A new section of the O'Shannassy Aqueduct Trail has now been opened, 80 km east of Melbourne.
Until recently, the section of the Trail easterly from the Yuonga Rd car park ended at the Donna Buang Rd. This required visitors to cross the road and walk on its narrow shoulder, for about 200 metres, reaching the access point leading to continuation of the Trail higher up.
This was dangerous, with vehicles speeding down hill.
At this location, the Aqueduct is actually in an underground steel pipe, under the Donna Buang Rd, and burrows through the side of the mountain. It is in reality a complicated syphon, as water doesn't normally run up hill!
There are several similar syphons along the length of the Aqueduct.
The open section of the Aqueduct reappears further to the east, where it continues to the Cement Creek crossing, and then on to the O'Shannassy Weir.
To overcome this discontinuity for visitors, a brand new diversionary section of the trail has been built, about 150 metres, with handrails, steel mesh boardwalks, and small bridges over drainage channels.
This now avoids the need of walking along the busy Donna Buang Rd.
The new section passes through rainforest and ferns.
I explored this new section of the Trail on June 22 2012, a bitterly cold freezing day, with flakes of snow blowing down from Donna Buang.
The Aqueduct was decommissioned in 1997 and the Trail follows the former maintenance track.
See all of the Photos of my visit!
