Werribee Gorge State Park, Victoria, August 2012

Date of walk: 12/08/2012

Grade: medium – with hard sections along the river, where one needs to be supple and have good balance.

Walk type: Circuit
Length: 10 km (advertised as 4.5 hrs, but more like 3.5 hrs while taking your time)

Main attraction: 200 m deep gorge, exposed sub-glacial topography, cliff-walled revealing past geological history of the central and western Victoria.

Region/Town: Melbourne, Bacchus Marsh

Park: Werribee Gorge State Park

Link: http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/explore/parks/werribee-gorge-state-park

(Look for the two pdf files under ‘Related Publication’ on the above web page. One is the usual map and park info sheet, and the other is a more thorough ‘management plan’ for the park, with a list of flora and fauna present or likely to be encountered and a more in-depth geological history of the place. It is a nice ‘extra info’ before heading out there. Both were obtained from the above link)

Direction: From Melbourne take the Western freeway towards Ballarat. Take the Pentland Hills road exit. At the stop, turn right to pass under the freeway followed by a sharp left onto Pentland Hills Road. Follow the road and having passed under the freeway (again), you will see Myer Rd on your left (10m after the freeway). Follow the Myer road down to the Park. You can start the circuit from either the Meikles Point picnic area, at the bottom (a much nicer place for a picnic than the Quarry area), or at the Quarry picnic area a bit higher up the road.

The Walk: I started the walk at the Quarry. From there you go up straight toward the Eastern and Western viewpoints where you get a view of the ‘Island’ (photo) a remnant of volcanic flow (hard basalt top), and also a view of the low lying plains towards the northeast. On a clear day you can apparently even see Melbourne (a tiny speck I would assume). It is Stringybark-Box dominant forest with Red Stringybark, Red Box and Yellow Gum. This part of the park is nice and sort of flat, with a fairly clear path. Further up you get to walk along the top of the gorge, following the Werribee River, with beautiful views of the opposite hills and flowering Acacias.

                                                                   View of the the Island from the Western Point.

From there the path descends sharply towards the river which you first follow from a distance, before descending further onto its ‘flooding’ sections or bank (photo). This section requires some good balance and can be slippery in wet weather (note: some section of the circuit will be impassable following heavy rains). I certainly had to find my balance a couple of times (I have to admit that I was quite distracted by the beautiful faulting lines apparent on the cliffs). Along this section you will be able to see the rare Fragrant Saltbush among many other (see “management “ PDF file for a complete list of flora).

 

The Werribe River Gorge, view from top of gorge near the Blackwood Pool

Continuing along you arrive to the Needles Beach (photo) and the Pyramid Rock (where you can spot a ‘lion's face’ in the cliff’s shape). At this point, and if the water is fairly high, you need to walk along the cliff, helping yourself along with a cable attached to the cliff (photo). Although not ‘challenging’ this short section may not be for everyone.

Needles Beach 

The 'cable' section, on the bottom left of the photo a person is walking along the cliff with the help of a cable.

Having passed this section, you continue your walk in the gorge, still surrounded by its beautiful and impressive cliffs, but the path turns into a much easier walkway as it follows an old viaduct built in the early 1900 to bring water to Bacchus Marsh (for agriculture purpose). The gorge slowly widens up (photo) before opening up at the picnic area (as said above, this picnic area is the nicer one). From there you need to climb back up to the Quarry picnic area to close the circuit and return to your car.

The gorge widens up near the old weir (where I am standing) 

This is the best, most ‘challenging’ and surprising walk I have done so far in the Melbourne region. It is close to Melbourne, yet while you walk along the gorge you forget that you are surrounded by agricultural land. The path requires a bit of dexterity at time, and the ‘harder’ sections along the river banks are a welcome change or ‘addition’ to the walk. But I would not recommend this walk with kids or person with ‘unsteady’ foot (sorry, English is not my first language).

Note: there are two other, shorter, walks within the park that may be just as interesting but I have not walked them. See the map attached. Go out and play !

