HOLLAND CREEK - LOWER SECTION

NE Victoria. About 25-35 km out of Benalla towards Mansfield.

Paddle above 1.0m on the Wrightly Gauge

Great creek with some larger drops around 3m in height. Put in at the Fords rd bridge and get straight in to the grade 2+ rapids. After the first set of rapids, the creek flows through farmland, and there are a few snags ( trees/ logs) and watch out for barbed wire across the river.

From there there are larger drops interspersed with grade 2. At higher levels the creek would definately be a solid 3+. Great clean drops with pool landings. Most can be seen from the road on the way up to the put in.

Between this drop pool/ waterfall type section and the next bridge are numerous grade 2 and 2+ drops, but also lots of ti-tree, log jams and fences across the river. Easy to avoid at lower water but could be dangerous at higher levels. The drops are nice, but not sure if its worth the effort to paddle this section.

From the next bridge down to the Dairy Farm ( Hume and Hovell Monument) the river is fairly clean, without logs or fences across. Its very scenic and some great little rapids.  Just before the take out at the farm is one of the largest drops. The lead in is a tight little chute with ti-tree on both sides, and the larger section has two drops of note. The first around 2.5m and the second 3m  which is easy at about 1m but can get very retentive at higher levels. This section from Fords down takes about an hour.

At last paddle, there was a large tree across the bottom drop and a smaller ti-tree across the lead-in. This may move with a larger flow later in the year ( Sept 19,2021)

If you continue down to the bridge in Wrightly you would be paddling mainly moving water and grade 2 through farmland. The extra 10 or so km may take around 1.5hrs depending on water level.