A clear case of "what was he thinking".
I have operated out of Porpunkah at least 20 times. I have flown over that area at least 300 times over the last 15 years. It's serious country. A night departure, taking off to the north then picking up the Great Alpine Road to Myrtleford is possible, if there was enough road traffic to clearly see the location of the road and as long as you track above it you are ok. But......you need to bring your "A" game. You would need to fly and navigate with military grade precision..and planning.I have departed Porpunkah in less than optimal conditions by day (it can get very hazy around there and when the sun is at certain angles the hills all but dissapear). But, back then I knew the valley intimately, I had driven the Alpine road dozens of times, and I could draw the valley to scale on a blank sheet of paper, with all the hills etc......... from memory.
At 4:50am, there would have been the early rays of sunlight in the sky, but deep in the valley it would still be very dark. I live not too far from there, and am up at that time every morning.for work. It can be very deceiving. A take-off to the south with a climbing turn in the dark, with no enhanced vision equipment, no detailed planning, minimal experiance etc etc etc is a suicide mission. A right turn to track overhead the field after a southerly departure (south of Sinclairs Waterhole if you look at google earth) is rather sporty in the day time, you have a windshielf full of mountain. It gives me the shivers to think of doing it at night.
Diffucult and dangerous operations are possibe to do safely, if you do the required preparation & planning and have the required level of skill and discipline. Th military do that every day. But a kick the tyres and lets go attiutude simply will not work in this type of operation. I believe he was way out of his depth and lacked the requisite amount of preparation. The kicker is, by waiting another 30 mins, he would have had perfect visibility.
In these two videos you can see the terrain around the airfield. On a clear day with no wind, it's not that difficult an airfield. One thing to note, the videos hide how close the rising terrain actually is to you. They look much, much. As I taught every student I took into that strip, you must have a plan, fly that plan accurately, and always,always have an escape if it's not going to plan. Accurate flying skills being a given.