Remote Wilderness
The walk to Wonnangatta Sation was one my very early walks (in my youth) with YHA’s bushwalking group over an Easter period as far back as about 1970.
My recollection is that we began the walk from Mt Arbuckle on the Mt Howitt Road. There were the remains of a cattle yard near where we started and we spent the first day walking across the Snowy Plains parallel to the road. The cattlemen were rounding up the cattle that were, in those days, grazing in the high country.
We camped for the first night at Howitt Plains Hut and on the second day we travelled along the edge of Bryce’s Gorge and then down to the Wonnangatta River where we camped near the old station. We were interested to see the old graves and that there were still a few walnuts on the tree at the site of the old homestead.
On the following day, we walked down the river and crossed to the Wombat Spur which we climbed up to a ridge that formed a divide between the Wongongarra and Wonnangatta Rivers. The cloud was low and we actually climbed through it so that we could look down on the cloud in the valley. We followed the ridge track before dropping down a spur to the Wongongarra River. It rained overnight and I had to cut the floor out of my old A Framed nylon tent to prevent a puddle forming on the floor and wetting everything. In those days I not only carried an H-frame pack, but also a rubber inflatable air mattress. What a lot of weight! I also cut tent poles each night from local trees.
From a camp in the forest by the river, we walked out to Grant, an old gold mining town to be picked up by the van for our trip back home.
