Porcupine Ridge Road to Tarilta Gorge Camp via Great Divide Track, Upper Loddon State Forest - April 2021

Tarilta Creek, near my nights camp.

While the Covid situation hasn’t been overly good for me as far as travel and walking goes it has been good for one thing. Yes, with bugger all travel to fritter away money on I’ve found myself with a little extra cash so I’ve been up-dating a lot of my gear - with the plan going something along the lines of - once we are able to travel again I should have all the gear I need to head out into the bush and start living life again. This weeks arrival in the mail was my new Zpacks Duplex tent. Last year I’d grabbed myself a Triplex however while it was a perfect size for Sam and I it was a little large for my solo adventures, I was hoping the Duplex would be a little more suitable for my solo stuff. Anyway that’s the rather longwinded and boring preamble to how I found myself heading out to Tarilta Gorge one Friday afternoon after work to try it out.

There is room for three or four vehicles where the GDT crosses Porcupine Ridge Road.

Parking the ute beside Porcupine Ridge Road in the relatively early afternoon I grabbed my pack and set off west along the well signposted Great Divide Track. The GDT initially climbing a little to reach a ridge top which I undulated along for a little while, enjoying the glimpses of Mt Franklin through the trees as I went. The afternoon was one of those grey and overcast Victorian jobs, the kind that looked like it could rain at any stage however it generally doesn’t. Keeping a close eye on the GDT markers I followed a series of tracks south west, everything from 4wd tracks to walking tracks and even a section along an old water race, until I eventually arrived at the spot where there was some cleared rural land off to my right for the first time.

I set off climbing the GDT up onto a ridge top.

The GDT is well marked along here - which is just as well as there are a lot of twists and turns.

The views were somewhat limited from the ridge top.

I walked an old water race at one stage...

... along with some nice single track.

The rural land marked the spot that I left the GDT and started to drop down to Tarilta Creek. Last time I'd been in here I’d dropped straight down a gully that starts beside the farmland however this time I changed it up a bit by following a 4wd track along the boundary of the paddock, first north-west and then swinging west over a ridge. Once over the ridge I dropped into a gully and swung away from the rural land and followed a very, very faint pad down the gully until after around 20 minutes of easy and enjoyable walking I arrived down at Tarilta Creek.

I veered right the first time that I had rural land off to my right ahead of me.

I stayed beside the rural land as I climbed over another ridge.

Leaving the 4wd track (and the cleared land) I dropped into this broad gully.

Once I'd navigated my way down to Tarilta Creek it was just a matter of turning right and shuffling my way off downsteam until I found a suitable spot to camp. Initially there was a little gorse in the valley however thankfully the gorse soon stopped and I was left to walk fairly unimpeded by scratchy scrub through what was now a gorge as I made my way downstream. This upper section of Tarilta Creek is the most rugged of the whole valley/gorge I think, I found myself walking the dry creek bed a couple of times as I made my way down through some interlocking spurs.

I'm about to reach Tarilta Creek.

Tarilta Creek. There was a little gorse in this first section.

Tarilta Gorge. The first section was a little rough.

After some rough walking for twenty minutes or so the valley started to open up a little and I found myself walking across some nice grassy flats. It was now around 4:30 pm on what had been a fairly long day so I started looking for a suitable spot to pitch the Duplex for the first time. Picking up the remains of a very old 4wd track I crossed series of beautiful creek side flats and anyone of them would of made a nice spot to spend the night. After around an hour walking down the gorge I'd had enough for the day and finding a pool of water in the creek and a nice grassy shelf above it I decided that it was time to pull the pin for the day. It didn't take long to get the tent up for the first time and soon the sleeping mat was inflated, the quilt was lofting and I was enjoying the last of the days light as I sat on a nearby log boiling the billy.

Nice walking down Tarilta Gorge.

The go when walking down along Tarilta Creek is to criss cross the creek so as to make best use of the grassy creek side flats - the banks of the creek can sometimes make that difficult through.

The Dirt.

According to my GPS I walked around 7.3 kilometres and climbed about 124 metres on what I'd call a medium grade days walking. The main reason that I'd rate this as a medium grade walk is that there is a lot of off track navigation involved as well as some moderately rough walking down the creek. I carried water for camp however Tarilta Creek also had some pools of water in it which should be OK with a bit of treatment. As I've mentioned there are numerous spots to camp along Tarilta Creek although none of them have any facilities whatsoever so if anyone feels inspired to follow in my footsteps then please practice LNT principles. I based this stroll around some of Tyrone Thomas' old notes out of his book 150 Walks in Victoria book. I used his notes and mud map along with my GPS topos although I have been here quite a few times over the years so I know the area fairly well.

Relevant Posts.

Tarilta Creek Gorge Walk, Upper Loddon State Forest, 2020.

I passed by numerous potential camping spots as I made my way downstream.

I've just pitched my Duplex for the first time.