The Big Walk

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Climbs from the park entrance through tall forest and granite slopes to the Buffalo Plateau, described by parks.vic.gov.au as one of the most accessible walks in north-east Victoria.

☰ Trail details

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Distance

6.86 km

Est. time

3 hr 3 min

Elevation gain

700 m

Route type

Point to point

✦ Plan route

Steepest stretch: +81m over ~300m (around the 4.1km mark)

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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 Mount Buffalo National Park, North East, 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.

Buffalo SalleeDocumented on this trail

Eucalyptus mitchelliana

Vulnerable — VIC: Vulnerable▾

Vulnerable — VIC: Vulnerable

Eucalyptus mitchelliana, commonly known as Buffalo sallee, Mt Buffalo sallee or Mount Buffalo gum, is a species of small tree or mallee that is endemic to part of the Mount Buffalo plateau in Victoria, Australia. It has smooth bark, linear to lance-shaped leaves, flower buds in clusters of between seven and eleven, white flowers and cup-shaped to more or less spherical fruit.

How to spot it

Eucalyptus mitchelliana is a tree or mallee that typically grows to a height of 15 m (49 ft) and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth, grey to light grey or sometimes green bark, shedding in patches or strips to give the bark a mottled appearance. Young plants and coppice regrowth have leaves arranged that are in opposite pairs and lance-shaped to curved, 65–115 mm (2.6–4.5 in) long and 9–20 mm (0.35–0.79 in) wide tapering to a very short petiole. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, the same glo

Family Myrtaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Buffalo Sallee

Buffalo GrevilleaDocumented on this trail

Grevillea alpivaga

Critically Endangered — VIC: Critically Endangered▾

Critically Endangered — VIC: Critically Endangered

Grevillea alpivaga, also known as buffalo grevillea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to a restricted area of Victoria, Australia. It is a shrub with crowded, linear leaves and pale green creamy-white flowers.

How to spot it

Grevillea alpivaga is an erect to prostrate shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.7–1 m (2 ft 4 in – 3 ft 3 in) high and has ridged branchlets. Its leaves are crowded, linear, often curved, 8–25 mm (0.31–0.98 in) long and 0.8–1.4 mm (0.031–0.055 in) wide, the edges rolled downwards and the lower surface silky-hairy. The flowers are in sessile groups about 100 mm (3.9 in) long on the ends of branches and are pale green to creamy-white with a white to pink style. The perianth is silky-hairy

Family Proteaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Buffalo Grevillea

Buffalo Mint-BushDocumented on this trail

Prostanthera monticola

Critically Endangered — VIC: Critically Endangered▾

Critically Endangered — VIC: Critically Endangered

Prostanthera monticola, commonly known as Buffalo mint-bush, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae and is endemic to higher areas of south-eastern Australia. It is a sprawling, open shrub with red, hairy branches, lance-shaped to narrow elliptic leaves and pale bluish-green to grey-green flowers with dark purple-blue veins.

How to spot it

Prostanthera monticola is a sprawling, open shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.3–2 m (1 ft 0 in – 6 ft 7 in) with red, hairy, often ridged branches. The leaves are lance-shaped or egg-shaped to narrow elliptic and with a grooved upper surface, 15–50 mm (0.59–1.97 in) long and 5–13 mm (0.20–0.51 in) wide on a petiole 2–5 mm (0.079–0.197 in) long. The flowers are arranged singly on leaf axils on a pedicel 2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) long and covered with white hairs and with bracteoles 10–18

Family Lamiaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Prostanthera monticola

Photo via iNaturalist Australia (CC-BY-NC 4.0 (Int)), collected by Ken Harris EntSocVic

Button Tea-TreeDocumented on this trail

Leptospermum micromyrtus

Endangered — VIC: Endangered▾

Endangered — VIC: Endangered

Leptospermum micromyrtus is a species of spreading shrub that is endemic to higher areas of south-eastern Australia. It has broad, egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, white flowers and fruit that remain on the plant at maturity.

