Best Marysville & Mount Buffalo Photo Spots
Mount Buffalo is in Victoria's Alpine Region, and is situated in the Mount Buffalo National Park. It's one of my favourite places for photography. I was first attracted by spectacular images of the Cathedral, a peak nestled in one of the alpine plains. It's the kind of spot that I'll go to again and again over the years, hoping for the perfect conditions for an amazing photograph across the seasons. I've been up to the Cathedral twice, and can't wait for my next visit. Along the way I like to stop in at Marysville, which is in the Yarra Ranges in the foothills of the Alpine region. In 2009 Marysville saw deadly Black Saturday bushfires that burnt down the town and forests surrounding it. Today the eerie grey bones of trees in the surrounding hills can make for some stunning and haunting images. If you love waterfalls, there are some great options in both areas.
(B) Marysville
Marysville is a beautiful town in the foothills of the Victorian alpine region. The town itself is a great base to explore the Yarra Valley and Lake Mountain. There are gorgeous hilly vistas, gorgeous waterfalls like Steavenson Falls and great lookouts like Keppel Lookout. For me, the main attraction for this region is the ghostly, grey, bones of bushfire burnt trees lining the hills like matchsticks. There is something incredibly eerie as you gaze across the hills and see thousands upon thousands of these trees. Once I think about what it must have been like with these hills alight and bearing down upon the town, I feel a sense of sobering gravity.
The best view I've found is on the road out of Marysville to the east, along Marysville-Woods Point Rd. The scenes below I shot with the longer telephoto end of my Olympus 12-100mm lens to capture the detail on the far hills, and to achieve a highly compressed image that highlights the patterned nature of the hills.
Keppel Lookout
My favourite lookout in Marysville is Keppel Lookout at sunrise. The lookout peers over the town of Marysville and the surrounding hills. It's only a 10 minute drive from the town, so if you are staying overnight, it's easy to get there early. The lookout is only a few short steps from the carpark. The view from the lookout is great, but if you are a little more adventurous and sure footed, there are some great compositions from the cliffs below. These are best shot with a wide angle lens, with filters as necessary depending on the light. In March the sun rose from the left hand side of the view below, which is fantastic for side lighting plants and shrubs on the cliff. The hills cast great shadows across the valley below.
There are heaps of great little waterfalls in this area. Perhaps the most famous is Steavenson Falls. There are viewing platforms for most of these, but it's always a little bit more interesting to get down amongst the rocks with some ND filters to slow down your shutter speeds to create images that are a little more interesting.
The image on the right is a gorgeous tree BURSTING with colour at the Crossways Historic Country Inn as you turn right onto Woods Point Rd leaving town to the east. This was shot in November, so keep your eyes open for foliage at different times of the year.
Lake Mountain
Lake Mountain is only a 22 minute drive from Marysville, and I assume the entire area is *packed* during ski season, but I've not been here during Winter. I took a quick visit on a cold, wet, foggy afternoon and went for a hike from the car park to the peak, which took an hour or so. This is an area that will definitely be worth exploring in the future. I'll add more when I get the chance to devote some more attention here.
Mount Buffalo National Park
When I've come up to Mt Buffalo, I usually stay in the beautiful town of Bright. There are heaps of accommodation options here, lots of cafes, beautiful trees and hikes in the surrounding area. It's around a 45 minute drive in to the Cathedral, you can also stay at Porepunkah, which is around 5 minutes closer, but with less options. I've stayed at both Bright Motor Inn and Elm Lodge, both of which are reasonably priced, comfortable options.
(C) Cathedral
The Cathedral at Mount Buffalo is one of Victoria's iconic photography spots. A lone stack of granite rocks standing at one end of a plateau. The nearby Hump offers stunning views of the stack with the plateau and hills in the background. The variability of weather conditions combined with compositional opportunities from boulders, trees, perspectives mean that you are guaranteed to come away with some wonderful images. The rock itself is halfway along the 2km Cathedral - Hump walking track. The track is fairly elevated so it may take 20 minutes or so to get to Cathedral depending on your fitness.
The most iconic shots of the Cathedral are taken from the rocky area below the Hump lookout point. Once you reach the Cathedral, continue up the track & you will see an open rocky area to your left. If you leave the track and explore this rocky area, you can find lots of great compositions looking down onto the Cathedral. You can create leading lines using the rocks, you can frame the Cathedral using living or dead trees. You can also choose to continue up to the Hump where you can get some absolutely stunning views down onto the Cathedral and a 360 degree view of the surrounding areas.
For some unique views, there's also some great images to be had on the reverse side of the Cathedral looking back up towards the Hump. There are some cool rocks on the plateau that you can use to frame the Cathedral. Depending on the season you could also find some alpine flowers and plants to incorporate into your compositions. You will get different conditions as the seasons pass, from snow, to water, to dry browns and oranges.
