The Dookie Rail Trail: Cycling in North East Victoria

The Dookie Rail Trail is a hidden gem half an hour's drive east of Shepparton in north east Victoria. At not quite 5 kms (10 kms return) it is much shorter than the usual trails we ride. However what it lacks in length it more than makes up for in scenery and charm. Struck by bad weather on a recent cycling trip to Victoria we found ourselves at the beginning of the Dookie Rail Trail with a promised few hours of clear skies. We parked the car, unloaded the bikes and headed out to discover rural Victoria at its best.

The Great Southern Rail Trail

Running from the New South Wales border to Phillip Island in Victoria, Gippsland is one of those rare regions in Australia where the grass is green, the rivers full and the countryside bucolic. All this verdant beauty comes at a price though, and that price is rain - lots and lots of rain. David and I are fair weather cyclists. We first came to South Gippsland to cycle the Great Southern Rail Trail (GSRT) in November 2019. We got one perfect day, one okay day and two days of wet, windy weather. Instead of the whole trail, we managed little more than a third, but it was a magical third.  We came back in 2021 (and again in 2023) to fill in the blanks.  We both agree The Great Southern Rail Trail is the best rail trail in Australia.  The scenery is lovely, the towns are idyllic and the wildlife, especially the koalas and echidnas we have seen right next to the trail, is magical. 

A Tour of Ned Kelly Country: Following the trail of Australia's most famous bushranger.

Edward ('Ned') Kelly was born at Beveridge in Victoria in December 1854¹. He died at the end of a hangman's noose in Melbourne Gaol on 11 November 1880. In his short life he gained an enduring place in Australia's history as our most famous bushranger (outlaw). David and I got struck by poor weather on a recent cycling trip to Victoria and had to find something else to occupy ourselves for a few days. As it happened I was in the middle of a biography of Ned Kelly and since we were not far from Kelly Country we decided to do a tour of the places whose fame still rests of the legend of Ned.

Like many Australians the main thing I knew about Ned Kelly was what he is most famous for - making a stand against police at Glenrowen. Vastly outnumbered, he donned a suit of armour made from ploughshares before shooting it out with Victoria Police. It made him look like a medieval knight and earned him a place in Australian folklore.

The Silo Art Trail of North-East Victoria

Silo art has taken off in Australia. In March 2015 the small town of Northam in Western Australia engaged two artists to paint murals on the 'canvas' of the town's grain silos. Brim, a country town in Victoria, followed up with its own painted silo, then Ravensthorpe in Western Australia and then Patchewollock and Sheep-Hills (don't you just love the names) also in Victoria. Not to be outdone, towns without silos embraced the idea and painted water tanks and towers. Before long there were painted silos, towers and tanks popping up all over the country and a movement was born - a peculiarly Australian movement.

Today there is silo art in almost every corner of the country. With more than 100 painted silos, water tanks and towers across more than 7,500 kms, following silo art trails has become the ultimate Australian road trip.

The Huts of the High Country

Scattered throughout the Australian Alps are more than a hundred historic huts.  They date back as far as the 1860s. Many were built as shelters by stockmen grazing their cattle on high country pastures. Others housed fishermen, gold prospectors, foresters, workers on the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, skiers and bushwalkers. Today they are used as emergency shelters for skiers and bushwalkers caught out in the changeable mountain weather.

The huts are the antithesis of luxury. Most are simple corrugated iron or wood constructions. Very few are easy to get to. They are tucked away in the back country, far from roads and other services. Over many years of skiing, bushwalking and mountain biking David and I have come across a half dozen or so of these huts. With a few exceptions they are a challenge to find and it is always fun when we come across one. We have never camped out overnight so all the huts in this post can be reached in a day's bushwalk or mountain bike ride from the nearest road.

The Great Victorian Rail Trail

Trail - The Great Victorian Rail Trail
Location - Tallarook to Mansfield, Victoria, Australia
Distance - 134 km one way
Terrain - Compacted sand and fine gravel.
Difficulty - Easy to moderate with a few long, steady climbs.
Highlights - Reaching the top of any of the long climbs.
Suitable for - Mountain bikes, touring bikes, walkers and horse riders.

Websites and maps -  The Great Victorian Rail Trail, Ride High Country and RailTrails Australia.

Cycling in Victoria: The High Country Rail Trail

Trail - The High Country Rail Trail
Location - Wodonga to Old Tallangatta and Darbyshire to Shelley, Victoria, Australia
Distance - 64 km one way including the Darbyshire to Shelley section
Terrain - Mostly compacted earth with some paved sections.
Difficulty - Easy, this is a ride or walk you can take the family on. The Darbyshire to Shelley section is more challenging.
Highlights - Cycling across the beautiful Sandy Creek Rail Bridge.

Websites and maps - RailTrails Australia and High Country Rail Trail

Extension - Darbyshire to Shelley - 22 km. Not contiguous with the rest of the trail. You'll need a mountain bike for this section.

Australia's most enduring UFO mystery - the disappearance of Frederick Valentich.

"That strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again .. it is hovering and it's not an aircraft". 

These were the last words ever spoken by 20 year old Frederick Valentich, the young pilot at the centre of Australia's most enduring UFO mystery.

In the early evening on October 21, 1978, Valentich left Melbourne's Moorabbin airport for a flight to King Island in Bass Strait, the remote and tempestuous stretch of ocean separating the Australian mainland from the island of Tasmania. Piloting a single engined Cessna 182 L, Valentich was flying just off the coast, at Cape Otway near the Great Ocean Road, when he and his aircraft disappeared forever. The voice recording of Valentich's exchange with Melbourne Flight Service Control in the moments just before his disappearance makes it clear he believed he was being followed by a UFO.

