Buster Adventures Vic
Day 1-5 Wednesday 31st September- Sunday 4th October 2026
On our 1st day we drove 228km to Stringybark Creek, Archerton.
The weather forecast was not ideal for the next few days but we decided to still head off but had to modify our original plans of going through the high country (also some roads are still seasonally closed).
Our first stop is in Yea. We enjoyed our breakfast pies.
As our destination for today isn’t to far away we finally make the time to drive out to see the Cheviot Tunnel. It’s an impressive 200m long structure was built along the railway line in the 1880’s, using 675,000 bricks. Here are some more stats in the photos below.
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| Mansfield |
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| Eildon Weir at Bonnie Doon |
We continued on to Stringybark Creek campground located in Archerton. This is our 4th time here since 2012, but it’s the 1st time we have had the whole campground to ourselves! (Maybe the weather report put other campers off).
Luckily we had stopped along the way in to gather some firewood.
On Thursday we had intermittent showers so we still enjoyed the bush TV, watching the birdlife and walking along the track to explore the history of the Kelly gang. It is here the notorious Kelly Gang ambushed and killed three police officers on October 26, 1878.
On Friday the rain was more insistent, so after breakfast we packed up and drove out through the King Valley. We had thought of going via Madhouse Road but as we have never driven along there before we prudently went out the way we came in… maybe next time. Unfortunately the fog and wet weather did not encourage us to take the couple of detours to the lookouts (Whitfield and Powers) along the way.
We ventured in to have a look at Edi Cutting Campground (58km) and found a lovely spot in the quieter of the 2 sites, overlooking the river and decided that this was a good place to sit out the rain.
We managed a couple of walks along the river towards the other camp site but the track was un passable on foot due to high water over the road. We were also surprised to see the camping along this track have now been blocked off with huge boulders.
The next morning (Saturday) we woke up to some blue skies and welcomed sunshine. We drove 35km to Milawa, along the way we stopped for milk in Moyhu.
Then parked in the free RV area at the Brown Bros winery. Of course we went to have a look and bought a bottle of shiraz.
We then strolled along a well made path into town. We decide to have lunch at the pub and we’re not disappointed in the schnitzel and parma we chose.
We got back to Buster just in time before storm. It was a pity it was raining for the 2 weddings that were on today.
Around 6pm we managed to go for another walk a we’re rewarded with a gorgeous sunset.
On Sunday we ventured into Beechworth, a well-preserved historic gold rush town. Although we have been here numerous times, it alway a lovely place to walk around. Of course we had to get a pie for breakfast from the famous bakery.
Its a very popular place to visit with lots of various things to do.
We have a look at Newton Falls. The Bridge was built by Scottish stone masonsin 1875 to replace an earlier bridge further upstream.The tail race or channel (2.4 metres deep and 410 metres long) visible below the bridge, was cut through solid granite over a two year period in the late 1860s, enabling the area upstream to be sluiced for gold.
Then drive along Gorge Road to walk (2km return) to the Cascades. Along the track were Granite Tors - weathered by rain, frost, wind, sun and plants giving them strange and unusual shapes. Some have been given interesting names suchas Pumpkin Rock and the Sphinx.
Below the Spring Creek Bridge we had a view of the cascades as well as the many rock pools along the creek.
As it is springtime there were a variety of wildflowers.
A further 4km north from town was Woolshed Falls. The area was once the centre of one of the richest goldfield’s in Australia, where up to 8,000 prospectors camped along the banks of Spring Creek, in search of their fortune.
From here we went to drive along Woolshed Valley to have a look at the campsites. We ended up at O’Donoghues (52km today) situated next to Reedy Creek which we were informed by a fellow camper that it is a popular base for gold prospecting.
