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Grampians Rail Trail

Victoria - West

3.3 based on 11 reviews
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Location: 236 km north west of Melbourne
Length: 10 km
Surface: Fine gravel
Start / End: Stawell West to Mt Dryden Rd
Public Transport: Bus, Coach, Train
Suitable for:
  • Cycling – Mountain BikesCycling – Mountain Bikes
  • Cycling – Touring and Hybrid BikesCycling – Touring and Hybrid Bikes
  • Horse RidingHorse Riding
  • WalkingWalking
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  • Rail Trail
  • On Road
  • Potential RT
  • Other Trail
  • Former Railway

The Grampians Rail Trail gives you a taste of the Gariwerd National Park experience and demonstrates the handiwork of dedicated locals.

View Map
  • A lovely way to experience the local terrain along an easy, flat trail if you are staying in Stawell or Halls Gap
  • Links with quiet country roads to provide a route around Lake Lonsdale, a popular tourist destination, avoiding busy Grampians Rd
  • It’s part of a mainly off-road route between Stawell and Halls Gap
  • There’s plenty to do in Halls Gap, especially if you enjoy the outdoors

Nearby Attractions

  • Beautiful bushland, with abundant wildflowers in spring
  • Heatherlie Quarry, where several buildings are still standing and there is plenty of interesting mining equipment
  • Lake Lonsdale to the north is a popular tourist destination
  • Gariwerd/Grampians National Park
  • McKenzie Falls
  • Stawell Cultural Heritage Trail

Last updated: 12 March 2025

The Grampians Rail Trail started out as a narrow-gauge tramway hauling white sandstone blocks from a quarry at Heatherlie to Stawell, from where they went by rail to Melbourne for many of its ornate buildings, including the Victorian State Parliament. Thanks to enthusiastic locals and a very keen teacher and students at Stawell Secondary School, the 10 km rail trail was completed with a boardwalk and bridges. It’s not the smoothest around and there are few facilities along the way. You can carry on to Halls Gap via 15 km of quiet bitumen back roads and dirt tracks.

ESTA Emergency Markers are installed along the trail. In an emergency, call 000 and quote the alphanumeric code on the marker post closest to you, eg SHG001

Section Guides

Stawell West to Mt Dryden Rd (10 km)

  • The trailhead is in a small carpark on Grampians Rd (C216), 500 m west of the Western Hwy but there are toilets, picnic tables, a lake and more car spaces closer to the highway at Federation Park
  • The path runs west towards the Grampians, with the first 2.5 km following Pleasant Creek and a back road to join the railway corridor as it enters Illawarra Nature Conservation Reserve
  • The remaining 8 km runs along the alignment, parallel to Grampians Rd and south of Lake Lonsdale. You’ll cross bridges and a boardwalk built by students from Stawell Secondary School
  • The trail currently ends at a carpark on Mt Dryden Rd

CONNECTING TRAIL (15 km)

  • Proposals for a marked route along Mt Dryden Rd and south towards Halls Gap have not proceeded. You can do it anyway by following Mt Dryden Rd past Greenhole Rd, then Fyans Creek Rd past Pines Rd, before heading southwest on Red Gum Lease Tk and joining Mt Zero Rd for 1 km. Halls Gap is 1.5 km further south on a shared path beside Grampians Rd. See our map or download the Friends group’s one under FURTHER INFORMATION below.

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11 reviews of “Grampians Rail Trail”

Vic Trail #37 ridden from Stawell at Easter, 2024.
This is a fantastic family trail, flat as a tack through floodplains with a number of options to exit the route to go and pick up the car if the kids are getting tired. The route traverses a number of creeks with newly created bridges (well done trail fairies) and the track is fast, not immaculate, but easy to manage on most bikes. There are some small sections of singletrack at the start. Excellent signposting and lots of information.

If you do this, please try and visit the end of the line at Heatherlie (which is worth an hour exploring the quarry workings and best by car as the tracks are very sandy/corrugated to get there and there is no chance of following the railway due to the scrub build up from the 2006 (?) fires which also destroyed the original bridges. Another great stop is Lake Fyans south of the trail

There is no sign of the tramway between Stawell Station and the start of the trail and very little railway infrastructure other than info boards on the trail. Where the trail stops the bush starts and only a small section near Pines Rd and Heatherlie Tk to the west can be found other than at the quarry. Probably not a trail for the gunzels.

To get to the start, I took the Overland train purchased via V/Line for about $7.60. The train has little room for bikes … or baggage… so you may or may not get your bike on board. I was told there was a $50 charge but not certain about the accuracy of this. I rode via Lake Fyans to Ararat and stayed the night in that delightful town full of options before riding to Hamilton for rail trail #38 the following day. You might be able to get the last V/line from Ararat (~5.17pm) and make it a one-day but enjoy the weekend up there.

Had the pleasure of riding this trail today and absolutely loved it. Well maintained, well signposted with lots of information boards along the way about bridges, wetlands and flora. Track is easy to ride and due to flood mitigation works it is relatively even and has not been impacted by recent rain events in early January. Great to see other families riding and walking the trail and it would be amazing if it could continue further towards Halls Gap. The scenery is stunning, the trail is wide enough for most of the ride for two riders abreast. Very accessible for all abilities and the new boardwalk is quite a feature. Recommend this trail and look forward to coming back again in the future.

Joined the trail at the Mt Dryden Rd entry and rode to Stawell. Surface ok, a little muddy and slippery in places but generally pretty good. Really enjoyed the trail. No other cyclists on the trail, Tuesday 11.30 am.

