After our previous day’s walking on the Snowies Alpine Walk from Charlotte Pass Village to Perisher via Porcupine Rocks, we were keen to check out another new section. This time we settled on the new nine kilometre walk from Charlotte Pass to Guthega village. A top day beckoned. Clear skies, maximums hovering around 21o C and an alpine ramble with my walking friends Joe, Chris, Neralie and Garry.
by Glenn Burns
The BOM had issued a heatwave warning in its Snowy Mountains forecast. But for this quintet of Queenslanders the threatened 21o C maximum was just so. Not too hot, not too cold.
Snowies Alpine Walk
In 2018 construction started on the Snowies Alpine Walk. The NSW Government boasted it would deliver ‘ a world-class, multi-day walk across the alpine roof of Australia in Kosciuszko National Park.’
This 55 kilometre, 4 day walk, on Ngarigo Country, connects the existing Mt Kosciuszko-Main Range walk with three new sections. Namely, Charlotte Pass to Guthega Village; Charlotte Pass Village to Perisher Village via Porcupine Rocks and, as of 2024, the still incomplete section from Perisher Village to Bullocks Flat in the Thredbo River Valley.
After a top day of alpine walking yesterday from Charlotte Pass to Perisher, life on the track was on the up and up. An uneventful drive, with Joe at the wheel, from our digs at Sawpit Creek, delivered us to Charlotte Pass (1840 m).
Bang into an unexpectedly biting wind. Someone had neglected to clock the forecasted 50 kph wind gusts. So with the wind chill effect, the ambient temperature was pretty cold. And this was mid-summer, Australia. As my old walking pal Brian was apt to say: ‘strong enough to blow a brown dog off its chain’. We pulled on an extra layer.
Pleistocene Glaciation in Kosciuszko National Park
If you had been standing at this very spot some 60,000 years ago, in the frozen depths of the last Pleistocene ice age, the scene in front of you would have been vastly different.
You would have gazed across a panorama of snow and ice. Rivers of ice poured out from ice-filled glacial bowls on the south east flanks of Mt Lee, Mt Clarke, Carruthers Peak, and Mt Twynam. The current valleys of Club Lake Creek, Blue Lake Creek, Twynam Creek would be brimming with glacial ice grinding bedrock to a pulp on its way to join the major valley glacier in the Snowy River.
In fact, it is possible that your perch at Charlotte Pass would have been covered by a mass of abrading Snowy River glacial ice pushing over this interfluve into the neighbouring Spencers Creek valley. Or so some geologists hypothesise.
Back then temperatures would have been much colder. The minimum temperature today was 12o C. 17,000 years ago it would have been at least 5 to 8o C lower.
In Kosciuszko there is evidence of at least two distinct glaciations. The Early and Late Kosciuszko glaciations. The Early Kosciuszko Glaciation consisted of a single major advance at approximately 60, 000 years ago called the Snowy River Advance. This was the most extensive advance with later advances less extensive.
Geologists tell us that the Snowy River glacier probably extended as far downstream as Illawong Hut. Possibly further. There is evidence of glacial debris downsteam at Island Bend, discovered during surveys for the Snowy Mountain Scheme.
The Late Kosciuszko glaciation consisted of three smaller glacier advances, starting about 32,00 years ago: Hedley Tarn Advance (32,000 years ago), Blue Lake Advance (19,000 years ago) and Mt Twynam Advance (17,000 years ago).
The systematic search for evidence of glaciation in Kosciuszko got seriously under way in 1901. A scientific party of Professor T.W. Edgeworth David (geologist), Richard Helms (zoologist and botanist), E.F. Pittman , and F.B. Guthrie (Professor of Chemistry) found incontrovertible evidence of the action of glacial erosion and deposition:
- striated rocks and boulders
- erratics
- terminal and lateral moraines
- roches moutonnees
- cirques
- tarns
- glacial polishing of rock surfaces
- truncated spurs
- U-shaped valleys
- abraded interfluves
The Kosciuszko Plateau has been now been free of of glaciers for about 15,000 years. In addition to the glacial landforms mentioned above, the observant bushwalker can find ample evidence of periglacial landforms over much of the higher country. Some easily identified of these landforms include blockstreams, solifluction terraces and thermokarst ponds.
Meanwhile, back in the Anthropocene, the Snowies Alpine Walk (SAW) from Charlotte Pass initially heads downhill on the paved NPWS vehicular track towards the Snowy River. Some 500 metres of descent will deliver you to a junction and noticeboard trumpeting the start of the walk to Guthega village. We executed a hard right onto the SAW path.
