Bear tracks | Australian Alps on Two Wheels

Alp me if you can, I’m feeling down... The “mountains” in Oz are kinda low, but still fun. Bear heads through and to the Australian Alps on two wheels. You can too, read on...

The Australian Alps are the highest mountain range on mainland Australia, although “mountain range” is something of an exaggeration. With the only peaks exceeding 2,000m in elevation on the mainland, it is also the sole place where deep snow falls annually.

Or maybe I should write “fell”. It’s getting warmer, and the snow-making machines at the resorts are working harder every year… Unlike the high mountain ranges found in places like the Rockies or the European Alps which are twice as high or the Himalayas which are four times the height of our Mt Kosciuszko, the Australian Alps were not formed by two continental plates colliding and pushing up the Earth’s rocky mantle to form jagged, rocky peaks.

The Himalayas which are four times the height of our Mt Kosciuszko…

Instead, they consist of a high plateau with soft rolling hills spread across a long, wide plateau that was uplifted by the movement of magma when Gondwana began to break up some 150 million years ago. A hot beginning for a cool bit of country.

A few of the best roads in the Alps may be closed in winter, for some time between July and October.

A few of the best roads in the Alps may be closed in winter, for some time between July and October. For the rest of the year, unless there is a bushfire, the roads and tracks are open. In the NSW section, there are some exceptionally acrobatic roads devoted to servicing the ubiquitous network of dams, penstocks and tunnels that make up the Snowy Mountains Project. This is a huge post-war endeavour to redirect water inland for irrigation and extract power from it along the way. In Victoria the roads were mainly made to serve the high country cattle business, and are less exciting except that many are still gravel, which is fun.

In Victoria the roads were mainly made to serve the high country cattle business, and are less exciting except that many are still gravel, which is fun.

A large slice of the mountains in both States is national park. Should you be interested in encountering Australia’s unique wildlife, this is the place to go. One colleague of mine hit a kangaroo here so hard that it wiped out one side of his bike’s fairing and broke his leg, but left him upright and still rolling down the road. In a lot of pain, but rollin’.

In the NSW section, there are some exceptionally acrobatic roads devoted to servicing the ubiquitous network of dams…

Another friend had a wallaby jump on his head from the edge of a cutting, knocking him over and leaving him sliding through the mud. The high country of the park is also home to thousands of wild horses, an introduced species that makes an unbelievable boggy mess of the countryside. Australia doesn’t have a good record with introduced species, does it?

Although it only shows the NSW section of the Alps, I’ve included it because it will give you an idea for a spectacular loop ride. Start in Cooma, the site of a motorcycle-friendly pub and a major hospital – ask me how I know both of these – and ride through farmland, north-west to Adaminaby. The claim to fame here is a giant concrete trout, but the food at the small shopping centre is quite good too.

Carry on through open forest to Mount Selwyn which does not even offer a pub but has some disused mining equipment by the side of the road, and turn left here down towards Khancoban. This stretch is quite remote and beautiful – it is where my friend had the cerebral encounter with the wallaby.

Khancoban is one of several small towns built for the Snowy Mountains project, which means it is nicely laid out, leafy and kind of characterless. It does have both an amiable pub and a comfortable motel, as well as fuel. This is a good place to buy your admission ticket for the park. The road heads south now to Tom Groggin, a picnic shelter on the Murray River flats and the Victorian border.

Khancoban is one of several small towns built for the Snowy Mountains project…

Back when Australia flew the particularly ugly and amazingly competent Canadian-built DeHavilland Caribou, one would occasionally land on the flats where its crew would unload a barbecue and several eskies and conduct “manoeuvres” below Mt Kosciuszko and out of sight of the brass.

From the Murray, the road heads east and up through tall forest and many a tight turn to Dead Horse Gap (named after a frozen nag discovered there one year, never let it be said that Australians lack imagination) and on to Jindabyne by way of Thredbo. Both towns are ski resorts, with Jindabyne much the larger and the home of one of my friend Chuck Hahn’s small breweries.

You’re back in sheep and cattle country from here on, covering good roads through Berridale and on back to Cooma. You will have covered about 400 kilometres through some of Australia’s most beautiful but entirely uncharacteristic countryside. Think of all that forest and remember that there are parts of the country – even in NSW – where you might not see a single tree over the same distance and where the change of altitude can be measured in inches.

The especially interesting roads in Victoria’s part of the Alps are three north-south crossings of the range’s watershed. The westernmost connects Jindabyne and the Pacific Highway near Nowa Nowa with fuel only at Buchan which also has a small but comfortable pub. The road is partly sealed. Next is the Bonang Highway which runs from Bombala to Orbost by way of, you guessed, Bonang. There’s fuel at Delegate and possibly at Bonang, and the road is fully sealed but can be covered by a staggering amount of leaf litter. Also from Bombala is the Monaro/Cann Valley Highway, entirely sealed but with no fuel available along the way.

Read previous Bear Tracks columns here

There are of course many more roads and tracks in the Australian Alps, and it’s no surprise that the place is a favourite destination for motorcyclists and the location of several long-standing rallies. Should you be a local or a foreign rider I commend the place to you. It’s easy to include it if you’re travelling between Sydney and Melbourne, for instance, and much more enjoyable than the flat Hume or Newell Highways.