The walk is 8 km long and will take a reasonably fit group about 4 hours, including a few breaks. Add an hour if you plan to walk the last 4.5 km down the road rather than drive back to the start. This is the most attractive walk in the Warburton area, primarily through cool temperate rainforest. Despite a 750-meter climb, the effort is well worth it. Most of the walk is moderately graded, except for two short but fairly steep sections near the start. If it has rained or there is snow on the ground, the first kilometre of the track may be wet and challenging to keep your feet dry, so carry a spare pair of dry socks.
The ascent via Cement Creek and Boobyalla Saddle.
The track immediately plunges into tall eucalypt forest and crosses Cement Creek and some tributaries by a combination of bridges and stepping stones. If it has rained recently or there is snow on the ground, the first 1½ km can be quite wet and muddy with water running down the track. Soon the track begins to climb up on the north side of the creek. This is actually an old cable haulage tramline where logs were winched down the mountain. There are a few diversions where trees have fallen over the track, but it essentially continues in a straight line parallel to the creek. This is the steepest part of the walk, so take a few breaks and look around at the forest. Below the towering Mountain Ash canopy, you will see a rainforest understory of Tree Ferns, Sassafras, Blackwood and Myrtle Beech.
Soon the old cable haulage finishes and you emerge onto a flat section where the tramway was horse drawn before the climb resumes for a short distance. Soon after the end of this second climb, the scenery changes from rainforest with a Mountain Ash overstory to more open Alpine Ash woodland. Follow the track through the tall trees and just as they are changing to Snowgums, you will arrive at a track junction at Boobyalla Saddle.
Take a breather before the final section to the summit. Turn left and head south along an undulating track. There is an especially attractive spot where the track passes through a pure stand of Myrtle Beech. Before long, it joins a Melbourne Water road. Turn left and continue south for a few hundred metres until a dip in the road. Just as it starts to climb, take a track to the left heading into the forest. There is a short climb up a former ski run through beech and eucalypts and soon you will emerge at the the summit.
The summit boasts an impressive 21 metre high lookout tower with a curious double helix staircase. The view from the top is spectacular. Nearby is a slightly squalid shelter hut with partially open sides and a toilet block. At busy times in winter, there may be a caravan selling snacks.
The descent via Mount Victoria.
From the observation tower, walk 100 metres east to the toilet block. Contour north across the top of a fenced off former ski run. Soon you will pick up a good track that heads downhill, roughly paralleling the fence line. In snow the route is fairly clear and it is marked with occasional red metal arrows. At the bottom of the ski run is the ruin of an old ski lodge.
Soon you will reach a junction with a track to the right heading south to Ten Mile picnic area. Take the left hand track which stays fairly level for 2 km to Mount Victoria. The top is barely perceptible as it is really a knoll on a spur that looks like a mountain from near Warburton. The track then descends to a telephone tower. From here there is a short section of gravel road before the main sealed Donna Buang Road. If you have left a car here, drive down to the start of the walking track, otherwise it is an easy hour's walk along the road to your cars.
Winter
The Cement Creek walk is especially attractive for experienced groups in winter, although snow conditions in July and August make things a little harder. However walking through a silent beech forest in deep snow is a truly wonderful experience and rare outside Tasmania. Everyone in the group should have a good quality raincoat that won't tear on scrub as well as overpants, gloves, a warm hat, telephone and a spare pair of warm, dry socks. The snow can be quite deep, so it will be useful if at least one person in the group has snowshoes to help pack down the track.
While you should have a GPS, navigation in snow isn't too much of a problem on most of the route except for the top section of the track paralleling Cement Creek before Boobyalla Saddle. Keep an eye out for the markers nailed to trees on this section. They are more easily seen looking downhill, so make sure you turn around frequently so as to stay on the track.
1 Review on “Mount Donna Buang - Cement Creek & Mt Victoria Hike (7.7km)”
Please be advised that the Cement Creek Walking Track section of this hike is currently inaccessible due to closure. Parks Victoria has not provided a reopening date. While the upper portion of the track is passable, the lower rainforest section has become overgrown and difficult to navigate since its closure several years ago. If you choose to proceed with this route, exercise extreme caution and be prepared to backtrack if necessary. I recommend the alternative route via Mount Boobyala, Mount Donna Buang, and Mount Victoria for a safer and more enjoyable experience.
To be honest the combination of this post and details as well a map off avenza maps really helped. Alot of the trails at the top super over grown also. Thanks for the info guys!
We attempted this walk over the weekend and completely lost the track just as we were leaving the rainforest and heading into the alpine ash forest. We crossed an overgrown cleared area (filled with stinging nettles!) but could not find the track heading out the other side of the clearing. We decided against bush bashing our way up to the ridge line, and decided instead to return back to the rainforest gallery, and enjoyed the wonderful forest just as much on the way down as the way up.
We then drove to the summit and walked out towards Mt Boobyalla and saw the beginning of the track down, but didn’t have time or energy to pursue it downhill and see if we could join up with where we had got to.
It would be great for someone who knows the track to put some more route tags up, or
I suggest anyone doing the walk needs to have better directions of how to repick up the track than we did after the clearing.
Sounds like you had an adventure. The section of the track that you mentioned has been closed for some time (as noted in the hike description). Unfortunately bush bashing, map and compass and the GPX files would be required.
Completed 30/1/2021.
Start of path difficult to find description helped but took some effort. Well marked early missed a turn and spent around an hour and a half finding old tags looks like the old tramline as was flat and had some old bolts ect. Wised up doubled back and found path. Plenty of markers and tags lots of fallen trees… alot of rain yesterday so found the trail was part of the creek bed at times. Top is still over grown occasional tag but I just went for it following an old map. Plenty of leaches and cuts. Was a lovely walk such a shame its been shut.
When I was updating the walks section, I re-walked the route in May 2016 and Janet is right, the top section of the Cement Creek route is overgrown with ferns and navigation was a bit tricky. However some people have cut back the trees and shrubs on the bottom section of the track and marked the route with flagging tape where it isn’t obvious. Hopefully they will return to slash and mark the top part this summer, as it’s a great walk and it would be a shame if it reverted to jungle.
Impossible to find Cement Creek – it was marked very clearly on my GPS, I went into the vegetation and looked for it for a while. We switched gear drove a little further and started by Mounty Victoria on to Mount Boobyala via Mount Donna Buang. Very nice. At some point we were meant to cross again cement creek trail and again impossible to spot in the overgrowth.