Map of Snowies Alpine Walk: Charlotte Pass to Guthega Village.
Here the SAW parallels the Snowy River on its eastern bank, winding around Guthrie Ridge on the 1700 m contour before dropping to Spencers Creek and the Snowy River at Illawong Hut. The final part of the day’s walk picks up the old Illawong-Guthega bushwalker’s pad to fetch up at Guthega Village, some nine kilometres from Charlotte Pass.
Back in the Day… 2009… Guthrie Ridge.
But, back in the day, in 2009, a 17 kilometre walk from our camp on Strzelecki Creek under The Sentinel to Charlotte Pass thence to Illawong Hut via Guthrie Ridge was more of a challenge. We set off with a brilliant off-track alpine ramble from Strzelecki Creek to Charlotte Pass via Carruthers Peak, Mt Northcote, Mt Clarke and the Snowy River Crossing.
Once at Charlotte Pass we swung off-track again to climb Mt Guthrie (1920 m). The usual suspect had cooked up this feral route that followed the spine of Guthrie Ridge (1900 m) and then descended to an overnight bivvi at the junction of Twynam Creek and the Snowy River. Close to Illawong Hut.
Mt Guthrie and Guthrie Ridge were named by Richard Helms for his friend F.B. Guthrie, Professor of Chemistry.
My peak bagging companion had hinted at another exceptional alpine stroll to cap off what had been, so far, a matchless day of hiking. A mere two and a half kilometres or a one hour leisurely amble along the spine of Guthrie Ridge would deliver us to our campsite on the junction of Snowy River and Twynam Creek. Fun times.
Mid afternoon, on a steep mountainside, high above the valley floor three beleaguered peak baggers pushed wearily through the tangle of granite boulders and scratchy mountain peppers, Kunzeas, Epacris and snow gums that lay between them and the day’s end. Route wise, a bad call.
But I was resigned to this stuff. Situation normal when walking with my bush-bashing, peak bagging buddy Brian. He claimed it was just the price we had to pay for a very satisfying and bludgy morning’s walk. Finally, we staggered in just on dusk. The campsite made it all worthwhile. We set up on a springy snow grass ledge… lulled to sleep by the riffling Snowy River. All was well in my little slice of bushwalking paradise and all is forgiven Brian.
The new Snowies Alpine Walk.
After mulling over this previous cross country experience I gave thanks for the newly minted super SAW highway. Cortan steel elevated boardwalks, rock-armoured track surfaces and dry boots compliments of a high suspension bridge over Spencers Creek. A speedier passage than taking that infernal high road along Guthrie Ridge. But nowhere near as interesting.
The track took us initially over another of those eyesore Cortan steel boardwalks much favoured in Kosciuszko National Park. But I admit they do an excellent job of protecting the low heath and snow grasses below.
Eventually the track leaves the low heath and climbs on its granite pavement ever upward through snow gum woodland. As did Garry. Left us, that is. We found him, as I expected, propped on a log in a bower of snow gums. The ideal morning tea stop.
Snow gum woodland, invariably, is clothed in a dense scrubby understorey of beastly spikey undergrowth like Bossiaea, Epacris, Hakea, Grevillea, Oxylobium, and Kunzea . Here’s where those weird knee-length canvas gaiter things worn by Australian bushwalkers are a brilliant piece of kit.
The low growing snow gum woodland is found above 1500 metres and is dominated by snow gums or white sallee ( Eucalyptus pauciflora).
The snow gum zone is found extending down to the lower levels of winter snowfall and is the only tree to grow above 1500 metres. Above this woodland zone the landscape transitions suddenly into the true alpine zone of heathland, grassland and bogs.
The undergrowth is called heath and can be waist-high with tough whippy branches to withstand the weight of snow (and, hopefully, bushwalkers) without breaking. Throw in the odd torpid highland copperhead and pit-fall traps of wombat and bunny burrows and hiking through this scrub quickly losses its appeal.
Fortunately, the new super SAW highway saved us from having to thrash through that stuff.
Much of the SAW walk parallels the Snowy River which flows NNE downstream towards Guthega Pondage. It is joined on its western bank by the south east flowing drainage lines of Blue Lake Creek, Twynams Creek and Pounds Creek.
