Mt. Donna Buang
Length: 16.8km
Average gradient: 6.4%
Introduction
The climb from Warburton to the summit of Mt. Donna Buang is one of the true gems of Victorian cycling. Rising some 1080 vertical metres, the climb is amazingly picturesque and, for most of the year, virtually traffic free.
The first half of this climb is by far the hardest, but the last few kilometres to the summit are also quite steep.
The Start
The ascent of Mt. Donna Buang begins at the corner of the Warburton Highway (B380) and Donna Buang Road (C505). If you are timing yourself up this climb, start your stopwatch as soon as you turn onto the Donna Buang Road.
The Finish
The ascent of Mt. Donna Buang concludes at the base of the lookout tower, found at the far end of the summit car park.
Riding the climb
The ascent of Mt. Donna Buang starts with a fairly moderate gradient of around 5% as soon as you turn onto the Donna Buang Road. At the 2km mark the road takes a right-hand turn into the tree line and for the rest of the climb you’ll be surrounded by the breathtaking landscape of the Yarra Ranges National Park.
The gradient increases 3.1km into the climb and again at the 5km mark with the corners being noticeably steeper than the straighter sections.
The steepest section of the climb comes at the 7km mark and this is maintained for a couple hundred metres before Cement Creek. The road flattens out as it crosses Cement Creek and you should turn left at the iconic hairpin, taking a quick breather before starting on the second half of the climb.
After the hairpin bend, the road resumes a gentle gradient of around 5% but unlike the first half of the climb, it is the straight sections that are the steepest here, with the corners appearing far flatter. As you climb your way steadily up the mountain, great views are often possible over the Yarra Valley with lookout points at 10.1km and 12.3km in.
At 14.1km into the climb, the road opens out into a massive carpark which stretches several hundred metres from one side to the other. The road is noticeably steeper from this point onward but the resealing of this section of the road in early 2009 means fairly smooth going for the rest of the climb.
15.6km into the ascent the summit road intersects with the Healesville backroad (C505) before continuing into the steepest section of the climb’s second half at the 16km mark. At 16.6km you will pass the car parks that are used my snow-seekers during winter, before climbing the last couple hundred metres to the summit car park and the end of the climb.
Profile
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Location
Mt. Donna Buang is located around 90km east of Melbourne and a return ride from the city would be nothing short of epic. A more realistic option is to drive to one of the many townships close to Mt. Donna Buang which allow for a nice warm up before tackling the 17km ascent.
Launching Place is an appropriately-named starting point for a Mt. Donna Buang ascent, giving you around 15km of undulating roads before starting the climb.
The Donna Buang Road(C505) turn-off is located around 1.3km east of the nearest township, Warburton. Be aware that the Donna Buang Road (C505) between Don Road and the Mt. Donna Buang summit is closed during winter. However, this narrow stretch of unsealed road is surrounded by some truly amazing scenery and is well worth the drive during the rest of the year.
Times
There are many cyclists who like to challenge themselves up this beautiful climb. If you are one of them, head over to Cycle2Max to post your time.
I just rode the Donna climb today. Even though it was freezing cold and pouring with rain the entire climb I really enjoyed it, great surrounds and nice landscape to enjoy, a little snow on the sides of the road once near the top and the road was nice and quiet. With all the rain this past few days the small waterfall I passed was a nice piece of eye candy to enjoy while my legs suffered and my hands froze. All in all I really enjoyed the climb because it was a nice steady gradient with no really steep sections and it was nice and easy to find a comfortable rhythm. The last 3k got a little steeper but it was a great was to push myself hard right to the end, I can’t wait for summer when this climb will really be enjoyable with nice warm weather and sunlight. Highly recommended, even if it is a wet day!
Hi Andrew. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. Mt Donna Buang is one of my favourite climbs, no question. It’s such a beautiful climb and with a bit of rain around I can imagine it was even more picturesque than usual. I guess it was pretty cold on the way down?!
Hi,
sounds great, I would like to tackle this as i’m getting into climbing again for the first time in years.
As I dont have a car, I would have to go via train to Lilydale, and ride from there – just looking at the map it looks like I could go back via c505 towards Healsvile,
is this a doable day trip (and is it a nice route?)
Hi Sean. Thanks for stopping by. Riding from Lilydale to Donna Buang would be a fairly significant undertaking – around a 110km round trip. While that’s not an unfeasably long ride, the road from Lilydale to Warburton isn’t the nicest ride around. The Warburton Highway is pretty narrow in parts and cars tend to move along pretty swiftly along that stretch of road.
That said, it’s certainly doable and if you do end up doing it, let me know how you go.
If you ride a mountain bike or hybrid the rail trail from Lillydale to Warby is a lovely ride.
You can also return from from Mt Donna Buang via the dirt road that heads towards Healsville then turns off to finish at Launching Place.
This is a beautiful scenic ride of approx 30kms, all downhill. I have riden this road on a tandem and on a mountain bike with road tyres no problems. The road is closed over winter
Hi Jeff. You are correct on both counts. The Lilydale-Warburton rail trail is a gem and well worth a look. And as for the dirt road between Donna and Healesville, it too is a gem. In fact, the climb from Healesville up to Donna via Don Road and then that dirt road is a tremendous ride and very quiet.
