Following the Great Alpine Road through the Victorian Alps, Australia

Our first day in Victoria, Australia, was eventful. Travelling from the border to Glenrowan, where Ned Kelly made his last stand, we travelled to Greta to pay our respects at the cemetery where he is buried, before making our way to the base of Mount Buffalo where we camped at Nug Nug Reserve. Today would be another big drive.

Mount Buffalo is one of Victoria’s ski areas in the winter, and from here the Great Alpine Road climbs up into the highest mountains of the state, passing through the ski resort of Mount Hotham before winding back down to head towards the coast. This would be our journey for the day.

We set off early and drove through the town of Bright, driving on towards the huge mountains before us. When we reached Harrietville at the base of the mountains, the Great Alpine Road was suddenly closed off. We were travelling just after summer and there had been a lot of bush fires in Victoria during the hot, dry season. That was the reason for the road closure. A very helpful traffic controller told us that we could still head to the coast this way by travelling up through Falls Creek instead.

Panoramic view towards Mount Bogong on the way to Mount Beauty

Backtracking a little down the road, we took the turnoff to Mount Beauty, climbing up over a pass into another valley where the town sits at the base of the huge Mount Bogong. From here it was a long steep climb up into the Alps.

The road twists and turns up through beautiful green forested slopes and valleys. After a while the vegetation began to change to what I had seen in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales. I knew then that we were entering into the alpine zone. After a lot of climbing, we reached the alpine village of Falls Creek, which at this time of the year is basically a ghost town.

View down the valley from Falls Creek

The scenery around Falls Creek is simply beautiful. The greens and greys of the alpine vegetation covering the slopes of the mountains looked stunning against the blue of the sky. The mountain air was crisp but pleasant in the sun. Just past Falls Creek is the Rocky Valley Dam, a beautiful manmade lake that was built to supply water to the Hydro Electric Plant and also for snow making in the winter. Up here, I could look out over the Bogong High Plains, a unique alpine plain. This was truly like nothing else that I have seen in Australia. In just a few months, this whole place will be covered in snow. It must be a beautiful sight.

Panorama from the helipad at Falls Creek

The alpine road on the Bogong High Plains near Falls Creek

Panorama of Rocky Valley Dam

The road from Falls Creek drives across the dam wall and then along the Bogong High Plains, a stunning area of Alpine National Park. I had no idea how large this alpine area really is. It was sometime before we finally began descending back down the mountains on the other side, again zigzagging our way along the winding road.

Eventually, the road connects onto the Omeo Highway at the bottom which is another winding road that follows along the stunning gorge of the Omeo River. The town of Omeo wasn’t far away, but the winding road prevented us from getting there very quickly. We were starving for a late lunch by the time we finally got there.

From Omeo, we had to get back onto the Great Alpine Road and backtrack a bit up the mountain again to get to our campsite at Victoria Falls. If we had have driven through Mount Hotham as we had originally planned, we would have been driving this way anyway.

The view from our campsite at Victoria Falls. Peaceful

Victoria Falls is the site of Victoria’s first hydro electric project, which didn’t end up working well because of the lack of constant water flow, so it was soon abandoned. We had the campsite entirely to ourselves, looking out over beautiful rolling hills of farmland and eucalypt trees, with nothing but the local birdlife for company. Yet another great end to another great drive on our Great Australian Road Trip. I could get used to this life.

The sun setting behind some gum trees at Victoria Falls