Brindabella 4WD tracks; great 4WDing near Canberra
If you’re in Canberra, and looking for some 4WD tracks to go, the most popular place is in the Brindabella National Park, and there are more tracks than you could explore in a couple of days. These range from basic gravel roads through to some really steep hill climbs, and then there’s a couple of very difficult 4WD tracks on one side.
The Brindabella National Park is a stunning part of the world, and if you have a 4WD and want to look around, it’s a great place to head out for the weekend, or even a day trip.
Where is the Brindabella National Park?
You’ll find this National Park just to the West of Canberra, South East of Yass, and South West of Wee Jasper. It covers a fairly substantial amount of ground, and will take you a full day to see a good chunk of it.
Where are the 4WD tracks?
There are 4WD tracks everywhere in the National Park. A lot of them are around Blue Range Hut, but if you head further West along Brindabella Road, you can explore a heap more that continue on from Gentle Annie trail.
We did Webbs Ridge Trail, Waterfall Trail, Mcintyres Trail, Lowells Flat Trail and Folly Fire Trail. We actually entered from the North on Doctors Flat Road, which is apparently a private road, but we didn’t see any signs or closed gates!
I’d highly recommend downloading Newtracs, as this gives you a really good map of the area, along with the tracks, and their relevant difficulty level.
4WD track difficulty
The tracks that we completed range from Easy to Medium to Difficult on Newtracs, and it was interesting to see how hard they actually were. Some of the Medium tracks were very easy, and others were more challenging.
The difficult track taking you to Mcintyres Hut was more challenging with less traction, some wombat holes and a couple of places to pick lines, but it was nothing like what we’ve seen in the Victorian High Country.
We did bottom out once from being a bit careless coming over a hump, but with some decent tyres, a bit of clearance and a smart driver, you’ll be fine.
I’m sure the very difficult 4WD tracks would push the friendship, and we did see a couple of other 4WD tracks closer to Wee Jasper that weren’t on Newtracs that looked like they’d be a lot of fun in a twin locked solid axle vehicle.
What do you need?
The 4WD tracks in the Brindabellas are very rocky, and quite rough. As such, you need good tyres. I’m going to suggest light truck all terrains as a minimum, or at least bring a tyre repair kit and a compressor, as you might need it.
You want your tyres let down to a decent level too, because its rough as without it, and because you’ll want the traction when coming up. Some of the climbs are long and pretty steep, and if you’ve not done much of this (like the Vic High Country) it might give you a fright!
From there, the basic safety gear is important. A first aid kit, PLB or satellite phone, water on board, and recovery gear should be a must. On weekends and especially long weekends it gets really busy, but the phone reception is virtually none except for a couple of spots up high.
Camping in Brindabella National Park
There’s a few camp sites in the Brindabellas, which are very popular. Mt Coree is one of the closer spots to Canberra, and then you have Flea Creek, McIntyres Flats and Lowells Flats. They’re all decent camping areas, with trailers unsuitable (and signed this way too) for McIntyres and Lowells.
Ironically, we actually thought that Micalong Creek was a nicer campground than any of the others in the National Park, but it is much busier and far more accessible.
Visit the Brindabellas
We only got to explore a small chunk of the National Park, but would love to see more. Unfortunately we ran out of time (and our aircon broke again), but if you are in the area and want to see some of this great region, get your 4WD ready and head out for some fun!
Have you been to the Brindabellas? What did you think of it?