These creeks have their headwaters along the highest parts of Australia’s Great Dividing Range: Carruthers Peak (2010 m), Mt Twynam (2196 m), Mt Anton ( 2010 m) and Mt Anderson (1997 m). The Main Range peaks all visible from this section of the SAW.
Today’s walk provided expansive and unimpeded views down the nearly straight Snowy River Valley. Its side slopes planed back by late Pleistocene valley glaciers. Glacial valleys all over the world typically exhibit these truncated spurs and U shaped valleys.
Some 4.5 kilometres after the track entrance our path left the snow gum woodland and descended across low heath covering a gently rounded spur at the intersection of the Snowy River and Spencers Creek. An abraded spur, ground down during the Pleistocene by the Snowy River and Spencers Creek valley glaciers.
Joe and I caught up Chris and Neralie just short of the Spencers Creek suspension bridge. They were magging with two walkers travelling in the reverse direction. Uphill to Charlotte Pass. I’m not sure of the rationale for doing this section uphill, but many people do. Meanwhile, Garry was last seen as a distant speck beetling toward Illawong Hut.
The SAW track builders had thoughtfully provided a nifty suspension bridge consisting of a steel mesh plank and handrails to usher walkers safely across Spencers Creek. Built in 2021 it is said to be, in terms of its location, at 1627 metres of altitude, the highest suspension bridge in Australia .
Meanwhile Garry had escaped the wind by taking refuge at the side of the hut. Just don’t turn up here in a serious blizzard. You will find the inn door locked, as we did. An unusual arrangement for high country shelters. But this is because Illawong is the only private lodge outside the main ski resorts.
But, to be fair, the illustrous Illawong Ski Tourers have thoughtfully provided a sealed crawl space for midgets under the hut for just such an emergency. And, they have thrown in as a goodwill gesture, a snow shovel to dig yourself out or in. Once out of your blizzard, don’t try to sit up. The upside is that you are safe and don’t have to share the under floor space with assorted snakes, wombats and other creepy-crawlies.
Illawong Hut
Illawong, also known as Pounds Creek Hut and Tin Hut No1, was constructed in the summer of 1926-1927 as a shelter hut. Illawong is said to mean ‘view of the water’. A basic two roomer/four bunks, it was built by the NSW Tourist Board to assist Dr Herbert Schlink in his first Kiandra to Kosciuszko ski crossing during the winter of 1927.
After construction it was used for early ski touring, summer bushwalking and by mountain cattlemen. At the time only two other buildings existed in the high country: Betts Camp and Kosciusko Hotel.
In 1955, John Turner of the Ski Tourers Association brewed up a plan to convert Pounds Creek Hut into a ski lodge. A year later, in 1956, the Kosciuszko State Trust gave permission for the hut to be extended to become a private ski lodge managed by Illawong Ski Tourers.
The conversion was a bit of mission for lodge members. No helicopter lifts in those days. All materials and food supplies had to carried in. Though some ingenious work-arounds were dreamt up. Klaus Hueneke in his first-rate tome: Huts of the High Country provides this description:
” Over the next two years members, friends and passersby spent endless summer days and occasional premature wintry ones carrying, rowing, pushing and dragging materials to site. “
And this:
” Rowing the materials up Guthega Dam was a new twist to mountain transportation and not without incident… boat trips took on ice floes, wind driven sleet and polar wombats! The final leg was considerably aided by a sled and the muscle power of Mick, a horse from the Chalet. Unfortunately he had only two speeds – stop and run like hell. “
Those enterprising Illawongians weren’t finished yet. Over the years the Lodge was spruced up with a septic tank, electric lighting, a gas cooker, a refrigerator, a hot water service, decent mattresses, carpets and a phone. A veritable home away from home. My membership application is in the mail.
Members also designed and built the flying fox over Farm Creek and the suspension bridge over the often raging Snowy River. For this latter feat all skiers and bushwalkers wanting to access the Main Range should give them fulsome thanks. Two earlier bridges had been swept away before a decent one was installed in 1971. The final version was designed and built by one Tim Lamble and assembled with the help of the NPWS helicopter.
Tim, incidently, is also the author of my favourite piece of cartographic art: the Mt Jagungal and The Brassy Mountains 1:31680 map.
Illawong Hut has been placed on the National Heritage Register, the National Trust (NSW) Register and NPWS Historic Places Register. Its NPWS citation reads:
” Illawong Hut is one of the most historically significant huts in the park, being a rare remnant of early 20th century NSW Government Tourist Bureau efforts to promote alpine tourist recreational activities.”