If you're lucky, you can get some amazing sunrises and sunsets here, lighting up the clouds in a breathtaking, sublime show
If you're shooting at sunset, I recommend you pick out a landmark tree or distinctive rock that can guide you back to the trail. Don't forget to bring a head torch as it will get really dark, really quickly and you'll want this going back down to the carpark as the path can be indistinct in parts in the dark. This goes for sunrise shots too, where you may be hiking up in the dark.
I'm writing this during COVID lockdown, and this is one of the first spots I plan to visit once regional travel opens up, I just love this area, and there are lots of spots I still plan to explore. Now that I'm more familiar with the area, I plan to do some hiking a little further out onto the plateau to look for some unique compositions.
(D) The Hump
The Hump is another 1km from the Cathedral, which takes you to a peak that sits above the Cathedral and gives you some stunning 360 degree views down onto the Cathedral and the hills around.
(E) The Horn
The Horn is Mt Buffalo's highest point. It's around a 10 minute drive further on from the Cathedral. I would have to say from a photographic perspective it's not as exciting as the Cathedral-Hump, but it's definitely worth climbing up to take in the exhilarating view from the top of the park. If you're planning your time, I would do this climb for fun in the afternoon before spending time at the Cathedral. There is an observation hut at the car park which is pretty interesting and if you were here in the right light you could get some great shots. The climb to the top is not long, around 1.5km but quite steep.
(E part 2) Summer hikes near the Horn
Between the Horn and the Cathedral, there's a large car park called Cresta Valley. From the spot there are a number of great hikes that will take you across a huge variety of the alpine landscape. Obviously these are accessible only in the warmer months, as in winter they will be covered by snow! There are a few main hikes, one is Dicksons Falls, the Back Wall Hike and the South Buffalo Hike. The Back Wall and South Buffalo Hikes are each around 4 hours return. Dicksons Fall is around 1.5 hours return.
I've hiked both the Back Wall and South Buffalo Hikes, and whilst they are both great, the Back Wall hike I found more rewarding. Both hikes take you through a large variety of landscapes, from boulder strewn plains and bogs, to grassy meadows, to hills covered in bushfire burnt trees and boulders. Make sure you take plenty of water and snacks, because you will be climbing up and down the hills, and it can be heavy going on the knees, particularly if you're carrying a lot of camera gear! It can also get very hot in the sun, and the weather can change very quickly, so make sure you are dressed appropriately. At points the trails are barely marked, with only footsteps of previous hikers to follow. I lost the trail on a number of occasions! If you are going to try to make the end of the trail for sunrise or sunset, you must bring torches and take care, it can be VERY easy to become disoriented at dusk and in the dark with hours to hike back in pitch black. Make sure you let contacts know of your plans.
When I was at the Big Drift in Wilsons Prom, visions of Tatooine were flying through my head, going through these hikes I was having visions of Mordor!
Back Wall Hike
The final image is taken at the end of the hike on the back wall, looking back to the back side of the Horn.
Buffalo South View Hike
The Buffalo South View Hike is more about the destination than the journey. The scenery along the way is mostly boggy valleys between small hills on the way to an outcrop from which you can see the Horn, the Hump and the Cathedral in one stunning vista. The hill at the end of the hike was ravaged by bushfire, and makes for a dramatic and eerie hike. The boulders at the top have been fractured and smaller stones exploded in the intense heat, which can be really interesting to see. The hike is not particularly hard, it's relatively flat for most of the way, only really rising towards the end climbing up the final few hills up to the viewpoint. Again, the trail is very lightly marked, and particularly at the end it's really, really easy to miss the trail and become disoriented. I missed the trail and had to double back at one point, so I was *really* glad I had decided to get back to the car before dark.
The day I visited was quite overcast, which suited the landscape quite well. I had planned to stay for sunset but the cloud cover was quite strong, and I wasn't confident that I would be able to find my way back in the dark, so I left the crest to hike back to the car park before dark. I drove to the Horn for sunset, and was rewarded with some beautiful colours, but with my car about 50 meters away rather than 2 hours!
(F part 1) Ladies Bath & Eurobin Falls
There are quite a few falls in the area, two that I've visited are Ladies Bath and Eurobin Falls.
Ladies Bath falls is an easy walk and a cute little waterfall. There's a natural pool that you can swim in, and in the 1930s, apparently this used to be a popular spot for a dip on the long train trip from Melbourne before the final leg up the mountain.
The image on the right is looking straight on to the falls, which I find a little ‘flat’. This trip there wasn’t much water flow, so this angle really minimised the volume of water in the falls.
There is a better composition to the left of the pool shooting right towards the falls in a 'profile' view. That’s the image on the left which gives more interest and prominence to the falls. Don't forget to bring your ND filters to slow your shutter and smooth out the water, and your polarising filter to cut out surface reflections and down into the pool.
