2023 08 24 – Stockyard Spur – Little Ginini Mountain, Namadgi

This was a one day walk from Corin Dam Carpark up Stockyard Spur Track to Pryors Hut then returning via Little Ginini Mountain. Distance was 13.7Km

The featured image is a view of  peaks in Namadgi as seen from the Grandstand Lookout along the Stockyard Spur Track

My pictures of this trip are available on Google Photos.

Points of Interest

This is a hard walk to the top, with the climb up Stockyard Spur Track being a hellishly tough climb of 530m from the car park at Corin Dam in the first 2km. The Stockyard Spur is supposed to be a 13Km grade 4 walk.

I actually did 17.3Km including a visit to Pryors Hut which sits alongside the Franklin Road as well as climbing Little Ginini Mountain.

I arrived at Corin Dam in heavy fog and discovered I had left my boots, that had fitted foam inners as well as sheepskin inners and cotton soxes with thicker woollen main soxes, at home. So I ended up walking with my ASIC simple sneakers with a simple pair of light cotton business soxes.

So I headed off just before 8AM (7.59AM) up this incredibly steep trail, initially just dirt and loose rock which quickly turned to a series of wooden steps that sig zaged up the first section that seemed to last forever. Strangely the light weight old hand me down ASICS were eating up the metres.

I reached the edge of the area called helliport (its just a small open area that was used by helicopters fighting fires or building this god awful track) by 9.35AM.

From then on one is led to believe that its flatter and easier. Well its not really that much easier. There is a nasty drop into a saddle, roughly half way between the start and where the Franklin Rd is reached. However it doesn’t really flatten out until I reached a spot where I could walk out onto rocks where I could look up and see Mt Ginini with various towers for weather recording as well as providing communications between planes and air traffic controllers. On the other side of the track is a spot named by old bushwalkers as The Grandstand Lookout to various peaks such as Mt McKeaknie, Coronet Peak, Mt Namadgi, Mt Kelly, etc.

Around 11.30AM I reached the junction with the Mt Franklin Rd then turned south and walked down to Pryors Hut, had a look around then went down into the Arboretum and back out onto the Mt Franklin Rd and found John Evans recorded Border marker Q57. Looks a bit like a lockspit. I also found some swampy water not far after. I then returned to Pryors Hut and had my lunch outside in the sun around 12.30PM.

I then headed north up the hill towards Little Ginini Mountain. It was fair going but I had to veer around trees on several occasions. I got to the first peak and found the original survey markers according to John Evans as P57 with a downpipe and cairn around it. I then followed Johns route across to O57 with a 3″ downpipe with a concrete core and cairn.

The walking across the tops of this peak was nice going with low level grass and it was overall easy and beautiful. I then finished at the third peak which appeared to be Little Ginini Mountain. There was a marker to its east side known as M57. It seemed to me to be a concrete hole surrounded by some concrete or stones pieces.

From here I headed in an easterly direction, initially over nice tops then it became a bit more awkward dropping down over some light scrub until I reached the Franklin Rd just south of the junction with the Stockyard Spur Trail at around 2PM.

I then headed back down the track until I could reach my car at around 4.45PM. After cleaning my sneakers and taking off my gaiters I was off home around 5PM.

I had walked 17.3Km and taken some 8hr 45min including all breaks.

Link to GPX file and two versions of Maps of the walk on Google Drive. These are jpg files – Google Drive files

Link to Photo Album

A few points

My legs were tired after this walk. I should have experienced pain in my knees coming down the steep section above but I didn’t. Take it easy and be careful it can be slippery and dangerous.  You need to carry water as there is none along the track to Mt Franklin Road. There is some swampy water just south of Pryors Hut. I need to treasure those green ASICS they were a godsend.

Greg Hutchison, 26 Aug 2023