Wannon to Djardji-djawara

Open swamp, forest and a contouring climb with views east and west

We respectfully acknowledge the Djab Wurrung and Jardwardjali people as the traditional custodians of the lands and waters of Gariwerd.

Hiker with pack on contouring hillside track with peaks in te background and a forestyed valley to the left under cloudy skies

Finally on that tantalising Serra Range today, and it lives up to its promise!

Today’s 16.3km/10.2mi hike takes us across the Grampians Valley with seasonal swampland before climbing onto the Serra Range at last. You have seen teasing views of this range for days and, after a beautifully contouring ascent, you will spend almost all day following its spine, with views both east over farmland and west across the Victoria Valley to the Victoria Range. In the late afternoon (for slower hikers), you’ll descend the range’s eastern flanks to reach the hut.

satellite map with elevation profile graph 610metre elevation gain over 16.3 kilometres

Today’s elevation profile still shows a decent elevation gain but, remember, the track is much smoother than in the Central Section.

Once again after those challenging track surfaces of the Central Section, you will be pleasantly surprised by today’s much less rocky terrain and the daily distance, whilst longer than many others on the GPT, is therefore still very doable - just take it easy up the long main climb of the day.

How to Make Today Easier

At 16.3 km, this is one of the longer ones of the GPT but don’t be daunted: the track is much better formed. An early start is helpful, especially if you are hiking in late autumn or winter with fewer daylight hours.

No need to carry water for the full day: top up at the serviced Griffin Trailhead water tank about one fifth of the way in for the day at 3.2km/2mi. It’s also the perfect spot to stash a food drop in an animal-proof plastic tub or barrel; hide it discreetly as day hikers use the area. Daily food drop stashes will make a huge difference in your pack weight.

For those who want to split the day, the Griffin Trailhead is also an opportunity for a car shuffle or track transfer company for a night in Dunkeld, though transfers to and from here will be expensive.

Walk with Us

Hiker with pack midground on dirt track amongst trees with yellow triangular waymarker on post left foreground

The track starts easily enough, meandering through open woodland in the valley.

Restful view of open grassland with areas of taller sedge and a larhe wattle tree in bloom on left and tall eucalypts to the right and background

Grassy clearings as you approach the Wannon River.

Hiker with pack mid left on a steel mesh boardwalk between tall rushes under gnarled twisted stringybark trees

Over the river via a small bridge, followed by walkway through magnificent clumps of Baloksion tetraphyllum taller than we are.

Hiker with pack on sandy track with heathy yellow-green tea-tree under scattered gum trees with  low  cloud opbscuring mountains in the background

Soon you emerge onto beautiful seasonal open swampland with tea tree and countless interesting forbs; we saw many sun orchids, though they were closed in today’s cooler weather. This was one of my favourite sections of the track and botanists will relish it.

Closeup of tiny green flower spike

Yellow Onion Orchid (Microtis atrata) grows in seasonal swamplands. The flowers are minute, just a few millimetres across.

Closeup of creamy pink pom-pom flowers along the stems with curved long leaves

Hakea rostrata

Sun dappled view across open tea tree heath studded with gums with mountains in te background

The Serra Range grows ever closer. Soon you’ll cross the Grampians Highway but, for now, a little more of that marvellous open swamp to enjoy.

Hiker with pasck on track through heathy understorey beneath dense stingybark forest

Across the highway and you’re into stringybark with a rich understorey and so many birds — gang-gangs, other parrots and rosellas, plus numerous tiny wrens and honeyeaters flitting through the bushes.

Closeup of bright red spidery flower surrounded by long narrow leaves

Flame Grevillea (Grevillea dimorpha) is aptly named. The leaves can be needle-like, short and wide, or anything in between! For those who are mystified by the scientific names of plants, they are very useful because they often describe a plant’s characteristic feature: di = two and morphe = form. You may not want to learn Latin, but Greek or Italian are useful. I did only three years of Latin (in an Aussie public school no less!) but, contrary to being a ‘dead’ language, it was ever-present in natural sciences tertiary study, and when learning Italian for hiking holidays there.

Closeup of unusual three drooping purple and white meat-coloured  flowers

This orchid, Pyrorchis nigricans, normally blooms after fire in the blackened earth and is pollinated by flies attracted to its flesh-coloured flowers and, presumably, scent! The flower turns black immediately after pollination to blend with the scorched ashfield and thereby evade hungry grazing animals.

