Hume & Hovell Walking Track
The Hume & Hovell Walking Track stretches over 420 km from Yass to Albury in NSW, Australia. It passes through tableland, plain and sub-alpine mountain countryside; farmland, grazing country, State Forests and National Parks, and roughly follows the path of the arduous 1824-25 expedition mounted by Hamilton Hume and William Hovell to explore the unknown country between the then-limit of settlement near Yass and Port Phillip, later Melbourne.
Hiking with Ross to Junction Campsite, 1996
There’s a wealth of information available from the official Hume & Hovell Track website, but the one thing I haven’t been able to find is a GPS file identifying the trackheads and campsites along the way. So I put one together, gleaned from various sources including NSW Land & Property Information 1:25000 maps, Harry Hill’s comprehensive The Hume & Hovell Walking Track Guidebook (NSW Dept of Conservation & Land Management, 1993; ISBN 1 86333 066 6), maps from the Hume & Hovell Walking Track Discovery Kit (NSW Dept of Conservation & Land Management), personal GPS logs, and last but certainly not least the very comprehensive, detailed and interesting coverage & diary blog of David Byrnes’ 2013 journey available here. I have provided an alternate download of David’s tracklog (with permission) for the value it brings to a more complete overview.
David Byrnes’ tracklog, overlaid with campsites & trackheads
I have identified only those campsites & trackheads officially identified in the Track literature. There are many other potential stopover points along or nearby the route, from bush campsites with no facilities to lakeside caravan parks and village/town accommodation. Official campsites and trackheads generally have pit toilets, bench tables and shelters of various kinds. The trackheads may have extra facilities including electric hotplates, running (but generally non-potable) water and flush toilets.
Use these files at your own risk; I have taken care in the preparation of those for which I am responsible but do not guarantee their accuracy. You should always thoroughly plan any trip into unpopulated areas and have the maps, equipment, supplies and knowledge to deal with both expected and unexpected circumstances.
As always, enjoy!
| Download | David Byrnes' Tracklog, Campsites & Trackheads (Google Earth .kmz format) |
| Download | David Byrnes’ Tracklog only (OziExplorer .plt format) |
| Download | David Byrnes' Tracklog only (.gpx format) |
| Download | Campsites & Trackheads only (OziExplorer .wpt format) |
| Download | Campsites & Trackheads only (Waypoint+ .txt format, UTM) |
| Download | Campsites & Trackheads only (Waypoint+ .txt format, Deg-Min) |
If none of the above formats suit your purposes you can probably use the free GPS Babel program to convert them.