The Grand Strzelecki Track
- walks of discovery in wild places
About us
The Grand Strzelecki Track helps to sustain the viability of the small communities through which it passes, as well as the wider Gippsland area, by opening up the Strzelecki Ranges to visitors from Australia and overseas who are looking for an extended walking experience in a unique part of Australia.
The Track took over 2 years to build and was opened in May 2012.
Over 100 km of track includes both easy and challenging walks that will suit trekkers with varying levels of fitness and experience.
Since then we have been working towards raising more funds to provide more facilities and an even better experience for visitors.
Our focus has been on protecting, while showcasing the environmental values that bring people here and to pass on our local knowledge so others may appreciate and want to protect these as much as we do. Construction of the Track involved extensive weed removal works within Morwell National Park and your trek will also take you through other areas of high biodiversity value where restoration projects can be seen.
Two thirds of the Grand Strzelecki track passes through plantation and diverse native forests managed by HVP Plantations and the project would not be possible without this contribution.
The project is entirely managed by an incorporated body of volunteers (Grand Strzelecki Track Inc.) who undertake all fundraising, maintenance, promotion and development. In the high rainfall environment of the Strzelecki Ranges, where vegetation grows prolifically and the Southern Ocean often brings gales or even occasional snowfalls, maintaining the Track presents many difficulties and unexpected costs. However the wild elements, luxuriant growth and fallen logs covered with mosses and fungi are also part of the essence of the Strzeleckis which makes the experience something special.
The Grand Strzelecki Track
Come and stand in awe under forest giants, or step into a lost world of ancient temperate rainforest equal to any on Earth… yet not hear a sound except the serenade of lyrebirds. Come and walk in solitude through a different rainforest so rare, most people have never heard of it, and far fewer will ever see it.
Come and discover peaceful, beautiful places far from the beaten track, and away from the parks all the tourists visit. And when you need to reacquaint yourself with the comforts of life, try a home cooked meal in a friendly country guest house or a cozy cabin in a tiny, peaceful hamlet amidst all this natural beauty.Come and discover the Grand Strzelecki Track!
Home to the tallest flowering plants & hardwood trees on earth, the majestic Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans) _see above_ the Strzelecki Ranges of Gippsland are like no other place.(See left )
The massive trees and prolific jungle-like undergrowth that cloaked these ranges when white settlers first arrived became known as The Great Forest of South Gippsland, or simply The Great Forest, a title which is an integral part of Gippsland’s history and heritage documented in such publications as The Land of the Lyrebird: a Story of Settlement in the Great Forest of South Gippsland (1920).
Much of The Great Forest was lost to sawmilling and settlement, but examples are alive and well in the eastern Strzeleckis where they are now preserved in Morwell National Park, Tarra-Bulga National Park, the Gunyah Rainforest Reserve, and 30,000 hectares of privately managed protected forests connecting and surrounding these core areas.
With its high rainfall and deep, fertile soils, this is one of the most prolific environments on earth where regrowth forest from the 1939 and 1944 fires is already 50 metres tall.
Until the Grand Strzelecki Track was built, most of these forests were inaccessible to the public except for short walks in the two National Parks.
Now bushwalkers can traverse from Park to Park and enjoy extended walks beyond park boundaries, discovering clear mountain streams, hidden natural treasures, waterfalls, sweeping views, rare and endangered ecosystems, and flora and fauna that most visitors to the region have never seen.
Wander among enchanting giant tree ferns and across pristine mountain streams in one of Victoria’s last remaining patches of rainforest.
Amongst this fauna is the South Gippsland Koala (Strzelecki Koala), which is a healthy and genetically intact wild koala population unique in Victoria. The Grand Strzelecki Track also reveals the amazing and sometimes tragic settlement and sawmilling history of the Strzeleckis, along with recent conservation initiatives to preserve and restore our natural heritage.
These walks take in four catchments on both sides of the range, with a corresponding diversity of forest ecosystems and landscapes including the highest point in the range, Mt. Tassie at 720 metres, which offers dramatic views across the Latrobe Valley and the Great Dividing Range to the North and Wilsons Promontory (the southernmost part of the Australian mainland) and Corner Inlet to the South.
A 26.4 km section links the National Parks, with a rest area half way providing a place to camp.
If You want to know more? - please visit www.grandstrzeleckitrack.org.au website.