On the Northern Territory side of the Tanami Track (wikipedia / ExplorOz / Australian 4×4) which travels 1,032 km from just north of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory to Halls Creek in Western Australia through the Tanami Desert, you will find the Rabbit Flat Roadhouse, which has been operating for 41 years.

On Friday 31st December 2010 it will be closing permanently and after that date, there will be no services or facilities available.

Until that time the services are available as follows:

Until Monday 1st November 2010 – open every day from 7am to 9pm (sometimes 7pm if no one is around)

From 2nd November 2010 to 31st December 2010 – they will revert to the “partial closures” as before. (Open Fri to Mon only for both fuel & camping)

They have EFTPOS and Credit Card facilities.

I travelled along the Tanami in 2002 and absolutely loved it. I spent a few days roaming around the area and stopped for a diesel topup at Rabbit Flat where i paid $1.50 a litre. When i left Sydney to start the trip i only paid $0.899 a litre. Being so remote I did expect it to be on the pricey side so it didn’t really worry me.

A – The start of the Tanami Track
B – The Rabbit Flat Roadhouse
C – The track ends at Halls Creek

Mt Riddell (781m) on the 17^th of October 2008
Mt Useful (1435m) on the 29^th of December 2008
Mt Selma (1456m) on the 29^th of December 2008

I had also planned to finally bag Victoria’s highest mountain, Mt Bogong, (on New Years Eve) but unfortunately a tyre puncture on the 28th of December put my plans out of motion :(

Anyway…photos, reports and maps coming soon for my three new additions :)

Bogong High Plains Road in Feb 2007

In either the late 1970′s or the very early 1980′s my father took us on a great journey that i still remember vividly to this day. We started in Melbourne and drove east into Gippsland, through the town of Dargo, over the Dargo High Plains to Mt Hotham, along the Great Alpine Road to Omeo and then up onto the Bogong High Plains in a little Holden LJ Torana.

Since then, i’ve either driven or walked over stretches of the Bogong High Plains at least two-dozen times, with my last big trip to the area being over the new years period in early 2008 when i bagged Mt Feathertop on the very sunny 1st day of 2008.

I’m actually planning (if all goes well), to try and bag Mt Bogong in early 2009, so i might just get to drive over 36km of glorious dirt road one last time before the sealing of it is completed in May of 2009 :)

The information below on the sealing of the Bogong High Plains Road comes from the Alpine Shire Council website.

Bogong High Plains Road
The vision for the Bogong High Plains Road:
“All works on the Bogong High Plains road will undertaken in accordance with the agreed vision for the road to be a world class touring experience providing:
- a truly Alpine touring route;
- high quality interpretive experience;
- exceptional visitor amenities; and;
- integration of nature based tourism with heritage tourism opportunities”.

The project
As you can see from the vision statement – this project is not just about sealing a road. This project is about improvements which will provide new opportunities and sense of discovery in a unique environment.

The project has many interesting and several unique components. It was revisited in 2005 when plans to extend the Bogong Power Station were receiving widespread support. The extension involves the boring of a 6.5km tunnel under the Alpine National Park. Rock from this process is suitable for road sealing.

Alpine Shire spearheaded the process to seek financial support from the key stakeholders and the Victorian and Australian governments. Timing was critical to secure the rock and have the two projects running almost simultaneously.

In December 2007, Alpine Shire Council awarded the contract for the sealing works to Winslow Construction.

After a lot of planning, involving all parties, work physically started on the road construction in February 2008. In the summer/autumn 2008 construction period, 27.5km of sub-base material was placed on the road. Work started again on the project in mid-October 2008, when the road re-opened after being closed for winter.

It is anticipated the full length of the road will be sealed by May 2009.

The details of the project

$10million	total project value (this includes in-kind contributions for materials and haulage)
Partners	Alpine Shire Council, East Gippsland Shire Council, Falls Creek Resort Management Board, Falls Creek Ski Lifts Pty Ltd, the Victorian Government through Parks Victoria, and the Australian Government
$4.206million	from AusLink Strategic Regional Program
$3.2million	value of rock and haulage to Basalt Hill quarry site being supplied and funded by Parks Victoria
$2million	cash from the Victorian Government, through Parks Victoria, includes visitor facility upgrades along the road
$150,000	each from Alpine Shire Council, East Gippsland Shire Council, Falls Creek Resort Management
$100,000	Falls Creek Ski Lifts Pty Ltd
Project	Seal 36km of road from Falls Creek to the Omeo Highway and upgrade visitor facilities
Features	148,000 tonnes of rock from the Bogong Power development, donated by Parks Victoria.
Outcome	A sealed touring loop for three of the four seasons which is expected to increase visitation to the Alpine National Park and incorporates improvements for park users such as improved visitor areas and signage
Program	27.5km sub-based in place by mid June, 2008. Work resumed mid-October 2008. Road sealing in alignment with existing road. Expected to be finished May 2009. Upgrades to visitor facilities to be completed June 2010.