You can guess what “pyro” means, and “orchis” too in this context (but look further into this word’s derivation and you may be surprised!). Nigricans is a colour. Black fire-orchid. Pretty cool and not at all mysterious… even fun, don’t you think?

Man in rainwear with pack at his feet, sitting on a log in mid foreground with scattered gum trees and scrubby understorey in background

Second breakfast at Griffin Fire trail Crossing. You can walk in a few hundred metres from the car park to here and do a food drop ahead of time to reduce your pack load. A food drop every day in this section means you need carry only the evening’s meal, the morning’s breakfast and perhaps snacks and a lunch daily: see Tips and Planning on how to make the entire section easier. There is a pack of Sesame Snaps on the log. We like these for hiking with 180 calories in a 35g pack.

Large warning sign of dangferous terrain in foreground with hiker on track right midground surrounded by flowering shrubs  under scattered stringybark trees

Although there is a water tank here, we were horrified to see no boot cleaning station. We were even more horrified later because we saw no sign of Phytopthera in the entirety of the new track in the Serra Range, whereas the latter part of the Central Section is riddled with it. We are thrilled to discover that, just a few months after we walked, a boot cleaning station was installed at the Trailhead here. Goodonya, Parks Victoria! Remember to clean your trekking pole tips as well as your boots and please be super thorough: you have been hiking through diseased areas.

Sandy track with white-flowering shrubs and varied other kinds crowding in under scattered gum trees

Plenty of Banksia, Grevillea, and Xanthorrhoea in a marvellously healthy understorey. This is why we should all do the right thing!

Hiker with pack on track midground with red-lichen covered rocky outcrop looming over him on the right and more boulders under trees on the left

Climbing the eastern side of the Serra Range: a steep but well-built track passing spectacular boulders

Rocky uneven steps ascending a hillside with trees, boulders  and grass trees on either side

Steps! Yay!

Closeup of a cluster of yellow pea flowers with short narrow green leaves

Pultenea mollis

Hiker with pack walking on contouring hillside track with red rocky face to the right, shrubs to the left and forested peaks in the distance under cloudy skies.

Happily, the track contours up, rather than heading straight for the spine. Ahead, the peaks you will climb later appear sporadically from the cloud.

Hiker on contouring track through shrubs and trees with rugged forested peaks in the background

The walking is a complete delight, with views to the east almost the entire way.

Hiker with pack on contouring track with white flowering shrubs right foreground, a forested valley to the left and distant peaks under cloudy skies

And views south, with the Serra Range’s magical peaks beckoning you onwards. You have seen these peaks for days from the William Range but here they are, growing closer.

Close view of sitting hiker in rain gear, leaning against a rock and holding a cup of hot soup in one hand.

It’s pretty wet when we hike. Walking along the spine, you’re climbing knolls and descending into gaps the entire time. But now the cloud has descended too and this is as good a lunch spot as any, with wreaths of mist blowing through the gap.

Closeup of a steaming pot of hot soup on a alcohol backpacking stove

Our favourite cool weather lunch, home-made Cup a Soup and homemade crackers: yum!

Man with pack on countouring bush track between yellow flowering shrubs under stringybark trees

Just beautiful, with so much in bloom!

Closeup of a starburts of yellow tubulasr floewers surrounded by needle-like green leaves

Pine Heath (Stenanthera pinifolia)

Hikewr in raingear and with pack right foreground on rocky outcrop gazing left across forested terrain an valleys and forest under cloudy skies

Another marvellous view, across the Victoria Plain to the westernmost arm of the Grampians, the Victoria Range. You’ll find beaut walks there too.

When you are hiking on tracks like this, you really have no excuse to get caught in rain. You will see the squalls, and the direction in which they are moving. If you glance at them now and then, you’ll also be able to tell whether they are growing as they approach, and whether you are in their path. Plenty of time to don rainwear!

You can identify light squalls because they are not opaque: you will be able to see the land on the other side through them. Sometimes they are very light, as the barely visible one centre left in the ‘V’ of the lower background hills, but beware: light squalls on flat terrain may grow in intensity as they reach hills or mountains.

