Little River Gorge Walk

Easy

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A short, steep 400m walk (30 minutes return) via an 800m access drive off the Bonang-Gelantipy Road, per parks.vic.gov.au, leading to cliff-top views over Victoria's deepest gorge, where the Little River drops around 300 feet into the incised valley.

☰ Trail details

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Distance

0.47 km

Est. time

7 min

Elevation gain

0 m

Route type

Out & back

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In an emergency

Call 000 for police, fire or ambulance — Australia's emergency number works even with a weak signal, and without a SIM if any carrier has coverage.

You're in Snowy River National Park, Buchan / Gelantipy, East Gippsland, VIC. Mobile reception in this area is not guaranteed — this is exactly why the offline map and GPS position on this page work without signal.

Tell someone your plan and expected return time before you set off. A PLB is the most reliable backup where there's no reception at all.

Tracks & plans

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Species to look for on this trail

Ancient trees and rare flora confirmed in this park. Spot one? Add it as a sighting pin below.

Suggan Buggan MalleeDocumented on this trail

Eucalyptus saxatilis

Endangered — NSW: Endangered, VIC: Vulnerable▾

Endangered — NSW: Endangered, VIC: Vulnerable

Eucalyptus saxatilis, commonly known as the Suggan Buggan mallee or Mount Wheeler mallee, is a species of mallee or small tree that is endemic to southeastern Australia. It has smooth bark that is shed in ribbons, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of three, white flowers and bell-shaped fruit.

How to spot it

Eucalyptus saxatilis is a tree or mallee that typically grows to a height of 5–10 m (16–33 ft) and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth, slightly powdery grey-green bark that is shed in short ribbons. Young plants and coppice regrowth have sessile, glaucous, oblong to round leaves that are 10–35 mm (0.39–1.38 in) long, 10–27 mm (0.39–1.06 in) wide and arranged in opposite pairs. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, the same shade of dull bluish or greyish green on both sides, lance-shaped to curv

Family Myrtaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Eucalyptus saxatilis

Kybean WattleDocumented on this trail

Acacia kybeanensis

Vulnerable — VIC: Vulnerable▾

Vulnerable — VIC: Vulnerable

Acacia kybeanensis, commonly known as kybean wattle or kybeyan wattle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south-east of continental Australia. It is a dense shrub with hairy branchlets, oblong to narrowly elliptic or lance-shaped phyllodes, spherical heads of bright golden yellow flowers oblong to narrowly oblong, firmly paperypods raised over the seeds.

How to spot it

Acacia kybeanensis is a dense shrub that typically grows to a height of 1–2.5 m (3–8 ft) and has hairy branchlets. The phyllodes are sometimes slightly asymmetric, oblong-elliptic to narrowly elliptic or lance-shaped, 10–50 mm (0.39–1.97 in) long, 3–6 mm (0.12–0.24 in) wide, grey-green to glaucous with a single vein on each side and a gland 1–15 mm (0.039–0.591 in) above the pulvinus. The flowers are borne in four to ten spherical heads on racemes 10–40 mm (0.39–1.57 in) long on peduncles 2–3 mm

Family Fabaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Acacia kybeanensis

Photo via iNaturalist Australia (CC-BY-NC 4.0 (Int)), collected by Robert Pergl

Rock DaisyDocumented on this trail

Brachyscome petrophila

Endangered — VIC: Endangered▾

Endangered — VIC: Endangered

The common name rock daisy may be applied to plants in any of several genera in the family Asteraceae, including:Brachyscome Pachystegia Perityle

How to spot it

Real occurrence confirmed near Snowy River National Park (Atlas of Living Australia, 1995) — no separate physical description was available on Wikipedia for this species, see the source link for more.

Family Asteraceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Rock Daisy

Broad-Leaf Hop-BushDocumented on this trail

Dodonaea rhombifolia

Endangered — VIC: Endangered▾

Endangered — VIC: Endangered

Dodonaea rhombifolia, commonly known as broad-leaf hop-bush is a species of plant in the family Sapindaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is an erect, dioecious shrub with simple, usually elliptic leaves, flowers arranged in cymess, the flowers usually with four sepals and eight stamens, and capsules with 4 wings.

