Langwarrin Fauna and Flora Reserve - July 2015

With a couple of hours before sunset on a rare sunny winters day in Melbourne Sam and I decided to head out for a quick stroll. Langwarrin Reserve is only 15 minutes from home so that's how we decided to head there. The skies were clear today but with a predicted low tonight in Melbourne of 1 degree Celsius, the temperature was already starting to plummet by the time we started our walk in the late afternoon. With just over an hour to go before sunset we set off.

You can just make out the reflections of the wattles in the old reservoir.

The reserve was a military training area for around 100 years before being handed over to Parks Victoria to look after, there is not much left to remind you of its previous history though. One of the few reminders is an old reservoir and that's where we headed first, trying to get a couple of shots of the reflections in the inky black still water. From here we climbed up in sandy dune country, the low heath and sandy soil is typical of most of the small park. The tops of the dunes allowed us to see actually how close the suburbs are encroaching on the park with the houses being visible close by.

The park used to be a military training reserve, about all that's left now is the old reservoir.

The park is fairly flat.

The dunes normally have some wild flowers in bloom and we mucked around for awhile trying to get a close up, the dunes also allowed us a view of the sun which was now very low on the horizon, as well as a bit of a look over the interior of the park, the heath land lit up a bit by the golden light of the setting sun. Sam was going crazy with her iPhone so I'll post a couple of her shots along with mine, but with both of us taking photos we were making some slow progress and when we arrived at a closed track that we were meant to take I seriously considered heading home. One of the disadvantages of using notes that are 15 years old is that conditions on the ground can change quite a lot, especially in a park like Langwarrin Fauna and Flora reserve which seems to get extensively burnt every few years. With the park now being surrounded by houses I wondered if the Wallabies that used to live here have survived the fires that have ripped through.

The track along the top of one of the dunes.

I'm determined to get better at these macro shots.

Sam was going crazy with her iPhone.

That's our planned route straight ahead.....guess we'll have to go with telstra.

Knowing the park like the back of my hand we decided to continue the walk, there was no way we could get lost in here even if it got dark, and besides we might get some good photos in the dwindling light. Walking back along Reservoir Track we met the wide Centre Break that bisects the park, from there we crossed to the south side of the park crossing some swampy sections, it was along here that I had seen Wallabies over the years but we had no luck today. Turning towards the west the huge eucalyptus trees that marked our entrance to the park came into view, and they guided us all the way back to the car in the now rapidly fading light, after stopping to get a couple of photos of the purple tinged sky we jumped into the car and our stroll was over, time to head home for a cosy night in front of the heater watching the cricket.

Back on Centre Break, this track bisects the park.

It's getting pretty cold now.

The Dirt.
Parks Victoria manage the site and they have a lot of information online. The park is mostly sand dunes and heath land. At this time of year there are a lot of wattles flowering, which along with the tea trees and a few large gums are the predominant tree's in the park.We walked about 4.5 kilometres on this easy walk, all the walking tracks are well marked and apart from the sand dunes the park is more or less flat, we climbed around 50 metres on the walk in total. I used some old notes from '40 Bushland & Park Walks in Metropolitan Melbourne' by Tyrone Thomas, the books out of print but you may be able to find a copy gathering dust somewhere. If anyone finds themselves in Frankanstahn and is looking for something to do for an hour or so you could do worse than head up the road and check out this little park.

Our last photo.

Yes I'm modelling the latest in high fashion Polartec, at least being a bloke I don't have to try and keep up with the latest fashions. Sam's really looking forward to when I start wearing my jeans hitched up to my belly button!