Alpine RiverAdventures

On the Snowy River's Byadbo Wilderness section — a stretch of Kosciuszko National Park so remote it takes a long portage to reach — Wiradjuri guide Richard Swain runs the only outfit permitted to raft it, in trips ranging from a single day out of Dalgety to a five-day, seventy-kilometre wilderness expedition with his wife Alison. The river alternates contemplative flat pools with grade 1–3 rapids as it drops through open, brumby-grazed valleys well below the alpine tops, and Swain threads local and Aboriginal history through the paddling — stories about the country rather than commentary over it. Camps are riverside, with time built in for short walks and wildlife: platypus, wombats, brumbies and a heavy population of birds along the water. Trips run from August through December, when snowmelt keeps water levels reliable; outside that window the river runs too low to paddle. Bookings go through a direct phone conversation rather than an instant checkout, which suits a trip that's genuinely small-scale and guide-led. A serious multi-day undertaking for travellers wanting wilderness rather than a rapids thrill-ride.