For good measure the Farm Creek flying fox and the Snowy River suspension bridge are also on the register.
With little over two kilometres to Guthega my friends had scarpered in a cloud of dust. The upgraded SAW track follows the old bushwalking pad between Illawong and Guthega. It skirts around the southern bank of Guthega Pondage. This pondage, a tunnel and Guthega (Munyang) hydro power station were built as part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme in the early 1950s.
Munyang (Guthega) Hydro Power Project
This Munyang (Guthega) project area is the start of many of my favourite walks in Kosciuszko.
And it is also the start of the first major project of the Snowy Mountains Scheme in 1951. The tender was awarded to a Norwegian firm, Ingenior F. Selmer. A serious player in global dam and hydro construction. The bulk of the workers were Norwegians (450, mainly labourers) from the rural areas of the Arctic Circle.
On the 21 February 1955 , only a few weeks behind schedule, electricity flowed from Munyang.
The word Munyang or Muniong derives from local aboriginal people. When camped on the Eucumbene Valley, they would point to the snow covered Main Range and repeat the word ‘Munyang’ or ‘Muniong’ . Said to mean ‘big’ or ‘high mountain’. Also ‘big white mountain’.
If you want to read more about the fascinating people and places of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, I can highly recommend Siobhan McHugh’s: ‘The Snowy, a History.‘
Nearing the end of our walk, the SAW crosses Farm Creek via a metal bridge then climbs to Guthega Village. No need to risk life and limb on the the rusty old flying fox still there. Fortunately, it has been padlocked by some kill-joy to discourage thrill seekers like my walking companions.
At the still to be completed track exit, rangers were busy fiddling around sorting out signage. Here we had views over the waters of Guthega Pondage, the dam wall and the intake for the tunnel to the top of the Munyang penstocks.
Guthega Ski Village or Little Norway
Guthega village did not exist before 1950. The only building in the area was our old friend Illawong Hut. In 1951 when the Norwegian company Selmer started construction on the first major project of the Snowy Mountains Scheme , their construction camp became known as ‘Little Norway’ as it housed the largest number of Norwegians living outside of Norway at the time.
When Selmer returned to Norway in 1954, at the end of their contract, they took most of their construction camp with them, leaving just three huts. These huts kick-started the modern day Guthega Ski Resort.
The huts were scooped up for peanuts in 1955 by SMA Cooma Ski Club, YMCA Canberra Ski Club and Sydney University Ski Club. The village now sports private lodges, a restaurant and bar, commercial resort accommodation and various tow knick-knacks to ferry skiers to the top of their runs.
Guthega serves as a winter base for downhill skiing, cross country skiers, snow-shoers and snow-boarders. The alpha adventurers head for Blue Lake to try out their ice climbing skills. But in summer, Guthega is pretty much dead. A ghost resort. Hopefully, this will change given the number of walkers I saw on the track.
It was now two hours past our lunch hour. A familiar pattern developing here, much to the chagrin of my fellow walkers. We found Garry’s vehicle, wheels still attached, piled in and headed for nearby Island Bend Campground on the Snowy River for a belated feed.
The campground was once the site of a construction village for the Snowy Mountains Scheme.
We ducked into a pleasant little nook with a picnic table and some soft grass for a post-prandial kip. All in all, a top day of alpine hiking with my walking companions, Joe, Chris, Neralie and Garry.
I had many more days of alpine adventures for my fellow Kosciuszkians. God bless their little walking boots. Maybe not so little.
Check out these Kosciuszko walks.
Snowies Alpine Walk: Perisher to Bullocks Flat.
Snowies Alpine Walk: A World-Class Hike. Charlotte Pass to Perisher via Porcupine Rocks.
Up ahead, our path crossed its first cascade, then sidled up through stands of snow gum woodland, threading in and out of huge granite boulders before descending to a vast alpine grassland. With alpine scenery like this, and on a benign summer’s day, who could resist the opportunity to hike the new Snowy Alpine Walk?
by Glenn Burns
Certainly not me. Nor my walking friends Joe, Neralie, Chris and Garry. Surprising actually. Given the foul weather on our last foray together into the high plains of Northern Kosciuszko. Fortunately, my walking companions had remained undaunted by the cold wet weather over those six days. This time, however, a beneficent weather god smiled down on us. We luxuriated in sunny, pleasantly coolish, if somewhat windy days. Glorious alpine weather. Mr BOM promising a maximum of 17o C and a minimum of 8o C. But windy.