Point Cooke and Cheetham Wetlands, Werribee, Victoria

Date of walk: 05/08/2012

Grade: easy (but partly on sand/beach)

Walk type: Circuit and return possible

Region/Town: Melbourne, Werribee

Park: Point Cooke Coastal Park and Cheetham Wetlands

Links: 

A printable map of the parks (the one I used) obtained from Park Victoria:

http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/315560/Pt-Cook-Cheetham-Visitor-Guide.pdf

Background information on the parks from Park Victoria

http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/explore/parks/point-cook-coastal-park

Direction: Entrance to Cheetham Wetlands is through Point Cook Homestead Road, past Werribee. Entrance to Point Cook Coastal Park is through Point Cook Road or through Point Cook Homestead Road, past Werribee. From Melbourne, take the Princess Freeway and exit at Point Cook exit. Follow tourist sign directing you to Point Cook Coastal Park or Point Cook Homestead. 

The Walk: you can do this as a large loop, starting in any of the two park (Wetlands or Coastal Park) and joining the two through a walk along the beach, or you can wonder around within each park.

Cheetham Wetlands: The main attractions here are the wetlands and their inhabitants. These can be observed from a viewing tower which provides a view of the entire wetland area (but you do need binoculars if you want to see any bird properly). The tower is accessible by wheelchair from the Cheetham Wetland car park, around 1.2 km away (see map and link provided). 

There also appears to be a new and finished link with the Point Cook Coastal Park Bay Trail along the wetlands which was still marked a ‘later stage’ in the map obtained from Park Victoria website. Although there are some tracks within the wetlands, these are strictly reserved to Park Victoria officers/rangers. As said above, this walk is great for those who love watching birds but does not have much of scenery.  

Path from the carpark to the tower is wheelchair friendly.

Once at the tower you can follow a grassy path towards the beach (not accessible by wheelchair, which are only able to do 'carpark-tower-carpark') which will allow you to join/go back to the Point Cook Homestead, where you will find activities for children, and a little cafe, old stables, etc. From there you can either close the small loop by returning to the car park, less than 200 meters away (in which case 1 hr is ample to close the entire loop) or continue along the beach to Point Cook Coastal Park and create a larger loop (that would require 2 to 3 hours depending on how fast you walk).

Point Cook Coastal Park: Following the beach from Point Cook Homestead you will arrive at Point Cook Coastal Park main area approximately 1.8 km away. In between the two, well there is a nice beach, many birds, and a sense of being in the wild while being so close to Melbourne, but there are no trails apart from the beach. 

Once in the main area of the Coastal Park you can walk around the different, but short, trails in search of the many birds to be seen, play with your kids and have a picnic or BBQ at the multiple playground/BBQ areas available. Although I make it sound like there is not much, there is still plenty to do and see, especially if you have kids running around. But if you have young kids, simply drive to the Point Cook Coastal park main area, the 1.8 km in the sand may be too much for their young legs.

Overall I would say this is a nice place for a lazy Sunday afternoon walk and outing, but not if you are looking for a good walk and scenery. I guess this is a good thing since the place is above all a bird reserve. And if that is what you are after, than this is a great place to do so. Go out and play!

Boathouse and Yarra Bend Park

After a short detour to Adelaide last week end we are now back to discovering Melbourne. As the weather was (wrongly) forecasted with showers I decided to plan nothing out of the ordinary for Saturday and instead to go back to some of the places I discovered while riding along the Yarra trail on Friday afternoon. This short ride took me from St Georges Road in Fitzroy North; crossed Merri Creek at Ramsden Street Reserve; continued parallel to Yarra Bend road along the river; crossing the Yarra River via Kanes Bridges at the Boathouse, before continuing on Yarra Boulevard and stopping at Bells Park in Kew. This is a great ride (or walk) that takes you away from the hustle and bustle within only a short distance of the city. Common waterbirds can be seen along the way, and great parks and picnic areas are also found along the river providing for great places to hang out with your loved one, kids and friends. 

