Phil Barton has been heading to the high country for decades, but in recent times has swapped his four-wheel-drive for an electric bike. With the state government announcing this week that it will spend $257 million over the next three years on infrastructure in national parks across the state, and Snowy Valleys Council releasing proposed plans for a cycling trail around Yarrangobilly and Talbingo (see articles next page), Phil chronicled one of his cycling trips to the high country last week, where he was part of a group that visited Four Mile Hut and Broken Dam Hut, taking in the area’s recovery from last summer’s bushfires.
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Our destination was to cycle into the ruins of Four Mile Hut, which was destroyed during the disastrous Dunn’s Road Fire of January 2020.
We also visited Broken Dam Hut, and along the way passed by the historic Nine Mile diggings.
My cycling companions were Bill and Melinda Deas (Talbingo), John Vascolina (Batlow), and for her first Kosciuszko National Park Adventure, Michelle Rossiter (Tumut); all riding battery assist E-bikes.
From Talbingo we drove up Talbingo Mountain onto the Cumberland Range which then weaves its way along the mountain contours, peaking at Bullock Hill (1523 metres) soon after arriving at the Elliot Way Link Road; five kilometres on we turn left onto Kings Cross Road which leads us to the car park at Selwyn Snow Fields.
I have always wanted to visit Four Mile Hut. An attempt back in the 80s resulted in finding the old slip-rail fence along Tabletop Trail, but somehow, I missed locating the track into Four Mile Hut.
The hut was built by Robert Hughes in 1937 and was used as a mining residence for gold panners; up until January 2020 it was the only complete mining hut on the Kiandra gold fields.
After entering the access trail alongside the Selwyn Ski Resort site, we soon pass by the communication tower.
The track is very rocky and overgrown. We cycle the first 3.3-kilometre leg to Tabletop Trail, it is relatively easy going to this intersection. The trail takes us through Snow Gum forest that has been decimated by fire.
Further along, it opens out onto vast sub-alpine grasslands with views of Tabletop Mountain and Mt Jagungal.
The countryside is covered in white, blue, pink, orange and yellow wildflowers which are in full bloom.
The wildflowers are the best display we have seen this season, some are identified as golden-stemmed billy buttons and orange everlasting daisies. Birds that frequent the area are wedge-tailed eagles, flame robins and brown falcons.
We turn right at the junction with Tabletop trail and follow it for 1.3km to reach Four Mile Hut access trail. We keep an eye out for what is described on Google as faint remnants of the area’s gold mining days.
We arrive at the intersection to Four Mile Hut. It is 750 metres in, but the track is so overgrown with long thick grass it would be impossible to cycle through, and to attempt a walk would take an hour and a half return, too big an ask for this trip.
We locate remnants of the old slip rail fence that was opposite the intersection, the charred remains still had holes where the slip rails went through, the fence line is easily discernible. We wisely decide to continue riding towards Tabletop Mountain. On arriving at the topside of Nine Mile diggings, a cavernous excavation we marvel at how this was dug out with pick and shovel; it is a huge scar on the landscape where once rich pickings were achieved.
After cycling another 6.3 kilometres, we reach Broken Dam Hut trail, and after a further 1.5 kilometres we soon arrive at the hut.
The March flies have been attacking us all the way, so we seek refuge inside the hut to have lunch.
With lunch over, it is time to saddle up and attack a steep climb up out of the valley back onto Tabletop Mountain Trail, and with a full belly and our minds still in lunch break mode, we were unprepared for the effort required to reach the top; it was a tough slog.
For as far as we can see there is burnt timber, the Dunn’s Road inferno roared through this section of the Kosciusko National Park destroying everything in its path, the fire so hot in places it has sterilised the ground leaving dusty bare patches.
The trees will never recover, they are all cooked, now skeletal on the skyline.
We notice the lack of green foliage, there is nowhere to seek shade from the rising heat of the day, but new life is sprouting from the ground, healthy-looking gumtree shoots alongside dead, fossilised looking trees.
The tracks we are cycling along are thickly overgrown with long, whisky strands of alpine grass
On the return journey, the country is very rocky and shaley, yet the ground cover is the thickest I have ever seen, the nutrients from the January 2020 fires have fertilised, germinating dormant seed that has now produced new wildflowers rarely seen in past few decades.
One can only marvel at the process of nature, like the changing of the seasons new life renews what the fires destroyed. With it brings new dangers; grass fires ignited by lightning will start the process all over again.
We were treated to several Quails hiding in the long grass, taking flight metres from our wheels crashing through their hideouts, we also saw a few other bird species, but other than a mouse in Broken Dam Hut we saw no other wildlife bar a mob of brumbies at Long Plain.
We arrive back at Mt Selwyn after doing 26 hard kilometres.
The long grass we passed through would at times help remove the March flies when they attached to our legs, and when I got home my legs were completely covered in thick black soot, no doubt ash rubbed off from the grass strands.
