Thought the same! We got a good curry in Kimba, just west, from the petrol station. It was 42°C that day & about 45 in the middle of the Eyre Peninsula heading south. Curry in Kimba was the best thing to do. A hot curry cools you down!

 

Are there Google street level views heading to Kiandra.

We drove from Echuca to Corryong 2 weeks ago and had no problem towing the van (17 ft Jayco poptop and 2.5 ltr diesel Mitsubichi Challenger ). The road was winding and steep in sections with overtaking lanes in places. The road through the alpine area though Kiandra should be okay but will be more winding and steeper than to Corryong. Some sealed roads in these areas are signposted as unsuitable for caravans. I notice you are towing with a v6 Amarok diesel, so you shouldn't have any problems. It may pay to chech with the RACV and the NRMA however.
EJP

There are basically 2 ways to get to Kiandra from Corryong. One is the Eliot Way and the other is the Cabramurra - Khancoban road. I will describe the Khancoban - Cabramurra road first, then the Eliot Way later. The Cabramurra road is shorter, but not by that much anyway. Both roads have steep hills, but if you are towing with an Amarok, I assume you would be OK. If it is a hot day, watch the temperature gauge.

Coming from Corryong, you will come to the turnoff to Khancoban. A short sharp climb will get you to the crest of a ridge with a 25 km/h hairpin bend in the road. Take it slowly and digest the panorama from here - it is beautiful. You can see two sets of white pipelines in the distance - they are Murray 1 and Murray 2 power stations, but unless you specifically want to see them , you won't be going anywhere near them.

You will come to a left turn off the Khancoban road - this goes to Cabramurra. Take this. You have about 10 km of gentle climb before you start a steeper climb. At this point, the road is fairly straight. Once in the steep climbs, the road seems to get narrow. Keep to your own side of the road and you will be OK. After the first climb, you will be running along beside the high voltage power lines. This area in particular has thousands of kangaroos but if you keep your speed down to less than 80 km/h you SHOULD be OK.

When you reach the end of the power lines, you start another climb. This is a little steeper and longer. Again, the road winds quite a bit and keep on your own side of the road. After about 15 km of steep climb, the road flattens out a bit and you will come to Tooma Dam. As you cross the spillway bridge, you will pass a memorial boulder on your right side. This weighs 14 pounds - 14 pounds = 1 stone (that's a joke boy)....

From Tooma Dam, you have another steep winding climb until you eventually crest out near Round Mountain (on your right). From here on the worst is over, although you must still be vigilant because the road is not that wide at any point. Almost immediately you open out from the forested area, you will see oyour left a large open valley dropping away. This is the Tooma River valley. There is a fire tower on the top of the right side. This is Manjar tower. About one third of the way down into the valley is the site where in 1936? the Southern Cloud (one of Charles Kingsford-Smith's fleet of Fokker Tri motor planes) crashed into the hillside in bad weather. It was in 1952 that a carpenter working on an aqueduct in the area discovered the wreckage. A memorial to the pilot and passengers, and aviation pioneers in general, stands beside Back Creek in Cooma, opposite what was one the Snowy Mountains Authority's Scientific Services Division.

After about 10 km, you will come to the start of the descent into Tumut Pond Reservoir. Now, stop at the top, engage low or second gear and stay in those gears until you reach the dam. DO NOT RELY ON YOUR BRAKES ALONE. In the early 1970,s a tour bus missed a gear at the top and he ran down the hill, eventually crashing off the road just near the gatehouse near the bottom of the descent. There were a lot of oldies in the bus and sadly a couple of them died, but most survived. The bus stopped just short of the water in the reservoir.

There is a toilet block on the right side of the road before you cross the dam wall. Tooma Dam is a concrete arch dam - the dam wall is only about 3.6 m thick at the top and about 8m thick at the bottom. It is 85 m high and is curved facing upstream. The water pressure tries to flatten the curvature out and in doing so it presses the concrete wall harder into the rock abutments on the sides. There is a viewing area before you cross the dam wall, but nowhere to safely stop on the other side.

The climb up from here to Cabramurra is relatively gentle - still winding roads, but not as bad as you will have traveled on till now. Cabramurra is Australia's highest town. There is a small general store and a cafe which serves basic but reasonably priced meals. From here, you head towards Kiandra. En route you will still have narrow roads but no really steep gnarly bits like you have already passed. You will pass Three Mile Dam - this was built as the water supply for the Kiandra goldfields. Just after the dam, you will go down a short steep section of road (this is called Roaring Meg) and on you right, if you look hard you will see the remains of several aqueducts. There were 5, but now you can barely see any of them. The run from here to Kiandra is easy.



If you decide to take the Eliot Way (this is the only way in winter because the other road is closed by snow), you follow the road out of Corryong and head towards Tumbarumba and Tooma (the 'town' not Tooma Dam). After Tooma, you have several long steep climbs. The road is wider than the Cabramurra road, but at least it is straighter (for now). Eventually you will come to a right turn heading towards Cabramurra. This road is an easy and gentle uphill climb for about 25 km. Finally, you will come to a downward section. The road is narrow and winding. You will get spectacular views of Talbingo Reservoir from the road as you come down the hill. Again, DO NOT RELY ON YOUR BRAKES ALONE - USE YOUR LOW GEARS.

From the reservoir level, you will travel over several narrow bridges and finally start to climb the hill towards Cabramurra. You will come past the entrance to Tumut 2 Power Station - an underground station. There is a toilet block in the carpark there if you need it. The climb from here is steep and continuous, and at one point there is a lookout. You will be looking at the spillway from the surge tank for the station, and the station is about 350 m below your feet at that point. Continue up the hill and you will eventually come to the turnoff to Cabramurra. Unless you want to go there, just keep going straight on. You are now on the road to Kiandra as described above.

Very little remains of Kiandra these days. In its heyday in the late 19880's there were 10000 people living there over winter in tents and humpies. The National Sparks and Wildfire Service in the late 1970's removed most of the buildings from the town. All that remains is a stone building which served as a hotel, courthouse DMR depot and probably a few other uses as well. It is a pity because there was a lot of history associated with the town.

As stated at the start of this diatribe, the roads are narrow and steep in places, but driven sensibly, you should have no problems in covering the distance. This area has some of the most beautiful scenery in Australia and if you take your time you will be much safer and enjoy the trip as well...

A little more on Erad's post. Look at this map. Use the Google Street View to look up and down the roads at a few spots that likely to be difficult. If you don't know how to use street view then come back for some tips.

We went thru that way back a few mths , but it was  Tumut to Cooma via Kiandra ,there were a couple of caravans on the road , be it not big ones . Not sure about that road though.

PeterD wrote:

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A little more on Erad's post. Look at this map. Use the Google Street View to look up and down the roads at a few spots that likely to be difficult. If you don't know how to use street view then come back for some tips.

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 Apologies for not fully checking my link until now. The other day when I put Corryong to Kiandra into GM it produced two routes. Looking today only one route was generated. Here is the other route.  Either route is suitable for towing. I have driven the route through Tooma only as far as Paddys  River, I had no dramas towing the van along that. I have towed a van through the whole of the Carbamurra route and there were no dramas along it either. Both routes require a bit of low gear required descents. There are a few threads where members have indicated a preference for the Tooma route. As I said before look along the routes using the GM street view function for your own piece of mind.

Stretch,this is from Cabamurra to Khancoban,beautiful country.

This coming from Tumbarumba onto Eliot Way,to Cabramurra.The longest and easiest is the way"mezza" said Corryong -Tumut-Kiandra.You still are going to get, Windy,steep parts,though not as much as the other 2 ways.