Page 5 - YV 4x4 Mag Summer 2019 .pub

Saturday – Mt Tingaringy Wilderness Area
I had spoken to the local Ranger a few weeks before and he advised that the Iconic Snowy River
Drive might be blocked as no one had been along it since before winter (more on this later) and
that he was meeting 4WD Victoria Representatives to looking at closing the Deddick Trail until
repairs could be made to a steep section. He advised that the Mt Tingaringy Wilderness Area had
been cleared and offered some great 4wding.

We left camp at 9am and headed for Mt Tingaringy along the windy road to our first stop.
McKillops Bridge. The bridge is very high and unusual structure built with concrete piers, steel
trusses and a wooden decking. The decking moves and rattles as you drive over.
It was built in 1931/2 and was swept away by massive flood 11 days before the official opening.
Not to be deterred the builders extended the surviving piers by 5m and the damaged centre pier
was replaced. All of the steel trusses and timber decking had to be replaced.
The bridge finally opening in 1935.

Iconic McKillops Bridge crossing the Snowy A display board
on site notes that
in 1971 the river
reached the
same height that
destroyed the
original bridge,
approximately
5m below the
current road
level.
What a site that
would have
been.
The convoy con-
tinued along the
main road
through the thriv-
ing metropolis of
Deddick for
morning tea.
On our way to Mt
Tingaringy we
came across a side track to the Bonanza Mine Historic Site. Mike led us through a “slightly” over
grown track. We found a large mullock heap on the opposite side of the creek but access looked
a bit difficult so we pressed onto our lunch stop at Mt Tingaringy.

We came across a large convoy from the Port Phillip 4WD Club at the summit but managed to
squeeze in and have lunch whilst looking across the border to Mt Kosciusko, with an uninter-
rupted view in all directions.
Good mobile phone reception and after a few calls to home we headed West onto Lauries Track.
The Hulses and Odds decided to head back to camp for a swim.
The remainder of the group continued on along a very open track, it had had a dozer along it re-
cently, some steep ups and downs kept us interested with a few helipads, all with good view
thrown in for good measure.

We descended to creek which was shown on John Toogood’s map as only recommended when
creek was dry. At the creek the road turned along the floor of the creek for a 100m before climb-
ing out at a bend and dropping back onto the creek bed for another 100m.
There were some car swallowing holes alongside that would have been invisible if the creek had
been flowing at say 150mm deep.

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