An alpine adventure in Victorian High Country
With its scenic trails and mountain-rimmed lookouts, it’s no wonder Mount Hotham is gaining popularity in the warmer months.
I am watching with interest the outside air temperature display on my car dashboard. As I go up, it goes down, dropping 12C as I drive the Great Alpine Rd from Harrietville to Mt Hotham, Australia’s highest alpine resort. But even here at 1750m it’s telling me it’s 17C. The thermals will stay stowed.
It’s been a warm, wet summer across the Victorian High Country and the vegetation is growing with the gusto of a North Queensland lawn. Winter ski runs are clad in lush alpine tussock and thick, flowering shrubs. Sporadic basalt boulder fields somehow defy gravity to stick to the mountain, and chairlifts are denuded, their chairs plucked from the cables and spooned together on the ground, like interlocked trolleys at the entrance to the supermarket. It feels eerie.
While many major overseas ski resorts are now just as busy in the green season as the white, attracting visitors to Australian resorts in summer is still in its infancy. But it’s quickly growing, and with ski seasons shrinking, it simply must. Mt Hotham might not have the mountain biking bedrock of Thredbo and Falls Creek, but it does have an ace card of exceptional hiking up its sleeve.
There’s something here for everyone. The Summit Walk is a mere 2.5km amble, but packs a punch when it comes to views, while the 12km Brabralung Trail links the resort with Dinner Plain, following an ancient route used by the traditional owners of the land, the Gunaikurnai and Taungurung people. One of Australia’s greatest alpine day walks must surely be the 22km return hike along the Razorback ridge to the elegant peak of Mt Feathertop. Camp overnight at Federation Hut, or make it shorter by dropping down Bungalow Spur to Harrietville. The options are as endless as the views.
The sprawling village can be a bother to traverse in winter, especially when trudging in ski boots, but in summer all life gravitates to the General Store. “The Genny” is the heart and soul of Hotham, and multitasks as the grocery store, cafe, pub, restaurant, post office and accommodation. Unpretentious and casual, its location near the club lodges on Davenport (an enclave of the village nicknamed “casserole country” for the communal living vibes) adds to the friendly atmosphere. If the unspeakable happened and it closed, they might as well scoop up the chairlifts and clear the mountain. Thankfully The Genny isn’t going anywhere, and after settling in with a margarita on the sunny terrace, neither am I.
Mountain Dreaming Apartments is The Genny’s top-tier digs. My self-contained apartment has a private balcony with views over the plunging valley, two large bedrooms (sleeping five) and modern furnishings throughout. A good night’s sleep is assured, and needed, because tomorrow’s a big day. Hike ’n’ Feast is a guided day outing run by Hotham eco-tourism juggernaut Alpine Nature Experience. The 20km loop follows Mt Hotham’s Huts Walk, calling in to three High Country huts, each with a unique story. Guide Shannon Dunbar is normally a mountain runner, but she reins it in to a gentle stroll as we drop steeply through the trees. Wildflowers punctuate the morning mist and my Mt Hotham Flora Guide (available at the resort management office and helpfully colour-coded for easy flower identification) is always close at hand.
Tucked below Blue Ribbon chairlift on the banks of Swindlers Creek, Silver Brumby Hut appears suitably historic, but is actually a newbie. Built in 2006, it’s the second incarnation of a hut originally built in 1992 as a prop for The Silver Brumby film, starring Russell Crowe. Like the horse itself, the mythology does a good job of masking reality, and sitting beside the gurgling creek I can almost see myself as a cosplay cattleman, rugged up in my Driza-Bone baking damper on the campfire.
Leaving behind the High Country fantasy, we sidle along the Cobungra Ditch Walking Track, formerly a water race for the Brandy Creek mine, in operation from the 1860s. An ancient, gold-bearing river system beneath the basalt cap of the High Plains brought early prospectors to these mountains, and the hut we’re climbing to belonged to the most famous one of all.
Dubbed the “Hermit of Hotham Heights”, Bill Spargo was instrumental in the development of Mt Hotham as a tourism destination, maintaining the precarious road and hosting early skiers at the first chalet. He built what’s now known as Spargo’s Hut with his brother Cecil in 1927, on a superb outlook at Golden Point. The hut survived bushfires in 1939 (Spargo diverted a creek so he could douse the tarpaper-lined roof), 2003, 2013 and 2019, when it was wrapped in protective foil like a baked potato. Gold prospecting was Spargo’s first love though, and he struck it rich on Red Robin Reef in 1941, sparking Victoria’s last gold rush. The mine was in operation until 2015, and a good track leads down Machinery Spur to the battery. One for next time.
A cool wind picks up above the tree line and the sudden chill seems a fitting omen as we head to our final hut. Derrick Hut is a memorial to Charles Derrick, a cross-country skier who perished in a blizzard in 1965, attempting to ski to Mt Hotham from Mountain Creek, near Mt Beauty, in one day. His friends at the Wangaratta Ski Club built the hut in a peaceful hollow on Dibbins-Swindlers Spur in his honour two years later.
Our hike reaches a literal high point at the summit of Mt Loch (1887m), with views stretching from Mt Buller to Mt Kosciuszko. We pause by a plaque dedicated to Derrick at the point on Loch Ridge where he succumbed, just 2km from Hotham Chalet, shaking our heads at how close he was to salvation. It’s a poignant reminder of how deadly these seemingly benign mountains can turn.
The “Feast” component of the day’s activities awaits at Alpine Nature Experience’s ecovillage, a few minutes’ walk from the winter toboggan slope at Wire Plain. Founder Jean-Francois Rupp grew up in the French Alps and has an affinity for alpine hospitality. He’s created something truly special out of virtually nothing but nature. A woodfire-heated hot tub looks over the Dargo Valley, and tree tents with Arctic-rated sleeping bags are suspended from the snow gums like luxury hammocks. A timber-sawn outdoor bar, a firepit (with benches dug into the snow in winter) and central teepee complete the “village”. It’s a magical setting in any season.
We enjoy a dinner of cuttlefish and chorizo ragout or Coq au Vin blanc (chicken in white wine), accompanied by a selection of local beer and wines. Sunset is spellbinding, then the campfire takes over. Rupp snaps a few sticks for skewers and we toast marshmallows, which I cleverly match with a tipple of Rutherglen muscat.
I could live forever like this, as a mountain man just like Spargo, I think, moments before my marshmallow melts and drops into the fire. It bubbles and hisses until it’s just a glutenous black blob in the orange embers.
Or maybe I could just visit.
Ricky French was a guest of Tourism Northeast and Mt Hotham Resort.
In the Know
Alpine Nature Experience offers hiking, cycling and glamping packages, plus snowshoe and fondue nights during winter, staying in tree tents or wood fire-heated snowdomes. Hike ’n’ Feast is a guided 20km hike (six to seven hours) finishing with a gourmet dinner in a teepee at the fully licensed ecovillage; $245 a person for a couple; $190 a person in a group of six.