The Snowies Alpine Walk
In 2018 construction started on the Snowies Alpine Walk. The NSW Government boasted it would deliver ‘ a world-class, multi-day walk across the alpine roof of Australia in Kosciuszko National Park.’
This is a 55 kilometre, 4 day walk connecting the existing Mt Kosciuszko-Main Range walks with three new sections. Namely, Charlotte Pass to Guthega Village; Charlotte Pass Village to Perisher Village via Porcupine Rocks and, as of 2024, the still incomplete section from Perisher Village to Bullocks Flat in the Thredbo River Valley.
Map: Perisher: 1:25000: Geoscience Australia.
Map of Snowies Alpine Walk: Charlotte Pass Village to Perisher Village via Porcupine Rocks.
Tuesday: Charlotte Pass Village to Perisher Village via the Porcupine Rocks: 13 kms.
An uneventful 25 minute drive took us from our Sawpit Creek digs to the start of of the day’s walk at Charlotte Pass Village. The corflute announcing ‘Cafe’ was duly noted by our resident caffeine addicts for future attention.
A Brief History of Charlotte Pass Village.
The first building at Charlotte Pass was the Charlotte Pass Chalet built in 1930 by the NSW Tourist Board ( NSWTB ). The NSWTB was prodded into action by the Seaman/Hayes tragedy in 1928 when both men perished in a blizzard on a skiing trip to Kosciuszko. It was thought that a much more efficient search could have been mounted from a site near Charlotte Pass.
The Chalet was burnt down in 1938 but was rebuilt for the 1939 season. For the next 30 years Charlotte Pass Chalet was the major centre of skiing in NSW. Since supplanted by the ski resorts of Perisher, Smiggins Holes, Guthega and Thredbo.
In 1962 the NSWTB leased the Chalet to a private company. A small alpine village sprung up, consisting of a hotel, private lodges, ski clubs, chairlifts, T-bars and Poma lifts.
Charlotte Pass was named after Charlotte Adams who, in 1881, was the first European woman to climb Mt Kosciuszko. Her father, Philip Francis Adams was Surveyor General of NSW from 1868 to 1887.
But we were on a different mission. A short stroll from the village took us to the track head.
Initially, the track heads over the boggy headwaters of Spencers Creek via a Cortan steel boardwalk. These boardwalks have spread like a rash over many sections of Kosciuszko’s alpine walks. But, dubious ambience aside, they do effectively minimise damage to fragile alpine ecosystems.
Bogs and Fens
Bogs are areas of wet, spongy ground usually found in areas of impeded drainage. Floristically bogs are dominated by spagnum moss (Spagnum cristatum) and associated with a variety of rushes and sedges, especially the tufted sedge (Carex gaudichaudiana) and the Australian cord rush (Restio australis). Bogs are formed by the decomposition of organic matter which will ultimately become peat.
From this point, at about 1770 metres, Spencers Creek wends its way downstream into the Snowy River some seven kilometres away. But for us, it was ever uphill to 1900 metres and the alpine grasslands and swamps that feed Spencers Creek and its major tributary, Betts Creek.
James Spencer
Spencers Creek was named after James Spencer, one of the first stockmen to take up a lease (Excelsior Run in 1880) and to graze his livestock on the ‘Tops’, including Mt Kosciuszko. The run extended over an area of 12,000 hectares.
The story goes that he fell off his horse attempting to drive his stock across a swollen alpine creek. That creek now bears his name, Spencers Creek. Spencer also named the nearby peaks of The Paralyser (1942 m) and Mt Perisher (2054 m).
His homestead was built lower down at the junction of the Snowy and Thredbo Rivers. That location, West Point, now Waste Point, was a favoured camping area for aborigines travelling to the high country to feast on Bogong moths. But more on mothing later.
Spencer’s other sideline was to act as a guide for visitors wishing to climb Mt Kosciuszko and explore other parts of the Main Range. Notables whom he led into the high alpine peaks included Thomas Townsend (surveyor), Baron von Mueller, Surveyor-General Adams and Dr von Lenderfeld.
Once on the southern bank of Spencers Creek the track rambles ever upwards through snowgum woodland to the 1800 metre mark, before thankfully, levelling off and contouring to the south-east. Wrights Creek, a tributary of Spencers Creek, is crossed as the track curves around a major SW-NE trending spur of the Rams Head Range.
