Melbourne 4WD Tracks, from mild to wild

There’s more Melbourne 4WD tracks to explore than you could do in months on the road, and on our Big Lap of Australia we were able to find, and do a huge number of them. We’ve listed them below, with links going to posts with more information along with plenty of photos.

Big ruts on the Mitchell Track — The 4WD Tracks near Melbourne are sensational

Anglesea 4WD Tracks

There’s an incredible number of 4WD tracks around Anglesea, and we based ourselves at Hammonds Road North for a few nights to explore the area. These range from basic gravel roads to fairly gnarly 4WD tracks, and its incredible country to explore.

Jamieson Track

The Great Ocean Road has a huge reputation, and gets driven by thousands of tourists every year. However, almost all of them miss out on amazing opportunities just nearby, like the Jamieson Track.

This 4WD track leaves from Jamieson Campground, which is one of the most amazing camp sites on the Great Ocean Road.

Not long after you leave the camp site it heads up a fairly steep incline with ruts and a few holes, completely obliterating the possibility of doing it in a 2WD vehicle, and you have a great view from the top, before it joins in with a massive array of other tracks.

We spent a good couple of hours driving around this area enjoying the amazing scenery and views, before coming down and popping out right at the Great Ocean Road sign. If you get an opportunity to do the Jamieson Track, its well worth the effort.

Heading up the Jamieson Track — The Jamieson Track is a whole heap of fun, with great scenery at the top

Scenery on the Jamieson Track — It’s a magic part of the world, and so much less touristy than the Great Ocean Road

Brisbane Ranges

If you are chasing a fairly easy, but very picturesque 4WD track close to Melbourne, you can head out to the Brisbane Ranges, and take a drive through a number of tracks.

We camped a night here, before dragging our Hybrid Caravan with us through the rest of the ranges (which became more and more beautiful the further we went), and thoroughly enjoyed it.

This part of the world doesn’t require huge tyres, lift kits or lockers, but is steep, occasionally slippery and a magic part of the world.

Steep tracks in our Reconn R2 — The Brisbane Ranges are surprisingly picturesque

Brisbane Ranges Creek — There’s a number of places to stop and check out

Cobaw 4WD Tracks

If you want to put your big lifts, tyres and lockers to use, Cobaw State Forest is the place to go. We spent a night camped here too, and explored a lot of 4WD tracks.

Some were well beyond the capabilities of our Isuzu Dmax (especially with a family on board, and no spotters!), and others were well and truly enough to make me wonder if we’d need the winch or not.

We didn’t do any damage, but found a huge array of easy, medium, difficult and insane 4WD tracks that would suit all types of vehicles and driver experiences.

Cobaw State Forest is much harder — Some of the 4WD tracks in Cobaw State Forest are pretty gnarly

Ruts and a steep hill climb in Cobaw State Forest — We had a ball exploring this great part of the world

Blackwood and Lerderderg

If you want enough 4WD tracks to keep you busy for days and days, head out towards the Blackwood and Lerderderg area. Many of these 4WD tracks are difficult, requiring careful wheel placement and having a locker is certainly advantageous.

We spent a couple of amazing nights at Amblers Crossing, and found more 4WD tracks than we could poke a stick at. The number of trees down, and mud or water still around in summer in the Blackwood area was quite staggering, and made for some interesting challenges.

Rock step from the north going into Amblers Crossing — You’ll find a heap of 4WD tracks around Lerderderg and Blackwood

Amblers Crossing in our Dmax — We camped at the stunning Amblers Crossing, which was fantastic

4WD tracks around Blackwood — The Blackwood region has days and days of 4WD tracks to explore

Big River State Forest

If you’re chasing free camping in Victoria, you can’t go wrong with the Big River State Forest. There’s a heap of 4WD tracks here too, some of which take you right into the Victorian High Country including Mount Terrible.

Big River Campground — There’s plenty of tracks in the Big River State Forest heading towards the high country

Mt Terrible

One of the more well known 4WD tracks in the Victorian High Country is to the top of Mount Terrible, and the views here make it completely and utterly worth the drive. We headed up Moonlight Spur and Mt Terrible track, and back down the other side, and had an absolute ball.

You can continue from here across towards Woods Point, with a heap of time required to get it all done.

Dmax in the high country — The Moonlight spur track to the top of Mt Terrible is a heap of fun

At the top of Mt Terrible — The long drive makes the views all that much more worth it

Walhalla 4WD Tracks

Some of the history in the Victorian High Country is absolutely mind blowing, and Walhalla is a very well known historic town, with scenery that is up there with the best that we’ve seen. We had an absolute ball exploring 4WD tracks around Coopers Creek, Bruntons Bridge, into Walhalla and then back around.

