There just wasn't the space for thousands of people to enjoy themselves in the treeless and cleared areas of this relatively small mountain and the crowding was hardly conducive to an enjoyable ski trip with a group of friends. . In winter it was closed and used as a ski touring route. Mount Donna Buang Summit (Yarra Ranges National Park) The Mount Donna Buang Summit is a year-round playground. Given another season like the last, plus a good road and better ski-ing conditions, Donna Buang may easily be the means of adding several hundred new members to the Club. Initially cut in the summer of 1924 - 1925, over the years it was widened and lengthened, with summer grooming removing rocks and tree stumps. The nominal capacity of the hut was 17, but at times many more slept there. Later the worn out crusher jaws were salvaged by the University Ski Club and used as a backing for the fireplace of their new cabin. . However by the turn of the 20th century Melbourne was recovering from the depression of the 1890s and the forests of the Upper Yarra valley were soon being harvested to build new housing. If you are lucky, or early, you should spot a lyrebird. The summit tower can be seen behind it to the left. You will be transported to the summit of Mt Donna Buang (1250m elevation) where you can climb the lookout tower and enjoy views of the Great Dividing Range and Melbourne (cloud cover permitting). Arthur Shands, the president of the Ski Club of Victoria responded by proposing that a resort entry fee should be charged. 7 km, 13 km return. The four acts were consolidated and refined in the Motor Omnibus Act 1928. At an elevation of 1245 metres, Mount Donna Buang summit features a lookout tower which is 21 metres high and offers panoramic views over Melbourne, the Yarra Valley, Dandenong and Cathedral Ranges, Mount Baw Baw and the Alps. Time and distance: 3½ hours, 8 km. The mountain was popular, clubs had built accommodation on the mountain and new ski runs were cut through the forest of woollybutt and myrtle beech. She was about 4km up Mount Donna Buang Road in the Yarra Valley. Closest snow to Melbourne. This ski run is still followed by the current walking track to Boobyalla Saddle. A well written local history.Sheridan, Lynette. The climb from Warburton to the summit of Mt. In 1943 prisoners of war on the equator in Singapore established the Changi AIF Ski Club as a way to occupy themselves. The creek (occasionally called a river) rises in the saddle between Mt Donna Buang and Mt Victoria and flows southwards to the Ten Mile Turntable on the Donna Buang Road. Photo Warrand Begg. As recently as 2016 many of the glass bricks on the upper walls of the summit shelter were smashed out and there were no plans to install new ones. The hut was in reasonable proximity to Donna Buang and may have been used by Rovers skiing on the mountain. A volunteer 'working bee' on Donna Buang. Further downstream the creek was diverted into a penstock and powered a hydro-electric power station owned by the Upper Yarra Electric Supply Company. At the top of the ridge the walking track turns west and follows a route that was originally a fire break to the summit. 10 Mile Turntable to Main Run. From there the journey was on foot to the top of Donna, a climb of 3000 ft (915 m). So an enjoyable winter visit is still reliant on fine weather. To help pay for all this, the road above the Six Mile Turntable at Cement Creek would become a toll road in winter. But a few reminders of its heyday are hidden in the forest among the beech trees. The Argus, 20 June 1932. To the west, timber harvesting lasted a little longer and the notoriously steep Jacobs Ladder incline on Currie's tramway from Millgrove was a popular access route for members of the Melbourne Walking Club. . The style of skiing gives an idea of what would have been seen on Donna, A 1951 colour film of Swinburne students at Donna Buang. Last walked in August 2014. Anecdotes (mostly accurate) on the author's adventures, including Donna in the 1970sBudge, Allan. . In those states, ski clubs seemed to be able to co-operate to further the interests of all skiers. In April 1936 another new run measuring 270 x 60 metres was cleared to the north east of the summit. There is no record of what happened to the summit hut although it was probably one of the three huts on the mountain that were destroyed in the Black Friday wildfires of January 1939. It appears to have been on a timber harvesting tramline that served Robinson's No. © D.S. While the timber harvesters had mainly moved on by