Kosciuszko NP - Hannels Spur

Summer 2020/21 : A return day walk to Abbott peak from Geehi, along Hannels spur.
Walking conditions : Tracks and alpine meadows. 1700 metre height gain.
Walk length and duration : About 24 km in 12 hours.
Weather : Sunny.
Notes : Track maintenance was done just before this trip, so the upper sections were very easy to navigate. The sign boards give a good estimation of the walk length, but an extra couple of kilometres should be added for the elevation involved. This walk has the highest elevation gain of any in the country, if followed on to Mt Kosciuszko.
There were lyre birds most of the way up, they came through loudly in the audio. My lip was sunburnt and chafed.
Postscript 2024 - There are two inaccuracies in this video - firstly, the river crossing is actually of the Geehi river, the Swampy plains river joins in just down stream of the crossing. Secondly, the height at Byatts camp is incorrect, and too high. I have made a new video of the route with the corrections required, and will submit it in the near future.
Also, none of the information I refer to (maps, guides, ect) agrees on the route taken from the Alpine way to the track head. The way is easily found though, as it is a 4wd trail that begins opposite the entrance to the Geehi rest area/camp ground. The trail is clearly visible from the road to the river crossing, and then on to the Dr Forbes hut.
Just as the track turns towards the hut (which is 20m away), we would need to go straight on, where the 4wd track becomes faintly visible. It is then probably 200m to the track head.
Postscript 2023 - The peak that I climbed to (and which I think Strzeleki got to and measured the heights) is also known as Du Faur peak. Names of peaks and places differ between maps, people and pronunciation. I will try and cover all the ground to the best of my knowledge, but it seems there is no getting everything right. Abbott peak is the name on my 'Kosciuszko Alpine Area' map and is quite fitting for the highest peak in this range.
Freda Du Faur was an Australian climber who learnt the craft in New Zealand. She summited Mt Cook when she was 28 years old, being the first woman to do so. She also completed the traverse of the three peaks of Mt Cook and her final mission was a traverse of Mt Sefton, after which she retired (all info from Wikipedia). The wonderful lady broke so much new ground for her day (1910 climb of Mt Cook), that the naming of this peak in the Abbot range for her seems very fitting, if even a little inadequate. I will use bracketed subscript for peaks that have two names from now on.
The Abbott range is a solid candidate for being the first high point that Strzeleki reached, being the natural extension of Hannels spur. He apparently used instruments to find the highest point from a peak on the ridge top after ascending Hannels spur. An endless argument still continues about whether Strzeleki climbed Mt Townsend or Mt Kosciuszko, and there is good evidence that this was caused by the second edition of the official topographic map for Mt Kosciuszko, where the names were simply mixed up by mistake. My own opinion is that Strzeleki named Kosciuszko after the mountains' resemblance to the rounded shape of the tomb of Tadeus Koschuiszko, which is what it looks like. Mt Townsend is a nunatak and has a pointed profile, especially from Abbott peak.
A final anecdote on this subject is that while Strzeleki is accused of visiting Mt Townsend, the person who never visited Mt Townsend was Thomas Townsend himself. His surveying work was done along the Main range, and apparently the closest he got to Mt Townsend was Muellers peak.