Which is exactly what I did on Saturday, lunching at the Boathouse / Yarra Bend Park with my better half (not a culinary feast but worthy of any other place where you primarily pay for the view and surrounding) before taking a short stroll in the park. We also had a look at the old Kew Lunatic Asylum, a beautiful building towering over the river but unfortunately (for the visitors) turned into private properties.  I will have to continue discovering the Yarra Trail as it seems to be a highlight for cyclist, walkers and nature lovers of the region. Go out and play!

Daytrip in the Dandenongs

Third day-trip around Melbourne since our arrival and we set our eyes on the Dandenong Range. The Dandenongs are a short set of low/hilly mountain ranges (max 633 m) approximately 35 km east of Melbourne. With impressive stands of old-growth eucalypt forest, the drive up along the range is a wonderful sight and makes you wonder at the past beauty and wilderness of the region prior to the large urban expansion from Melbourne and surrounding  urban hot spots. Despite the fairly low height of the range, it is high enough to promote a clear change in climate (cooler/colder than the lowland parts of the region depending on the season) and to provide for a very different floral community. We did not attempt any proper walk within the range but the short stroll to the Olinda falls (300 m) (small set of falls, quite disappointing from the top platform) in the Olinda forest makes you hungry for more and a daytrip for this purpose is marked down in my spring time diary. 

Along the way we stopped at the skyhigh viewing platform where one can enjoy a view towards the city. Unfortunately the cost of AU$ 5 was too high for us (we were really unprepared  and only had 3 dollars at hand) and we had to do with a view between houses and trees at the entrance of the Skyhigh platform which still allowed us to marvel at how close the city is and how clearly it can be seen.

Finally we stopped at Sassafras, one of a number of small towns in the range. Sassafras boast a number of very affordable but beautifully and originally stocked craft shops (especially the Gepettosworkshop wooden toy shop, which can also be found in Olinda), tea rooms (including the apparently famous Miss Marpples Tea Room), a nursery, soap shop, tea shop (hundreds of pots and cups on display, but the chocolate sold there is not worthy of your palate), and a small courtyard with a second hand bookshop and a shop boasting a mixture of affordable decorative items (wood, metals, old, kitsch, new, shinny, over the top, etc) worth a look. The courtyard had a large wood fire where one could warm up while listening to a two men band and enjoying a warm marshmallow compliment of the house. Overall, Sassafras differs from other similar ‘craft town’ (Maleny and Montville in Queensland for instance, where we are originally from) by providing interesting items that one can actually buy without having this feeling of having spend too much for not much.  I understand that craft shops should be more expensive than large commercial ones, but there is this tendency to find similar items across many 'craft town' with very large price difference that cannot be explained (I will sound stingy but as an example we bought a baby hat in Melbourne city for AU$ 18 and found exactly the same at Barwon Heads in a 'craft shop' for AU$35. The 'craft' here was made in an Asian country but charged as if made in Australia).

The proximity of the Dandenongs from the city and the activities/features on offer makes it a perfect day out for the family, the walkers and the nature lovers. We will have to go back to enjoy some walks in the impressive old-growth eucalypt forests scattered with large tree ferns, escape the heat of summer (I assumed it would be crowded up there during that time), or to simply spend a nice day with visiting family members. There is also the 100 year old steam engine train (Puffing Billy), running along its original track in the range (see link below), which would certainly entertain many young and not so young ones. Get out and play!

