October 20th, 2025Celebrating United Nations International Mountain Day

United Nations International Mountain Day is celebrated on December 11.

Barry Golding, pictured, and Clive Willman made reference in their 2024 book, Six Peaks Speak to the serendipitous origins of Mountain Day in the US in autumn 1838, the exact same time that peaks in the Central Highlands of Victoria were being unsettled.
In 2025, during the week leading up to IMD, the Great Dividing Trail Association is organising six interpretive loop walks to the summits of six diverse and special mountains in Victoria’s Central Highlands, within three adjoining First Nations regions. They are:
• Saturday, December 6 – Mount Kooyora/Guyura (486m) including Melville Caves in Mt Kooyora State Park, near Dunolly, in central Dja Dja Wurrung Country.
• Sunday, December 7 – Mount Buninyong/Bonan Youang (745m) in Mt Buninyong Scenic Reserve, south of Ballarat in Wadawurrung Country.
• Monday, December 8 – Mount Steiglitz/Kal Kal Karrah (637m) and the glacial deposits at nearby Pykes Creek. The seldom-visited Mt Steiglitz Scenic Reserve north of Ballan in Wurundjeri Country accessed via private land.
• Tuesday, December 9 (dawn walk) – Mt Beckworth/Nyaninyuk (629m), within Mt Beckworth Scenic Reserve near Clunes in southern Dja Dja Wurrung Country.
• Wednesday, December 10 – Wombat Hill (670m), a town walk around historic Daylesford in Dja Dja Wurrung Country. The walk will start with a launch of the Lerderderg Track Walk or Ride Guide and conclude with a picnic in Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens.
• Thursday, December 11 – Blue Mountain/Wuid Krruirk (871m), a little- known mountain within the proposed Wombat-Lerderderg National Park south of Trentham, on the forested Great Divide, between Dja Dja Wurrung, Wadawurrung and Wurundjeri country.
Registration for the walks and more information at www.gdt.org.au/events
Non-walking club members are welcome, but will need $10 cash on the day to cover GDTA walker insurance.

Words: Donna Kelly | Image: File