the time skiers arrived on Donna Buang, the routes their tramways followed remained useful as access tracks for years afterwards. Hotham using horses shod in snowshoes. The jump was designed by Norwegian born Martin Romuld who was the state ski jumping champion for much of the 1930s. MWC Inc., 1994. There had always been the problem of altitude or rather, the lack of it. In 1934 members of the SCV and USC went to Donna Buang to clear and widen the two ski runs and the jumping slope, at the top of the mountain by the lookout tower. Attractions at the summit include BBQs, walking tracks, toboggan runs, and a 21 metre tall lookout tower. This track reached the summit from the north east, bypassing the car park at 10 Mile. Its claim, then, as a future snow resort is worth considering. In the 1940s he went on to run a sled service for skiers up Bon Accord Spur to Mt. Road to summit at Cement Creek, with 'snow cover good' reported on sign. The renaming occurred in the late 19th century when there was a vogue for indigenous sounding names in Victoria with a surprising number of towns and features being renamed, especially in the 1880s. By 1927 skiers had a better idea of the nature of the mountain. While it is not known if the skiing members of the Brighton Rifles in 1935 later found themselves training to fight the French on skis in Lebanon or if any were imprisoned by the Japanese in Changi, the army reserve exercises on Mount Donna Buang may actually have been quite useful. The author, 2011. Romuld designed the Donna Buang jump to minimise construction work. The Cement Creek walking track starts 250 metres along the Donna Buang road. Ski runs were cleared of fallen timber, the old wooden jump was rebuilt in stone and the Main Run was extended. Sorry, there are no tours or activities available to book online for the date(s) you selected. Those days are well behind most of us now but let's pay tribute to Donna for keeping ski-ing alive and introducing many to the snow during the days when accommodation, petrol, war and other difficulties made the better mountains inaccessible. One of the most challenging and magnificent walks in the area Keppel Lookout Trail takes you on a journey through a diversity of forest types including Stringybark (Eucalyptus Obliqua) and the majestic Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans).Starting from the car park at Falls Road this 11km circuit takes you to a spectacular of Cathedral Ranges and Steavenson Falls. In the next few years, ski runs were cleared and groomed by summer work parties, the road was improved and accommodation for skiers was built on the mountain, so by the 1930s the experience of visitors was much more comfortable. Beyond Warburton, there were no government owned railways, so privately run transport was less hampered by the Motor Omnibus acts. Mount Victoria is a 1,162 metre high bump on the ridge south east of Donna Buang that overlooks Warburton. From there they traveled down three steep haulages to Robinson’s No. Before the Second World War, Donna was a major ski resort with six cleared runs, a ski jump, cafes, shelter huts, a ski hire and four ski lodges. 1. The road certainly had been improved; but, as the good road ended at the seventh milepost, one still had over two miles of mud to walk through before reaching the snow. Several extensions were built in the years that followed, but the relocated cabin from Donna survived until November 1982 when it was demolished to make way for an entirely new University Ski Club lodge at Buller. 1950. . Sundays saw thousands on the mountain--most of them throwing snow at one another--and well over two hundred ski-ing. But at least one club remained optimistic about Donna Buang's future. Sources and thanks     - Periodicals     - Books     - Web sites     - Thanks. Skiing the high plains. Please contact me if you’re interested. Monthly Victorian ski magazines: Schuss 1935 - 1955. In these years visitor numbers to Donna Buang surged and it looked like the mountain might regain its pre-war popularity with skiers. Photo © James Brook. Open grate metal, stairs, and lots of them to climb. The government owned State Electricity Commission bought the company in 1944 and closed the local hydro stations in 1948 when they connected Warburton to the state grid. cabin was hired to other groups when club members were not using it and a staggering 49 Girl Guides crammed into it on one night in January 1947. It turns out that there was an easier road, but I am really glad we drove over Donna Buang. The former shelter