Soon after the start of the climb onto the Rams Heads we met a bunch of older walkers perched trackside taking a quick breather. The first of many groups of hikers. The newly minted SAW tracks are obviously a big hit with summer visitors, and must be making the New South Wales Parks people very happy with their investment.
By now Garry had disappeared from my radar. But, having walked with him before, I knew there was no need to be concerned. He is a super fit, experienced walker. Soon enough we would find him waiting patiently at the next track junction or even, on occasion, having a catnap in a patch of springy snowgrass. And I could rely on him to suss out the best spots for our morning tea and lunch breaks.
This time we found him idling in a pleasant glade with its own steel bridge spanning a gently cascading stream. Just the spot for morning tea. This was Trapyard Creek, a tributary of Spencers Creek. Upstream were falls and cascades, while downstream was Johnnies Plain on the southern bank of Spencers. The plain below is strewn with striated boulders providing evidence of the Pleistocene glaciation in the Kosciuszko area.
Johnnies Plain and the Kosciuszko Reservoir
At the start of the Snowy Mountains Scheme in the early 1950s, Johnnies Plain came within a whisker of being flooded. The background to this was that the wily SMA Commissioner, William Hudson, had to get a couple of projects on the go quickly to placate his political masters , some of whom were pretty twitchy about the whole scheme.
One of the projects on Hudson’s early bird list was a high altitude reservoir on Spencers Creek, to be completed about 1954. The Kosciuszko Reservoir.
At 1780 metres above sea level, the reservoir would have inundated Johnnies Plain and lapped up to the back door of the Chalet in Charlotte Village.
It was to be fed by Betts and Spencers Creeks and 150 kilometres of water races and aquaducts including one contouring along the western face of Mt Kosciuszko. Like the proponents of the the Lake Pedder debacle in Tasmania, these people had little sense of environmental stewardship. But, to be fair, in later phases of the scheme, the SMA’s work on soil conservation and landscape restoration was world-class.
Fortunately, test drilling revealed that the footings for the dam wall would be in moraine rubble and not solid rock. The engineers proposed a number of hare-brained work-arounds including some process to freeze the unconsolidated moraine.
Also the SMA feared a PR thrashing if it attempted to flood a pristine alpine environment. The project finally stalled when the Kosciuszko State Park Trust declared the Kosciuszko Primitive Area to be closed to road and engineering works, buildings and commercial activities. Vale the Kosciuszko Reservoir.
Of course, within a few short years equally damaging commercial ski developments took place around the periphery of the Kosciuszko Primitive Area. By and large, all blights on the landscape, if you want my opinion.
Back on the track, our supplies of chocolate bullets, nuts and crystallised ginger dispatched, we puffed our way up onto the 1900 metre summit spine of the Rams Heads. Here were jagged outcrops of granodiorite, their outlines cutting a perfectly blue and cloudless skyline. Hence, I imagine, the derivation of the name Rams Head Range.
Then followed a gentle 150 metre descent into a vast grassy alpine saddle separating the north flowing Betts Creek headwaters from the Thredbo River system off to our south. The ‘grassland’ was a typical Tall Alpine Herbfield found over much of Kosciuszko’s terrain above 1800 metres.
Tall Alpine Herbfield and Tussock Grassland
The Tall Alpine Herbfields are the most extensive of all Kosciuszko’s alpine plant communities and are found on well-drained and deeper soils. These herbfields occur on a variety of bedrock types , suggesting that lithology has a negligible influence on location.
This plant community is the most diverse of all the alpine vegetation types in terms of number of species. Showy wildflowers grow in a matrix of snowgrasses (Poa caespitosa) and sedges (Carex sp). Technically, it is an association dominated by the genera Celmisia and Poa.
Wildflowers which I recognised included: silver snow daisy (Celmisia astelifolia), Australian bluebells (Wahlenbergia spp), star buttercups (Ranunculus spp), bidgee widgee (Acaena anserinifolia), Australian gentians (Gentiana spp), eyebrights (Euphrasia spp), billy buttons (Craspedia uniflora), and violets (Viola betonicifolia).
These summer wildflower displays are invariably spectacular, matched only, in the Australian context, by the wildflowers of the south-west of Western Australia.
During the era of extensive sheep and cattle grazing across Australia’s high country, some of the more palatable plant species were pushed to the edge of extinction as sheep and cattle munched away at their preferred herbage.
