Mt Buller and Surrounds
Date and time: 7:30 pm Friday 7th February to 4:00 pm Sunday 9th February
Trip Standard: Medium/Hard with some rocky tracks and river crossings. This trip will be suited to confident 4WDrivers with some previous experience. Drivers MUST have completed the RRCV club driver training or equivalent.
Description: This year again will be a bush camping basecamp. This is an ideal trip for members that want to experience great 4WDriving, mountain views and high country history. Highlights include visits to Lake Cobbler, Craig’s hut and stunning views, plus some challenging 4WD tracks and a few river crossings to make things a bit interesting.
We will setup a basecamp in the Bindaree Flat area which is approximately 3 1/2 hours from Melbourne and 70 Km (2 hr) from Mansfield. The campground has creek water only (bring your own drinking water) and bush toilets. The route on Saturday will return to the basecamp at Bindaree Flat, but the Sunday route will NOT and will include many medium/hard 4WD tracks, therefore making it is unsuitable for any type of towing.
Getting to Bindaree flat on Friday night will involve meeting at Mansfield and travelling over some fairly easy tracks on Friday evening.
Day 1. Starting at Bindaree Flat, we will climb up into the mountains to the north east of Mt Buller and visit Lake Cobbler before returning to our base camp. If we have time we will visit Bindaree Falls in the late afternoon. There is a short 400m walk to the falls, from where you can look down the valley from behind the waterfall which can be quite pretty. The distance on day 1 is approximately 70 km of mainly low range driving.
Day 2. From our overnight camp, we will pack up (we will not be returning today) and follow Bindaree Road and Monument Track to our morning tea stop at Craig’s Hut. We will drop down into the King River valley to Pineapple Flat for lunch before a long climb to the summit of No 3 Mountain for more spectacular views. The distance on day 2 is approximately 130 km with 90 km of mainly low range driving.
Weather: Alpine environment, potentially cold and wet. We have had wet weather and snow in the past, so please bring clothing, footwear and camping gear suitable for the conditions and keep an eye on the weather forecast for the Alpine area.
Equipment: Below are the recommended vehicle requirements. If you are not sure if your vehicle is suitable for a trip, please have a chat with the trip leader.
Good off-road tyres (All Terrain, 60 profile recommended as a minimum), UHF radio (or one borrowed from the club), a well-maintained vehicle with low range (or equivalent), good ground clearance (200mm recommended as a minimum), recovery points, standard recovery gear including dampener, rated snatch strap and shackles, shovel. Drivers MUST have completed the RRCV club driver training or equivalent.
Additional Equipment required: Camping gear food and drinking water for 2 days / 2 nights in the bush. Clothing for wet and cold conditions. Morning tea and lunches will be in the bush each day – byo simple, “on the move” lunches and morning teas (byo thermos).
No camper trailers, pets or firearms
Maps and Reference Material: Rooftop’s Bright – Mansfield Adventure Map
Additional Equipment required: Camping gear, food and water for the weekend. Clothing for wet and cold conditions. Morning tea will be in the bush each day – byo thermos, etc.
Fuel: Full tank ex Mansfield (the BP servo closes at 9:00 pm Friday night, but there is a 24 hr Caltex card only servo near the second roundabout driving through town from Melbourne). There is no fuel along this route, so you will need to carry enough for the entire trip.
Distance: Mansfield is approximately 200 km from Melbourne. The trip distance from there is approximately 270 km of which 160 Km is mainly low range driving.
Duration: 2 days
Convoy limit: 10 vehicles
Meeting arrangements: We will meet at the BP service Station on the Mt Buller road leading out of Mansfield at 7:30 pm on Friday night (this can be flexed depending on peoples ability to arrive sooner or later – discuss with Graeme (TL)). From Mansfield it is about a 2 hour evening drive to our camp at Bindaree Flat. We will aim to finish about 4.00pm at Mansfield on Sunday.
Club Guest Registration policy: It is club policy in regard to insurance cover that if a member brings any non-members on the trip they must be registered and have paid the required fee as Temporary Members BEFORE the event.
i.e. non- members can no longer register on the day with the trip leader.
Temporary Membership information and ways to register can be found at:
Temporary (Guest) Membership
Also if a non-member wishes to bring their own vehicle, the member inviting the non-member must contact the trip leader for approval to bring the vehicle. Such approval will take into account skills of the driver, suitability of the vehicle and whether or not a place within the convoy limit is available for a non-member's vehicle.
Trip Leaders: Graeme Carter, phone 0400 195 932, email graeme.carter23@bigpond.com