Yes I agree with Matt the Healesville to Donna via the Don Road is awesome. It’s fairly quiet and very nice scenery. I rode it last weekend it is a little rougher on the way down than the way up but the biggest pain is in summer is the dust the cars kick up … unfortunately not everyone in a car slows down and therefore you can swallow a lot of dust, besides that it is a fun ride.
I hadn’t thought about the dust Michael, good point. When I rode up there I think I saw one car for the whole trip? ‘Twas pure bliss – great climb, great scenery, quiet roads, great weather.
The best “proper” climb that is a reasonable distance from Melbourne. Shall be hitting this up tomorrow – being Australia Day. What better way to spend the day than a morning climb followed by BBQ and beers?
Couldn’t agree more Chris. Terrific climb and a most satisfying way to spend a morning. Have fun!
Just returned from a lovely ride up Mt.DB. Started at the Launching place pub which gave us a 30min warm up before the climb. The higher we got the windier it got but truely one of the best climbs close to home.
I rode up Mt Donna Buang with 13 others on July 3rd last year. We called it the Mt Donna Buang Snow Ride, and it’s advertised on the Bicycle Victoria online forum a few months prior to July each year. It was a truly memorable day, freezing cold on the way back down to Warburton, though!
Hi Matt,
Thanks for putting together this website. It’s inspired me to challenge myself on a few rides that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. I’ve done Arthurs Seat and Kinglake before, but riding for me was mostly in the comfort zone of beach road and Kew boulevard laps. This webpage lets you know in advance what to expect which helps you to overcome the mental hurdles of the bigger mountain climbs.
So, this morning a mate and I tackled Donna Buang and we were pretty impressed. The climb gets you out of your comfort zone fairly early on which is great. The middle section allowed me to really push harder up to 13-15 km/h, but I probably should have backed off a little as the last 3 kms kicked my butt.
The decent is freezing cold, even though it was a relatively warm day – 26 degrees in Melbourne. This is partly due to the fact that the decent doesn’t feature many sharp corners so speeds are usually in excess of 50 km/h for the whole trip down. So come prepared with a fold up wind breaker and armies or prepare to work the brake levers.
Hey Steel. I’m stoked to hear that the site has inspired you to head for the hills, as it were! When I started it up that was a big part of what I was trying to achieve – giving people enough information that they could head out and challenge themselves while knowing in advance whether these climbs were within their reach. So, thanks for letting me know that I’ve gone some way to achieving that aim!
Donna is a gem of a climb – I reckon the first section to Cement Creek is the hardest and after that is gets a bit easier. As you say though, those last few kays have a bit of bite so it’s worth saving some energy for the end. As for the cold – the first time I headed up to Donna it was a day just like yesterday – around 26 degrees, sun shining, and I went up there with shorts and a short-sleeved jersey on, nothing else. I froze my arse off on the way down and have never made the same mistake again!
Hi Matt
Thanks for putting this website together. Inspired by your profile I climbed Mt Buller last Sunday. A very enjoyable ride with great views. Having information on the gradient and other conditions made preparing for the ride a lot easier.
Hi Peter. No problem at all, glad you like the site.
Did the Mt Donna Buang ride yesterday with my mate Patob. Perfect day, great ride for a couple of old hacks, fantastic descent. The only thing missing was a coffee at the top
We had to wait till we got back to Warby.
Finally made it up Dona Buang at the weekend. Definitely tougher than I thought given the gradient, I guess it’s the distance and the unrelenting nature. The bit near 7k before cement creek, and the bit at the end are both very hard. But it was a lovely day, though the downhill ride was really really chilly. I did have arm warmers, but no jacket and I was glad to make use of the newspaper a kind soul offered me at the top!
Definitely one I plan to repeat as training for the Etape in July.
Hi Matt, great site thanks, I can confirm your comment above “Mt. Donna Buang is located around 90km east of Melbourne and a return ride from the city would be nothing short of epic.” We did this ride as part of our Audax traning just after Christmas on a 30+ degree day and epic is exactly how I would rate it. The climb is enjoyable but the rolling hills most of the way back to Melbourne were a killer. We are heading out there (by car) this weekend to try a double Donna repeat, 34km of great climbing……. Mike
Hi Mike – thanks for your kind words. Great effort to ride to Donna and back in a day. I know what you mean about the rolling hills on the way back – the Warburton Highway is a bit gnarly to ride on, assuming you went that way. Thanks for stopping by.
Love this climb (and your site).
I’ve ridden Melbourne return in the past – over Mt Dandenong then via small back roads through Wandin East to join the Warburton hwy at Woori Yallock and returning via Macclesfield Rd and the Wall but only riding the once up Donna doing this.
Recently I’ve been driving out to Warburton and riding repeats instead. 2 repeats on 30 April and 3 repeats on 7 May. Even with layers each descent was very cold!
3 repeats Martin! You are a mental!
