Bushwalk Australia

Hi everyone, I’m heading off to the Southern Ranges late next week and am wondering how the water situation is after Ooze lake at the moment? It’s been a very dry summer down the SW!! Does LTT Saddle/Wylly Plateau and PB low camp have any water?

LTTS has pools, soaks and generally *&%$#! weather. Wylly has pools, especially towards the west. PB Low has a couple of creeks fairly close.

It is, however, *&%$#! dry in the SW, especially on the ridges. Make sure you have sufficient water carrying capacity and load up whenever possible.

We didn't find a whole lot of water on Wylly Plateau when we were there in not-as-dry-as-it-is-now time. But we didn't look harder than we needed to. We did note, on our way out to Victoria Cross from there, that there was a nice pool near the base of it, at the other side of the saddle with Wylly. Might be worth knowing about if you're desperate, or if you're going out there. The pool is visible on LISTmap, but only with the ESRI imagery BASEMAP view.

Likewise we didn't find anything drinkable at Low Camp, but we didn't go scrub-bashing to find any. We continued on up to the plateau. Does anyone know if the little 'waterfall' the track up PB crosses, is a reasonably reliable water source? Or the soak up near the plateau? Camping on the plateau was fantastic in good weather.

PB Low Camp, if you go straight ahead at the campsite instead of making the left hand turn with the track, you'll end up in a shallow creek. OK, I've only been through there twice, but there was flowing water there both times.

Ok thanks for the replies! I have a 6lt water carrier and a lifestraw, I’ll tell my mate to bring the same.

I’m heading out that way Sunday so I appreciate the information.

Are there yabbie holes that are likely to yield water in those otherwise dry areas of the Southern Ranges?

Away from the southern ranges I know but I think it is pretty dry everywhere in Tassie at the moment, I was on the top of Olympus a couple of days back and there were only 3 tarns on the whole summit plateau with any water, even then it was only a couple of inches deep.
BW

IDP wrote:I’m heading out that way Sunday so I appreciate the information.

Are there yabbie holes that are likely to yield water in those otherwise dry areas of the Southern Ranges?

I don't recall seeing many at all, and unless there's plenty of recent rain, I wouldn't expect them to help out. We weren't specifically looking for them, as there were some tiny post-rain pools for us. But I usually look out for them, just in case.

I went through there a couple of weeks ago, and it is *drrrrrryyyyyy*.

In Smiths Saddle, there were very small pools but they were drying fast and were getting very muddy, so by now I reckon they're gone.

Leaning Tea Tree saddle had much better pools, that I would say are probably still there.

Wylly was dry too. Hard to find much up there. As someone else noted, there is a good pool at the base of Mt Vic Cross - that's about 25-30 or so mins walk off the track though.

I didn't find anything at all after Wylly, and at PB low camp no sign of anything either. I climbed halfway up PB to find the "waterfall" but it was barely a trickle. There was a pool but it was pretty small. It is pretty shaded, so it might still be there.

A few small pools up top too, but nothing massively inviting.

So all in all, it's dry. It's also pretty manky. I saw someone had taken a *&%$#! about 10 meters from the campsite at low PB and it was crawling with maggots. I was incredibly suspicious of every water source I found, and treated it all before drinking.

Good luck! Have fun. Love to hear how it went when you get back.

just returned from there. A little unreliable water at Pandani Knob. Good pools at leaning Ti Tree and the next saddle. There was some water around Wylly Plateau but we got ours from the pool Tortoise mentioned near VC. No water between there and the creek coming off PB. Probably plenty of water now, practically waded back from Pigsty Ponds.

Got back a couple of days ago from the circuit ~ a few observations:

Water was fine everywhere that I looked - especially after the hail and rain storm that holed my up at Pigsty Ponds for a day

Views from La Perouse, Pindars, and Wylly were spectacular and cloud free. PB was mostly in cloud when on top though

Scrub was manageable but tenacious. The false leads were no major drama to correct

Tracks around Low Camp were a little confusing especially as I was in cloud there with no visibility. But thanks to advice from other threads, I easily worked out the way out from there to PB (turn left upon entering the campsite - and go due west)

The tapes down New River Lagoon were easy enough to follow with care. A few recent tree falls took time to locate the correct onward route though

The wade down the lagoon was lovely and managed to avoid the need to track inland where the major creeks enter ~ only waist deep by wading further out

The South Coast Track was heavily populated ~ came as a bit of a shock after seeing not a soul from Bullfrog Tarns to the boast crossing
Also a lot of rubbish esp at Surprise Bay

Managed to hitch the full ~25k from Cockle Creek back to the car.

Overall an amazing and beautiful walk