Gellibrand Hill - September 2014

I had to drop Sam off at the airport this morning so I thought I'd revisit Woodlands Historic Park. I haven't walked there for a few years , so seeing that its a stones throw from Tullamarine Airport I figured today would be the day. As usual for me lately I was completely disorganized, first of all I copied my notes but forgot the bit from the start to the 8 kilometre mark, hmmm..... Lucky I've walked here before. Then after walking 800 metres gently up hill I realised that I'd left my wallet in the car, hmmm...... Back I trotted to get it. Then after starting the walk I realised that my GPS wasn't working (which meant I didn't have a map either), hmmm..... Luckily after swapping the batteries side to side I got it to fire up again and it worked for the rest of the day?? Does anyone else out there have as much trouble with Garmin that I have, its certainly not the most reliable piece of kit that I've got.

The start of the walk.

There's no shortage of Roo's on this walk.

Heading along the management track towards Gellibrand Hill.

So anyway eventually I was off on the Gellibrand Hill walk, within the first kilometre I was thinking that the walk should be renamed the Red-gum's and Roo's circuit, there were large mobs of kangaroos grazing on the green grass and lots of stately big Red-gum trees. Everywhere I looked there were more roo's. My first objective for the day was Gellibrand Hill, at 204 metres it's hardly a giant but it would be the high point of my day. To get to Gellibrand Hill I wondered across the park until I got to an area of plantation timber, from there I walked south until I hit the nature reserve fence (used to keep the resident population of Eastern Barred Bandicoot's from cats and foxes). Once I'd met the fence line I walked along a management track for a couple of kilometres until I was able to pass through a gap and climb to the summit.

The wattles were out.

The trig on top of Gellibrand Hill.

Tullamarine Airport,

Melbourne, from Gellibrand Hill.

Once on Gellibrand Hill there is a surprisingly good view that opens up, in front of my it was rush hour at the airport as jet after jet took of to some exotic location. To my left in the distance the high rise buildings of Melbourne draw my eyes, and to my right was the brooding hulk of Mt Macedon under cloud, I've had worse views. After checking out the ruins of the nearby Dundonald Homestead I was of onto my next objective.

The old stable at Dundonald Homestead.

Mount Macedon in the distance.

Wattle.

Objective number two was the Cumberland Ruins, to get there I walked to the the bottom of the park along Extraction Road, the bush through here was typical Australian, eucalypt's, wattles, casuarina's with a sprinkling of roos. Reaching Merri Creek at the southern end of the park I followed the management track along the fence line, after crossing the dry valley of Greenvale Creek I took a track leading NNW up a broad spur, after some easy walking I spied Cumberland Ruins across the grassy paddock, the good news for me was now I was back on my notes. Like Dundonald there's not much left of the Cumberland Ruins, but it was worth taking the time to read the information board and imagining what life would have been like here over 100 years ago, one things for sure they wouldn't of had the constant roar of the jets taking off.

All that's left of Cumberland House.

The author.

There were plenty of daisies lining the tracks.

I was now heading for my next objective, Woodlands Homestead, I continued on a wide management track which climbed very gently, the edges were carpeted with Daiseys. Around me the red-gums drew my attention, with the sun in and out of cloud I spent a bit of time trying to do photographic justice to these majestic trees. It didn't seem to take any time at all and Woodlands Homestead came into view, climbing a little I entered the homestead grounds and checked out the old buildings. I spent a while trying to get a photo of one of the buildings without any modern gear lying around, this was surprisingly hard as it looks like parks were having a working bee and there were cars, whipper snipper, rubbish skips, and assorted other paraphernalia lying around.

Some more massive red gums.

Eventually I got my black and white photo (don't look at it to closely) and started to head back to the car via Woodlands Hill, an easy climb from the homestead. The big granite boulder on the summit of Woodlands Hill provided my last view of the walk, from there I had an easy ramble gently down a grassy track back towards the car park,meeting my outward route on the way, after a final photo of the small bridge leading to the car park I was pulling off my boots and heading home.

The old stables at Woodlands Homestead.

Looking back down to where I started from Woodlands Hill.

The Dirt.
I used (some of) the notes from Day Walks, Victoria, its walk # 20 in the book, realistically they are all you need, its a very easy walk. I walked 11.6 kilometres and climbed 120 metres according to the book, no GPS reading today. If you have visitors from O/S this would be a place that you would be almost guaranteed to see kangaroos in the wild, its a beautiful walk through some regenerating Australian bush.

Back at the car park.