Conversely, we have heard heavy squalls approaching in densely forested terrain, with just enough time to put on our jackets. Use all your senses! We’ve often been amazed that many folk are completely oblivious to approaching weather, even when it is clearly visible. Situational awareness is a great skill for hikers to practise and learn.

Hiker in raingear approaching on contouring hillside track  surrounded by white flowering shrubs under leaning trees with a rocky mist-shrouded  outcrop in te background

Huge sweeps of mist are blowing in from the west through every break in the range, creating a dramatically moody ambience.

Rocky lichen-patched boulder in foreground with views to peaks on right and forested terrain and distant farmland in the valley and flatlands to the left

And back to the eastern views again. Wow, this track is a treat!

Hiker with pack centre midground  on rocky elevated  terrain with glimpsed views over flatlands to the left

Such changeable weather: you really need to be prepared for anything on this hike! Here, we’re crossing a little gap, with quite different vegetation. I can’t recall if this is the exact spot where you descend off the spine and begin contouring down the eastern slopes, but it was one of very few (only?) places on the trail where we backtracked ten or so metres, having missed the small cairn on the edge marking the descent. Enough people have done the same thing that a well-worn pad has developed. This last section of trail is not well marked — it seems they might have run out of yellow traingles! — but most of the time there is simply nowhere else to walk, so no need to worry.

Hiker descending slope beside high red cliff on the right, with diatand views over flatland glimpsed between grass trees and the leaning trunks of eucalypts

Many marvellously healthy Xanthorrhoeas, some with trunks as tall as Geoff.

Hiker in raingear and pink cap holding long lens camera sitting on track by rock steps photographing tiny flowers

The sharp-eyed may just make out tiny orchids growing in the centre of the track. For orchid photography, I use an OMD1 Mk 3, usually with a 12-40mm lens while travelling (great for flower shots and a good overall walkaround lens) but here, after breaking the 12-40mm in the Northern Section, I’m using my heavy 90mm macro. The 60mm macro is a good lightweight alternative to combine with a wider angle 4/3 walkaround zoom like the new 8-25. For larger flowers, I usually use my iphone 13.

Closeup of small yellow flower arms akimbo with purple bumpy central lip

Little Bronze Caps, Caladenia transitoria. Each flower is no bigger than your thumbnail!

Closeup of reddish brown reclining flower with speckled black glandular hairs on the petals

And here is the Bronze Cap (C. iridescens), not much bigger. I didn’t realise for some time that I had been looking at two different species!

Hiker with pack on sandy path mid centre hright surrounded by heathyunderstorey of grass trees under grey trunked stringbarks

At last you are on the lower flanks and into flatter terrain, passing below ancient stringybarks

Cloeup of massed star shaped purple flowers with yellow centres

Spectacular Tinsel lily (Calectasia grandiflora)

Hiker on sandy 4WD track surrounded by scrub amongst scattered gums

… And finally into sand and approaching camp.

Wooden hut with corrugated iron rainwater tank on the edge of an escarpment with distant views over forested mountains under a pretty evening sky with patchy white cloud

Djardji-Djarwara is a beautiful hut in a stunning location, perched on the edge of an escarpment. The campsites are a tier below, out of sight and in more sheltered terrain. The views along the Serra Range even from inside the hut are breathtaking… and look at that nice big water tank!

Plan view of sign showing layout of the campsite

Here’s the layout. The communal shelter and toilets are at the top, and the tent platforms are nestled amongst the trees below.

Looking down on three wooden tent platforms with a red, green and sage tent, surrounded by tall eucalypt forest with distant evening views

It’s the busiest day we’ve seen on the trail thus far, with a few family groups on an overnight hike. Most days there have only been a handful or fewer in camp each night.

A sage green non freestanding tent on a wooden tent platform nestled amongst stringybark trees

Our cosy spot. We have become very fast at setting up the tent on these recalcitrant platforms with few gaps! If you’re unfamiliar with the techniques, check our tips and practice. Non-freestanding tent owners, add line extensions to your guylines before you leave home.

View from rocky outcrop to a forested sun dappled mountain range petering into the distance

Glorious view north along the Serra Range from beside the hut.

I know we keep saying it but, frankly, we have run out of superlatives for this hike. Even the bits that on paper seem to be least spectacular are still gobsmackingly stunning. Today had countless “Wow!” moments: it’s just that good!


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Yarram to Wannon

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Djardji-Djawara to Mud-Dadjug