Victoria's Secrets - Marysville, Natural Playground
Nov 26 '03
The Bottom Line Marysville is a beautiful, historic town situated in some of the loveliest scenery in Victoria - and another part of my exploration of the State.
Continuing on in the vein of exploration and the joys to be had thereof, I’d like to tell you a little bit about a particularly special place, a sometimes spectacularly beautiful area, and one where you will almost always find a bit of seclusion, if you know where to look.
The focus of this area in question is the picturesque village of Marysville, which is the base for the closest skiing resort to the city of Melbourne, Lake Mountain. Marysville is a small town set in the valley of the Steavenson River – which itself features one of the region's most impressive natural displays.
Marysville may be small in size, but it certainly makes up for that in charm, and indeed it is one of the most popular destinations for daytrips out of Melbourne, with its lovely oak-lined main boulevard, the odd kitschy craft and lolly store, and the usual small-town feel. The natural setting does the rest – the town lies in a well-forested area, and even within what you might call the city limits, there are charming rivers running free, and ferns and forests of eucalypts. There are more than enough cottage-style accommodations to go around, and I’ve been lucky enough to discover the warm cosiness that some of these places have to offer.
There are two tourist seasons in Marysville – in winter, the cross-country mecca of Lake Mountain is a very popular place, and if the snow reports are ever any indication, the alpine region here sports a very good cover of snow throughout the season, often better than the higher-profile and higher-elevated resorts to the northeast. There are quite a few stores in Marysville for getting your chains, skis and so forth, and as it sits in a fairly low-lying valley, it’s the perfect spot, because not even 10 miles out, the road to Lake Mountain begins, and in the middle of winter there is plenty of snow around! I can attest to this – it’s quite an odd thing to drive around and see snow on the road – in Australia!
If you’re wanting to go to Lake Mountain, the suggestion would be to bring skis and so forth – there is a $25 entrance fee, and the booth for collecting this extravagant sum sits just off the turnoff, so you might as well make it worth your while forking over the cash, because I personally would not want to waste $25 by driving up there for a look and coming back. It certainly seems very steep, but I suppose most visitors to the mountain come to stay and ski anyway. They don’t really have a lot of choice in the matter, when the resort is charging like a wounded bull for you to get there.
And of course, there is the summer tourist season. That’s not to say that people don’t visit in the autumn and spring, of course – I imagine the main street in autumn would be very pretty indeed. But, what with central Victoria’s rather capricious weather in those seasons, it’s generally a good idea to wait until the decent weather is settled in, for either snow or sun.
The main summer attractions are the forests nearby and in particular the spectacular river scenery which abounds in the region. The Steavensons River hosts Steavensons Falls barely 5 minutes out of Marysville – it’s pretty much on the outskirts of the town, and due to its popularity, is floodlight at night. It is certainly quite a sight, bounding 250 feet down precipitous cascades, and splashing in a final freefall into a pretty, boulder-skirted pool.
There are two well-known forest drives nearby – the Lady Talbot Forest Drive and the Acheron Way. The former begins about two minutes out of Marysville, and goes through several picnic grounds by the scenic Taggerty River, before beginning the actual forest drive through the novelly tagged Marysville State Forest. There are several walking tracks that you can take along this rather cruddy dirt track, and the one that I went on was worth the bumping and grinding. You can continue on a good deal further than I did, and the road terminates at a rainforest walk, which sounds quite interesting, and probably one to do if you have the opportunity. I took the easy 2km stroll to Keppel Falls – there is also a good view a bit further up the road, but the walk there is worth doing, and is not at all difficult. The Taggerty River cascades quite spectacularly here, and it’s quite a beautiful spot.
The Acheron Way is somewhat longer and passes through much more rugged territory, and it goes from a spot near Marysville, to the town of Warburton, a good 25 miles away. I’ve not been along that way but I have a feeling it would be very scenic – those sites which do mention it say that it has some glorious views over the Yarra Ranges, and there is a turnoff along there to Mt Donna Buang, a very popular winter daytrip, hosting the closest snow to Melbourne at a touch over 4000 feet. There is also a rainforest walk at this turnoff – and it’s definitely worth a look if you’re around Warburton, as it goes around the temperate Mountain Ash rainforest and the pretty Cement Creek, which cascades amidst a lush, green setting.
The Marysville region is full of gold-digging history – the town was founded on it, and there are places in the region that began as gold sites, some of which are now ghost towns. The road leading out east heads through numerous historic sites, such as Cambarville, an abandoned logging town, and goes towards Woods Point, a small gold-era town well off the beaten track. This road is nigh-on deserted – there is nary a sign of habitation until you get to Woods Point, 70km away, or southeast to McMahon’s Creek and Warburton, some 50km away to the southeast, along one of the most alarmingly curvaceous and narrow highways you’ll ever have the displeasure of driving along.
In the Cambarville area there are quite a few forest walks, most of them very easy to do from the road. The largest tree in Victoria is found here – a 275-foot tall behemoth of a Mountain Ash, which at one point was a good 30 feet taller until a storm lopped off the top. The rainforest here is quite lovely, particularly where the Cumberland Creek runs through it. Of course, it’s a little hard to tell if it really is the tallest in the state, especially since Mountain Ash can grow much taller – but it’s the tallest one that has been found, at any rate. And well worth a look – it does make you appreciate some of the majesty of nature. After all, you’d have to travel to California to find a taller tree!
The most magical spot along here is at Cora Lynn Falls, which can be found directly opposite, over the road. It’s not particularly hard to cross here, as you’ll find the traffic is probably not especially frequent (i.e never). It’s a short 500-yard walk down to a beautiful cascade. It’s probably a perfect spot to sit and contemplate – the backdrop is absolutely gorgeous and it’s highly unlikely you’ll be sharing it with anyone else, unlike Steavensons Falls. It’s quite likely that there will be snow lying around here in winter – I think that would be quite a sight worth seeing. Not that driving on icy roads is a barrel of primates either.
There are a couple of other longer walks around here, and there is supposed to be one which leads to Cumberland Falls – alas it’s not really marked anywhere and you have to know what you’re looking for in order to find it. Not to mention that beyond a certain point it’s for daredevils and waterfall freaks only, because the track terminates alongside the creek in a jumble of fallen timber and washed away paths. If you want to see the falls, you’ll have to be happy with a top-down view, which even then is difficult to reach. A good deal of tenacity and a certain amount of insanity is required to go any further. I tried it and I don’t really recommend it – it’s quite slippery and things could get messy if you’re not very careful.
For anyone living or travelling in Victoria, it really is a must to head up to Marysville and its beautiful environs at some point in your visit/life – there is plenty of native wildlife up here, particularly of the parrot and kookaburra variety, areas of extreme tranquility and serenity, and an overabundance of natural splendour. A trip up here is definitely worth your while, no matter what the season.
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copernicus
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planning to write more soon...that's the idea anyway!
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