Spirits are high as a small convoy of four-wheel drives winds its way into the Victorian High Country, west of Dargo, in the state’s Gippsland region.
There’s plenty of banter — a mixture of trivia questions and terrible jokes crackling over the two-way.
“What do you call a deer with one eye?” one driver asks.
“No eye deer,” the group chimes in.
This is a “tag-along” tour — four-wheel drivers in their own vehicles exploring remote bushland with a professional guide.
Most of the travellers in today’s group are from New South Wales.
They navigate the tracks in couples. It’s mostly the men behind the wheel, while the women ride shotgun.
The radio wisecracking goes quiet when the tracks get especially rough.
Today, 67-year-old retired midwife Judy Whiteside is the only one doing the tour solo.
She has an inventive collection of cuss words.
“Holy snapping duck shit!” bursts out of the radio after a particularly gnarly stretch of track.
Yesterday the group white-knuckled it up the notorious Billy Goat Bluff Track, an experience Judy describes as harder than delivering a baby.
“Today’s been really so much easier than what it was yesterday,” Judy laughs. “It was a little bit frightening.
“I’m amazed that I’ve been able to do it and that the cars have been able to do it.”
Why going bush is going gangbusters
There’s been an explosion of interest in four-wheel driving in Australia, with SUV sales climbing steadily in the past four years.
The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries says just over 55 per cent of new car sales last year were SUVs, a 10 per cent increase since the pandemic.
Domestic tourism spending across regional Victoria has also increased, and was up 39 per cent last year on pre-pandemic levels.
Although it is difficult to pinpoint exactly how many of those cars are being taken off-road, tour guide Tom Savage says there’s no doubt the bush tracks are busier than ever.
“There’s more and more people doing it, it’s becoming more popular for sure,” Tom explains.
Victoria’s High Country region, roughly 300 kilometres north-east of Melbourne, is one of the company’s most in-demand trips.
Tom has personally led about 40 tours in the area.
“It’s attractive, because it’s challenging,” he says.
“Lots of rocky tracks and lots of rivers to cross. There’s lots of good camping. So it’s a good place to be.”
Tourism takes a toll
Many of the campsites are heaving with people on weekends and public holidays.
Even as this tour passes through the Talbotville campground on a weekday, there are plenty of people around.
They share limited facilities. Many of the campsites have only one drop toilet and after busy periods, many are left strewn with rubbish.
“You can see where people have gone off the track and that sort of ruins it a little bit, and they leave rubbish and that’s not nice,” Judy says.
The increased traffic is also degrading many of the tracks. Tom says some of them are in the worst condition he’s ever seen.
He no longer takes tours all the way up tracks like Billy Goat Bluff, out of fear the vehicles might start sliding.
“Everybody knows Billy Goat Bluff track. But we came down it yesterday, and it was very, very tough … it’s the roughest I’ve seen it,” Tom says.
“I only take them halfway these days, because it’s just too hard.”
He says rutted and degraded tracks can be dangerous if drivers are inexperienced.
“If someone’s not very skilled, they might be sliding backwards on a track … and if you’re sliding backwards then you’re out of control,” Tom says.
“But if you’ve got good training and good knowledge and are careful with the right gear, that doesn’t happen.”
‘Death by 1,000 tracks’
The non-profit Victorian National Parks Association advocates for the conservation and protection of natural areas.
Executive director Matt Ruchel says four-wheel driving is a “slower moving” threat to parks than other pressures, but needs to be managed carefully.
He says many of the tracks are historical — initially built for logging, gold mining or firebreaks — and are not designed for four-wheel driving.
“It’s death by 1,000 tracks,” Mr Ruchel says. “These tracks proliferate, they very rarely disappear.
“Something bogs up, drivers go round it, and it gets bigger, damages vegetation and spreads weeds and pests.”
He says there can be a perception that “anything goes” when drivers are on dirt tracks.
“There’s a lot of mixed messages … advertisers like to show things doing extreme things, which are not always legal, and not always appropriate,” Mr Ruchel says.
“The rules for four-wheel drives are the same whether you’re in a national park or in a state forest, you’re supposed to drive them on a road.
“You’re not supposed to drive them around in the bush, willy nilly.”
Conservation and protection of the bush are priorities for peak body Four Wheel Drive Victoria, whose mantra is “driving in a sustainable environment”.
Chief executive Wayne Hevey says members sign up to a code of ethics that emphasises respect for the bush, and for each other.
“Whilst we’re not the greenies as such, we are very much environmentalists,” he says.
He lists some of their principles as “looking after the outback, looking after Indigenous cultural artefacts … tread lightly, leave nothing behind … don’t leave bog holes and do stupid things on the grass camping areas which spoil it for others”.
Mr Hevey says seasonal closures can also protect areas at risk of degradation.
“It’s very important we talk to people about this and we let them understand what it’s all about,” he says.
“So rather than getting mad and cutting gates and doing stupid things [they] understand the parameters and the reasons why, [and] hopefully they’ll change their attitude.”
“If we don’t look after it, we’ll lose it. It’s a very, very simple equation.”
More funding vital
Parks Victoria is estimated to receive less than 0.5 per cent of the state budget.
In a statement to the ABC, a spokesperson for the state government says it is working to upgrade four-wheel drive tracks, camping grounds and facilities, and is joining forces with Four Wheel Drive Victoria and others to promote safety and responsible driving.
The spokesperson says 181 infringements totalling more than $60,000 were given to people caught driving cars or riding trail bikes illegally off-road or in restricted areas last year.
Matt Ruchel admits managing off-road areas is an enormous task.
“Look, they can’t even maintain regional roads particularly well,” he sighs.
“So it’s hard to see how the government will maintain thousands of kilometres of off-road tracks in a reasonable way.”
Mr Ruchel says more investment is needed, from federal and state governments.
“Increasing the parks budget, for example, to one per cent of the state budget would see a dramatic improvement and would probably make very little difference to other portfolios,” he says.
“It’s probably equivalent to one level crossing removal.”
He says any activity that gets people outdoors should be encouraged.
“Our natural areas are a critical part of Australia’s personality, they’re culturally important,” he says.
“Many Australians love the bush, the danger is we don’t want to love it to death.”
Tom Savage agrees.
“If we all do the right thing, it’ll be here for our grandkids.”
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