Hike at a glance
Length
Duration
Difficulty
Trail type
Route details
Max elevation: 1084m
Min elevation: 234m
Total Ascent: 2894m
Check current conditions
Track conditions, access and closures can change quickly due to weather, fire, maintenance or safety concerns. Always check the relevant land manager’s website before you visit. Trail Hiking Australia does not provide real-time track and closure monitoring, and land managers remain the authoritative source for current alerts, closures and access restrictions.
About this trail
Trail difficulty
Remote, unmarked, and high consequence
These are the most challenging walks and are only suited to highly experienced and well-prepared hikers.
Expect very rough, steep, and often unmarked terrain, with limited or no signage. Navigation skills are essential, and you must be self-reliant, including emergency preparedness. Distances may exceed 20km, and conditions can quickly become serious if things go wrong.
Safety note: There is little margin for error. Mistakes in navigation, weather judgement, or preparation can have serious consequences.
Planning information
Preparation matters: Plan your multi-day hike well and bring the right gear, weather-appropriate layers, food and plenty of water. Before you head out, read up on bushwalking safety and use this multi-day hike planning guide to make sure you're ready. Need help getting started? Check out the full hike preparation guide.
Map and GPX file
Safety and preparation
Think safety first
Australian conditions can turn a small oversight into a serious situation faster than most walkers expect. The Hiking Safety Systems and planning calculators are designed to help you identify and close those gaps before you leave home. Work through the Interactive Safety Scenarios to see how incidents unfold, then use the tools to build your plan and make sure a trusted contact has your trip details before you head out.
Let someone know
Before you go, complete a trip intentions form and share it with a trusted contact. Agree on a Late-Back Time and ask them to call 000 (Police) if you have not checked in. A clear trip plan is one of the simplest and most effective safety steps you can take, and it only takes two minutes.
Heading somewhere remote, off-track or overnight? Use the comprehensive trip intentions form instead — your emergency contact will need more detail. Register your trip plan here →
Free checklists
Download the hiking preparation and safety checklists before leaving home to help you think through your plans. They help ensure important considerations are not overlooked and support safer decision-making on the trail.
Getting there and where to stay
Need a rental car to get you to the hike? Find one here →
Accommodation nearby
Find hotels, cabins, and campgrounds near the trailhead. Click the button below to open an interactive map automatically centred on this hike's location — no searching required.
Or search accommodation in nearby towns: Benalla, Bright, Dinner Plain, Falls Creek, Harrietville, Hotham Heights, Mansfield, Mitta Mitta, Mount Beauty, Mount Hotham, Myrtleford, Omeo, Porepunkah, Tawonga South, Wangaratta
Explore the region
About the region
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Photo gallery
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Weather on the trail
The map below shows the rain forecast for the trail area. Tap the toggle in the top right corner to explore other layers including wind, temperature, UV index, thunderstorms, fire danger, and weather warnings — all useful for planning a safe hike.
Trail Reviews
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Whether it’s a new feature, a route change, or a closure, share your update so we can keep our info accurate and helpful for fellow hikers.
Acknowledgement of Country
Trail Hiking Australia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we hike and pay respects to their Elders, past and present, and we acknowledge the First Nations people of other communities who may be here today.
9 Reviews on “Lake Tali Karng: Tamboritha Road & Mount Margaret Hike (42km)”
This is one of my favourite hikes – and the lake a simply stunning and refreshing place to be
Such a great spot/hike!
Only 12.5km round trip from Millers Hut… Chantelle Waters, Jim Spiers, John Williams I want to do this sometime in 2017…
Shayne Gillings
Is this on our bucket list Erin?
Hey Darren this is a great hike but I wonder if it should be mentioned that there is no camping within 1km of the Lake and that it has a strong indigenous connection.
Charlotte Miller Looks amazing! I’m in!
Been there.
Belinda Issell Heafield Alli Trigger Erin Rainbowburn Sally McLaren Caroline O’Brien We should put this on our must do list, too
“The difficult route to Tali Karng via Mount Margaret is unmaintained and poorly defined for much of its length between Tamboritha Road and Dolodrook River. Remote navigation skills are required and thick vegetation makes progress slow. From the Dolodrook River it follows a 4WD track past the Chromite Mine then Brandy Pinch Track to join the Clive Lanigan Walking Track below the Valley of Destruction.”
