Buller Huts Trail

The Buller Huts Trail is an informal hiking route that links a number of the high country huts (cattleman’s huts and cross country ski refuge huts) in the Mt Buller region of the Australian Alps. The basic route is about 96 kms and it crosses many noteworthy peaks.

I rushed off in a great hurry once I decided to do this hike. I got in the car soon after 1pm; I stopped at Chirnside Park for last minute food supplies; I stopped for a quick lunch by the roadside near Yarck; I changed out of my day clothes into hiking gear at Bonnie Doon and I was parking my car at Telephone Box Junction (Mount Stirling) at 6.15pm.

I intended to walk to Bluff Spur Hut (about 4.5 kms) to camp for the night and to join the Buller Huts trail near there on Monday morning. So I set out, making a wrong turn almost immediately even though I had done this exact same route only a month ago. I was annoyed at the waste of time as I wanted to have my tent set up before dark. I had forgotten that I would have to make an elevation gain of about 400 metres so the evening walk would be all uphill. On the way I looked around for somewhere I could stop and camp but there was nowhere flat or grassy. I arrived at the hut around 7.30 and surprised a group of three camping there. They suggested a sheltered spot behind the hut which turned out to be excellent advice: it was really windy at night, maybe the loudest wind I’ve ever heard, but I didn’t feel a thing. I cooked dinner inside the hut by torchlight and went to bed. 

By the morning the wind had dropped and it was a beautiful sunny day. I decided not to climb Mt Stirling until the end of the hike and went down to Howqua Gap before climbing gradually towards Mt Buller village and summit. The village was very closed up apart from a lot of construction work. To reach the summit of Mt Buller I had to make a huge detour due to building works, which seemed to last forever but took me past many of my favourite ski runs. I finally walked to the summit and studied the panorama seriously. There was a sign to help me pick out many of the peaks I was about to conquer.

From the summit I walked down the Family ski run, one I’m not very keen on for being boring, and then almost missed the turn onto Four Mile Spur. The spur wasn’t signed but happened to coincide with Zwiers Zigzag ski run, a run of which I have bad memories of always falling. The spur trail was rough and sometimes indistinct but gave great views over the surrounding mountains. The Bluff really dominated the horizon. The trail climbed a bit but the most interesting part was a steep downhill.

At the bottom I came to the Howqua River and waded across. The trail then climbed again and undulated alongside the river mainly in forest. I had intended to get to Eight Mile Flat to camp at the large campsite but when I got to Six Mile Flat (no toilet and only space for a few tents) I chose to stop. I camped right beside the river. It was a still night with lots of mozzies.  

The next day I knew I had a big climb. I had an easy start following the river to Eight Mile Flat then began on the climb up to the Bluff. Along the way a parks ranger drove past and stopped to ask where I was going; this was a stroke of luck for me as I could make sure all the trails were open after the bushfires. Not long into the climb I could hear voices ahead of me and soon I caught up with one guy of the group of three. We chatted while walking then I moved to get past the other two. They were Dom's friend Callum and his girlfriend! Amazing. We chatted for a bit and they told me there was another hiker not far ahead. Soon I caught up with him, and he was an ultra runner; we had some races in common.

I continued to walk alone and came to Refrigerator Gap, an opening in the forest, and, yes, it was suddenly cold. There was more climbing after that, quite steep, and a bit of scrambling towards the top. The view from the summit was good but it was cold and windy and unfortunately there were many burnt areas in the immediate vicinity. Descending towards Bluff Hut I had to walk through more burnt terrain but this was the only burnt part of the whole trail.

I got to Bluff Hut, my destination for the day. The others all stayed there too, plus a pair of hunters in a ute. As soon as I arrived they set off to do some hunting with big rifles. I felt a bit uneasy and was glad the other hikers were there. 