at the 10 Mile Turntable on 2 December 2012. A week or two later further snowfalls occurred, but did not hold. . So, when city based skiers began searching for somewhere closer to Melbourne than ski destinations in north eastern Victoria or Gippsland, Donna Buang was exactly what they were looking for. The track continued to be popular long after Donna Buang ceased to be a ski destination and the Federation of Victorian Walking Clubs began maintenance work parties in May 1953. Today the route is slightly overgrown and difficult to find at either end, but once you are on it, the benching into the hillside enables it to be followed without too much trouble. When it became apparent that producing it in book form would be too expensive and that instead, it would be published on a website, I realised that footnoting would be inappropriate. and U.S.C. In 1935 the Brighton Rifles, a unit of what is now called the Army Reserve, conducted 'snow manoeuvres' on Donna Buang. This was part of a larger project with the intention of training mountain troops to operate on skis in winter and in difficult terrain in summer. The U.S.C. More formally, the 380 hectare Mt Donna Buang Alpine Reserve was gazetted in the 1970s and it was incorporated into Yarra Ranges National Park which was created in 1995. Turn hard left and walk south along the road for 1 km until you reach a gate. * The oldest known ski clubs in Victoria are: Bright Alpine Club, 1888. cabin and the Melbourne Walking Club hut. Thus a number of ski lodges were built in the area around Mt Hotham in the mid to late 1940s, often using second hand material and supplies that were obtained under the false pretence that they would be used for housing to get around rationing of building supplies. The next 2 km are gently undulating. Five years of regrowth after the 1939 wildfires and a lack of maintenance during the war have obscured boundaries of the ski runs, but the summit area, the old summit road with it's sharp bends, the neighbouring USC and SCV cabins and the 10 Mile Turntable at the bottom right are all easily identified. At a junction, ignore the track heading south to 10 Mile car park and head north west for the final 600 metre climb to the summit. From here there is a short section of gravel road before the main sealed Donna Buang Road. It appears the final work parties on the ski runs were comprised of locals from the upper Yarra area and were organised by Mick Smith. While it is barely discernible from the summit of Donna, it appears to be a major prominence from Warburton and the upper Yarra Valley. The summit boasts an impressive 21 metre high lookout tower and the view from the top is spectacular. All were successful and most were booked out months before the ski season started. Another attempt to deal with the problem was to build a toboggan run to give the snow players somewhere away from the ski runs to try out their mostly rented equipment. Don’t worry though, it’s a loop ride so you still get to ride the Rail Trail as well! . Many think the quantity of snow was phenomenal, but personally I do not believe it was. Photo by Kath Magill. Mt Donna Buang overlooks the town of Warburton in the Yarra Valley. Many who had been several times to Buffalo declared that they had never seen such conditions so good there, or such a beautiful snow scene as the snow-laden trees on the Donna Buang Road. Turn left and continue south for 250 metres until you reach a dip in the road which often features a large puddle. This snowfield is mostly visited by novices and sightseers'. Instead, in early 1950, the Donna Buang cabin was disassembled, with sections being moved by horse sled down to the 10 Mile Turntable and then moved by ‘low loader’ to the new subdivision at Mt Buller, where the flat pack was reassembled to provide an instant lodge, enabling the U.S.C. Modest facilities on the mountain. Today Mt Donna Buang is a snow play destination with a lookout tower and a couple of nondescript buildings. Most of the vehicles were large semi-luxury cars but one business had 14 and 24 seat REO buses in addition to their cars. While a kiosk operated at 10 Mile, it appears the 'modern cafe' was never built at the summit, although on busy winter weekends in most years, there has been a caravan selling snacks. The track unrelentingly heads straight up the mountain, mostly through mountain ash forest. It was then rebuilt on the mountain in winter. In 1933 a fence was built to keep non skiers off the slopes, but even after the fence was extended in the summer of 1935 - 1936, it