How to spot it

Leptospermum micromyrtus is a shrub that typically grows to a height of 1–3 m (3 ft 3 in – 9 ft 10 in). It has papery bark tending to rough and peeling in flakes. The leaves are egg-shaped to broadly egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, sometimes almost round, mostly 10–15 mm (0.39–0.59 in) long and 5–10 mm (0.20–0.39 in) wide on a short petiole. The flowers are white, 12–15 mm (0.47–0.59 in) wide and usually arranged singly, sometimes in pairs on a short side shoot. There are broa

Family Myrtaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Leptospermum micromyrtus

Catkin WattleDocumented on this trail

Acacia dallachiana

Vulnerable — VIC: Vulnerable▾

Vulnerable — VIC: Vulnerable

Acacia dallachiana, commonly known as catkin wattle is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to higher altitudes near the New South Wales-Victoria border in south-eastern Australia. It is an erect or spreading shrub or tree with narrowly lance-shaped to narrowly elliptic phyllodes, spikes of mid to deep yellow flowers and pods resembling a string of beads.

How to spot it

Acacia dallachiana is an erect or spreading shrub or tree that typically grows up to 15 m (49 ft) high and has smooth grey or greyish brown bark and glabrous branchlets. Its phyllodes are narrowly lance-shaped or narrowly elliptic, often with one side straight and the other convex, 80–180 mm (3.1–7.1 in) long and 10–35 mm (0.39–1.38 in) wide with a small gland 3–6 mm (0.12–0.24 in) above the base of the phyllode. The flowers are borne in usually two spikes up to 60 mm (2.4 in) long and often cur

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

Alpine Marsh-MarigoldDocumented on this trail

Psychrophila introloba

Endangered — VIC: Endangered▾

Endangered — VIC: Endangered

Caltha introloba, commonly known as the alpine marsh-marigold is a small hairless, perennial alpine herb, that is endemic to the alpine regions of Australia and Tasmania.

How to spot it

Real occurrence confirmed near Mount Buffalo National Park (Atlas of Living Australia, 2008) — no separate physical description was available on Wikipedia for this species, see the source link for more.

Family Ranunculaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Psychrophila introloba

Photo via iNaturalist Australia (CC-BY-NC 4.0 (Int)), collected by Ken Harris EntSocVic

Snow Gum

Eucalyptus pauciflora

Sub-alpine woodland specialist▾

Sub-alpine woodland specialist

The classic eucalypt of Namadgi's high country, forming gnarled cold-climate woodlands above roughly 700m across the Brindabella and Bimberi ranges. A rarer, lower-altitude Snow Gum Grassy Woodland also survives on Mount Majura's eastern slopes.

How to spot it

Smooth white, grey or yellow bark shed in colourful ribbons; glossy green lance-shaped leaves (60-200mm); white flowers in clusters of 7-15 from October to February. Often multi-trunked and wind-sculpted at higher elevations.

Family Myrtaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Eucalyptus pauciflora; ACT Parks and Conservation Service

Photo: Toby Hudson (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Buffalo Sallow Wattle

Acacia phlebophylla

Mount Buffalo endemic▾

Mount Buffalo endemic

Found nowhere on Earth except Mount Buffalo National Park, where an estimated 250-500 mature plants survive across 25-40 subpopulations on granite slopes between 500-1200m. Listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, threatened by fungal disease and more frequent bushfire.

How to spot it

A shrub to small tree up to 6m tall with broad, rounded, asymmetrical phyllodes (leaf-like stems) 4-14cm long, and rod-shaped deep yellow flower spikes. Grows on the steep granite slopes and heathland of the Mount Buffalo plateau — it is not found in any other park.

Family Fabaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Acacia phlebophylla

Photo: Insanelineman (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Wildlife you might see on this trail

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

Gang-gang Cockatoo

Callocephalon fimbriatum

EPBC-listed Endangered (uplisted from Vulnerable in 2022 after the Black Summer bushfires); IUCN Vulnerable▾

EPBC-listed Endangered (uplisted from Vulnerable in 2022 after the Black Summer bushfires); IUCN Vulnerable

The gang-gang cockatoo is the faunal emblem of the Australian Capital Territory, found in cool, wet forests and woodlands of the mountains and tablelands of south-eastern Australia. It was uplisted from Vulnerable to Endangered under Australia's EPBC Act in 2022 after the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires burned a large share of its habitat.

How to spot it

A small, stocky cockatoo (32-37cm). Males have an unmistakable wispy, curled bright-red head and crest against slate-grey body plumage; females are all grey with a smaller grey crest. The call is distinctive - a creaky, grinding growl often likened to a rusty gate hinge or a cork being pulled from a bottle. Found in tall mountain forest over summer, moving to lower woodlands (including suburban Canberra) in winter.

Family Cacatuidae · Source: Wikipedia; EPBC Act conservation listing

Photo: JJ Harrison (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons