Harrietville School Tours – Alpine Adventures and Winter Thrills

It can’t always be about Education, there has to be a little bit of fun as well! Enjoy a day of snow fun and toboganning at Dinner Plains or Mt Hotham, as well as fun activities at camp or if the weather is warmer, enjoy daily hikes around this beautiful area.

Harrietville is a quaint, former gold-mining village in Victoria’s High Country, located 351 km northeast of Melbourne on the Great Alpine Road. Situated at the base of Mount Feathertop and Mount Hotham, it acts as a peaceful base for alpine skiing and summer hiking.

We can organise all your snow gear & equipment, so there is not a lot of fuss when you arrive.

Snowboarding

Dinner Plain is ideal for absolute beginners learning to snowboard. The village features the Cobungra Platter, a gentle 150m green-rated run equipped with a poma lift & snowmaking.   We can even organise Beginner Lessons.

If the Cobungra Platter is closed or you want a break, Dinner Plain offers Australia’s longest free tobogganing run (Peashooter Slope).

Of course, for the more confident skiers, we can take  a 45 minute drive to Mt Hotham for some more serious slopes.   There is a bit more involved with this option and of course, a bit more expense.

Feathertop Chalet, located in the heart of Harrietville and at the base of Mt Hotham is the perfect location for school camps.  Its ideal for school groups, who want to enjoy a little snow fun, as well as camp activities.   Don’t want to travel in the winter months, there is still plenty to do in the warmer weather.

The Chalet boasts a range of accommodation and recreation facilities to suit your needs for the perfect experience.  They’re purpose built to empower and improve young people’s lives through challenge, teamwork and determination.

Activities

Feathertop Chalet have a wide range of outdoor and indoor activities for all ages. Many of our activities are designed for groups of 12-14 participants. If you wish to choose a range of activities email our activities co-ordinator to organise an itinerary that works for you.

 High Ropes Team Trail   Suitable for:  High School students (height restrictions)

A fun and exhilarating 7 element high ropes continuous course with a cargo net, multi-vines a leap of faith and more that allows participants the freedom to explore as individuals facing there possible fear of heights while encouraging the basics of teamwork; communication and trust and a team spirit is built with participants.

Giant Swing  Suitable for:  Ages 6+

This high adrenaline and very fun activity encourage individuals to set their own goals and challenge their limits whilst building trust with their teammates. This activity can be presented to achieve a variety of educational outcomes including teamwork, accepting challenge, resilience, goal setting, communication, and more.

Mountain Biking  Suitable for:  Ages 11+

A beginner to intermediate adventure along the beautiful rivers and mountain bike tracks of Harrietville exploring and discovering all its hidden gems on two wheels, you might even get a glimpse of the local fauna. This activity is designed to work on technical riding skills and having a fun time, basic communication skills and awareness of others.

Leap of faith   Suitable for:  Ages 6+

A thrilling activity where participants muster all their confidence and courage to climb to the top of a ten-metre pole, before putting their faith in themselves and their belay team as they jump and reach to catch the mid-air suspended trapeze. This activity can be presented to achieve a variety of educational outcomes including teamwork, accepting challenge, resilience, goal setting, communication, and more.

Kayaking    Suitable for:  Ages 6+

Go sit on top kayaking at Harrietville’s beautiful dredge hole which is a ten- minute walk away from Feathertop Chalet. Learn basic paddling skills and play fun water-based games. This activity can be presented to achieve a variety of educational outcomes including environmental connection and appreciation, teamwork, problem solving, fun, leadership, and much more.

Archery    Suitable for:  Ages 6+

Use recurve bows to try shoot at targets, gain some team points and learn the place of the bow and arrow in history. Students will learn the parts of the bow, arrow, and target as evidenced by naming the basic parts. Students will understand the physics behind shooting an arrow. To describe and understand speed, force, motion, mass, and gravity in context of shooting an arrow.

Goanna Tree Climb    Suitable for:  Ages 6+

Climb like a goanna on one of our 3 trees to try and reach the top hand hold and see the beautiful views of our camp. Along the tree trunk there are climbing holds to assist the participants in their climb and an auto-belay for them to control their own climb! This activity can be presented to achieve a variety of educational outcomes including instructorship, accepting challenge, resilience, goal setting, communication, and many more.

