If you start this tour in Melbourne, and you have landed at Melbourne Airport, first take 1 or 2 days to explore the city and to pick up your rental motor and to arrange any matters that may arise.
Melbourne is the capital of the Australian state of Victoria, founded in 1835 by a group of settlers from Tasmania. In 1842 the settlement became a city. Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia and the second largest in Oceania, apart from Sydney.

You leave the city via the Maroondah Highway, you can stop at a supermarket en route to take something to eat and drink on the way so that you could stop for a picnic on one of the many picnic places along the way. After an hour's drive, it's time for coffee and to fill up the tank, the next option is to refuel after 250 KM. You are now in the Yarra Rangers National Park, the Yarra Ranges National Park is part of an Aboriginal cultural landscape in the traditional Land of the Wurundjeri community.

The Yarra Ranges National Park is located between Melbourne and the Victorian Alps, a majestic rainforest landscape.
The Yarra Ranges extend over a vast, mountainous area of ​​cool temperate forest around the three cities of Marysville, Healesville and Warburton. This national park is home to the world's tallest flowering tree, the Mountain Ash, which towers over lush tree ferns and mossy Myrtle Beech. Dark channels are home to clear streams that feed the Yarra River and large reservoirs from which Melbourne draws its drinking water. The Yarra Ranges has some beautiful lookouts, one of the best being Mount Donna Buang. From here you can see a great view of Westernport Bay and Port Phillip - or walk through the Rainforest Gallery and view the Mountain Ash from a different perspective. In winter, Mount Donna Buang is the closest winter playground in Melbourne. Many Melburnians have seen snow here for the first time over the years.

Then continue to the Upper Yarra Dam. The Upper Yarra Reservoir is located east of Melbourne, past Warburton in the town of Reefton. Water from Upper Yarra Reservoir supplies cities in the Upper Yarra Valley and Silvan Reservoir, which transfers water to most parts of Melbourne. And you can take a picture of the McVeigh's Water Wheel. The Waterwheel is a central and iconic monument of Warburton. Before 1908, this 4.3-meter-long wheel was used to power a generator for electrical lighting in the Contention gold mine in Contention Gully, about 10 kilometers south of the Upper Yarra Dam.

The swing really starts from here, because there is no shortage of curves. Please note that large parts are "Gravel Road", this is also indicated on time via a yellow sign along the road!

After about 200 KM you can stop in Woods Point at the Commercial Hotel to have something to eat and drink and to take a picture of a "Historic Petrol Station", you should do it while it is still there. After 250 km, in the town of Jamieson there is a possibility to refuel, but also to eat and drink something in the Jamieson General Store. From Jamieson you go in more or less a straight line through the Reef Hills State Park, this is a protected area of ​​2013 hectares, about 5 km southwest of Benalla, in the northeast of Victoria. There are traces of a gold fever mining activity. It was founded in 1986, to Banalla, where you also have 4 options for refueling. From Banella it is a little less than 5 KM to the end point of this route, Wangaratta.
Wangaratta is a city in the state of Victoria in Australia. The city has more than 16,000 inhabitants and is located 249 kilometers northeast of the capital of Victoria, Melbourne. The city lies on the Ovens and the King, which come from the Australian Alps.

This route, rated with 4 stars, is mainly about beautiful roads, through beautiful nature reserves and occasionally over gravel roads.

General info:
Victoria is the smallest state on the Australian mainland. It is located in the southeastern corner of the continent and has a population of over 6.5 million inhabitants on an area of ​​227,416 km². The border with New South Wales is the southern bank of the Murray River. In the west it borders South Australia and in the south the Indian Ocean. The Bass Street is located between Victoria and Tasmania. Just like Queensland, Victoria is named after Queen Victoria.

The area was already inhabited when the first Anglo-Australians settled there in 1803. In 1835 John Batman bought an area from the indigenous population on which the city of Melbourne was to be built. In 1851 the area was detached from New South Wales, and in 1855 it gained the status of a self-governing colony. A parliament was chosen, consisting of two chambers. The first prime minister was William Haines. In 1901 the six Australian colonies formed the Commonwealth of Australia, and since then Victoria has been a state of that country. The capital Melbourne with around 70% of the state's population and located on the north side of Port Philip Bay has Australia's busiest container port. The city is the economic and cultural center of the state. The State Library of Victoria is also located in this city.
There are huge differences in climate in Victoria, from the moderately humid eastern Gippsland to the winter-covered and almost 2000-meter-high Australian Alps in the north-east in the winter and from the hot semi-desert of the north-west to the lush irrigation areas along the Murray. Mount Bogong is the highest mountain in Victoria. In Victoria, gold was found at the Raspberry Creek in the 19th century. This gold was of very high quality. Hamlets were founded along the stream. The hamlet of A1 Mine Settlement owes its name to this period.