Big Desert State Forest and Murray Sunset National Park

As Victoria’s restrictions finally ease, and cup weekend fast approaching, a few of our team members are itching to get out and explore again. We are all wanting to explore somewhere different so we quickly decide on North West Victoria and astray from the regular High Country. With a few of us only briefly visiting this area in the past we are all very excited to start a rough plan of the trip. With a short 4 days, we a lot of ground to cover!

Big Desert

The team all meet in Dimboola on the Saturday at around 2pm, as we are running a little behind schedule, we decide to head straight up the guts of Big Desert via the Murrayville-Nhill Track and reach our first camp destination for the trip, Broken Bucket Campground, located about 53kms north of Nhill. We settle in and cook the kids dinner before relaxing around the campfire sharing stories. This is what we’ve been itching for!!

After pack up on Sunday morning we start trekking north continuing along the Murrayville-Nhill Track. Around 60kms north we spot Big Billy Bore Campground and decide we will camp there the night after tackling some sandy tracks. We map out a quick plan on Hema maps, let down our tyres and head east on Brushcutters Tk.

Alex is leading the convoy in his fully equipped 80 Series followed by Rhys in his 105 Series Land Cruiser, Renae and partner Darren in their Dual Cab Colorado and tailing in the convoy is Dave in his 4.2 GQ Patrol. We hit a few soft sand dunes which were a lot of fun! The Colorado towing a trailer had the first recovery of the trip as it just didn’t quite make it over a sandy rise on a steep dune. A little snatch from the 105 got her up and we continued along the track. This is where we come across the steepest track so far and the GQ also towing a trailer needed a pull to get to the top.

Not much further down the track we came across Brushcutters Flat near the corner of Brushcutters Tk and Campbell Tk, and we cook up some lunch. At this point there is some laughs and friendly banter at how well the Land Cruisers are performing as recovery vehicles!

Continuing along Delisio Track until it forks, then we head North East on Big Dune Track. We then stopped again near John’s Bore before returning to Murrayville-Nhill Track via Cowangie-Nhill Track. From here we head slightly south back to Big Billy’s Campground and set up for the night. We had a big flat area to set up camp – plenty of room for two roof top tents, a couple of swags and an Oztent. Being Halloween, the kids had a blast running through the shrubs howling like wolves.

Murray Sunset

Monday morning we have an earlier pack-up and start heading north towards Murrayville. Once we arrived in town and realised there was no petrol stations open we decide to head east to Underbool and refuel before heading north into Murray Sunset NP. We start the trek north on Mt Jess Track, then head west on Honeymoon Hut Track, then circle back down on Grub Track before finally exploring the three Pink Lakes, Lake Crosbie, Lake Kenyon and Lake Becking

We decided to spend our last night at Lake Becking as there were no other campers there and we enjoyed a peaceful sunset over the lake all to ourselves.

Tuesday morning we had our earliest pack-up yet as it was going to be the hottest day at 35 degrees and we all have a very long 640km drive home. Plus we wanted to take a slight detour along the Silo Trail and view some incredible artwork!