Bush walking   Suitable for:  Ages 6+

Explore Harrietville’s beautiful tracks and see the local fauna, choose from a range of difficulties. This activity can be presented to achieve a variety of educational outcomes including environmental connection and appreciation, leadership, map reading, resilience, fun and much more.

Raft making    Suitable for:  Ages 6+

Build a river raft and try and stay afloat on Harrietville’s dredge hole using the team’s creativity with the equipment of rope, PVC pipes and wooden planks. This activity can be presented to achieve a variety of educational outcomes including environmental connection and appreciation, teamwork, problem solving, supervisorship, and more.

River Rapid Tubing    Suitable for:  Ages 6+

Do some twist and turns on a river tube down a small river with manmade rapids behind our camp. This activity also highlights safe behaviours around water, communication, persistence, practice. The purpose of the activity is to allow participants to experience interaction with river flows, geology and physics at a basic level, understand the safety aspects of river tubing, experience manoeuvring and learn some basic movement techniques and how to safely steer a tube.

Initiatives    Suitable for:  Ages 6+

Solve some fun and intellectual challenges and complete several small tasks that involve them working together at a team and utilising their communication and leadership skills. Leadership, teamwork, communication, followership, problem solving, persistence and much more can be taught with our initiative activities.

Bush Cooking    Suitable for:  Ages 6+

On our onsite campfire pit cook and enjoy your own damper. During the activity students are taught about the history of damper, why it was used, and then make their own and cook it over the fire either on the end of sticks or on a hot plate. During this activity, the participants will learn safety around fires, the history of damper, and how to cook damper.

Bush Hut Building    Suitable for:  Ages 5+

Work in a team and create your own hut made from real natural materials from Harrietville bushland. The effectiveness of their bush hut may be tested at the end of the activity with a bucket of water. This activity focuses on teamwork, problem solving, and creativity. It also touches on pioneering history.

Gold Panning    Suitable for:  Ages 5+

Be taken on a journey through the past and learn the history of gold panning from a seasoned gold panner while searching for your own gold in the beautiful Ovens River. This activity teaches the participants of the town’s gold mining history, the history of gold panning, and how-to gold pan for themselves. It can also teach environmental connection and appreciation.

Photo Orienteering    Suitable for:  Ages 5+

Get your bearings and explore around the camp site in small groups to find the places matching photos they are given. This activity gets the students comfortable with where everything is at camp, has them looking closer at what’s around them, and teaches them about basic map reading. Teamwork, communication, problem solving, persistence and more can be taught with photo orienteering.

Low Ropes   Suitable for:  Ages 5+

Make your way through a fun slightly elevated 5 element challenge course with balancing logs, Hebbie jebbie and slacklining; focusing on balance and teamwork. Teamwork, communication, problem solving, persistence and balance are just some of the educational outcomes of this activity. Great for the young ones.

It operated from 1942 to 1954. At the time it was the highest producing dredge in Victoria.

These days its a great location for a swim or kayak. Enjoy one of the many walking trails that meander around the dredge holes.

Begin your walk from the Tronoh Dredge Hole car park off Feathertop Track and head either way around this man-made lake. The dredge hole was created by the Tronoh Dredge which was one of the world’s largest electric-powered mechanical dredges. There are a number of other walking tracks around the Tronoh Dredge, weaving through native bush and ferns, along the Ovens River or around the dredge holes. These tracks are signposted and offer further information on the significance of historical sites along the trails.

The Harrietville Museum is a volunteer-run community space preserving the rich colonial and gold-mining history of the North East Victoria high country. It is located in the village centre next to the general store.

The Museum itself, is a restored Miner’s heritage cottage, donated by the local Barker family.   The front rooms are preserve in 1900s aesthetic.

Their mining relics feature the ‘Harrietville Gold’ display, which includes historic items from the region’s 1850s gold rush, a mining cart model, and a large shed containing heavy equipment like a stamping battery and traction engine.

Look for the massive historic dredge bucket sitting prominently out the front, a nod to the era of the giant Tronoh Dredge.