Such excitement when the announcement that the Wild Cherry Track section of Macks Creek Loop was reopened in early 2025. After a couple of false starts, we finally got our opportunity to explore this loop, which was the only section of the Grand Strzelecki Track in the Tarra-Bulga National Park that we hadn’t explored. Previously we had completed an out-and-back hike up to Balook from the Macks Creek Hall via the Old Yarram-Balook Road, but due to track closures had never been across to the Wild Cherry Track side – so the excitement was real!! The loop didn’t disappoint, living up to its name – ‘Wild’ Cherry Track.
We started at a civilised time, parking our cars at Macks Creek Hall and headed up to Balook following the roads and track directional markers. At Balook we popped in to visit Jane at the Tarra-Bulga Visitors Centre, shared our plans to tackle Wild Cherry Track and pick up the rest of our hiking contingent joining us for the hike back down to Macks Creek Hall.
We decided to take the scenic route, heading down along Forest Track and Old Yarram-Balook Road to join the Wild Cherry Track. A very pretty and relaxing start to our hike back down. We thoroughly enjoyed the greenery and abundant bird life calling to each other about these wanderers coming along their track – perhaps trying to tell us about the challenges we had ahead of us. We had a steep decent down ‘The Wall’ which was expected and we were very glad to be going down not up, albeit it was tough on our quads and as we descended the track became increasingly overgrown with vegetation as high as our heads in some places that we pushed through. At the bottom of ‘The Wall’, we discovered that the track had disappeared and become very overgrown over the 10 months or so since it had reopened and was also quite boggy under foot. I for one, was glad for my trail shoes with drainage points to keep the mud and water moving through my shoe rather than pooling inside the shoe.
Would have not expected this find.
The next 6-7kms were quite slow going through the very overgrown trail and we were grateful to have many eyes looking for directional track markers. Having both the paper-based Grand Strzelecki Track map as well as a downloaded digital map, with which I created way-stops to stay on the track when it was difficult to find, was highly valued. We thoroughly enjoyed the four river crossings, cooling off our tired legs. The waterfall was a mere trickle but made for great rock scrambling for our adventurers.
Once we reached Bird Road, we were able to find the directional track markers much more easily. The section from Bird Road to Roberts Road was quite steep at times and a little overgrown, but much better track visibility than the previous section. A quick stop for snacks to get us through the final section as we reached Roberts Road was a must! Moving from the cool temperate rain forest of the Tarra Bulga NP to the warm temperate section along Sandy Track as we finished the hike was fascinating. It was easily the toughest hike that we have tackled along the Grand Strzelecki Track.
We well and truly earned our dinner and drinks that night. Clocking up just over 26kms for the Macks Creek Loop was tough going but an absolutely stunning track and we (at least me), will certainly give it another go. We were well prepared out there and it paid off for a challenging but incredibly rewarding day out. When asked ‘was it worth it?’ The answer was a resounding ‘YES!’ (although we might take track clearing goats with us next time).