Re the gate and campsite in the pictures, the article is wrong and I think this is just a matter of someone who doesn’t know the area, trying to pull points of interest out from what they’ve seen written elsewhere. They obviously know where the Wonnangatta valley is, but then they’ve punched into google and been pointed to the Wonnangatta camp ground as being down between eaglevale and the kingwill bridge. If you zoom in on google maps and look for where Neates Track crosses the Wonnangatta river, you can pinpoint the spot in the pic they used. This is the wrong spot, but props for trying, it would be hard for anyone not familiar with the area.
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Uhm, the caption says only that 'a camper' has heard a car there turning, not that this is the campsite of RH & CC. They have the campsite pinned close to where it actually was, but still a bit off. It's placed too far to the southwest of the actual location which is where the red line goes right (to the southeast).
Another mistake in
that map is at the end of the route, where at St Bernard Hospice they have GL turning right towards Mount Hotham, instead of left passing Hotham Resort Western Boundary (where his car was caught on camera).
Coming back to the car turning supposedly near Wonnangatta River Crossing. This is information not shared anywhere, so I really wonder where that's coming from. According to the map in the JS article, GL took the route south from Mount Cynthia (around 900 meters high and probably a point where a mobile ping was picked up). That route south is another piece of information not publicly known, as far as I know. How did the map designer come up with that? It's a very steep descent, would GL do that in the middle of the night with a trailer? Highly unlikely. Also the route then goes along Eaglevale Camping Area, Wonnangatta Camping Area, and other flat grounds where people could have set up camp. One would think GL wanted to avoid areas where campers could easily hear/spot him. However, one argument for taking this route is that Wonnangatta Road from Eaglevale to Kingwill Bridge is relatively flat.
The turning of the car could not have been right at the river crossing as on both sides there's ample space and it wouldn't need a 30 point turn. Probably the witness had his camp right there and heard the car turning a bit further down south on Wonnangatta Road? However, the supposed turning point also contradicts with earlier police reports where the car was said to have turned around at the Myrtleford Gate which is north of RH & CC's camping location.
So, the turning point seems indeed wrong, but the general route is probably right, whether GL crossed the river down from Mount Cynthia or not. See the Google Earth Map attached where I have drawn the route from the campground to Dargo High Plains Road, via Cynthia Range Track. GL initially wanted to go north from the camping ground (going where? We don't know), but that plan fell flat due to the closure of Myrtleford Gate. So, plan B is to take another way out. Maybe, just maybe, he indeed came across a closure or obstacle just past Wonnangatta River Crossing and decided to go back into Grant HA. My gut feeling says the buriel spot in Grant HA was not planned, but he obviously wanted to get rid of the bodies before sunrise and just happened to pass a 'perfect' spot (the hole from the fallen tree).