Just knocked this ride off on the weekend, great ride, plenty of snow at the top with a few kids tabogganing. Had gloves, beanie, jersey, sleeveless gilet, cycle jacket + wind/water proof jacket and on the way down was still shivering violently. With the snow the roads were very wet so it was a very VERY cautious descent.
I’m pretty sure they’ve relaid this road since the last time some months ago as it felt SOO much steeper!
Not mental, just training for a trip to France…
Ended up with 23 ascents over 8 rides since 30 April! I was rugged up like you, but also wore a merino thermal top and also slipped on plastic waterproof pants for the descents which made it just a little more bareable.
hi there,
Just wondering how does donna buang compare to doing the (gisborne) then (woodend) side of mount macedon ????
Kind regards
Justin Bonavia
Good question Justin. About the same I’d think, although the Macedon x2 has much steeper sections than Donna. Because of that I’d say the Macedons are probably slightly harder.
Did the climb for the first time yesterday, first time for any Cat 1 climb in fact. Was a bit apprehensive about it and rightly so as it turned out! Probably didn’t help having quite sore legs before I started, but it was a beautiful climb and one I’ll do again before too long. Cracker of a descent too, was cold but not too cold, due to being well rugged up thanks to the good advice given above.
Thanks Matt and keep up the good work
No worries Paul. Glad you enjoyed the climb and that you found the site useful!
Thanks for your reply Matt, will have to undertake Donna Buang and give you my feedback on what I think is harder. Also a fantastic and resourceful site you have here keep up the tremendous good work !!
Kind regards
Justin Bonavia
No worries Justin. Thanks for your kind words.
Hi Matt, Being an absolutely dedicated flat track specialist I didn’t anticipate that your site would be so useful. Impending trip to France has finally motivated the latent climber in me ( my friends would say VERY latent !! ). Ventured to Donna for the first time today and very stoked to have completed the climb. Warm up ride from Launching Place was excellent advice and details on the climb were brilliant – particularly notes about the steep section before Cement Creek. Wind was howling at the top – last couple of Ks were pretty challenging into a block head wind. Definitely need warm clothing for the descent – nice temperature today but still pretty cold on the way down. Refuelled at the bottom and climbed back to Cement Creek – didn’t feel I had enough in the tank for a full repeat. Need to be careful on the highway back to Launching Place – quite a few more cars around later in the morning and not a lot of room on the verge. Site is fantastic – thanks for efforts to set this up. Am planning to do Macedon next weekend so will get a chance to check out pointers on that climb as well. Genuinely enjoyed Donna today – as you said a real gem and hardly any traffic on the climb. Maybe 7-8 cars on way up and two on the descent. Cheers GRS
Hi Graeme. Thanks for your kind words – I’m glad you’ve got some use out of the site.
Donna is definitely one of my favourite climbs – manageable gradient, challenging length, beautiful scenery and it’s nice and quiet up there. I think the Launching Place warmup is good too – get’s you nicely warmed up without turning it into a ridiculously long ride.
Best of luck out at Macedon – do let us know how you go! And of course, feel free to tell your friends about the site!
Cheers,
Matt
This site is fantastic. I will climb Donna B tomorrow and Skenes Creek with the Gran Fondo Amy ride on sunday.
I will leave my comments but for now
Thanks so much for taking the time to maintain this site
Regards
Hi Miguel, thanks for stopping by — glad you like the site! Best of luck with Donna and the Gran Fondo.
Great write-up – thanks ! Riding this route tomorrow (Melb.Cup.Day) – will let you know how I go.
A group of us did this ride on Sunday 6/11 – we usually ride the hills around Kinglake (which are beautiful & we are lucky to have them on our doorstep ) but I now consider Kinglake a bump in the road ! Doona Buang is our first mountain and we were pumped to have got there (we did Hi Five’s at the summit, much to onlookers disgust !)Was doubtful the night before but Matt your website is spot on & all the way up I knew what to expect, that I could do it & NOT turn around ! Next one is Mt Buller
Hi Pam, that’s great to hear – congratulations! I’m glad the site was of some use to you.
Mt Buller is an absolute cracker. One of the most picturesque climbs out there. Do let me know how you go!
Thanks for stopping by…:)
Have written up *MY* ride to Donna Buang – fairly tough going – for my first ‘proper’ hill climb – but great achievement (for me).
http://grumpywookie.wordpress.com/2011/11/05/hill-climb-for-horseride-mt-donna-buang/
guys, when you’re describing a climb, id suggest that you also talk about the gears you use and times achieved. Not one of the comments above make mention of suggested gears (i.e. 39×21,19 for the first section and possibly 39×17 if you’re on form for the last section – for example). yes, its all subjective, cause as we all know, on a bad day, those gears are not going to be the same. But, by providing suggested gears and times, it will provide the new riders better information from which to prepare from.
Awesomest descent ever!! Climbed Donna for the first time last Thursday and while I suffered on the way up, you couldn’t get the smile off my face on the way down. Simply brilliant descent. The bit at Cement Creek had me grabbing at my brakes though – that was steep!
Around 1.5hrs to summit but under 25 minutes to get down
(And yes, it has been commented many times that I descend like a crazy woman