On Walkabout To: Tom Groggin Station

Early in the morning my wife and I got up to head out of Thredbo and back to Victoria down the Alpine Way.  As luck would have it, the day we left Thredbo the weather was just gorgeous compared to the two days of rain and snow we dealt with while staying at the Thredo Alpine Hotel:

My wife and I have driven down the Alpine Way before, but since I have to make so many trips to Canberra, when ever my wife comes with me we always drive back to Victoria over the Alpine Way just because of how scenic this road is.  It is without a doubt one of the most beautiful drives in Australia:

As we drove down the Alpine Way we stopped to make breakfast along this beautiful creek running down the slopes of the Snowy Mountains:

We drank water straight from the creek and it was incredibly pure tasting.  After eating our breakfast and enjoying the fresh air and scenery, we then continued down the narrow road that includes many sharp turns and switchbacks.  It was on one of these switchbacks that we noticed a family of about five wallabies eating grass along side the road.  I was only able to get out of my Jeep and take a picture of two of the wallabies before they all ran back into the bush to hide:

Further down the road a turn off to the gigantic Tom Groggin Camping Area comes into view.  Here you can walk right up to the upper reaches of Australia’s greatest river, the Murray River:

The Murray River is the largest river in Australia and travels 2,575
kilometers (1,600 miles) from the heights of the Snowy Mountains out to
the shores of the Great Australian Bight near Adelaide. The river
serves as an important economic life line for Australian farmers down
stream who are depended on the Murray’s waters for irrigation.

Not far from the camping area the turn off to the historic Tom Groggin Station comes into view:

This station is historic because it is the former real life home of the cowboy, Jack Riley who was made famous by the books and movies of “The Man from Snowy River“.

Grave of Jack Riley in Corryong, Victoria.

If you are wondering, “Tom Groggin” is actually not the name of the
ranch owner or anyone else for that matter. It is actually an English
butchering of the aboriginal word of “tomarogin” which means water
spider. Why the original station owner chose that word to name his
ranch after is anyone’s guess.

There is no cattle station in Australia as spectacular as the valley
that the Tom Groggin cattle station sits in on the slopes of the Snowy
Mountains and it is easy to imagine A Man from Snowy River galloping
along the sides of the mountains chasing brumbies.

Today the station doesn’t appear to have to many cattle there and in fact the only
animals that could be seen grazing in the lush fields were herds of kangaroos and we had to chance to see a couple of them box:

These two kangaroos were going at each very had for about a minute and then they would rest for about two minutes and then go at again.  It really was like watching a boxing match:

The kangaroo boxing went on for about 20 before the two kangaroos had enough of fighting each other.  The next stop down the Alpine Way from Tom Groggin is the scenic Geehi Plain where there was a whole lot more wildlife for us to see.

Next Posting: The Geehi Plain