Upper Howqua/Queen Spur road/Mt Buggery

[paidal_chalne_vala]

Rooftops Maps don't even bother putting the Queen spur road to Mt. Buggery on their maps or the Mt. Thorn route to the Circuit road. The same goes for King Spur. There IS NO TRACK.

[paidal_chalne_vala]

The VMTC are running a walk out along this route on the Jan. long weekend in 2019.

[paidal_chalne_vala]

The new Buller -Howitt Map ( 3rd edition) from SV does not show the route to Mt. Buggery via Queen's Spur road. I think that is kind of telling us something.

[paidal_chalne_vala]

There is a track clearing working bee on later in NOV. 2019. Contact Bushwalking Victoria if you want help clear the Howitt spur , start of Queen's spur track and Stanley name spur up to the Cross Cut saw. The Garmin TOPO map SD micro card shows the Queens Spur road on the GPS and the King River headwaters as well as Mt. Buggery .

[LLSC]

There was another BTAC track clearing in the area last weekend: 13 volunteers plus ranger. 3 tracks were worked on: Queen Spur up as far as SNS junction; Howqua Spur all the way up, and the lower section of Helicopter Spur. One of the participants pointed out an old fire refuge that he knew about, located about 50 metres down SNS from the junction with Queen Spur.

[peregrinator]

There was another BTAC track clearing in the area last weekend: 13 volunteers plus ranger. 3 tracks were worked on: Queen Spur up as far as SNS junction; Howqua Spur all the way up, and the lower section of Helicopter Spur. One of the participants pointed out an old fire refuge that he knew about, located about 50 metres down SNS from the junction with Queen Spur.

Do you mean up SNS (east) or down Queen Spur (south)?

[LLSC]

No, heading west along SNS toward Mt Thorn.

[paidal_chalne_vala]

There is bunker/ old mine on the Old Queen's spur road between the Upper Howqua river crossing and the 4 ways track junction. You can camp up there if need be. There are some flattish tent spaces and Water trickles across the track in one or two places usually until the end of Dec. .
There was some big timber down across the old Queen's spur road. I have been informed that it has now been cleared up to the 4 ways track junction.

[paidal_chalne_vala]

I recently walked up Queen spur road to SNS saddle and up SNS to the X cut saw . The blackberries are out of control. Another 6 months of growth and that section will not be passable. BTAC did go in there in NOV. 2019 and cut the fallen logs along that section from the Upper Howqua to SNS saddle but the blackberries are just prolific out there. There was water flowing across the track between the Upper Howqua and the SNS saddle. I marked these water points on my GPS.
The swarms of blackberries were redonkulous.
The old dug out mine/ bunker near SNS saddle cannot be seen at all now . The route has become quite overgrown.

[Baeng72]

I recently walked up Queen spur road to SNS saddle and up SNS to the X cut saw . The blackberries are out of control. Another 6 months of growth and that section will not be passable. BTAC did go in there in NOV. 2019 and cut the fallen logs along that section from the Upper Howqua to SNS saddle but the blackberries are just prolific out there.

Unless some very bored locals get out with gear and rip into it, that's how it will be. Parks doesn't have the funds as I understand it to take care of Blackberries and seems like we'll be in quarantine for a long period.
I think I'll head down to the Plenty Gorge when I'm feeling a bit better, and hack into a few blackberries down there.
I read somewhere that some naturalist dude went about dropping seeds of this crappy plant for food back in the day. Any truth to that?

[peregrinator]

Ferdinand von Mueller was that chap. Also did some good deeds.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-s-ark-how-a-few-ships-and-decade-of-madness-cost-billions-20180915-p503yq.html

[Mr Bean]

The blackberries are out of control. Another 6 months of growth and that section will not be passable. BTAC did go in there in NOV. 2019 and cut the fallen logs along that section from the Upper Howqua to SNS saddle but the blackberries are just prolific out there.

My partner and I were part of that track clearing group last November. Nigel, the Parks ranger, said that the blackberries were going to be dealt with, but I suspect the bushfires over summer, the COVID issue at the moment, and lack of funding have knocked that idea off for the time being.

We did the walk in December 2019, a month after track clearing, and while the track was clear, the blackberries, as mentioned, have taken over (see attached image).

[peregrinator]

This was in February 2018. The track is on the right, heading into trees.

[paidal_chalne_vala]

We were out on this track last weekend ( Nov. 13-16 2020 )The blackberries are getting worse!. The leeches and snakes were out in force too. There is now only one route left in the Queen's spur road area that I have not walked and that is the route to Mt. Buggery . Map Makers have stopped showing the position of the old logging track out there. I have walked from the Circuit road to Queen's spur road . I have gone up and down to The Cross cut saw by way of the SNS . I have walked / crawled up Helicopter spur and tackled the Howitt spur a number of times both up and down.

Is it just madness to be plotting a Nov. 2021 mission out that way ?

[north-north-west]

Is it just madness to be plotting a Nov. 2021 mission out that way ?

Not if you take a flame thrower or bulldozer.

[Captainparish]

Nov 2022 update on the Queen spur:

Dropped off the summit of Buggery easily enough. No track of course but it's fairly easy to find your way along the spur. Quite rocky in sections and a few scrambles though these could probably be rounded. Similar difficulty to helicopter but probably slightly easier. When you hit the junction of the old queen's spur 4wd track you can make out the old road but we got about 50 metres in before deciding to head off track down to one of the feeders of the Howqua to bypass the section that heads back up towards the crosscut. This saves about a KM of bashing along the old track. In any case the queen's spur 'road' till you hit the SNS junction is insane. 2m high saplings have taken over the track and make the going slow and painful. Many many big trees across the road. There really is no path and there likely hasn't been for years going by previous posts. I would say allow 2+ hours from the spur/road junction to the road/SNS junction. SNS junction to Upper Howqua was great with no major obstacles. It would be difficult to get lost at any point of the hike if you've decent navigational skills and topo maps/GPS or at least that was our experience. Overall a worthwhile if not somewhat brutal alternative to the main routes.

Edit: luckily theres not much in the way of blackberry overgrowth at the moment!

[Captainparish]

This is the rough route we took to bypass the first leg of the 'road'

[paidal_chalne_vala]

An Amazing effort. Masochism and lunacy mixed with some hardcore determination and good route finding. BTAC hierachy have given up on clearing &/or walking that route and so have Timbertop school student groups.
The latest Buller/ Howitt SV Map of the area no longer shows the position of " The road".

[paidal_chalne_vala]

I walked up/ bushbashed/ climbed up KIng Spur on Easter Saturday April 2025.
Now I am determined to give the Queen Spur to
Mt. Buggery a go in the 2025-2026 green season for walking.
It cannot be tougher than King Spur or the Northern Prom. are ..... or can it ?