was still not effective as the penned in non skiers simply climbed over the fences. . Four of these stations were operating last summer, and all seven will be … (Orange.) As detailed in her autobiography and her 2012 obituary, she became an advocate for causes affecting amputees. Mountain memories: sixty years of skiing. Exploratory winter trip report. Later it became evident that Donna Buang was more than a just a minor scenic destination and the Forests Commission found themselves in control of a proper tourist resort. Then drive up the Donna Buang Road, C 505, for 6 km to the 10 Mile picnic area and park. To visit it, locate the ruin of the S.C.V. Naturally people who climbed the steep mountain hoped to be rewarded with a view. In earlier years this line was closed down in winter, but from the 1934 season it was kept open to allow accurate snow reports to be sent to newspapers and ski club committees. In addition six relatively comfortable commercial ski ‘chalets’ had been built: The Buffalo Chalet (1911), Rundell’s Alpine Lodge at Flour Bag Plain (an old mining hotel near Dinner Plain reopened in 1921), Hotham Heights (1925), the Feathertop Bungalow (1925), St Bernard Hospice (renovated and reopened 1925) and the Mt Buller Chalet (1929). Most of this ambitious programme was completed in the 1970s, new toilets and shelters were built at both 10 Mile and the summit. The road immediately begins a steady climb which continues for 7 km to the Cement Creek junction. In 1933 it was named the Walter E. Briggs Hut after the incumbent club president. While you can drive to the top, there are a number of walking tracks up the mountain. In the 1970s, well after skiers ceased to visit Donna Buang, another kiosk operated down at the 10 Mile car park. At the bottom of the ski run, the track continues through a forest of myrtle beech before intersecting with a well maintained gravel road. If you love nature and Forest, add this place to your checklist.For 4K Video of this place Visit Hardy&Sharan Youtube Channel-Link in my Profile. Occasionally they used explosives to remove especially recalcitrant rocks and tree stumps. The old name for the road junction near where the road crosses Cement Creek at the junction of the Acheron Way and Donna Buang Road. Challenge of the high country. These mountains, however, are at present more or less inaccessible, so we should first of all confine our efforts to the nearer and easily accessible Donna Buang. In 1911, when he was 80 years old, Joseph Panton appears to have revised his story and claimed that he later heard from the 'chief and head of the aboriginal tribe of the Yering valley that the mountain was known as Donna Buang' and that caused him to encourage the use of the name. While crowds on other days were less extreme, good snow on a weekend always brought thousands of people to Donna Buang. © David Sisson 2007. Not surprisingly this didn't go down too well with the 20 other ski clubs that existed in the 1930s, or with private skiers with no club affiliation. Wartime petrol rationing and many active skiers enlisting in the armed forces reduced both the number of skiers and the ability to do summer maintenance work. Get to the lookout, and the tower is quite imposing. Mt Donna Buang to Mt Boobyalla – Distance: 2.5km / Time: 1.5 hrs / Grade: Moderate Mt Donna Buang return via Mt Victoria & 10 Mile – Distance: 6km / Time: 3 hrs / Grade: Moderate. So it made sense to build accommodation on Donna Buang too. It was further extended and widened in March 1934 and April 1951. In addition to the home movie of skiing on Donna in the 1920s that can be viewed in chapter 3, there are a few other on-line films that are relevant: A professionally produced 1938 film promoting skiing on Mt Buffalo. Drummer, Mt. Its ruin is visible north of the base of the Main Run on the modern walking track from the summit to the Ten Mile Turntable. With an increasing number of skiers living in Melbourne, there was a clear need for a ski destination close to the city, preferably with convenient rail access. Reviewed 2 July 2020 via mobile . However the ski runs were fairly short and the snow was never terribly reliable and after the Second World War, skiers deserted it in favour of more reliable snow on higher mountains further away from Melbourne. Depending on snow conditions, this could be lower on the mountain at the 6 Mile Turntable at Cement Creek or higher up the mountain at the 10 Mile Turntable. So attention turned to providing accommodation for skiers on Donna Buang. In snow the route is