The Victorian Alps have some of the mainland’s best mountain scenery, and the collection of peaks around Mount Howitt (1742m) are one of the area’s highlights. There are rugged peaks and cliffs, views for miles, and beautiful, atmospheric snow gum woodlands. We visited Mount Howitt, Mount Howitt West Peak, Mount Magdala (1725m) and Crosscut Saw (1708m), staying one night in comfortable Vallejo Gantner Hut for our first Australian overnighter.
The walking is never difficult, and if you were fit and made an early start you could visit these peaks in a long day. Nevertheless, there’s a long drive in from anywhere, and the views were particularly attractive at sunset. So I recommend staying a night or two to explore the area. We also got an excellent cloud inversion with that sunset, so it made for some epic scenes. Highly recommended.
Track notes at the end.
Mount Howitt, Mount Magdala & Crosscut Saw: The Scenery
Day 1: Walk in, Mount Howitt, Mount Howitt West Peak & Mount Magdala
Mount Howitt West Peak
A break in the photos now as there was still poor visibility until we got to Mount Howitt, when it started to clear. These next photos are from the West Peak.
On the way to Mount Magdala…
Returning from Mount Magdala…
Mt Howitt at sunset…
Returning to the hut…
Day 2: Crosscut Saw & the Walk Out
Photos from the ridge to Crosscut Saw:
The Walk Out
Track Notes
It’s a long drive to Mount Howitt Car Park from East Gippsland, roughly 2.5 hours from the nearest proper town/village of Heyfield. You could drive over the mountains from Mansfield, but that would be even longer. There is a toilet at the car park and people were camping there, so that’s an option to consider.
Day 1: Mount Howitt, Mount Howitt West Peak & Mount Magdala
We headed out in misty weather and made the easy walk along a fire trail through snowgums and grassy sections to Vallejo Gantner Hut. We dropped off some of our stuff, and headed off to Mt Howitt, Mt Howitt West Peak and Mt Magdala. On the way back we stopped and saw the sunset from Mt Howitt, then continued on to the hut in darkness.
Vallejo Gantner Hut
Vallejo Gantner Hut at Macalister Springs is large and comfortable. We were there between Easter and ANZAC Day, and heard it was busy the night before. But despite lots of people in the area, they all camped outside and we had the whole hut to ourselves! We lit a fire and enjoyed a nice evening in relative luxury. Not bad for our first overnight bushwalk in Australia. I recommend bringing your tent though, because it could fill up at busy periods.
There is a ‘loo with a view’, a water tank behind the toilet, and a fresh water spring just a short walk down the hill towards Mount Howitt, next to an open camping area. They have installed a very short hose pipe to help you access the water, which ran slowly when we were there.
Day 2 Crosscut Saw
On day 2 we retraced our steps towards Mount Howitt, but at half way turned right (north) to walk the undulating ridge to Crosscut Saw. If you had time you could walk over the colourfully named Mount Buggery to Mount Speculation. That might take you the day.
We wanted to walk out that day and make it to our accommodation in Bairnsdale for dinner, so after a little explore around Crosscut Saw we headed back to the hut. From the hut I took a side track which loops around for views and some nice snow gum woodland before joining the main track again. It was nice enough but a little hard to follow. If you were tired or short for time you could give it a miss. There are more camping grounds at the hut end of this track.
The track between the peaks is part of the Australian Alpine Walking Track.
Time Estimates
Approximate time / distance estimates are as follows:
It takes about 1:15 (almost 5km) from the car park to the hut on a fire trail, then a little under an hour to Mt Howitt – approximately 2.5km/200m change in elevation. From there it’s a short walk (~600m) to the West Peak for more views, so you should at least go that far. The 8km return trip past Big Hill to Mt Magdala back to Mt Howitt takes roughly 3-3.5 with time to enjoy the views. Crosscut Saw from the hut is about 6km return / 2-3 hours on an undulating ridge. You’d save time by walking from Mt Howitt to Crosscut Saw without returning to the hut.
The walking is easy to moderate, with the section to Mount Magdala a bit harder than the rest. That small side loop from the hut adds 10-15 mins to the walk in or out and requires some route finding.
There’s information on this part of Alpine National Park in the visitor guide by Parks Victoria.
