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  2. Mack’s Creek Loop (25.2km)
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  • Length: (25.2km

  • Duration: 7hrs

  • Grade: 3

  • Style: Circuit

  • Start: Mack's Creek Hall

  • End: Mack's Creek Hall

  • Location: Tarra Bulga National Park

  • Closest Town: Mack's Creek

  • Distance from CBD: 221km

  • State: VIC

  • Latitude: -38.47212338

  • Longitude: 146.6383526

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Tarra Bulga National Park...

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The Mack's Creek Loop is a (25.2km, grade 3 circuit hike, located in Tarra Bulga National Park Victoria. The hike should take approximately 7hrs to complete.

Hike Summary

Southeast of Balook, in the Tarra Bulga National Park, this captivating Mack's Creek loop trail features damp rainforest gullies, 11 creek crossings and magical waterfalls due to frequent rain.

Starting at Mack's Creek Hall, you will pass through recently harvested plantations leading to extensive Mountain Ash forests, with gullies and rare Hazel Pomaderris shrubs. A steep section of the track leads to one of the numerous crossings of Mack's Creek.

See the Strzelecki Ranges' most attractive waterfall, situated among unusually large filmy-ferns (Hymenophyllum species). Enjoy scenic views of Yarram and Alberton townships and also the Ninety Mile Beach and Corner Inlet.

The trail passes through a mosaic of farmland, plantations and native eucalypt forest. The latter is ideal for spotting a sleepy koala or two.

You will  also walk through a warm temperate rainforest in danger of extinction. And see firsthand the bush rehabilitation, including blackberry and willow removal, and regeneration with substantial rainforest tree plantings.

Walk along the historic coach road between Balook and Yarram and enjoy spectacular coastal views.

Alternate Walks of the Grand Strzelecki Track

Tarra Valley Loop (21.1km)

Mack's Creek Loop (25.2km)

Mount Tassie Loop (18.8km)

More Information

Visit the official Grand Strzelecki Track website

About the region

With its lush gullies, giant mountain ash trees and tree ferns, Tarra Bulga National Park is one of only four major areas of cool temperate rainforest in the state. The rainforest is a haven for plants and wildlife. Discover a wide variety of birds including the pilotbird, yellow tailed black cockatoo, eastern whipbird, and currawongs. Visit in the evening when the forest comes to life as possums, owls and bats emerge to feed. If you're lucky, you may see a lyrebird scratching the forest floor looking for food or catch a glimpse of some of the other inhabitants like wombats, swamp wallabies, gliders and platypuses.

Getting there

Tarra Bulga National Park is situated approximately 200 kilometres east of Melbourne. The park is reached from the Princes Highway at Traralgon by following Traralgon Creek Road to Balook. Alternatively the park can be reached from Yarram via the Tarra Valley Road or Bulga Park Road. Roads throughout the area are narrow and winding but offer marvelous scenery with panoramic views from several points, including Mount Tassie.

GPX File

Total distance: 25291 m
Max elevation: 676 m
Min elevation: 89 m
Total climbing: 1045 m
Total descent: -1045 m
Download file: Macks Creek Loop.gpx

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57 thoughts on “Mack’s Creek Loop (25.2km)”

  1. Just finished the track today! Was a hard one to complete, plenty and plenty of Leeches and 5 river crossings, luckily we didn’t have wet weather on the day, but it was still incredibly muddy in parts. I would imagine if it was raining we would have struggled treking up some of the very steep, not very clear or even visible at times track. We could have had been in trouble trying to get through! We completed the track clockwise over 2 days starting from Mack’s Creek Hall and stopped over night at the Tarra Bulga guesthouse! Day 1 was mostly uphill along 4WD roads. Day 2 was a mixed bag of everything hiking! At times felt like we were bush bashing. It was lots of fun! But not a track for beginners! Hiking poles were vital!!

    1. Wow, bush bashing? Sounds like an adventure. Last time I did this hike last year is was along quite wide and well formed tracks. I’d love to hear if you followed the GPX file route as it should have been an easily navigable trail.

    2. Yeah felt like bush bashing at times, coz track was washed away, trees have fallen and walking through over grown vegetation as high as high as your hips over the track. The 4wd tracks and roads were fine. But thank goodness for the pink ribbons everywhere. We didn’t bush bash it just felt like it at times. Was easy to navigate, we mainly used a map for this one. But had gps with coordinates as a back up!

    3. I am currently having development done on my site to display the state and location when hikes are shared with this Facebook page. Hopefully that will be a welcome addition

    1. Good choice Bev, I have done a walk there a while back and really enjoyed it. There is a track from Morwell NP to Tarra Bulga that I’ve been wanting to try …

  24. I was visiting Australia (from Denver, Colorado, USA) for the first time earlier this month (September 2017) and decided on trying this hike out as my second hike. My first hike was in Wilson’s Promontory, so I wanted something completely different….which this was. I did most of the loop in one day, 09/11/17, but I started too late in the day and had to turn around near the Balook trail-head. The lat and long coords took my close to Mack’s Hall, where I parked, and to echo other hikers, I did the loop counter-clock wise.

    Compared to others, I found the trail decently easy to follow, there must have been work done on the trail since the last reviewer. There were only a few places where the path was overgrown, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. The only times I got off trail was when I was not paying attention, but there are trail markers and pink ribbons tied to trees every so often to let you know you are going the right way.

    It poured rain the first part of the morning, but I was prepared for that. Was not prepared for the stinging nettle plant that bit me at the first river crossing. The ones in the states feel like a bee sting, but this one made my entire right leg feel like it was on fire for a few hours. The second time I sat down to ring out my socks is when I noticed the leeches…holy fright!! I read about them in the reviews, but I didn’t think they would be that bad. That first time, I had about 6 on each leg. For the next several hours, I had to stop every 10 minutes and remove another batch of them from my legs. It’s not that they hurt or are dangerous, it’s mostly just an uncomfortable gross feeling, knowing they are there. The leeches stopped appearing after I got onto Old Balook Yarram Road.

    Even with the nettles and leeches, I did enjoy the hike and will always remember it, just wish I could have completed it. Based on my Fitbit tracker I did 25.6km in 8 and ½ hours, and I also definitely recommend bringing your poles.

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