Great Alpine Walk

Australia's "Alps" are quite modest, rising to no more than about 2,000 m in Victoria, and mostly around 1,500 m. They are not dramatic, and mostly covered with eucalyptus. They can be warm to hot in January, especially all lower elevations.

If you grow up in Australia you mostly find our alpine high country very beautiful, and I think you would enjoy the walk you have outlined ... but we are not talking about Aconcagua here. More the White Mountains of New Hampshire, or the Appalachians.

The Great Alpine Track goes from Walhalla (which is about 200km east of Melbourne) to Canberra.

I haven’t walked the trail however I walk regularly around Walhalla and have walked the Snowy Mountains in the area around Mt Kosciusko.

Friends in my bush walking club have walked the full length of the trail. (What we in Australia call bushwalking is better known as hiking or trekking or tramping if you come from New Zealand).

Much of the walk is in remote wilderness so you need to be experienced and well prepared. You need local maps and good navigational skills as the track in not well signposted in many places. You will also need food drops and probably water drops. While you plan to walk in mid summer it can and probably will get cold with the possibility of snow. Not the sort of walk you would do on your own.

As far as scenic beauty is concerned it is quite different and probably not as spectacular as the other places you have mentioned – beauty is in the eye of the beholder! Try googling images for Great Alpine Walking track.

An alternative and more accessible walk would be the Great Ocean Walk in SW Victoria. A spectacular southern Australian coastal walk of about 100km that includes the iconic 12 Apostles.

http://www.greatoceanwalk.com.au/

Sunbird, thank you for your thoughtful response and comparison with the Appalachians, which puts things in perspective for me. Very helpful remarks.

Habby, if I go on this walk, it would be with an outfitter and guide for 7 days, not the entire length of the trail.

The whole walk is 650kms so in 7 days you will only cover a relatively small part of the walk. Either the Victorian Alps or NSW Alps are quite spectacular - in an Australian sort of way!

Local knowledge and experience is critical so if you can find a guide that would be the way to go.

An alternative and more accessible walk would be the Great Ocean Walk in SW Victoria. A spectacular southern Australian coastal walk of about 100km that includes the iconic 12 Apostles.

I agree with this ... Australia's strong points are coastlines and deserts, more than mountains.

If the one you are intending to book with is https://auswalk.com.au/ then you ought to note that whilst it is organised with food drops and staying at different locations, it is self guided meaning you do not actually have a guide walking with you.
The opening page photo there does give one indication of what some of the terrain may be with more of the walk also through wooded areas and in a January, they will afford some relief from the sun that could be quite hot.

I would be far less concerned about snow and carrying additional water each day.

Some of the better parts of such walking is in my view getting down nearer the gullies where though you will not always find water, at least it usually cooler.

You might even be better off to go and have a look at a few different areas and do some day walks before booking on to a seven day walk and that way you can get an idea of the countryside, the Alpine areas reasonably accessible in many places, a few views at https://au.pinterest.com/seeaustralia/australian-alps/?lp=true

Many thanks to all 3 of you for your comments. I'm persuaded by habby and sunbird to do a coastline walk, at least for my first one.

You will not be getting any snow on the coast but do be prepared for coastal weather changes as they can be quite dramatic with a possibility to be up in the thirties if not reaching forty C one day in January and the hotter weather seems to make southerly changes more severe so they can be very stormy and wet with temperatures dropping to low twenties.

There is a Melbourne joke ( usually used by Sydneysiders or those who live elsewhere ) " If you do not like the weather, wait five minutes and you could get a change! " , most appropriate for summer .

You will find that there are walks with a similar set up for along the coast with pick ups at various points and a return to accommodation but make sure you do check that accommodation will be guaranteed and what cost is for the coastal area is very popular in January despite any weather, it being the annual school holidays so accommodation can be scarce and expensive with even camping grounds heavily booked.

Have you considered doing several day walks on alternate days?, especially if you are not a regular walker used to warmer conditions - have a look at http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/ as an example to find places in Victoria, plenty in Tasmania - http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?base=1315 and then up around Sydney you have three National Parks, all able to be reached by public transport.