We arrived in Walhalla down the Telecom Track, banging and clanging our way down a steep, offset and fairly nasty 4WD track. Our point of arrival just happened to be the gold mine tour (which is great) car park, and we got some awfully strange looks from different tourists who were there!

Coopers Creek is truly beautiful — There’s some ripper 4WD Tracks around Walhalla

Telecom Track is nasty — Banging and clanging our way down the Telecom Track was hilarious

Mt Margaret 4WD Track

If you’re heading to Licola, there’s some fantastic 4WD tracks in the area, with Mt Margaret being one of the more well known tracks. This starts (or ends), not far from Licola, and takes an immediate, steep drive up for what seems like forever.

This is a difficult 4WD track, which requires some quality tyres, a bit of clearance and a locker or two is greatly appreciated. There’s a lot of loose, slippery rock to navigate, but we stopped at a place looking out over the Licola Free Camping options, and I was absolutely speechless.

This part of the world is nothing short of magnificent, and seeing it from the top of a mountain with a 4WD track running right through is a memory I won’t forget any time soon. We didn’t do the entire 4WD track, but its supposed to be amazing.

Steep track at Mt Margaret — Mt Margaret is a brilliant 4WD track with insane views

Great views from Mt Margaret — The views here are nothing short of incredible

Jamieson to Licola

If you want to get to Jamieson from Licola without driving a million kilometres around either way, you can take the Jamieson Licola road, which is currently modified due to a landslide on the main road that hasn’t been repaired yet.

I’d only classify this track as 4WD only because of how rough it is. You don’t need massive amounts of clearance, but its obscenely rough in sections and we were well and truly glad of getting off it when we finally arrived at Granny Flats Campground.

It took us something like 3 hours to do 70km, which explains the condition you’ll experience.

Driving the Jamieson Licola Road — If you want a rough, but incredibly picturesque road the Jamieson Licola one is worth doing

Craigs Hut

Perhaps the most well known attraction in the Victorian High Country is Craigs Hut, a beautiful part of the world that has insane views. This was rebuilt (like many of the huts in the High Country), but is visited by a lot of people every year.

The first part of the drive to Craigs Hut is really easy, with nothing more than some decent tyres, and lowered pressures needed. The 4WD section starts a few kilometres from the hut, and whilst we did it at a time when it was really easy, I can see it would get chopped up very quickly with a bit of traffic.

Driving to Craigs Hut — The majority of the drive to Craigs hut is easy

Craigs Hut has unreal views — The hut and views are completely worth the drive up

Razorback hut

If you’re driving up to Craigs Hut, take the tiny detour to do Razorback Hut. It’s really easy to get to, and another incredible hut. This was in use with a horse touring company when we arrived, but it was still pretty magic to walk around and check it all out, and it doesn’t require any serious 4WD tracks.

There’s a few little holes with water in them, but you’d get a stock 4WD in here without any real issue.

Razorback Hut in the High Country — Razorback hut is on the way to Craigs, and easy to get to

Bluff and Lovicks Hut

One of the more enjoyable 4WD tracks near Melbourne that we did was to see Bluffs and Lovicks hut. We headed out from our camp site at Frys Flat for the day, and had a great time.

The weather at these two huts can be insanely cold, and we picked a day where the clouds were in really thick, meaning we couldn’t see too much off the track at all.

This 4WD track requires some decent tyres and sensible driving, but isn’t overly difficult. Both huts are nothing short of fantastic, and we’d highly recommend doing the drive.

Bluff Hut in the High Country — Bluff Hut is another incredible place to visit in the High Country

Dmax on the track to Lovicks Hut — Driving on to Lovicks Hut

Howqua 4WD Tracks

There are literally hundreds of 4WD tracks in the Victorian High Country, and after a couple of days enjoying Frys Flat, we headed out again to find more.

We ended up doing a good mix of tracks that were easy, moderate and quite challenging before checking out Running Creek and then going back to camp.

There’s some magic country here, and if you have the time we’d really recommend a good look around.

Ruts on in the Victorian High Country — There’s some more difficult tracks around Howqua if you’re interested

4WD Tracks everywhere — We had a great time exploring the Howqua area

The 4WD tracks around Melbourne are epic

Coming from Perth, I had absolutely no idea of what to expect when we rolled into the Melbourne area in terms of 4WD tracks.

The Victorian High Country is up there with the best places we’ve ever been to in Australia (for camping, 4WDing and adventure), and if you are in the Melbourne region you’re doing yourself a disservice by not checking out some of these amazing 4WD Tracks.

Of course, as we explore more tracks (we didn’t finish Victoria before we had to head to NSW and QLD), they’ll be added here, and you’ll find an even more comprehensive list of places to take your 4WD out near Melbourne.

Of course, please respect the tracks and areas, and leave them in pristine condition. They’re too good to ruin.