While its a good thing and will certainly bring in more tourists to the region, of which many will no doubt fall in love with the place, let’s hope that the ease of access for all sorts of vehicles doesn’t end up in the place being overrun and trashed by irresponsible individuals.

It’s on a little piece of rock which measures 85m east-west and 160m north-south, is located about 40km from the south-east tip of Wilsons Promontory and is called Boundary Islet.

Image from wikipedia

Latitude and Longitude details:

Latitude: -39 degrees 11 minutes 54.7362 seconds
Longitude: 147 degrees 1 minute 16.8954 seconds

-39.198537926698286, 147.02136039733887

From the GeoScience Australia website:

Of all the land-based borders in Australia, this is by far the shortest. Officially, the border between Victoria and Tasmania is a parallel of latitude 39°12′. Off the coast of Wilson’s Promontory in Victoria, there is a group if islands and islets known as The Hogan Group. Within this group is one islet, about six hectares in size, that straddles this boundary. Once called North East Islet, the name was changed to avoid confusion with another islet of the same name in the Kent Group, a short distance to the south east. In honour of the islet’s position, lying across the border between Victoria and Tasmania, it was renamed Boundary Islet.

From the Wikipedia entry:

Boundary Islet is an islet about 60,000 square metres in size in the Hogan Group of islands and islets at latitude 39°12′ S, south of the Wilson’s Promontory, the southernmost part of
both mainland Australia and mainland Victoria. The boundary between Victoria and Tasmania is a parallel similarly at latitude 39°12′; on it is thus Tasmania’s only land boundary, and at 85 metres long it is the shortest land border between any Australian states. The position of the island was surveyed in 1801 by Captain James Black, who erred in placing the islet further north than it is. It was later found that the border at 39°12′ S actually passed through the islet.

Boundary Islet was once known as North East Islet.

This article in The Age from 2005 talks about Boundary Islet.

Hmmm…i wonder how hard it would be to get a boat to take you out to Boundary Islet? It would certainly make for a great little expedition :)

Mount Augustus, or Burringurrah as it is known by the local Wadjari Aboriginal people, is about 850 kilometres from Perth and midway between the Great Northern and North West Coastal highways. One of the most spectacular solitary peaks in the world, it rises 717 metres above a stony, red sandplain of arid shrubland—dominated by wattles, cassias and eremophilas—and is clearly visible from the air for more than 160 kilometres.

The rock itself, which culminates in a small peak on a plateau, is about eight kilometres long and covers an area of 4,795 hectares. At about twice the size of Uluru (Ayers Rock) it is the biggest ‘rock’ in the world.

Mount Augustus has now been added to the official ExpeditionOz list of places to explore :)

Probably spend a nice “quiet” night at the Jamieson Brewery, and take the opportunity to stock up on some Jamieson Brewery beer like their Jamieson Raspberry Ale (mmmm…very nice), Jamieson “Beast” India Pale Ale, Jamieson Brown Ale and Jamieson Mountain Ale before heading out early onto mountain tracks for the rest of the day :)

Oh yeah…according to www.ski.com.au it snowed last night at Mt Hotham…I also just checked out the snow cams and it looks like Mt Buller had some snow fall on it as well :)

Of course in amongst all this “work stuff”, a long time buddy (from my 10 years in Sydney) and I are also planning to do a two-day 4wd expedition through the Kanangra-Boyd National Park and Blue Mountains National Park…it will probably follow a similar path to the one I did in September of 2002

The equipment is all packed and loaded into DSCVRY (my 2001 Land Rover Discovery) and an Expedition diary, photos and videos are all planned…now i just need to finish my keynote presentation so I can get my head into expedition mode :)

Its got a huge assortment of stuff including: the Hiking Victoria message board (forum), a huge list of walks, links to maps and other resources, a list of lookouts, a blog and photos.

Well done Bob…a great and useful resource for anyone interetsed in hiking :)

Mountain Ranges
Mountain ranges of Australia

Australian Lists
List of mountains in Australia
Mountains of Australia

State Lists
Mountains of the Australian Capital Territory
Mountains of New South Wales
Mountains of the Northern Territory
Mountains of Queensland
Mountains of South Australia
Mountains of Tasmania
Mountains of Victoria
Mountains of Western Australia

Other State lists
Mountains over 1,200 meters Tasmania
List of mountains in the Australian Capital Territory with respect to the 1996 Gazetteer of Australia including Latitude and Longitude.

I would love to find some more lists like the last one that lists all mountains in Tasmania over 1,200 meters…that would be really useful :)