2020 Australian Alps Walking Track

Day -66 Seriously looking at alternatives
Burnt Eucalyptus Bark
Burnt Eucalyptus Bark

While I haven’t ruled out walking the Australian Alps Walking Track in 2020, its not looking good at the moment. There are a number of closed areas in nearly all of the Victorian Alpine Parks due to last summer’s fires and in particular, key areas that impact on the AAWT. The NSW parks are also an issue and while there has been some change to the areas of closure, I am as yet not convinced the changes I need will be in place in the next two months. The major issue is dangerous trees and given the sheer size of the area along the east coast that was impacted by the fires, the various parks services can only do so much to make the areas safe for hikers.

Getting up to date information is a challenge. I discovered that information on the closed areas is split across two seperate websites in regard to the Victorian National Parks whereas in NSW you don’t have to go searching. To me this has just highlighted the need for a dedicated track website more along the lines of what exists for the Bibbulmun Track or the Heysen Trail.

I am still hopeful and will keep an eye on things over the next 4-6 weeks to see where things land. I also have a request in with Parks Victoria about their expectations for the AAWT and am waiting to hear back from them.

While COVID is still an issue, I am banking on regional Victoria being open in another two months and the NSW/Victoria border being open but I’ll wait and see on that one as well.

One way or another, I will be hiking somewhere in mid November and have identified a few alternate long distance options that total just over 400 km that will keep me busy for about 2.5 weeks. My training and preparation is still on track regardless of which option I end up going with.

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While I haven’t ruled out walking the Australian Alps Walking Track in 2020, its not looking good at the moment. There are a number of closed areas in nearly all of the Victorian Alpine Parks due to last summer’s fires and in particular, key areas that impact on the AAWT. The NSW parks are also […]