fairly clear and it is marked with occasional red metal arrows. In the summer of 1932 - 1933, another short run was cut to the south of the Main Run. From 1918 three observation towers have been built on the summit of Mt Donna Buang, the current one dates from 1963. The 1,100 metre ascent is long and steep, (the only steeper walk nearby is the track up Mt Juliet). Rose postcard. It is possible that one of these people may have influenced the renaming. Later there is a short interlude at Mt Hotham featuring Helmut Kofler, which dates that part as 1928, as Kofler only spent one year at Hotham before moving to Mt Buller where he was the manager of the Chalet on that mountain until his death a decade later. 8 or 13 km. . The idea was strongly opposed by A. D. Mackenzie, chief engineer of the Public Works Department who had supervised the rebuilding of the road two years earlier. In the 1960s and 1970s it featured a kiosk, since demolished and there was probably a kiosk there in the 1930s as well.. Today the Ten Mile Turntable is the start of a walking track to the summit, which can be found behind some posts, a few metres down the road from the car park. Rainforest Gallery walk. 388katharinew wrote a review Mar 2020. However Donna Buang remained as popular as ever with hikers and families visiting to play in the snow. It was maintained by volunteer summer work parties and was popular with club members in the pre-war years, albeit with a slight decline in the late thirties. Local interest in the mountain grew beyond promotion of tourism and the Warburton Ski Club was formed in late 1931, making it the eighth ski club in Victoria. 'Good snow, Donna Buang July 1929'. Over a weekend they repaired the chimney, fixed a hole in the floor, painted most of the hut and cut wood ready for the following winter. The information on Donna Buang in the 1934 yearbook was so interesting that when I realised that no history of Donna existed, I began to research the history of the mountain. . Other things I’m looking for include a contemporary ski map of the mountain and a post 1951 photo of the ski jump rebuilt in stone. State Library of Victoria. Depending on the depth of snow, cars could be parked as high as 10 Mile or as low as the 6 Mile Turntable at the Cement Creek road junction. Apparently the badge of the Donna Buang Rover 'crew'. The Club is helping, too, by looking after the ski run. The ascent via Cement Creek and Boobyalla Saddle. Source Museums Victoria. There is no spring, the water has no taste, negligible mineral content and the pipe and ditch are simply one of the heads of Ythan Creek that was diverted underground when the car park was enlarged in the summer of 1932 - 1933. It attracts sightseers in both summer and winter, but almost no skiers. Of course, not all visitors had their own skis or were able to borrow them, so by the 1930s a ski hire service was available. The Upper Yarra: an illustrated history. This may have been known as the Jump Run. The SCV Cabin on Donna Buang. Access was by ladders built from logs, with split palings providing the treads. Access. Photo © Blair Hamilton. Date uncertain, possibly associated with the 1970s improvements or a cafe that operated in the 1960s. There is an especially attractive spot where the track passes through a pure stand of myrtle beech. © David Sisson. Soon after the end of this second climb, the scenery changes from rainforest with a mountain ash overstory to more open woollybutt (or alpine ash) woodland. One of the prettiest creeks in the area, it was named for the suitability of gravel in its bed for making cement. Rising some 1080 vertical metres, the climb is amazingly picturesque and, for most of the year, virtually traffic free. During the 1930s the Forests Commission created a management committee. But it is also a great place to simply stop and enjoy the views over the Yarra Valley and Yarra Ranges. The more scenic sections of this path remain popular with walkers, cyclists and horse riders today. But realistically, no one can ever be confident of where the name Donna Buang came from. Susan Shaw, 67, was seen about 4km up Mount Donna Buang Road in the Yarra Valley by police who pulled over to ask if she was okay. Soon you will reach a junction with a track to the right heading south to Ten Mile picnic area. The road climbs steadily for 7 km to the Cement Creek junction. Final page has info on namingLloyd, Janis M. Skiing into history: 1924 - 1984. Petrol rationing in the early years of the Second World War caused visitation to the mountain to drop off.