We rode from Halls Gap to Stawell, return, in November 2021, with a café stop in Stawell. It’s a great ride through cleared and remnant forest. The trail was in good condition and was fine for our flatbar racers (no suspension; 32 to 40mm tyres). For future development, it would be great for the trail at the Stawell end to extend to the Lions path, a couple of hundred metres down the road, and for the Grampians end to be extended to the lake. We also enjoyed the ‘on road’ section – the unsealed parts are smooth and the sealed sections are not too busy. Our one mis-step was when we were riding on Red Gum Lease Tk and inadvertently ended up on Jack Rd (we missed the ‘turn-off’ just after the golf course). You might also want to have lights or hi-vis for the day-time riding on Fyans Creek Rd.

We rode this track recently, some parts were great and other parts a little soft. The track is hard to find where it starts, but if you use your maps you’ll find it. A little more work would make this a great track, especially if they could extend it to Lake Lonsdale. They were working on the bridges and it looks like the last section had been upgraded, but was soft. Scenic ride with bush land and farm land all round.

The track is now in good condition in some places and just fair in others. It is another case of having to know what you are looking for to find the start of the track as there is a complete lack of signage. All pretty flat and a nice wander through the countryside. You would want over 30 mm tyres to ride the track comfortably.

Visited today. A lovely Saturday afternoon. A nice rail trail to do with the children. 20km, flat and in generally good repair. It is apparently supposed to be closed, because council can’t work out a fence/gate… but you can ride the length easily, two temporary gates to manoeuvre. Start is approximately 700m towards Halls Gap from the intersection of Western Hwy and Grampians Rd. A small car park on the right with some white bollards.

Really disappointed by the lack of communication about this rail trail. On Saturday I looked on this site for an update, checked the North Grampians Shire website and Facebook group. No updates in one and a half years. I sent a message to the shire and asked them to let us know if the trail was open or closed. As we were staying in Dunkeld, we dropped into the information centre. The lady there had never heard of a rail trail in the Grampians. She tried to ring Halls Gap information, they didn’t answer. So we decided to risk it. On Sunday we drove to Stawell (a three-hour return trip) to try to find the trail. We could see part of it but there was no signage. We went to Stawell information. They were out of brochures but the lady there told us to go to Federation Park for the trailhead. It was raining all day, so in Monday afternoon we returned, but there was no signage, no indication of a trailhead. We rang the shire. They advised to cross the road and continue further down. I told the lady who answered my story and asked for the person responsible to return my call (haven’t received a call back as yet). We soon found it and enjoyed the 11km immensely. Sad to see others don’t seem to be doing it but I can see why! Get your act together North Grampians Shire Council. Get the trail revitalised and we will come! Finalise your negotiations with the sheep farmer! Communicate with Stawell, Halls Gap and Dunkeld information centres! Please facilitate this railtrails.org.au. Thank you

I rode this trail yesterday (15/1/15) and found it okay but short. The track surface is fine for mountain and hybrid – though gets a bit rough on the western end given that part of the track has seen less use. The main issue with this trail is that it does not have any standout features – there are no great views of the Grampians, or river vistas. The only interesting sites are the wastewater ponds and the cattle farm. I saw no evidence of any washed out sections – the track has been maintained, and well done to the high school students who built the bridges – good job.

My wife and I attempted the Stawell section around the middle of 2012 and found it in need of maintenance. We were wondering if it has been repaired after the floods destroyed sections of it?

Rough track. Lost the track at the Heatherlie Quarry end and used a 4WD tack to get onto Pines Rd. The Heatherlie Quarry end is only recommended for the hardy. Rains in late 2011 have damaged the trail at the Stawell end. Some sections have been washed away and a lot of debris lies on the trail.
link to GPS tracklog:-
http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/spatialArtifacts.do?event=setCurrentSpatialArtifact&id=2351062
alternatively
http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=odkiaqxtzlhldohc
May the road rise with you.

Information and Links

This trail is entirely managed and run by the Friends of Grampians Rail Trail community group. Their rail trail project manager is John Pye, ph: 0432 867 387

Download a Friends’ sketch map of the trail here.

Use this map for the connection from the current western end of the rail trail, at Mt Dryden Rd, to Halls Gap.

Contact Rail Trails Australia

To contact us about this rail trail, email vic@railtrails.org.au

Background Information

Traditional owners

We acknowledge the Djab Wurrung and Jardwadjali people, the traditional custodians of the land and waterways on which the rail trail is built. Grampians National Park is known as Gariwerd, and is a very spiritual place for these people.

Development and future of the rail trail 

Friends of Grampians Rail Trail are working with Northern Grampians Shire to complete the route to Halls Gap along off-road forested tracks.

Tramway history 

The tramway ran from Stawell to a sandstone quarry at Heatherlie, at the base of the Grampians from 1882 to 1949. The quarry on Mt Difficult was renowned for its white sandstone that had excellent grain, texture and colour and was used in many of Melbourne’s public buildings, including Victoria Parliament House and the State Library. Conveniently, this sandstone was easy to cut but hardened over time. In the 1990s, Premier Jeff Kennett floated the idea of completing the large central dome and north and south wings of parliament house using the same sandstone by reopening the quarry. It was, by then, part of the Grampians National Park and, needless to say, this project did not happen.

Grampians Rail Trail receives funding from Stawell Gold Mines to support flood damage restoration and reinforcement

Posted: 02/10/23

Almost 12 months ago parts of Central Victoria were significantly impacted by flood events that caused ...

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