Eurobin Falls is further up the mountain, and it's quite a long steep hike to the top! The falls go down a really large area of rocks, as you'll see on your way up! On my visit it was quite dry so not so much water, but I could imagine this would be quite spectacular at full flow. There are some really interesting smooth weather worn rocks with great shapes and textures and eroded areas that can make for great shots.
(F part 2) Crystal Brook Falls, the Chalet & the Gorge
Crystal Brook Falls is definitely on the stunning side of the waterfall ledger! These falls are really easy to access, only a short 2 minute walk from the road on the way to the Mount Buffalo Chalet. There is a handy viewing platform perfectly positioned for a great view, which for your safety you should definitely stick to. You can also access the falls and lookout from a short 2.5km walk called the Gorge Heritage Walk from the Chalet car park.
The Crystal Brook Falls lookout vantage point is from the top of the falls just before they cascade down the gorge beyond. The best time to photograph the falls is in the morning when the rising sun will light the wall of the gorge up. I've only been in warmer months, but in the winter this can be absolutely spectacular with white snow. The flow was quite low the day I visited, I imagine on a high flow day the water pouring over edge of the cliff, framed by the two cliffs on either side, would be spectacular to capture.
Mount Buffalo Chalet
From Victoria's High Country.com.au "Perched on the top of Bent's Lookout, the breathtaking views stretch out over the famous Gorge. Built in 1910 by the Victorian Governemnt, the chalet was Australia's first ski resort, and has served generations of skiiers, hikers and families over the years it operated." The Chalet is currently closed, but has undergone restoration works, with an additional $3m in federal funding awarded in October 2020. The gardens and exterior of the building are available to inspect, and I found myself imagining it's visitors in the 1900s strolling around socialising after a day's skiing. After a quite exhausting weekend of hiking, I did take a moment to sit in the gardens and relax, breathing in the stunning aroma of so many gorgeous flowers
There is a very large car park and visitor area just below the Chalet, with toilets, picnic facilities and quite a few hikes that you could easily fit into a day trip from Bright. The car park is pretty much at the top of the Gorge, offering some stunning views across the valleys below.
The Gorge
The Gorge is accessible from the Chalet car park, and has ample toilets, picnic facilities, and some truly amazing lookouts, with new ones under construction. There are some great granite boulders right on the car park that you can either climb over or walk around to get to the lookouts. The entire area is safety fenced, do not go outside theses, as there is a sheer drop below. If you're lucky you'll see abseiling classes or perhaps a paraglider launching from one of the ramps. The lookouts provide the perfect view of the gorge wall (also seen in the shot of Crystal Brook Falls above), that will light up as the sun creeps over the horizon. It got *really* windy up here at 6am in the morning when I shot these images.
The light can change so quickly in the morning, completely changing it’s character. The image to the left was taken at 6:00am, the bottom left 5:58am, by 6:02 am the light was gone behind cloud cover. The bottom right image was taken the day before at 8:20am.
(G) Porepunkah Plantation
Porepunkah is a laid back little town a stones throw from Bright. It's popular for camping and canoeing, and family accommodation. Over the road there is a huge pine plantation that you can enter, a 4WD drive is strongly recommended if you want to get up the top! Be prepared to negotiate lots of winding tracks and doubling back!! There were a number of people running, hiking and mountain biking up the hill side. I got up early one morning to drive up the winding path to an area overlooking the valley towards Bright, and was rewarded with deep pinks and reds. I've also been working on a series around man's impact on the landscape, and found the stark difference between a logged hillside, with plantation trees lining the top of the hill irresistible!
(H) Danny's Lookout (Mount Hotham)
Mount Hotham is not an area I've spent much time in, but it is another area I plan to explore once COVID restrictions have loosened up.
After spending a weekend in Bright for Mt Buffalo, I drove the Great Alpine Road, leading all the way down to Metung. Mt Hotham is around a 50 minute drive from Bright, through some stunning mountain scenery.
On my way through, I made a 20 minute stop at Danny's Lookout, which is on the main road heading towards the Hotham main village. There are some expansive views across the mountain ranges that could make for some great images in the right light. I was there in middle of the day, and without some side lighting, I felt the ranges were a bit bland, so I tried to find some Alpine plants to feature in the foreground.
There are heaps of great hikes in this area, and some stunning scenery, I can't wait to get back and explore it properly.
Sun Path & Ray Map
The map is set to the the Loo Ern boardwalk at Tidal River, you can search for any location using the search box.
Zoom right in or out, or move the yellow icon around then press execute to see update sun information.
Remember to uncheck 'DST' if you are outside daylight savings time! Sunrise and Sunset times are listed. Experiment with some of the dates from my images above!