Bushwalking in the Grampians

Peter de Graaf takes a hike in the Victorian highlands

All I wanted was a kangaroo. Well, okay, I wanted several kangaroos, and close enough to say g’day to, thank you very much. I didn’t want to have to squint to see them bound across a distant paddock. I also wanted an emu. And one of those strange, spiky, ant-eating echidnas. And, because you’re not in Australia every day, I wanted a snake. Preferably venomous.

Happily, the Grampians granted all my wildlife-spotting wishes, then threw in something called a bearded dragon and several thousand raucous birds for good measure.

Grampians National Park rises from pancake-flat Victorian farmland about three hours’ drive northwest of Melbourne. It covers 1670sq km, making it twice the size of Tongariro National Park and one of the biggest national parks in Victoria.

It consists of upthrust sandstone ridges with gentle, forested western slopes dropping off sharply in the east in a series of escarpments and serrated peaks.

A hot spot for Aboriginal rock art, the area was originally called Gariwerd but takes its more recent name from a Scottish mountain range.

It’s a fabulous place for day hikes because the terrain and abundant wildlife make walking feel like an adventure, while wellmaintained trails and modest elevations — few peaks top 1000m — make it achievable even for kids and the only moderately fit. My time in the Grampians was short but luckily I had Marie Killeen, senior guide at Melbourne-based Auswalk, to show me the highlights.