How to spot it

Dodonaea rhombifolia is an erect, dioecious shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) and has angular, ribbed or flattened branchlets. Its leaves are simple, usually elliptic, 50–90 mm (2.0–3.5 in) long and 14–27 mm (0.55–1.06 in) wide on a petiole 4–10.5 mm (0.16–0.41 in) long. The flowers are borne singly or in small numbers in cymes in leaf axils, each flower on a pedicel 3.5–8.5 mm (0.14–0.33 in) long. There are four lance-shaped to egg-shaped sepals 2–3.4 mm (0.079–

Family Sapindaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Dodonaea rhombifolia

Low Bush-PeaDocumented on this trail

Pultenaea subspicata

Endangered — VIC: Endangered▾

Endangered — VIC: Endangered

Pultenaea subspicata, commonly known as low bush-pea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is a low-lying, prostrate or mat-forming shrub with elliptic leaves and yellow to pink and orange-red, pea-like flowers.

How to spot it

Pultenaea subspicata is a low-lying, prostrate or mat-forming shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 60 cm (24 in) and has hairy stems when young. The leaves are arranged alternately along the branches, elliptic to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, 3–8 mm (0.12–0.31 in) long, 1.0–1.5 mm (0.039–0.059 in) wide with stipules 1.5–2.0 mm (0.059–0.079 in) long at the base and pressed against the surface. The flowers are arranged in dense clusters near the ends of branches, wi

Family Fabaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Pultenaea subspicata

Grey Beard-HeathDocumented on this trail

Styphelia attenuata

Vulnerable — VIC: Vulnerable▾

Vulnerable — VIC: Vulnerable

Styphelia attenuata, commonly known as grey beard-heath, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae. It has grey-green leaves and small white flowers and grows in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.

How to spot it

Styphelia attenuata is a dense shrub usually 20–60 cm (7.9–23.6 in) high and the branchlets have soft, short hairs. The grey-green leaves sit erect or upwardly against the stem, linear or oval shaped, 2–7.2 mm (0.079–0.283 in) long and 0.9–2.1 mm (0.035–0.083 in) wide, upper surface convex in cross section, 3 parallel veins on the underside, margins curved downward with small teeth, and stiff, upright hairs, and the leaf tapering to a small point. The white flowers sit upright in groups of 1-3 i

Family Ericaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Styphelia attenuata

Meesia uliginosaDocumented on this trail

Meesia uliginosa

Endangered — VIC: Endangered▾

Endangered — VIC: Endangered

Meesia uliginosa, the broad-nerved hump-moss, is a rare moss of the Western U.S. It occurs all around the Northern Hemisphere in higher latitudes, and in some places is not as rare as in the Western U.S.

How to spot it

Real occurrence confirmed near Snowy River National Park (Atlas of Living Australia, 1976) — no separate physical description was available on Wikipedia for this species, see the source link for more.

Family Meesiaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Meesia uliginosa

Snowy River Westringia

Westringia cremnophila

EPBC Vulnerable / Vic FFG Endangered — ~60 plants after the 2019-20 fires▾

EPBC Vulnerable / Vic FFG Endangered — ~60 plants after the 2019-20 fires

Found nowhere on Earth except the sheer cliffs of Tulloch Ard Gorge in Snowy River National Park, this small shrub is restricted to north-to-north-east-facing rock faces above the Snowy River. The 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires devastated the population, reducing it from roughly 500 plants to about 60 — the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne is now propagating it for conservation.

How to spot it

A small, densely white-haired shrub 0.1-0.5m tall with narrow leaves in whorls of three, and white flowers with a mauve tinge and yellow-brown spotted throats. Grows directly out of vertical cliff faces in Tulloch Ard Gorge — not accessible from standard walking tracks.

Family Lamiaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Westringia cremnophila

Wildlife you might see on this trail

Animals confirmed in this park. Spot one? Add it as a sighting pin below.

Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby

Petrogale penicillata

IUCN Vulnerable▾

IUCN Vulnerable

Once common along the entire Great Dividing Range, the brush-tailed rock-wallaby has declined seriously in the south and west of its range and now survives as scattered, often small colonies among rocky escarpments and cliff lines from south-east Queensland to Victoria.

How to spot it

Look for a stocky wallaby with shaggy rufous or grey-brown fur and a long, brush-like tail exceeding its body length, seen basking on rock ledges or cliff faces at dawn and dusk near caves and boulder piles rather than in open grassland. A great conservation-education example: the Grampians and Snowy River colonies are among the last known in Victoria, both actively monitored.

Family Macropodidae · Source: Wikipedia; IUCN Red List

Photo: Doug Beckers (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons