Mount Donna Buang

Mount Donna Buang
Mount Donna Buang Location in Victoria
Highest point
Elevation	1,250 metres (4,100 ft) AHD
Coordinates	37°42′23″S 145°40′52″E / 37.70639°S 145.68111°E / -37.70639; 145.68111Coordinates: 37°42′23″S 145°40′52″E / 37.70639°S 145.68111°E / -37.70639; 145.68111
Geography
Location	Victoria, Australia
Parent range	Donna Buang Range, Victorian Alps, Great Dividing Range

Mount Donna Buang is a mountain in the southern reaches of the Victorian Alps of the Great Dividing Range, located in the Australian state of Victoria. Approximately 80 kilometres (50 mi) from Melbourne with an elevation of 1,250 metres (4,101 ft), Mount Donna Buang is the closest snowfield to Melbourne.^[1]

Location and features

In winter, it usually receives snow suitable for snowplay and tobogganing, and during the non-winter months the area is well visited by bushwalkers and cyclists. The summit of Mount Donna Buang is surrounded by alpine ash trees and sub-alpine snow gums, and at nearby Cement Creek there is a raised walkway through myrtle beech (Nothofagus cunninghamii) and mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) trees known as the Mount Donna Buang Skywalk.

Mount Donna Buang is part of the Yarra Ranges National Park (formed in 1995) in which there are a number of species that have become rare or threatened, including the slender tree fern, and the geebung tree. It contains a number of native mammals including the endangered Leadbeater's possum, and is home to 120 species of native birds. Some examples include the pink robin, yellow-tailed black cockatoo and the crimson rosella.

The nearest serviced town to the mountain is Warburton.

Flora and fauna

The rare and possibly endangered Mount Donna Buang wingless stonefly (Riekoperla darlingtoni) is endemic to the area.^[2]

History

In the 1860s, “Mount Acland” was the name given to the 1,250m high mountain by a Police Magistrate called Joseph Anderson Panton. The name it has today, “Mount Donna Buang”, came from the Wurundjeri Aborigines.

A walking track to the summit of Mount Donna Buang was cut during the 1890s and the much wider Donna Buang Bridle Track, which the current road from Warburton to the top of Mount Donna Buang follows, was opened in 1912.

Timber from the mountain was harvested from the early 1900s to the mid 1920s with seven cable hauled tramways moving logs from the Ben Cairn - Donna Buang ridge down to sawmills near Warburton.^[3] While the forest has regrown and the mountain appears to have never been logged, relics such as tram rails and cables can still be found in the forest.

From 1925 to the early 1950s Mt Donna Buang was a popular ski resort. It had four ski lodges, day visitor shelters, cafes, a ski hire, a ski jump and six runs cut through forests of myrtle beech and woollybutt. For over 20 years it had thousands of visitors every weekend there was snow. However, the runs were fairly short and the snow cover was always erratic, so after the Second World War better transport meant it lost out to higher ski resorts further from Melbourne.^[4]

Cycling

The road from Warburton to Mount Donna Buang is a challenging cycling route, averaging 6.2% over 16.6 km^[5] and has also become a popular destination for recreational driving, motorcycling, and in the summer a challenging training route for endurance cyclists and triathletes.^[6]

The main public roads on Mt Donna Buang are:

Donna Buang Road, sealed from Warburton to a bit past the Mount Donna Buang Summit Road junction.
Acheron Way, joining Donna Buang Road about halfway up, leads to Marysville. It is sealed except for a 12 kilometre section in the middle.
Don Rd runs from Healesville to the Warburton Highway between Yarra Junction and Launching Place. It connects with Donna Buang Road, and is unsealed for much of its length.

Panorama from summit of Mount Donna Buang

References

↑ Yarra Valley Directory
↑ Mount Donna Buang Wingless Stonefly (Riekoperla darlingtoni) - Unsuccessful listing advice
↑ McCarthy, Mike. Mountains of ash: a history of the sawmills and tramways of Warburton and district. Light Railway Research Society of Australia, 2001. Chapters 3,4 and 6.
↑ Sisson, David. Donna Buang: the forgotten ski resort, 2015. http://www.australianmountains.com/donnabuang/
↑ http://www.cyclingprofiles.com.au/HTM/MelClimbs/MC_DB.htm
↑ http://theclimbingcyclist.com/climbs/yarra-ranges/mt-donna-buang/

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mount Donna Buang.

Mountains in Victoria, Australia

Grampians

William (1,167 m or 3,829 ft)
Difficult
Wilson
Zero

Victorian Alps

Bogong High Plains	Nelse West (1,893 m or 6,211 ft) Nelse North (1,885 m or 6,184 ft) Fainter South (1,883 m or 6,178 ft) Hotham (1,862 m or 6,109 ft) McKay (1,849 m or 6,066 ft) Cope (1,837 m or 6,027 ft) Spion Kopje (1,837 m or 6,027 ft) Jim (1,818 m or 5,965 ft)

Cathedral Range	Lake (1,482 m or 4,862 ft) The Green Hill (1,241 m or 4,072 ft) Sugarloaf (904 m or 2,966 ft) The Cathedral (801 m or 2,628 ft) South Jawbone Peak (761 m or 2,497 ft)

Cobberas Range	Cobberas No. 1 (1,810 m or 5,938 ft) Cobberas No. 2 Moscow Peak Middle Peak Cleft Peak

Cobbler Plateau	Speculation (1,648 m or 5,407 ft) Cobbler (1,628 m or 5,341 ft) Koonika (1,545 m or 5,069 ft) Despair (1,460 m or 4,790 ft)

Other	Bogong (1,986 m or 6,516 ft) Feathertop (1,922 m or 6,306 ft) Loch (1,865 m or 6,119 ft) Buller (1,805 m or 5,922 ft) Wills (1,755 m or 5,758 ft) Gibbo (1,750 m or 5,741 ft) Stirling (1,749 m or 5,738 ft) Howitt (1,742 m or 5,715 ft) The Horn (1,723 m or 5,653 ft) Buffalo (1,723 m or 5,653 ft) Wellington (1,634 m or 5,361 ft) Buggery (Alpine) (1,598 m or 5,243 ft) Baw Baw (1,567 m or 5,141 ft) Torbreck (1,516 m or 4,974 ft) St Gwinear (circa 1,500 m or 4,921 ft) Mueller (1,460 m or 4,790 ft) Selma (1,456 m or 4,777 ft) Useful (1,435 m or 4,708 ft) Tambo (1,430 m or 4,692 ft) Selwyn (1,411 m or 4,629 ft) Terrible (1,325 m or 4,347 ft) Donna Buang (1,250 m or 4,101 ft) Buggery (Wangaratta) (1,153 m or 3,783 ft) Bulla Bulla (906 m or 2,972 ft) Dom Dom (740 m or 2,428 ft) Brumby Point Pine

Other
mountain ranges

Central Highlands	Macedon (1,001 m or 3,284 ft)

Dandenong Ranges	Dandenong (633 m or 2,077 ft)

Pyrenees Ranges	Avoca (747 m or 2,451 ft) Warrenmang (537 m or 1,762 ft)

Strzelecki Ranges	Tassie (740 m or 2,428 ft)

Other	Matlock (1,377 m or 4,518 ft) Ritchie (1,259 m or 4,131 ft) Toorongo (1,247 m or 4,091 ft) Horsfall (1,130 m or 3,707 ft) Kaye (998 m or 3,274 ft) Elizabeth (941 m or 3,087 ft) Ghiran (924 m or 3,031 ft) Disappointment (794 m or 2,605 ft) Riddell (781 m or 2,562 ft) Beenak (745 m or 2,444 ft) Alexander (744 m or 2,441 ft) Buninyong (719 m or 2,359 ft) Hanging Rock / Diogenes (718 m or 2,356 ft) Warrenheip (714 m or 2,343 ft) Franklin (648 m or 2,126 ft) Beckworth (634 m or 2,080 ft) Corhanwarrabul (628 m or 2,060 ft) Tarrengower (556 m or 1,824 ft) Warrenmang (526 m or 1,726 ft) Teneriffe (444 m or 1,457 ft) Napier (440 m or 1,444 ft) Briggs Bluff (420 m or 1,378 ft) Arapiles (369 m or 1,211 ft) You Yangs (352 m or 1,155 ft) Leura (313 m or 1,027 ft) Noorat (310 m or 1,017 ft) Elephant (240 m or 787 ft) Warrnambool (216 m or 709 ft) Eccles (178 m or 584 ft) Wycheproof (148 m or 486 ft) Cooper (137 m or 449 ft) Fraser Hopeless Typo

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/6/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.