00:00Testing the limits of cars and driver skills, four-wheel driving is booming.
00:11Today's guided tour is traversing Victoria's remote high country region.
00:16It's attractive because it's challenging.
00:18There's some very steep tracks and lots of rocky tracks and lots of rivers to cross.
00:22I'm amazed that I've been able to do it and that the car's been able to do it.
00:28Four-wheel driving in Victoria's high country has become enormously popular,
00:32with people coming from across Australia and even internationally to explore the region.
00:38It's pretty bloody gnarly.
00:40But the extra traffic is having an impact.
00:43You can see where people have gone off the tracks and that sort of ruins it a little bit
00:47and they leave rubbish and that's not nice.
00:51Tom Savage has led more than 40 tours in the high country.
00:55The tracks are in some of the worst condition he's seen.
00:59Every car that comes along does a little bit of damage,
01:02so at least if you can minimise that by doing the right training,
01:04and good training can certainly help that a lot.
01:09Parks Victoria manages more than four million hectares of parks and reserves.
01:15But the department's funding is less than half a percent of the state budget.
01:20Increasing the parks budget for example to one percent of the state budget
01:24would see a dramatic improvement,
01:26would probably make very little difference to other portfolios.
01:29It's probably equivalent to one level crossing removal.
01:32It's your education and those that don't know or are ignorant to the way of doing things properly,
01:37unfortunately do make simple mistakes.
01:41If we all do the right thing, it's going to be here for our grandkids.
01:45Protecting Victoria's wild places for future generations.
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