Snowmobile Access
OK guys just after some information in regards to snowmobiles. Been looking on the national parks website and parks Victoria and can’t find anything about em.
Say you had access to a snowmobile, is it possible to just tow it to the park, back it off the trailer and head off into the backcountry? Very simplistic view of it, not gojg into the safety aspect, just wanted to know if there are rules or regs against it. I’m assuming there is but haven’t been able to find it.
you cant have one in the park unless you are attached to a resort or a lodge and even then you are only allowed to take them on designated trails…..used to work at charlottes park though, which let us take some sneaky out of the way runs….although there are parks guys on them to that will track you down quick smart if you go to far.
about the only real chance of getting them into anywhere fun is to work for parks or put your name down for helping with searchs….
Very dissappointing that, would be good if you could do like the guys in the states do and just tear off into the park wherever you wanted to. Dunno how much damage your gunna cause on the snow. I remember somewhere else on here that you cant take a chopper anywhere either. I love the fact that the minorities and fun police run this country.
At Falls the only people allowed to take there sleds back country is the S.E.S for rescue and recovery but they do have a weekly training sesh back country (in the village it is actually public roads so you need registration and the speed limit is 30km/h)
Very dissappointing that, would be good if you could do like the guys in the states do and just tear off into the park wherever you wanted to. Dunno how much damage your gunna cause on the snow. I remember somewhere else on here that you cant take a chopper anywhere either. I love the fact that the minorities and fun police run this country.
lol….from the way the people that actually get sleds up there for the season are with them….eg on the way to and from the bars
im pretty sure they could make a fairly good argument for why they arent allowed. plus even though you are on the snow , you fuck up everything under it when you ride over it with a sled and compact it, esp in the the spring when the covers getting low. national park = there to protect the flora and fauna so it wouldnt make much sense if they just let you do what ever you wanted.
not entirely sure what the argument against choppers is though.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Vic resorts aren’t in a National Park - they are on State Land owned by State Forestry, you can drive and ride all through The Victorian High Country in summer, I’ve done it. You can cut fire wood, have dogs, (there are heaps of wild ones), fish.. but they close the higher tracks in winter. I don’t know the reason why but you could imagine plenty. I’ve never heard evidence either way for sled use in Vic, I always thought you could use them to access BC.
NSW is National Parks and goverened by Australian National law, not State Law, same as shipping docks, below the high tide line on beaches/rivers and al of ACT.
Disclaimer: I’m no expert and don’t really know nufin.
You are partly right, Falls & Hotham are a resort area. They are surrounded by the Alpine National park. There are areas of State Forest near the resorts. Hotham is surrounded by the ALP. Not sure on Falls & Buller. They might have State forest abutting.
There are huge areas of State Forest in the high country, but in my experience, the higher altitudes that hold good snow for the winter are in the ALP or well behind locked gates if they are in State forest.
To have a snowmobile at Hotham / Dinner Plain requires a permit and for the machine to be registered.
It is a big NO NO to leave the resort area on one. (but I have seen it happening many times.)
and like spaz…........ Disclaimer: I’m no expert and don’t really know nufin.
Buller as far as I know is not in the national parks system. I was searching through the parks victoia site, the governing body for national parks in Vic and from there maps it is not under their control. On the Buller website itself it seems to make out that it is under there control.
I did a bit of searching on the net;
National parks and nature reserves within the Alps are managed by each state or territory government.
In the past, each had its own way of dealing with the challenges of park management. In order to better protect the Alps, the Park agencies agreed to work together in partnership with the Australian Government.
Parks Victoria, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, ACT Parks Conservation and Lands and Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts have an amalgamated body that governs these areas called ‘Australian Alps national parks Co-operative Management Program’
Buller and Falls are outside of the Australian Alps borders (Falls Creek is surrounded by Parks but the area is not part of it). I would conclude that all rules in the Alps area’s are the same.
These are the 11 parks in the Co-operative;
VIC
Alpine National Park
Snowy River National Park
Avon Wilderness
Mount Buffalo National Park
Baw Baw National Park
NSW
Koscioszko National Park
Brindabella National Park
Scabby Range Nature Reserve
Bimberi Nature Reserve
ACT
Namadgi National Park
Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve
I can’t find anything on vehicular access during winter, only that some road closures occur otherwise your free to access logging and fire trails but you must remain on the trails and have a permit if required (parks pass). Sled use still needs investigation regarding registration and use in Australia, but if off road bikes and quads can use the area….?
Ahhh, off dirt bikes and quads.
Dirt bikes need to have rego, either road rego or Rec rego.
Quads can be registered if it has a diff on the rear axle. So the big “race” high powered quads cannot be registered.
The riders of these machines have to be licensed, bike for two wheels, car for quads.
Rec Rego lets you use ‘C’ class gravel roads and below.
Snowmobiles are another kettle of fish.
For Dinner Plain and Hotham, to get your snowmobile registered, you need to be a primary producer (not sure why!?) and have a valid reason to have it. Mate has one because his farm is covered with snow sometimes and needs it to check cattle, so he is a primary producer, box ticked. He keeps his machine at DP and rides it for fun around the village. Keeps to the 30kph limit and has ticked all the boxes rego/permit wise. I don’t recall it even touching ground at the farm.
Quads, with the trax attachment are pushed for use rather than snowmobiles. (for commercial reasons) Hotham do not want lots of machines and closely control how many permits go out.
There are VERY strict controls on where these machines can go within the resort. However, I know plenty of people with private machines at DP who ride them often, so I am not sure who polices these things. I guess it would only be a problem if you had a commercial enterprise or are roaring around being a idiot.
With Hotham surrounded by the Alpine National Park, I am more than certain that the National Parks rangers would police you if you ventured out into their park.
I think they keep snowmobile numbers low and only in the resorts for the reasons CRACKERS state, if you could get one and head out, early and late season would see the place trashed with the machines running on low or patchy snow cover.
Its a real bugger, because there is some insane country that could be easily accessed with a sled.
you could just solve the problem and move to whistler…. throw a sled on your truck, down the road 15 minutes, brandywine access, unreal deep pow and cat track style access to lamost the peak.. only fee is to the bum lookin dude guarding the parking lot.. 15 bucks for the day
im lucky, i got roomies with trucks n sleds, its a pretty penny to get it all setup
That’s my dream Ian… 
One day.