2014: Wilderness: Just spent a couple of days with Spot in the heart of the Snowy Bluff-Mt Darling Wilderness (around 1500 metres). The ‘easy’ way in is to follow the old ‘Carey Rd’ (closed 20 years ago) 200 metres on the right before Dimmicks lookout (off the Howitt Rd above Licola). It deteriorates to (virtually) impenetrable thickets occasioned by wildfire regrowth (especially after the Mt Darling Gap – which would make a reasonable day walk), but it represents a reasonable ‘line’ to take.
Postscript 2020: I am going there again in the next couple of weeks as the coronavirus and my weak knees keep me from Fiordland this year. I think I have studied things a lot better on the topographical maps this time. The going should be better as it burned in early 2019 except along the Mount Creek). There should also be plenty of water this year (at least in the Mount Creek) – and I think I see a couple of spots worth checking out in the vicinity of Mt Billabong too. PPS: I noticed the photos in this old post had become distorted and on checking all my old posts are the same. It will be a lot of work but I will go through and fix them.
You have to be paying close attention at the Mt Darling Gap or else you will lose the track. It switchbacks back underneath the way you have just come. Keep your eyes peeled. When you come in sight of the Mount Creek there is an intersection. The Carey Rd swings sharp left here, the other fork crosses the Mount Creek. Depending on how thick it is you might be better leaving the track at the gap and just climbing straight ahead over the ridge and rejoining the track at the Mount Creek.
There is an old hunter’s camp at the first crossing of that Mount Creek (which is a tributary of the Carey), but it has been unvisited for a long time (just too thick to hunt) and still very short on wildlife after that devastating fire event. Just before the second crossing of the creek you break out onto a pleasant snowgrass plain/valley which is (probably) the last water on the ‘track’ to Mt Darling. We camped here but did not have a fire due to the flammability of the poa tussock and the shortage of wood nearby to a flat spot.
Spent hours trying to fight our way up the ridge towards Mt Darling. I guess we turned back just before the Billabong (mountain – weird name). Just so many dead-falls of fire-killed snow gums and heath regrowth which wear you out stepping over them. I was not carrying enough water to camp at Mt Darling. It was a hot day (despite BOM predictions – yet they know what it will be like in a century!) and I turned back when we had consumed half the three litres I was carrying. (PS: I will probably take a different route next time, but the fire last year may have reduced the heath vegetation to something walkable through).
WARNING: water could be a problem. TAfter you finish the switchbacks wich parallel the head of teh carey Creek so you can walk over (20 metres) to get water there) there was one small trickle after aboiut half an hour on the uphill side of the track until the first crossing of Mount Creek ( at least 3 hours if the track is clear). It is in a culvert about five minutes after you pas a beautiful plum tree on the uphill side of the track. I’d guess water is pretty reliable in Mount Creek but might dry up at the head (another hour) in the summer. After that: probably nothing unless you drop a long way down into the Conglomerate or Mt Darling creeks! BTW There may be seepage in the head of a Mt Darling Gully above Billabong Mountain. Look for a green spot. I did not get that far.
Speaking of which: I notice that you can walk a ridge down to the Mt Darling Creek intersection with the Wonnangatta (where I used to have a camp), and that you can cross the creek and walk back up again along a different ridge to our snowgrass camp at the head of the Mount Creek via Mt Short. I will be doing this one day – or perhaps several!
Head of Mt Darling Creek (Carey River Tributary) View West