This is a pretty spot on description of this section of the track.
We just completed the walk along the Mt Margaret Walking Track (closed track but still accessible) to the Lake via Clive Lanigan Track returning via Riggall Spur then out via Wellington River Walking Track to Tamboritha Rd. We had no GPS – just compass and map for this trip.
It was a tough hike especially on the first 2 days along the Mount Margaret track. The track starts okay following the creek with some tape markers. Once off the creek it is quickly very overgrown and you’re bashing most of the way through. There is a section with tape that makes it easy to follow but we lost both it and the trail quickly and then had to bash all the way to the first 4×4 track using our bearing set to this point. Took us about 7 hours to do 5.5km in the rain and we were knackered – it’s mostly climbing and bashing – definitely grade 5.
We ended up about 700m to the left from the track exit onto the 4×4 track and we scouted around, found the entry point on the other side a little further up and planned the next days hike, camping on the side of the road for the night. This was awesome – a true hiking/camping experience. Loved it.
Day 2 we decided to continue to Chromite Mine and Brady Pinch on the same Mount Margaret walking track. The going was really tough and we took our time, which meant we didn’t get lost too much except at 2 critical turning points where we took our time to get it right having to back track and scout options a bit until finding the trail. There is no tape and you really have to rely on the compass and map and check every 100m or so. But you’re mostly along ridge lines so it is fairly stress free as long as you keep that in mind and make a strong continual effort to check for the trail. A really hard but rewarding walk. (Note there are some spray painted markers and also a few cut logs which indicate the trail). Once you see the big square yellow marker with the arrow on the tree – pointing in the wrong (confusing) direction – you need to head directly to the tright alonga faint overgrown trail and then make a sharp right turn and it almost feels like you’re heading back in the wrong direction but the trail quickly becomes visible – it is crucial you get this part right.
Once at Chromite Mine it is easy to follow the Brady Pinch track to the campsite. This track is along a parks maintenance track and is steep and long. Arrival at the campsite is the junction for the rest of the trails – a nice clay rich, swampy site along the river and really serene and pleasant. We stayed here for 2 nights. It is wet but you can have big fires so it is worth it.
Day 3 we left the packs and took the Clive Lanigan track to Lake Tali Karng via the Valley of Destruction. The first km is 4×4 and easy walking. The next 1.5km of the track was easy to follow, but lots of tough walking here as it is really overgrown and it was also very wet due to the rains and we were soaked due to the fact that you’re bashing through wet bushes. Then once you cross the creek/river the last 2-3km is the Valley of Destruction and this is hard slog up hill to the lake – but by far one of the most beautiful rainforest walks I have done. Feels really wild and very isolated and is really quite magical (reminded me of parts of the Overland). Arrival at the lake is exceptional and I won’t ruin it for anyone with my bad descriptions. Suffice to say this is totally worth the effort and I recommend Clive Lannigan to get there.
The return back to the campsite at the junction was via Echo Point from the Lake for a km and then west via Riggal Spur – a very easy and well maintained slow descent – a welcomed change from what we had done thus far.
Last day was out to Tamboritha Rd via Wellington River Track 13km. Easy to follow so a pleasant walk but there are something like 13-14 waste deep river crossings and they are all really fun. So expect to be walking with wet boots the whole way. We then walked the full 13-14km back to the car at the entry to Mt Margaret along the road (I wouldn’t recommend this but we wanted to get into Licola General Store for a beer – closes at 5pm). Mostly a safe walk except for a few crazy 4×4’s.
A few notes:
The Mt Maragert track is officialy closed but you can still walk it.
A very hard grade 5 slog but super rewarding – you need good fitness and strong experience and navigational skills (unless using a GPS) and I would not recommend doing this part of the hike alone.
It is mostly wet so prepare for that (start of November).
Gaiters recommended.
Heaps of water along the way so we got away with having a half to 1 litre at a time making the packs much lighter.
I highly recommend this if you want a – for lack of a better word – truly hardcore hike. It is not a 2-3 day hike – more like a 3-4 day hike if you want to visit the lake too.
Hope more people do this trail. It is so much fun.
Just wondering if the GPX file is right?
Trail info says circuit, but map file/chart seems to show return.
Is it possible this was switched with the other Tali Karng hike (that one says Return, but looks to be a circuit?)