Four-wheel drive tracks in Victoria’s high country are busier than ever, with an explosion of interest in going offroad, since the pandemic. And the increased traffic is having an impact, with some tracks in the worst condition they've been in. There are calls for better driver education and investment in facilities, to help mitigate the damage.
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00:00Testing the limits of cars and driver skills, four-wheel driving is booming.
00:11Today's guided tour is traversing Victoria's remote high country region.
00:16It's attractive because it's challenging.
00:18There's some very steep tracks and lots of rocky tracks and lots of rivers to cross.
00:22I'm amazed that I've been able to do it and that the car's been able to do it.
00:28Four-wheel driving in Victoria's high country has become enormously popular,
00:32with people coming from across Australia and even internationally to explore the region.
00:38It's pretty bloody gnarly.
00:40But the extra traffic is having an impact.
00:43You can see where people have gone off the tracks and that sort of ruins it a little bit
00:47and they leave rubbish and that's not nice.
00:51Tom Savage has led more than 40 tours in the high country.
00:55The tracks are in some of the worst condition he's seen.
00:59Every car that comes along does a little bit of damage,
01:02so at least if you can minimise that by doing the right training,
01:04and good training can certainly help that a lot.
01:09Parks Victoria manages more than four million hectares of parks and reserves.
01:15But the department's funding is less than half a percent of the state budget.
01:20Increasing the parks budget for example to one percent of the state budget
01:24would see a dramatic improvement,
01:26would probably make very little difference to other portfolios.
01:29It's probably equivalent to one level crossing removal.
01:32It's your education and those that don't know or are ignorant to the way of doing things properly,
01:37unfortunately do make simple mistakes.
01:41If we all do the right thing, it's going to be here for our grandkids.
01:45Protecting Victoria's wild places for future generations.