Duff Sawmill Heritage Trail: Blackwood forest and sawmilling history near Balook

The walk

The trail runs for 3.7 km between two entrances, and there’s room to park at both ends.

• South entrance: on the Traralgon–Balook Road, about 2.3 km from the Tarra-Bulga National Park Visitor Centre in Balook.
• North entrance: on Callignee South Road, near the historic tree stumps.

Ways to walk it

• One way: 3.7 km, about 1.5 hours. Leave a car at each end, or arrange a pick-up.
• On to Mount Tassie: from the north entrance, carry on 2.3 km to the Mount Tassie picnic area. The lookout there has panoramic views of the Strzelecki Ranges, the Latrobe Valley and Wilsons Promontory. The picnic area has a car park, so you can arrange a pick-up.
• From Balook: walk from the Visitor Centre via Link Track and Telecom Track to the south entrance. Balook to the Mount Tassie picnic area this way is 8.3 km one way.
• The full loop: the trail is part of the Mount Tassie Loop, 18.3 km and about 6.5 hours from Balook and back.

Distances are from our Map 4 (Mount Tassie Loop). The signs on the trail give 3.8 km between the two entrances.

The story of the trail

Early settlement

In the earliest times, the Strzelecki Ranges were densely forested. The Gunaikurnai people visited seasonally. Rare fires destroyed old forest and created vigorous new eucalypt forests.

In the 1840s came the European explorers, Strzelecki and McMillan, who gave the area their names. The names Bulga and Tarra reflect the original inhabitants of this challenging country. Settlers followed the explorers, first along the river flats and then, by the 1870s, into the hills. The deep soils and high rainfall of the Great Forest of South Gippsland promised good farmland.

Duff Sawmill

Duff Sawmill was one of many sawmills in the area that relied on the giant Mountain Ash to supply timber for a growing Victoria. It stood near Mount Tassie and took timber from the surrounding forests in the 1940s and 1950s.

Little remains of the sawmill, but you can see the stumps of the trees it used along the trail. Board holes in the stumps let axemen and sawyers climb up and cut the trees above the buttresses. Horses or tractors skidded the logs along tracks to the mill.

A changing landscape

Early settlers cut the giant trees for timber and cleared the forest for farming, often using fire. It took tough people. By the 1950s, only a few small areas of forest were left intact.

Small sawmills flourished, then declined as logs became too hard to reach. Many farmers gave up, facing isolation, harsh weather, rabbit plagues, fires, weeds and the Great Depression. They left behind a mosaic of logged forest, scrub, cleared grassland and regrowth forest.

In 1948 the government began planting trees on the logged and abandoned land. These plantations are the basis of the timber industry today.

Recent history

In 2008, HVP Plantations and the Victorian government agreed to gradually transfer 8,000 hectares of plantation and native forest into State ownership. This land, which includes the southern half of the trail, forms a reserve that links the core areas of biodiversity: the Cores and Links. It will make a permanent corridor between Tarra-Bulga National Park and the Merriman Creek rainforest. Before each area is handed over, its single-species plantation is harvested and regenerated with diverse native forest.

The agreement also gave legal protection to another 18,000 hectares of privately managed native forest. The northern half of the trail passes through it.

The Black Saturday fire of 7 February 2009 burnt part of the trail, including some of the historic tree stumps, but most of it was spared. Fire is rare in this wet forest, and in places you’ll see the regrowth.

Plantations

Pine and Mountain Ash plantations were planted on land the settlers abandoned. They are harvested and replanted every 25 to 30 years, giving a sustainable source of timber for the community and local industry. In the Strzelecki Ranges, patches of native forest sit close beside the plantations.

HVP Plantations only harvests timber from sustainable plantations, and has Forest Stewardship Council certification. The 35,000 hectares of native forest in its Strzelecki Ranges estate is managed for conservation.

Facilities and getting there

• Room to park at both entrances.
• No toilets or water on the trail. The nearest are at the Tarra-Bulga National Park Visitor Centre in Balook (public toilets, water, electric barbecues, picnic tables and a shelter).
• Mount Tassie picnic area, 2.3 km past the north entrance: a car park, picnic area and lookout.
• No wood fires anywhere on the Grand Strzelecki Track.

Getting there

Balook is about 2.5 hours from Melbourne. Take the Princes Highway to the Yarram / Loy Yang exit, turn right at the traffic lights just before Loy Yang Power Station, then follow the brown tourist signs to Tarra-Bulga National Park and Balook. The Traralgon–Balook Road from Loy Yang is sealed.

The south entrance is on the Traralgon–Balook Road, about 2.3 km from the Visitor Centre. The north entrance is on Callignee South Road. From Yarram, follow the signs north through Tarra Valley to Balook. More options, including public transport, are on Plan your hike.