They were proposing to build up to 80 structures and clear a ■■■■ tonne of alpine wilderness. There’s that.
It’s a subjective view, and everyone’s entitled to their take, but I like those last vestiges of alpine wilderness (yes there are roads and ski resorts in those hills so I’m under no illusion it’s pristine) to be relatively wild. Between falls and Hotham there are some refuge huts (that are for emergency use only) - you camp out there you are taking a tent. I like that. It’s got a rawness that makes being out there (your word) epic.
I don’t want a bunch of private structures to go up. If I roll in to Tawonga huts now, there’s remnants of some old yards and a ramshackle hut or two that will save you in a snowstorm with rats for company, and a long drop. It’s not hard to get there - it’s an easy 5 km walk from your car at Pretty Valley. The thought I might roll in at some time and there’s privately run accommodation for people not carrying their gear even that easy walk makes me slightly queasy. We don’t need to make being in the wilderness easy/convenient and correspondingly unspecial. Just my view.
Are we talking tents on stilts kinda thing? Because the word structure has a lot of emotion around it and the reality is probably pretty low key.
Say 3 camp sites with 20 tents, toilets, staff accommodation and a kitchen / dinning room. That would be pretty low impact if designed and constructed properly. And they’d have to do it super environmentally friendly in order to get the clientele they’d be chasing.
I don’t know the area or the design they are going for. It may well be that they’ve proposed something that’s going to break the character of the hike. It may be a really good plan that hides from view.
The good thing about the Overland Track glamping option is every commercial site is out of view of the main trail. You see the branch off the commercial huts, but never the buildings themselves. It’s a good model and one that should be replicated.
Dropping commercial camps that ruins the standard experience is a deal breaker.
I think there’s a lot of clever things we can be doing to make remote areas more accessible and create fantastic tourism businesses, but they need to be done well. If done right the reality is pretty impressive, it’s just hard for people to trust that it will be done right.
Maybe, but I honestly don’t like the inequitable access and ease of access it provides. And I’m conscious that means it’s hard for some to get out there. I’m 60 with an arthritic knee, and I can’t do what I used to. But I don’t want to pay someone to cart my gear out. It’d feel like cheating. And honestly (for me) it would detract from the wilderness experience if others were skipping along in their chapel street designer jeans and sneakers to their pre made glamping tent and prepared dinner, even if it was out of sight around the corner.
I’ve been caught in blizzards and been in mortal danger a couple of times up there. I like that it’s raw somewhat remote and slightly dangerous. Things that dilute that wildness detract from the possible experience Imo.
Quick story. My son recently did a walk up Bogong down to Big River, up Duane Spur to Ropers, and across the plains to Mt Loch. They had been going to continue over Feathertop.
He had 3 mates. One was a bit ill and one was frankly underprepared. Carting a heavy pack up the staircase is a fairly big undertaking if you’re not used to it. Doing a similar climb again next morning from big river up past Ropers cooked the two weaker guys. They bailed out at mt Loch. My son and the other fairly strong member went back to do the Feathertop bit after their weary/ill mates had bailed. I like that this is really quite difficult. That is what makes bring out there special IMO, and that includes looking fellow walkers in the eye and the knowing look you get of shared experience of the difficulty that has earned that view and sense of satisfaction. I probably can’t do that particular walk again with my dodgy knee and that’s fine. I can do bits as day walks and otherwise cart my pack to less ambitious campsites, and there’s plenty of places to do that up there.
My experience on the Overland is the glamping types were pretty similar to the hardcore hikers. They still needed to carry clothes, a tent and a backup food supply for if the weather turned and they got caught out. Maybe a 10kg pack instead of 20-25kg.
I didn’t see any out of touch city folk. Just people who were kitted out like most of us, just with a day pack instead of a big hiking pack. I didn’t notice any vibe problems. Just a few fellow hardcore hikers who had scored excess fresh bread off the staff and were raving how good it was.
The ones that weren’t kitted out properly were the Euros. I remember a group of French backpackers in sneakers, jeans and thin jumpers. Food supply was 2 boxes of salada biscuits and a mesh bag of fresh oranges, nothing else. Or an Italian couple with school bags with about 60% of their gear tied to the outside. Kmart sleeping bags tied on. And all of this was in torrential rain. Absolute liabilities and I’m stunned tourists like them don’t die more often.
I’ve done multi day hard core wilderness hiking and I’ve done a bit of “pamper tramping” as well where a roof and food and luggage transport is provided. Depends on the group of friends you are with really.
Some friends would not or could not carry a heavy pack and don’t like the idea of tents and sleeping bags. Fair enough !
I have done the traditional Tassie Overland and can’t say I was conscious of the luxury huts or hikers.
I quite like the New Zealand model where decent huts are provided and there are parks staff here and there maintaining things. Sure you pay a few dollars to hike but you can do it cheaper if you camp in a tent. On the Heaphy track (5days) in New Zealand we met three sisters in their late 70’s who did that hike annually. I’m sure they wouldn’t have if they had to carry big packs.
I get that it is nice to venture into the high country in Victoria and enjoy pure wilderness but I think we are missing a trick in not making it so that it could be enjoyed more widely.
Treated myself at Paddy Pallin while I was down visiting dad today. Took a bit of work initially but I was able to pitch it fly first with the ground sheet which will come in handy if I’m out in the rain.
Plan to pop its trail cherry at Angus Vale along the Mitchell River walking trail tomorrow night (provided it’s actually open as last I checked there were some issues with landslides).
Is the Overland Glamping thing new (and different to the standard huts)?
Did it a decade ago and don’t recall seeing anything else.
We went at the tail end of Winter, just after a decent snow storm, and it was sensational. Basically no one else around (empty cabins), cool hiking temps, and awesome snowy terrain. Highly recommend.
This was me at about 6pm last night along the Mitchell River trail haha.
Ended up bailing out and finding a spot to camp about 12km short of the mark (having only covered about 8.5km lol).
Photos ~1.5 hours apart near the camp site.
Never met him but have read all his books on the high country and how he built Mittagundie and Wollangarra and know people who helped with Wollangarra including building the range hood made out of old corrugated iron. Loved the stories about the buses and getting them across Melbourne up to Mittagundie as well.
I may have mentioned this before but I have a work colleague who I am pretty sure is mid 60s. Grew up in Mt Beauty and still has a house there. Sometimes in winter he will very early walk up the staircase, putting on crampons when needed (he’s rescued groups who got up there in the warmth of the day without them (eg with snow shoes) and got stuck as it froze up late arvo - says it’s suicide without the crampons). Goes past the summit, gets to the top of a huge SE facing gully that he reckons is the longest steep run in Vic if not Australia, to the treeline. Straps on his XCD skis, does a run, walks/crampons back up. Sometimes does another run. Back past the summit, down the staircase in the dark…
Yes - He wrote two books about building Mittagundi (‘Something Small’) and Wollangarra (‘Secondhand and Solid’). He’s written I think 7 more on high country history and characters, but most are out of print. Sounds like you have read them all.
This is the car that dragged all those buses - when he’d change clutch plates on the road - from Melbourne to Gippsland and to Omeo/Mittagundi. Some went to Howqua for Mobile Mittagundi. I’m in the passenger seat - it still goes after several million kms.
A friend was up there when Mick Hull was up at Bogong and the hut for his 80th and still skiing but apparently he was getting looked after by a bloke in his late 60s. (Edited Mick Hull)