The next day was my only cloudy day. I started with the walk over Mt Lovick to Lovicks Hut (where my soaking wet flysheet dried in five minutes in the breeze), mainly on fire trails, then turned onto the Australian Alpine Walking Track. At the turn off I chatted to my parks ranger again, this time he was supervising some roadworks. The alpine trail was great, loads of views and very tranquil. I climbed Mt Magdala, briefly lost the trail, then continued to Mt Howitt. This was a longer climb but worth it, crossing several saddles, and Mt Howitt was treeless so the views were good. Sometimes I walked past areas full of wildflowers. Mt Buller already looked a very long way away, but it was always nice to be able to use it (the buildings distinguished it from the other peaks) to get my bearings. 

There had been no water on the trail since Bluff Hut and I had been drinking very little. I decided to detour to Macalister Springs to get water and it was a good thing I did so, even though this was an unnecessary descent to be followed by an uphill. Then I retraced my route towards Mt Howitt and turned towards the Crosscut Saw. This part of the Alpine Walking Track was labelled as wilderness so there would be no signs or markers, not that I’d noticed many anyway. I had left Mac Springs at 2.30 and I thought I would walk until 5pm then start looking for somewhere to camp. The trail became quite rough and I lost it a few times. The wind was blowing low cloud towards me and soon I could not see much into the distance but I knew I just had to continue along the ridge.

At about 4.50 I came to a tiny grassy spot beside the trail just before the top of Mt Buggery and I opted to stop here. I had been going extremely slowly. It seemed sheltered and there was a tiny break in the bush where it looked like I could cook. It was a great choice as the wind howled all night but didn’t make my tent flap at all.

In the morning the fly sheet was stiff with frost and I had to wear all my clothes, even while walking, but the sky was completely blue. I went over Mt Buggery and onto Mt Speculation. More good views then I had a longish descent to Camp Creek and some welcome water. I stopped to sit in the sun for a while and drink coffee. I had a long stretch on fire trails through sparse forest before starting the long steep descent of Muesli Spur which I had been dreading. It turned out to be nothing like as bad as I had feared although it was rough and rocky. I saw one small brown snake. After crossing a scree slope the going got easier and there were grassy meadows, so I stopped at one of these for more coffee.

I finished for the day at King Hut, right by the King River. I knew it was going to be a much warmer night. 

On the final day I started with five crossings of the King River. I thought it would be easiest to keep my shoes and socks on and just walk through the river. The water was certainly cold but so long as I kept walking my feet felt ok even in soaked shoes and socks. At the second crossing I had to wait for three black cows to cross first. After plenty of fire trail I turned onto a trail leading up to Craig’s Hut. The trail was very infested with blackberry and unfortunately I fell into the blackberry bushes twice which was not nice. Shortly after the second fall I saw a huge black snake leaving the path.

When I got to Craig’s Hut I knew the hike was almost done but I decided to stay out another night as I had plenty of food left. So, after a leisurely lunch, I hiked towards Mt Stirling on the Clear Hills Trail. This trail was an amazingly steep roller coaster and sometimes when I was hiking uphill I felt I was going to slip back down. The distance to GGS Hut seemed endless, probably because I was tired. I paused at the hut for a while then went to the summit of Mt Stirling. When I was here a month ago I never imagined I would be back so soon. I not only summited Mt Stirling I also crossed the road to visit the 300 year old snow gum that is some kind of significant tree because snow gums don’t usually grow at this altitude.

It was only a short stroll downhill to Bluff Spur Hut. I had the campsite to myself and I camped by the snow gums. It smelt a bit smoky and I became a bit worried about possible bushfires but I had seen several vehicles in the area and a hiker came past in the evening (without noticing me). The wind picked up in the night so I was glad I wasn’t directly under the trees. 

In the morning I packed up my gear and I was back at my car by 9am, to find that the Ski Patrol and police had been concerned about me. But my top priority was to get down to Mansfield and eat some real food. 

My total distance for the hike was 112 kms.