Gepettoworkshop 
Puffing Billy
Park Victoria Dandenongs Walks

It could have been great: Lake Connewarre

After failing to join a field trip organised by the Field Naturalist Club of Victoria to learn about algae in the Mornington Peninsula on Saturday I settled on spending the day discovering Barwon Heads and Lake Connewarre in the Geelong region. With beautiful descriptions of the lake, marshes, wetlands and its inhabitant on a number of official websites, I was all excited about watching hundreds (well, maybe less , let’s be honest) of waterbirds going about their daily life in the serenity of these extensive protected areas. The area is fairly close to Melbourne city (approx 65 kms) and is easy to reach. Upon arrival a short walk along the River Parade boardwalk wetted our appetite, before heading to the closest information centre for further information as to how to access Lake Connewarre, its sibling Reedy Lake and the multitude of waterbirds they shelter. Well, it was not meant to happen. The friendly Information Centre attendant almost shrugged his shoulder at our enquiry, highlighting that they had very few such enquiry and that he did not really know: “most people walk along the boardwalk and along the beach, and that is it” was his actual answer. I find this very surprising – a rather large portion of the peninsula is covered by these lakes and surrounding marshes and you have no enquiries about it? A real shame. So we walked along the beach and cliffs which, to be fair, provide beautiful views but it did not fulfil our need for ‘wildlife’ watching. We attempted a stop or two around Lake Connewarre but were rather disappointed with what we could see and access at these ‘picnic’ areas. Do not get me wrong, the place is beautiful and it is a blessing that this area’s significance and conservation value is acknowledged. But I am wondering if they could not do more to educate visitors about its significance, so that they develop a connection with the place and its inhabitant, so that they feel responsible for their protection and survival. A small place where families could go and watch the inhabitants at a distance, hidden in a wooden shelter so as not to disturb and be seen, with a list of birds present, maps of the long journey taken by some species, nesting and life history etc. Nothing big, so as not to disturb the place, but something nonetheless. I am in fact so surprise that there was nothing there at all that I am wondering if we completely missed it and the friendly Information Centre attendant did not know about it. For instance he mentioned the Ocean Grove Conservation Reserve, describing it as nothing more than an old pasture field revegetated with some random natives and mosquitoes that could carry you away......maybe not the best salesperson I guess.

On our way back we stopped rather quickly at Balyang Bird Sanctuary in Geelong but it was just not the same. Despite all this I would still suggest Barwon Head for a good day out, some fresh air, the smell of iodine and of healthy marshes. If fishing is your thing, even better, especially along the River Parade. Any advice as to where to go next time we are hungry for some ‘wildlife’ watching in the Melbourne greater area would be greatly appreciated. Until then, Go out and play! http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/explore/parks/lake-connewarre-w.r

Doing something for Merri creek

Today was another one of those days where something inside you screams for you to get out and get some sun in your eyes, hair and on your skin. I have been in Melbourne for a bit more than nine weeks now and every sunny day is an opportunity to explore my new neighbourhood, Fitzroy North. My new wheels got some practice along Merri creek, which flows not far from my new place. I have been looking around to get involve with anything to do with this creek after riding its banks last week and feeling sorry for the state this creek is in. All the trees and riparian vegetation were covered with plastic bags, bottles, foam, and other detritus while its bottom was littered with bottles, shopping trolleys and large concrete blocks. It broke my heart. Today was exactly the same along the ride I took upstream of St. Georges Street. Large pipes vomit their nauseous mixture of runoff from the streets, littered with detritus people are too lazy to keep for five minutes until their path crosses a bin: it is so much easier to just throw it on the ground or out the window (now this I just don’t get, why throw your crap outside - Is your car so precious it cannot handle an empty coke bottle or an empty pack of cigarettes?). These pipes carry with them all heavy metals and other toxic chemicals mixes from cars exhausts, breaks, oil etc. And all this goes straight into the creek, the Yarra and the bay. It also amaze me that people will enjoy spending time in the parks along its bank but will be happy to leave all their detritus behind them, in the hope that it will disappear by magic before they come back to enjoy the park again. So I guess all this is to say that I asked myself: can’t we do more? Can’t we organise more than one ‘clean up day’ per year? Can’t we reduce the amount of road runoff entering these creeks? Can’t we actually fine people who litter without care? After a bit of research I found the website Friends of Merri Creek (http://home.vicnet.net.au/~fomc/) which seem to be exactly what I was looking for: clean up days every months, activities, community education etc. So for anyone interested in doing something for Merri creek, join in!