Using pack animals (Donkeys, alpacca, lama???) on walks

[couscousman]

Hey - we are thinking of doing the Australian alps walk from Mt Skene to canberra. We are thinking of taking a pack animal??

Has anyone had any experience with pack animals? Thanks for your idea's!

[WarrenH]

Couscousman, G'day.

Do you mean on the Alpine Walking Track (AAWT) or on the Bicentennial National Trail (BNT)? The BNT in Victoria, starts at Healesville, heads to Omeo, goes across to Bindi then downhill to Tom Groggin on the Victorian Border and makes its way North from Khancoban to Black Jack into Canberra via Tantangra and the Naas River Valley and then beyond.

The reason for asking is, if having a pack-animal is important or the main reason for going? Livestock cannot be taken along the AAWT unless the AAWT marries with the BNT. Which isn't that often and happens at places like Tantangra Dam and Pockets Fire Trail and Oldfield's Huts and the odd fire trail or road crossing.

Livestock can be taken on the BNT... even through wilderness areas. The BNT is a multi-use trail. The AAWT is a walking track for humans only. That rule is consistent for all three states (Victoria, NSW and the ACT). On the AAWT only 20 ks North of Mt Skene you reach the Wannangatta-Moroko Wilderness, the rule is no introduced animals in the wilderness, thwarted at the end of day one.

Livestock can be taken on the BNT from Cooktown in FNQ through to Healesville in Victoria, for 5530 kilometres.

If the Bicentennial National Trail interests you, you can contact the BNT Secretary through the BNT Association, it is on the BNT website. If you join the Association the Secretary will help you locate the best experienced contacts for travelling with livestock. I'm a section coordinator of the BNT, but I'm for those other disciplines, like human feet and push-bikes.

On the BNT there has been, all sorts of creatures, including camels and donkeys. Donkeys are a big hit on the BNT. A French woman a few years ago, who had not been associated or was experienced with donkeys, the BNT Association helped her through their contacts, to acquire and train with a donkey (she ended up using two donkeys, one at a time), to do the trail.

On the BNT site there are publications that you might find useful.

The book 'Trek through the Back Country' by John Blay, is a fantastic account of him and his donkey Zac, going from N to S across the Deua, Wadbilliga and Brogo Wilderness regions. The trip was done as a Bicentennial Project. It took a year to manage the 100 kilometres. If you can find this book (published in 1987 by Methuen Australia), snap it up. It is a masterpiece of Australian literature dedicated to the three wilderness environments and pack-donkeying and is unexpectedly, I found, a complete how-not-to-travel-with-a-donkey-handbook. Zac was very tricky and blo@dy-minded by nature and Zac was an extreme escape artist, from even the most secure of hobbles and other tetherings. Some times it would take John Blay a week to find Zac when Zac wandered off ... and that was several times each week. The year went quickly, while continually looking for Zac and some believed to be lost species both flora and fauna were found, thanks to Zac's antics.

Warren.

[John Sheridan]

Do wives count !!!!

[dannnnn]

i don't know what your wife is like John, but usually i find that it is ME who ends up being the pack donkey in our relationship........

[WarrenH]

Couscousman,

One thing that I failed to mention is, there are some sections of the AAWT in Victoria that you could use a pack animal on because they are also accessible as horse trails. When you reach a wilderness area you would need to have the animal floated to the next access point, after you have walked through the wilderness area. That is a possibility. At the Heyfield Office for Parks Victoria, the Senior Ranger Mike Dower, can tell you the score on that one.The Heyfield number is 03 51397751.

You would have to check this out in good detail because I talked to a traveller yesterday who told me that there are sections of the trail in Vic that are so heavily overgrown that it would not be possible to squeeze a loaded animal through ... arrrh the dreaded vegi tunnels! Something all Budawangers know well.

Warren.

[north-north-west]

Yes, there are sections of the AAWT that are so overgrown that even a half-starved snake would have trouble getting through them (Mt Sunday to the Low Saddle comes to mind), but there are usually reasonable alternatives to most.

But there are, as Warren says, very long sections where animals (except wildlife or course) are banned.
On top of which, some bits are too rough for anyone to ask a horse/donkey/whatever to get through, especially with a load - I'm thinking Speculation and the Viking, for instance (not that they're allowed there, but some people don't worry about rules).

Be a man. Carry your own gear.