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 A road for all seasons: joining the Great Ocean Road as a year-round touring route through Victoria, south-eastern Australia is the first all-weather route to the Great Dividing Range; a refreshing retreat from summer heat, up amongst the snow gums and the alpine wildflowers.
The Great Alpine Road meanders 308 kilometres from the sheltered waterways of the Gippsland Lakes, more strictly from Bairnsdale, winds up over the smoky blue ridges of the Australian Alps then descends to the state’s north-east.
After Omeo, the first snow plains appear: grassy hollows between copses of snow gum, a squat and sturdy alpine eucalypt. Bright orange snow poles at the roadside, warnings about fitting snow chains, the fresh breeze… this is Australia’s High Country.
Winding down through the tall mountain ash on a well-engineered and tarred road, placing trust in our brakes, it was not difficult to credit that in the early 1900s, passengers on the mail coach would cover their eyes in fear, or would alight to walk the more perilous sections...
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