At 134km, the Great Victorian Rail Trail is Australia's longest rail trail. It follows the route of an old train line from Tallarook on the Hume Highway about 100km north of Melbourne to Mansfield in the Victorian High Country. It is designed for cyclists, walkers and horse riders and due to the route passing through numerous townships, accommodation, food and supplies are readily available along the way.
There are numerous rail trails throughout Australia, being shared-use paths recycled from abandoned railway corridors. The numerous access points make it easy to plan day trips, or the journey can be done as a multi-day trip without the need to be fully self-sufficient.
For the purpose of providing ease of navigation and planning, we have split the Tallarook to Mansfield route into 6 smaller Treks. This one covers the section from Bonnie Doon on the northern arm of Lake Eildon to Mansfield, a distance of 23.7km.
This section of the trail crosses the upper reaches of Lake Eildon on an elevated rail bridge. Gradients from Bonnie Doon to Mansfield through rolling farmland are mild.
How to Use this Trek Note
- To download this information and the route file for offline use on a phone, tablet, headunit or laptop, go to the app store and purchase ExplorOz Traveller. This app enables offline navigation and mapping and will show where you are as you travel along the route. For more info see the ExplorOz Traveller webpage and the EOTopo webpage.
History
Indigenous History
Scar trees, rock shelters, rock art and place names all indicate that the Taungurung people (Daung wurrung) have been in this part of Victoria for thousands of years. Many Taungurung people still live on their country and participate widely in the community as cultural heritage advisors, land management officers, artists and educationalist.
European History
In 1824 Hamilton Hume and William Hovell were commission to lead an expedition to find new grazing land and attempt to discover where New South Wales's western rivers flowed.
Yea was established in May 1837 as the first service centre for the early squatters and settlers of the district and in the gold rush era of the 1850s it became a stopping place for gold prospectors.
In the 1860 the first section of railway line from Melbourne to the North East reached Essendon and then extended to reach Tallarook in 1872. By 1883 it had been extended further to Wodonga however a junction was built at Tallarook and a branch line built from Tallarook heading east into mountainous territory. This became the Mansfield line which is the route of this Trek.
During the 1840s settlers occupied land west of Mansfield and by the end of the decade occupation had spread eastwards. In 1851 land was set aside there for a surveyed township. It was first named after Mount Battery, about 4 km to the east. The name proved to be unpopular and it was replaced by Mansfield in 1856, at the prompting of a local station manager who apparently had fond memories of Mansfield, near Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire.
By 1856 gold had been discovered at the Jamieson River south of Mansfield, and in 1861 it was discovered at Woods Point. The most suitable route for transporting mining machinery was through Mansfield. Small amounts of gold were also discovered around Mansfield.
The area round Mansfield was also location of the novel The Far Country by Nevil Shute which featured logging on Mount Buller. Nearby is the Howqua Hills Historic area. Forest fires, having swept through Howqua obliterated almost all traces of a former settlement.
Mansfield is also famous as part of the Ned Kelly Trail. Significant memorials include the Memorial to Police erected in the centre of the town's roundabout. Mansfield Cemetery is the burial ground for police officers slain by Ned Kelly and his gang at Stringybark Creek.
The entire railway line was closed and dismantled by 1978 until in 2009 after the Victorian bushfires, the Victorian Government announced a project to utilise the railway corridor to build a cycle trail. The Great Victorian Rail Trail was opened in June 2012.
TrekID: 13420