Warburton > Marysville > Healesville Toyota Rav4
You’re busy. Weekends are precious. But lunch and lattes just don’t cut it (unless you’ve seriously earned them). You want your 48 hours away from the desk stuffed full of wilderness and adrenaline. Trek, ride, run, paddle, dive, fly...anything to get your fill. Welcome to our new guide series where we send you off on a weekend packed with as much outdoor activity as possible within a 150km radius of Australia’s capital cities. This edition, we point our Outer Edge RAV4 adventure wagon towards the wild environs an 1–2 hour’s drive outside Melbourne, Victoria. Need wheels? Get an eyeful of our choice for an adventure chariot at Toyota RAV4.
6.00am
Point the beast east, specifically along Maroondah Hwy. Turn left onto Warburton Hwy. When you get to Yarra Junction, hang a left again towards the sawmill village of Powelltown. Keep going until you get to Ada River Rd, turn left and follow signs to parking.
7.30am
We’ll start off easy. Take a quick 3.2km trek through Myrtle Beech rainforest to the ancient Ada Tree. A giant Mountain Ash over 300 years old, it’s considered one of the largest known flowering trees in the world, standing 76-metres tall with a circumference of 15 metres. Allow an extra 45 minutes to visit the New Federal Mill, 1.4km further along the walking track.
9.30am
Morning Walk done and lungs laden with eucalypt air, head on backroads – a beautiful bush drive – through the dirt roads of Starling Gap and Big Pats Creek. Turn left and drive into Warburton for brunch and a caffeine fix.
10.30am
You don’t know it, but you’re right in the midst of one of Australia’s future MTB hot spots. Whispers are that Warburton has the potential to be a MTB Mecca and if Outer Edge’s early recces are anything to go by, this future superstar of singletrack is worldclass. Get an early taste on some fire trails that may as well be single on the flanks of Mt Little Joe, dropping into Wesburn then cross the Warburton Hwy and make your way up to the Aqueduct Trail, which weaves along the northern side of the valley back to Warburton. Hardcorers will be left wanting, to be sure, but it’s a cracking leisure ride nevertheless and whets the appetite for what you can only imagine lies in wait higher up on the slopes of Mt Donna Buang which has, we guarantee, plenty of craking technical…it’s just not legal. Yet.
1.30pm
Enjoy a carb-loading lunch at the likes of Wild Thyme Café or Three Sugars on Warburton’s main drag before flipping a coin to see who gets to be shuttle driver for the next leg. Warburton
2.30pm
The Winner gets to trek to top of Mt Donna Buang starting at the top of Martyrs Rd. This is a brilliant trail to train for the likes of the Kokoda – it’s short (7km), but up all the way. And steep. And slippery. And festooned with leeches. But it’s an adventure. Make sure you check the view (on a good day) from the viewing tower at the top of Mt Donna Buang as you wait for your shuttle driver to extract themselves from (i) the log fire at the Alpine Pub in Warburton (ii) a spot of hang gliding from the ramp located between Mt Donna Buang and Ben Cairn or (iii) strolling around the Rainforest Gallery on the way to the summit of Mt Donna.
4.30pm
Drive back doWn the mountain, taking a left at Acheron Way towards Acheron Gap and Marysville. Enjoy the streams of dusk light slicing through the towering forest, bathing walls of ferns on each bend. At the Marysville junction, turn right towards Cambarville. Short on time, take the short cut. You can then take the route skirting the Yarra Ranges NP to The Triangle, up to Woods Point (stop at the pub for an evening meal or a B&B slope off, if not up for the camp ahead). Keep heading north until you get to Doctors Creek Reserve campgrounds beside the Goulburn River (about 5km before Jamieson). Pitch a tent. (Marysville to Doctors Creek is approximately 140km, slow going, so leave plenty of time.)
6.00pm
If staying at the Pub, have a pint for us. Woods Point Hotel
7.00pm
If staying at doctors, pitch your tent, boil the billy or crack the cask of sab cab pronto.
6.00am
Up and at ‘em. Early bush brekky for those who camped. Drive further north to Jamieson and then east along Jamieson Rd until you get to Big River Rd. Turn left. Follow this until Enoch Point track is reached; from here it is a 4WD or a 750-metre walk down to the river. Details on the paddle can be found at Adventure Pro Paddle Australia. For details of the area, see Marysville Tourism.
8.00am
Break out the Paddles and PFDs. You’re going down Big River. This one’s for river running boats and paddlers comfortable with class two to three rapids. Safety checks done, coin flipped to see who is on shuttle run (or chance a 17km hitchhike back to the car!) put-in and paddle hard. This section is very narrow with small drops, pools and gravel races. The road runs along on the side of the river for most of the way but an early exit means a steep bush bash.
11.30am
The take-out is at Chaffeys campsite (Chaffeys Creek).
12.30pm
Head in to Eildon for a bite to eat – and the latte you’ve earned.
1.30pm
After lunch you have a choice (i) explore the Eildon National Park on your mountain bike – tracks galore, one is described here: mtbtrail. net/content/view/61/36/ – or (ii) head back towards Melbourne via Thornton, stopping off at the Cathedral Ranges for a mini-trek into her fern-tinged feet before scarpering in to Healesville for a top nosh up at the Healesville Hotel, and then home. Details of both parks at Parks Victoria.
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