side and we never made it through, due to how rough, rocky and steep the terrain was. This trip was planned to come in from the Mt Margaret side and do the whole track no matter what, and the week before the trip I heard that the track had been graded.
Being the first trip for the year and being Australia Day weekend, I knew that this was going to be a big trip and the numbers were going to be high. We had 16 vehicles for this weekend, so I had to break the vehicles up into 2 groups.
Our first night was staying just out of Jamieson at Granny’s Flat, so we headed our own way to Granny’s Flat on the Wednesday, with some members getting in there early afternoon getting a camp spot for all of us, as the campground was full. Over the night we all turned up, squeezing in somewhere.
Thursday
We woke to nice morning and there was campers everywhere as now we could see around, we even had people sleeping in their vehicles waiting for us to move out in the morning to grab our spot when we left.
We had a quick briefing on the trip for the weekend and what to expect for the days event’s. We headed of out of camp as a group, turning left onto the Jamieson/Licola road and headed to Mt Skene. It took about 45mins to get to the Lookout, there was a huge tree that had come down we had to get around with no problem. The road up to Mt Skene is really rough as it doesn’t get maintained from the Council, in some sections you could be doing 10kmh. On reaching the Lookout @1574m we stopped for photos and a break. We headed of down Jamieson/Licola road and we had to take the detour track onto Glencairn/Licola road and into Licola. We stopped for lunch and a break. After lunch we headed out of Licola and turned left onto Tamboritha road, we travelled for about 10km’s before we got to Mt Margaret track. We aired down before we tackled it. Soon as you enter the start of the track you are straight into Low Range, and the track starts to climb, on the map it says steep and it is steep. There is sections that you are climbing over a massive rock face, with some sections that are rocky and rutted. We didn’t have any problems on this section, then the follows the Spur along the top just going up and down following the Mountain ridge. There is one section, it’s a really short climb with a little step up at the bottom and ruts all the way up. If you don’t pick your line properly, you will slip into a rut as it’s clay. Some vehicles did some amazing wheel lifts as they slipped into a Rita d some vehicles had to be winched up, as they got into very peculiar angles. We were waiting up at Chromite mine track, then we heard that Deb had broken a CV on this section. Being able to keep driving I made a change to the trip and headed down Chromite Mine track to the campsite.
The campsite hasn’t been used for a fair while as the grass down there was fairly long. We all got a camp spot and set up. I was cutting up a log in camp for firewood and a Red belly black snake slithered out, and headed through camp, then went out through the bush somewhere.
We lit the fire, had a couple of beers and some went for a walk up river and back. We sat around the fire for the night before going to bed.
Friday
This morning most slept in for a bit longer, we all had breakfast and the bacon and eggs were on in nearly every camp. We packed up slowly venturing back to the fire for a conversation with someone. Just before 9.00am we had a briefing explaining Deb and Rob will have to be towed out as their CV is broken. We put Glen in front of Deb in his Nissan Patrol and Frank went in front of Glen just in case Glen needed a Snatch up some of the steep inclines coming up. I was giving track information over the radio as I was heading up telling Glen what to expect on the way up.
We made it up to the top of Chromite Mine track and Glen wasn’t that far behind us, they did really well. We turned left onto Mt Margaret track and the track just follows the Spur going up and down all the way to Burgoynes track.
We made a right hand turn down Burgoynes. The last time we did this section it was rough and rocky, it had been graded so the track was a little easy to drive. Still a great track to drive, with rocky sections and good tight switch backs. We got down onto Heyfield/Licola road and we had lunch for about 30mins. After lunch is where Deb and Rob left us and managed to get to Heyfield before their Isuzu started to make to many noises and they had to be towed back to Bendigo. So the rest of us headed straight across the road continuing along Burgoynes track, then coming to the hill where we made it to last time, as the rocks were like basketball’s. This section had been graded and the drive was steep just a lot easier to drive, then once at the top is the Helipad with 360°views, then the track heads straight down into the MaCalister Gorge, a very steep section of the track.
We got down to the MaCalister river and the depth wasn’t to bad at all, up to the bottom of the bull bars. Now it was time to find a campsite, we went into one campsite and we ended up staying there, we got into camp roughly 1.00pm, so we cut some firewood, to have it ready for the fire later on.
We all set up camp then we headed down into the river for a swim for the rest of the afternoon. It was a very relaxing arvo.
About 5.00pm we lit the fire and some of us started cooking dinner on the fire and we had an enjoyable night around the fire with plenty of laughs, going to bed around 12.00am.
Saturday
This morning everyone was up early cooking breakfast and packed up their campsite’s fairly quickly. We all headed off before 9.00am doing the last section of the Burgoynes track, it’s a very nice steep climb out of MaCalister Gorge and we finally come to the end of the Burgoynes track (we made it from one end to another). We then turned right onto Black Range road and dropped back into 2wd for a while. We headed for Mt Useful at @1434m and the fire tower as well. When we got out of the vehicles it was that windy, nearly blowing you over. The views were amazing looking across to the Thomson Dam and Glenmaggie Dam as well. We didn’t stay long cause of the wind, so we headed off down McGuire track, you could drive this track in 2wd , very easy to drive. We then turned right down Mt Selma track and back into Low Range, a nice little steep section heading down to the Aberfeldy river, the river crossing was shallow so a easy river crossing, then just a nice climb out and up to Mt Selma.
We reached the top of Mt Selma @1469m by lunchtime so we had lunch at the top. During lunch I put the drone up to take a photo of the vehicles and the wind come through just at that time and took the drone, I couldn’t get it to come back, and I lost it forever. On my phone I couldn’t see that it had gone down 570m away, so Luke and myself went for a walk through the bush to find it, we search for about 1 hour, and nowhere to be found. So we walked back to the vehicles, then headed off again, we headed down Mt Selma road then turned right onto Champion track. Champion track is a really great drive, plenty of views heading down to the river. We reached the Goulburn river and the crossing was shallow, then the nice steep climb out of the valley. Reaching the top of Webber Spur, we kept on going along Old Coach road to Frenchmans Gap and the Woods Point/ Jamieson road. We turned right here heading down towards Gaffneys Creek and got a campsite at the Gaffneys Creek campground. There was luckily no one there, so we pulled in found a spot and we set up camp. I cut firewood as there was wood already there, just needed to be cut and split. Some of us went for a swim in the creek, and it was so cold and refreshing. We sat around and lit the fire having a few drinks. We didn’t have a very big night as we were very tired from the days drive.
Sunday
This morning as we all woke everyone packed up and headed for home. We all left in our own leisure, heading out of Gaffneys Creek campground along Woods Point/Jamieson road, into Mansfield and home.
Participants
Russell -105 LandCruiser
Andrew – Triton
John – Triton
Dean – Ranger
Deb and Rob – Isuzu
Rachael, Alex and David – Triton
Geoff – Isuzu
Russell S and Jett – Jackaroo
Dale H – 105 LandCruiser
Glen – Nissan Patrol
Wayne – Hilux
Luke – Hilux
Frank – Nissan Patrol
Dave – Jackaroo
Phil – Triton
Adrian and Mike – Rodeo
