The Great Victorian Rail Trail (formerly Goulburn River High Country Rail Trail) is the second longest

rail trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

in Australia (after the 161km Brisbane Valley Rail Trail in Queensland), following the route of the former railway line from

Tallarook Tallarook is a town the Shire of Mitchell local government area in central Victoria, Australia. The town is in on the Hume Highway, north of the state capital, Melbourne. At the , Tallarook had a population of 789. Tallarook Post Office opene ...

, the

Mansfield Railway The Mansfield Railway was an eleven-mile railway line in Nottinghamshire, England. It was built to serve collieries opening in the coalfield around Mansfield, and ran between junctions at Clipstone and Kirkby-in-Ashfield on the Great Central Ra ...

and Alexandra Railway in north central

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, about north-east of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. The trail surface is partially granitic sand and partly

chert Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a prec ...

(a kind of gravel). Officially opened in June 2012, it stretches for from Tallarook near Seymour, through Trawool, Yea and Bonnie Doon to

Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market tow ...

, with an offshoot to

Alexandra Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "prot ...

from Cathkin. Its highlights include the Cheviot Tunnel near Yea, views of the Goulburn River, the Heritage listed Trawool Valley and a former rail bridge over

Lake Eildon The Eildon Dam or Eildon Weir, a rock and earth-fill embankment dam with a controlled spillway across the Goulburn River, is located between the regional towns of and within Lake Eildon National Park, in the Alpine region of Victoria, Aus ...

near Bonnie Doon. The towns passed through by the main rail trail are
Tallarook
Trawool, Kerrisdale, Homewood
YeaMolesworthYarck
Kanumbra, Merton
Bonnie Doon
Maindample
Mansfield
The trail forks near Molesworth, leading t
Alexandra

History

On 29 April 2009, the

Federal Government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

announced that it would contribute A$13.2 million from its community infrastructure program out of the estimated total cost of A$14.2 million needed for the completion of the trail as an economic stimulus and as part of the recovery effort in the wake of the 2009 Victorian bushfires. The money was spent to repair and build bridges, road crossings, car parking, rest stops and amenities. Great Victorian Rail Trail map Stevage

References

Great Victorian Rail TrailsRail Trail Bike Tours

External links

www.greatvictorianrailtrails.com.au - Official siteTrail ServicesGoulburn River High Country Rail Trail map at ''Railtrails Australia''Bikely map
* Rail trails in Victoria (Australia) {{VictoriaAU-geo-stub