Fortunately, small pockets survived in ‘refuges’ in rocky outcrops. Thankfully, sheep and cattle were given their marching orders with the declaration of Kosciuszko National Park in 1969. In the decades since, the threatened species have been re-colonising their earlier habitats.
The Crackenback Fault
From our vantage point in the saddle we peered over into the 600 metre Crackenback Fall to the Thredbo River Valley far below.
This spectacular fall can be explained by a combination of tectonic uplift (called the Kosciuszko Uplift) during the Tertiary (66 to 2.6 mya) and the rapid downcutting of the Thredbo River into the shattered bedrock along the Crackenback Fault. The Crackenback Fault dates back to the Tabberabberan tectonic contraction of the Lachlan orogeny some 390 to 380 mya.
Thus, the Thredbo flows in a reasonably straight line from Dead Horse Gap to Lake Jindabyne. A consequence of the structural control exerted by the Crackenback Fault.
The course of the Thredbo River presents an interesting drainage pattern when viewed on a map. It is described by geomorphologists as a rectilinear drainage pattern, where the main bends of the Thredbo River change direction at right angles. In the case of the Thredbo, it initially flows south-east, then turns south-west, then north-west and finally into the main Thredbo valley which runs north-east to Lake Jindabyne.
Map showing rectilinear drainage pattern of Thredbo River and the influence of Crackenback Fault
Joint lines are structures along which there has been no discernable differential movement. Large scale joints are are common feature of granitoid landscapes, like the Rams Heads.
Faults, however, show clear evidence of differential earth movements. The Crackenback Fault is a 35 kilometre long, south-west to north-east trending strike-slip fault between the Jindabyne Thrust Fault (at Jindabyne) and Dead Horse Gap.
A strike-slip fault has horizontal movement of the earth’s surface with little vertical displacement. It is along this straight fault structure that the Thredbo River flows towards Lake Jindabyne.
Other well-known strike-slip faults include New Zealand’s Alpine Fault, the Dead Sea, and the San Andreas fault in North America.
San Andreas Fault. North America.
Meanwhile, high above the Thredbo River, the saddle gave way to another climb, another group of elderly hikers and further on, Garry, bunked down in a grove of snow gums.
By now my fellow walkers had lost interest in Crackenback faults, Crackenback falls and such like geological POIs and were insinuating that lunchtime was long overdue. Our lunch spot should preferably be sheltered from the wind. North-westerlies were idling along at about 30 kph. Somewhere sunny, with a view would be nice. My advance scouts came up trumps. A spectacular eyrie on a jumble of boulders looking down the steep Crackenback Fall to the Thredbo River far below.
This was an ideal lunch nook. Grand views, a pool of warm sunlight, and a chance to keep tabs on the passing elderly bushwalker caravanserai plodding its weary way along the path below. Wafting up to my rocky perch were bleats of dismay as the final steep climb to Porcupine Rocks hove into their view. My turn would come.
Porcupine Rocks
Half an hour later I too was obliged to struggle up said ridge and clambered onto the bouldery outcrops known as Porcupine Rocks. Their appearance explains the name. Piles of shattered, pointy boulders on the crest of the Rams Head Range extend for 25 kilometres in a SW to NE axis. The highest point is Mt Duncan trig at 1926 metres.
These are outcrops of Silurian Mowambah granodiorite (443 to 419 mya). Granodiorite is a coarse-grained intrusive rock similar to granite.
The spine of tooth-like boulders is a consequence of the tendency of granitic tors to weather in sheets. Then severe freeze-thaw action further breaks down the edges of boulders to give the characteristic jagged appearance of granitoids in cold alpine climates.
You can climb any of the boulders easily for fine views 800 metres down into the Thredbo Valley extending from Dead Horse Gap to Lake Jindabyne.
I have been here a number of times before and mused that we were standing at a crossroads in time. Present, early National Park days, grazing era and the distant past.
Pathways through Time
Kosciuszko’s most recent path is the freshly minted Snowies Alpine Walk. Built to entice visitors to the Snowy Mountains during the summer downtime. Walkers can now easily access previously lesser known parts of the Main Range.
New, also, in techniques of path construction. This was no rough bushwalker’s pad through the scrub. It is a wide, heavily engineered path.
Surfaces have been hardened by the placement of massive stepping stones of granite retrieved from the old Snowy adit rock pile. The interstices filled with compacted granite. Fragile bog and fen areas and creeks are bridged by boardwalks of Cortan steel.
