Knockwood to Big River

This was supposed to be the official snow trip up and over Mt Skene, but due to Covid and our permits being revoked we were not aloud over the top. So plan B came into action and I come up with another trip Knockwood to Big River, going into Woods Point as members have never been into the gold mining town before.
We had 10 vehicles for the trip three vehicles headed up Friday afternoon arriving at Knockwood Campsite before dark while the other 7 vehicles left Bendigo around 5.00pm on Friday night and headed over getting into Mansfield BP by 7.30pm. We fueled up with Alpine diesel and having a bite to eat the servo closed we just made it in time. From Mansfield we headed towards Jamieson we got onto the Woods Point- Jamieson rd we just hit the dirt and found Dale in his Troopy stopped on the side of the road with a electrical problem, ended up being a wire came loose near the battery and we were off again. Only having about another 5 kms to go we got into Camp about 9.00pm to a well light fire as the boys had going and a couple of drinks under their belts, so we all set up our camps then joined them around the fire for the night, the start to a great weekend.

Saturday

Up to a mild morning with a very low cloud cover we got the fire going again as everyone started to get up, coffees going and some going for the bacon and eggs for breakfast around the warm fire then realising now we have to start packing up for a day on the tracks. After we packed up we had a quick briefing on the day’s events and how I have changed the trip a little.
We headed off at 9.00am going right out of Knockwood Campsite then up about 2kms we turned left onto German Spur Track and into Low Range as it’s straight up with a great drive with plenty of traction, when you finally reach the top you pass a lot of Historic Markers about the history up there , when there was pubs and a township. The track does flatten out for a while then heads down again to the Frenchmans Gap intersection, we turned left onto Old Coach rd very easy drive then you come to another intersection and we had a quick break before heading down Webber Spur track. After a break we headed down Webber Spur track, nice little drive looking out across the mountains before coming to the Goulburn River, we accessed the river crossing first as the exit had a bit of a land slide you had to go around, I gave it a go with no problems with Andrew getting hung up and a quick snatch Andrew was out. The rest of us made it with no problems, now on Champion Spur track it’s a climb all the way up looking back in the mirror with amazing views. At the top you could see where there had been a lot of snow going by the trees and flora and fauna lying over a bit. We came out onto Mt Selma rd and back into 2wd with a nice drive up to the Trigg point of Mt Selma we pulled up for lunch but just before I showed Nathan a little track up the side of Mt Selma which is the hard way he made it down but his attempt going up wasn’t even close as the rock steps were to steep and just no traction so we had a break for about 30mins. After our break we headed down Mt Selma track after doing this track a couple of years ago it has been graded so it’s fairly easy straight down nice drive down to a river crossing that actually had a deep bit where the water came up to the top of the bonnet, then climbs up, just a really nice climb to McGuire track at the intersection we turned right going along here for while we came to Pluto Link track and as there was a campsite down the bottom I wanted to check out thinking we could drive out Pluto track, the camp was fairly small so we kept on going through the river crossing and up Pluto track and the track turned into a red rutted clay incline so I had an attempt and no way, made it not even half way so instead of trying to winch we turned around and went back up Pluto Link track, so as I attempted Pluto Link I had to winch anyway which took me about 20mins with two extension straps, two tree trunk protectors as I had to set the winch cable up three times this Hill was that steep and rutted. Nathan and Dale made it up but 8 vehicles had to be winched, it took 2 hours to get all vehicles to the top, so we still decided to head towards Woods Point to Comet Flat. So we headed down O’Keefe track which was a lot easier than Pluto Link. We made it up to Walhalla rd and turned right and back into 2wd, travelling along here for a while it started to get dark we turned right at Abbot Link track then down Johnson Hill track to Comet Flat campsite we found a big open spot to fit all of us in, it was about 6.30pm and we were very tired from winching and walking up and down that Hill, we got the fire going and set up our camps we cooked dinner some just going for easy meals or just putting stuff in their ovens. We sat around the fire and it was funny cause everyone had a little sleep at the fire during the night then when they woke again kept on drinking, we sat up to 2.00am that night with plenty of laughs at the days events.

Sunday

The morning was slow so we decided to leave a little bit later than usual, we had breakfast sitting around the fire for a while then we packed up camp had a briefing on the day and we were on the tracks by 9.30am. Out of camp we had three river crossings so at the second crossing I set up the drone and sat it down stream and filmed us coming through, we then continued along Johnson Hill track into Woods Point, we parked the vehicles in line outside the pub for that photo opportunity then we went for a walk through the Main Street of Woods Point. We stayed in town for about 1 hour just looking around.
We then headed off out of Woods Point along the Woods Point-Jamieson rd passing Scott’s Reserve Campsite and we headed for Frenchmans Gap it’s roughly about 7kms from Woods Point. On reaching Frenchmans Gap we turned left onto Frenchmans Gap track up to Corn Hill at 1326m we stopped looking over to Mt Matlock. We then turned right onto Corn Hill track and followed this around to Ryan Spur track, turning right down here it’s a little overgrown at the start then just opens right up passing Ryan Hut and continuing along the open wide fire break brings you up to the top to Moonlight Spur track we turned left and headed down to the Mt Terrible track intersection. We had some lunch and a short break. After lunch Nathan, Dale and Karl left the trip here and headed up and over Mt Terrible then headed for home, while the rest of us went left down Hope track down to Big River rd we travelled along here in 2wd until we got to Old Reefton Logging track, this track is very overgrown with trees and blackberries scraping down the side of your vehicle and the track has some nice slippery climbs up to Mt Duffy at 1029m, passing Mt Duffy we turned onto Dray track which a easy and very Scenic 4wd track overlooking Mt Terrible one side and the Lake Mountain National Park the other side. Dray track comes out onto Eildon-Jamieson rd we then turned right then down about 2kms we turned into Tapanga Camping area, we got into camp at 3.00pm we all got a spot and set up camp collected fire wood as there was wood lying around everywhere and we lit the fire. We actually had the afternoon to relax around the fire with a few drinks some opting to go for a walk along the river and explore. As it started to get dark we started to cook dinner then had another great night around the fire once again some having asleep at the fire then waking up again and kept on drinking, we finished up about 12.00am.

Monday

The morning wasn’t very cold, the fire was lit again and the bacon and eggs was being cooked we packed up camp fairly quick and we headed of at 9.00am turning out of camp heading down Eildon-Jamieson rd for 2kms we turned right onto Newmans track and headed up to Mt Terrible, we got up to Mt Terrible track and went along a bit to the Mt Terrible Hut. We stopped here for a while hoping to get that awesome photo looking over towards Mt Buller and the cloud cover came straight up the side of the mountain and blocked our view. There was a couple of guys from TJM Ballarat staying in the Hut and we got talking to them and now are new sponsors to the Club. We headed off again back down Mt Terrible track to Polletti track turning right we headed down to the bottom and we aired up. Then we were back on Woods Point- Jamieson rd and we travelled along here through Jamieson and onto Mansfield where we stopped at the BP and had lunch before heading home.

Participants
Russell. 105 LandCruiser
Andrew. Triton
Matt and Emily. 105 LandCruiser
Nathan and Bailey. Nissan Patrol
Brett. Hilux
Dale H. 105 LandCruiser
Dale P. Troopcarrier
Simeon. Hilux
Geoff. Isuzu DMax
Karl. 105 LandCruiser