Murray to Mountains Rail Trail - Australia's Premier Rail Trail

Location - North-east Victoria. From Bright to Wangaratta and Milawa
Side Trails - Everton Station to Beechworth (16km one way) and Bright to Wandiligong (11 kms one way)
Ride - The Murray to Mountains Rail Trail
Distance - More than 100 km (one way)
Terrain - Sealed and separate from the road for the whole way
Difficulty - Easy
Highlights - Cycling past the gardens in and around Bright.
Website and map - Click here
My tip - Visit in Spring, during the Bright Spring Festival and combine your cycling with visits to some of the beautiful open gardens.

The East Gippsland Rail Trail

Location -  Bairnsdale to Orbost, East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia
Distance - 95.5 km (one way)
Terrain - Sealed between Bairnsdale and Nicholson then gravel and compacted earth to Orbost.
Difficulty - Easy to moderate.
Highlights - The views across undulating farmland along the Nicholson to Bruthen section.
Website - East Gippsland Rail Trail

Raymond Island, Victoria

I admit it - I am a wildlife tragic. I'll go almost anywhere to see animals in the bush. David and I first visited Raymond Island in March but we were drawn back on the way home from our last road trip. Only four hours drive from Melbourne, at last count the 7.6 sq km island had a koala population of 307, making it the best place in Australia to see koalas in their natural environment.

The island is a two-minute ferry ride from Paynesville in the Gippsland Lakes District of Victoria - a reliable place to see kangaroos. Paynesville and Raymond Island are the perfect wildlife tragic's double act. You can read where to find the kangaroos at Paynesville by clicking - here. For my March blog post on Raymond Island, with practical information as well as a description of our visit and lots of koala pictures click - here.

Paynesville, Victoria

Paynesville is a scenic little town with an uninspiring name in south-eastern Victoria. Until we visited Raymond Island earlier this year I had never heard of it. Surrounded on three sides by the Gippsland Lakes, it is a boating and fishing heaven.

David doesn't fish - full stop end of story. I think he has traumatic childhood fishing memories - something to do with constantly tangled lines, 5 a.m starts and rough weather on small boats outside Sydney Heads. I have never really gotten to the bottom of it but suffice it to say that one of the world's best fathers could never, ever be enticed to take our sons fishing while they were growing up - no matter how much they pleaded.

Cycling the Bennetts Trail: Bright to Wandiligong, Victoria

Distance - 11 kms round trip with an optional extra few kms along The Diggings Track

Terrain - Very slightly undulating, sealed, separate path the whole way

Difficulty - Really, easy

Highlights - Exploring the old gold mining area in Wandiligong.

Map and Info - Finding a map of  Bennetts Trail has defeated me. I am beginning to think that such a thing does not exist. However the trail is simple to follow. Just head out of Bright along Coronation Avenue and you can't go wrong.

The Murray to the Mountains Rail Trail

The Murray to the Mountains Rail Trail runs for 83 kms from Wangaratta to Bright, in Victoria. Add in a couple of side trips and you can cycle for 106 kms - all on off-road sealed paths. This has to be Australia's premier rail trail. David and I first cycled part of it with our then young sons in 2003. Since then we have returned again and again. If you want an easy, scenic introduction to long distance cycling or just some pleasant half day rides, the Murray to the Mountains Rail Trail is perfect.

The Great Ocean Road - koalas, kangaroos, emus, UFOs and one of the world's great drives.

If there was a prize for the most blogged about attraction in Australia, Victoria's Great Ocean Road would win hands down. I skim, glance at and read a lot of travel blogs and just lately every third blogger on the planet seems to be writing about the Great Ocean Road. I confess that I have blogged about it myself a couple of times. If you want to have a read click - here - and - here.

Raymond Island, Victoria - the best place to see koalas in the bush.

Raymond Island is a small island in the Gippsland Lakes District of Victoria. It is 7.6 sq km and has a population of about 550 people. The only access is by boat or car ferry. In 1953, 42 koalas were re-located there from Phillip Island as part of a conservation program. They took to their new home so well that today their numbers must be managed to prevent over-population. At last count, in 2013, there were 307.

Yesterday we visited Raymond Island. I was in koala heaven. Without a doubt this is the best place I have ever found to see koalas in the bush - and I feel like I have spent half my life looking. The only other places which come close are a few of the campgrounds along The Great Ocean Road.

How to wreck a bike! (part 2).

You might remember from my last post (click - here to read it):-

• We went looking for koalas,
• cycled through a patch of devil thorns,
• got four flat tyres in rapid succession, and 
• struggled to get David's rear wheel seated back into it's cradle.

Tired and stressed and finally  back at our hotel, we decided to deal with the flat tyres the next day. In the morning we woke to discover my rear tyre had joined the party and also gone flat. This brought our puncture count to five.

Be careful what you wish for!

The kids and I learnt long ago that you have to be careful what you wish for in the Lindfields' household. An unguarded moment spent musing about - say - ' we've never been to Uruguay' - and next thing you know you can find yourself sitting on an aeroplane wishing you'd had more time to brush up on your spanish.

A bridge too far - or maybe not!

Anyone who follows me on twitter @thelindfields may have noticed my profile picture. It was taken a few years ago at Sandy Creek Inlet on Lake Hume. We were cycling the High Country Rail Trail and we hit a snag.

High Country Cycling - Part 2

https://thetravellinglindfields.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/high-country-cycling-australian-alps.html - Part 1-

Hot again! Back to the High Country. This time we made it to Hotham. We parked the car at Whiskey Flat - what a great name! - and continued on from where we turned around. The trail became a lot easier but we were never going to be able to do it in one go starting as late in the afternoon as we had.