Given the hordes using the track today, I can well understand Parks thinking on the use of hardened track surfaces.
If visitor useage is a measure of success, the push for summer tourism has succeeded. The place was awash with active oldsters and legions of pint-sized trampers out in the fresh air on school excursions to the Snowy Mountains.
This onlooker was impressed by their youthful energy and boisterous enthusiasm. They were still going hammer and tongs after having already trekked the 12 kilometres from Charlotte Pass. Their principal less so. A recumbent figure sprawled trackside.
The old bushwalking pad and ski trail to Porcupine Rocks
Pre-dating the SAW are my earlier strolls to the Porcupines. These began at Perisher Gap. From the Perisher Gap car park a rough bushwalker’s pad and ski pole line contoured around Mt Wheatley (1900 metres).
I often gave Mt Wheatley a miss as it is a pile of boulders overgrown with snowgums and an understorey of whippy, prickly shrubs. But if you persist and don’t mind a scratch or three, it does give an excellent view of much of the highest parts of the Kosciuszko Plateau. Between Wheatley and Porcupine Rocks the terrain is much more open as you leave the snowgum woodland and cut onto the high alpine meadows and bogs of upper Betts Creek. Wet boots always guaranteed. It was rare to see any other walkers.
Old Kosciuszko Road
Older still, in the grazing era, was the Old Kosciuszko Road which passed by the Porcupine Rocks on its way to summer pastures and Mt Kosciuszko.
The Old Kosciuszko Road (circa 1870 to 1898) started on river flats near Old Jindabyne and passed near The Creel before ascending a spur east of Sawpit Creek. From there it went through Wilson’s Valley, Boggy Plain, Pretty Point and ascended to pass by the Porcupine Rocks. Then it edged south-west, paralleling the spine of the Rams Head Range to Rawsons Pass.
It was used mainly by graziers bringing stock up to high summer pastures.
A later Kosciuszko Road (1908) avoided the Rams Heads and followed valleys through through Smiggins Holes, Perisher and The Chalet before ascending to Rawsons Pass. Essentially the same route taken today.
Aboriginal Pathways
Aborigines ranged over Kosciuszko’s high alpine country during the summer months. Their stone tools have been found nearby at Perisher Gap as well as Mt Guthrie, Mt Carruthers, Little Twynam and the Rams Head Range.
It is likely that they followed ancient pathways to the high tops of the Ram Heads and the Main Range in search of a major food source, the Bogong moth (Agrotis infusa).
The Bogong moths migrate from the hot inland plains of New South Wales and southern Queensland to hibernate in the cool rocky crevices and caves of Kosciuszko’s granitoid landscapes.
The aborigines, too, migrated to the high tops to feast on the moths. They came from far and wide. From Yass and Braidwood, from Eden on the coast, and from Omeo and Mitta Mitta in Victoria.
Europeans often commented on how sleek and well fed the aborigines looked after their moth diet. Edward Eyre who explored the Monaro in the 1830’s wrote: “The Blacks never looked so fat or shiny as they do during the Bougan season, and even their dogs get into condition then.”
At summer’s end, with the arrival of the cold southerlies, the moths and aborigines decamped and headed for lower altitudes. As did my walking companions.
Tempting as it was for me join our still recumbent principal for a quick kip, my companions had already galloped off. A final descent of 3.5 kilometres to Perisher village followed, where Garry had stashed his ute. The new SAW track follows the old bushwalking pad downstream along Rocky Creek to Perisher Village.
The walk exit at Perisher was still a work in progress. Rangers had set up a diversion around the final section of track. Here Joe and I caught up with Neralie and Chris chatting with two young track builders. Extracting useful information as is their wont. Apparently the rangers were experimenting with another system of hardening track surfaces in preparation for the final Perisher to Bullocks Flat section.
And so, after six hours and 14 kilometres, a most satisfying day of alpine walking was over. Garry’s ute waited patiently at The Man from Snowy River pub to ferry its passengers back to Charlotte Village where we retrieved the Joemobile.
Who could ask for a better bunch of walking companions? Thanks to Neralie, Garry, Chris and Joe for sharing the day with me. And I still had many more days of alpine adventures up my fleecy sleeves for their delectation.
Accommodation
I chose to hike sections of the SAW as day walks. We overnighted in a heritage-listed chalet at Kosciuszko Tourist Park, Sawpit Creek. Our abode was a little shabby on the outside but clean and refurbished inside. Entirely satisfactory for our purposes.
by map and compass 