Lal Lal Forest - November 2015

The weathers definitely turned down here in Melbourne, our winter is now a dim dark memory and we are into our warmer period. That means that the walking season in the hills to the north and west of Melbourne is almost over as it gets a bit to hot and dry for me up here over summer, well unless the walk involves a swim but that's another story. So anyway with some rain having fallen in the week previously and a mild day forecast for Saturday I thought I'd use the opportunity to venture over to the wild west and go for a wander. As is usual though by the time I actually got to the start point it was already after 2 in the afternoon, oh well at least the light is better for photos later in the day.

Leaving the Blast Furnace Car Park, this was the last of he signposting.

I've done this walk in the Lal Lal Forest before and while its a little short on scenic wonder it does provide for a pleasant stroll. After parking in the dusty Blast Furnace Car Park I pulled on my boots and headed off, first up I made my way around a small loop walk that heads out from the car park to the aforementioned Blast Furnace. Before I'd even got the few metres down to the Blast Furnace I came across a bit of a strange site, I noticed what looked like a humpy in the scrub, wandering over for a closer look it appeared that it had been lived in quite recently. This area of Victoria was home to the Wathaurung People for tens of thousands of years before European Settlement but this humpy was obviously built quite recently, maybe some of the local indigenous are using it, as the nearby Lal Lal Falls are quite a significant aboriginal site.

The substantial humpy near the car park.

After checking out the humpy I made my way to the Blast Furnace which was used as a smelter for iron ore way back in the 1870's and 1880's, iron ore is not something that we really think of when thinking of mining in Victoria. Indeed the rest of the walk passes through dry forests that are riddled with old mines and sluicing scars left by miners in search of gold, a more common occurrence in Victoria. A few minutes after passing the blast furnace I arrived at the lookout over Lal Lal Reservoir, this reservoir was finished in 1972 and was built to supply water to both Ballarat and Geelong, in my eyes it's a slightly surreal sight to see such an expanse of water in what is fairly dry country.

The old Blast Furnace, this is actually the remains of the third blast furnace built on the site.

Lal Lal Reservoir.

From the lookout over the reservoir the track loops back to the car park, once back at the ute I headed off to explore the south of the park a bit. Now one thing you need to know about this walk is that there are no signposts once you leave the car park and there are about 1000 different tracks criss crossing the park, consequently you need to concentrate on the map and compass, and a GPS is also very handy. Yeah, so anyway less than ten minutes from the car park I was already wondering if I was still on the route described in my notes, not to worry as I could make out my first objective Champion Hill though the light forest so I basically took the tracks that were leading me in that direction. It was only when I got to a small saddle near Champion Hill and noticed a forlorn chimney that my notes really matched up with what I was looking at on the ground.

Heading along Iron Mine Road.

The old chimney in the saddle near Mt Champion.

From the saddle I dropped into a gully for a bit of off piste action, luckily I'd warn my gaiters so my legs didn't cop too much of a pounding, as it turned out I'd be doing a bit more off piste walking than I'd planned before I got back to the ute. Dropping out of the gully I met another gully, this one with a track (actually about ten tracks) which I started to climb up towards Heatherbell Road. Now according to my map I should veer to south west to meet the road, the trouble was that trail bike riders had created numerous tracks all heading off, you guessed it, to the south west. Picking a likely looking candidate I headed off and on climbing out of the gully the trail promptly started to head in the wrong direction, oh well time for some more off piste action.

Dropping into the gully.

Once I met the dirt Heatherbell Road the hardest walking for the day was effectively over although I still had around 7 kilometres to go. The walk now followed these quite dirt roads for a couple of kilometres before I had to turn off at some mullock heaps onto an older track, well I found the mullock heaps but didn't find much resembling a track (in hindsight I should of probably walked past the mullock heaps to tried and locate the track). So knowing that I had to head west to find Andersons Road and with the low afternoon sun to guide me I once again headed off piste, within a few hundred metres I came upon an odd sight, sitting under a tree was two dog bowls, a water bowl and a food bowl. Looking around there was no obvious sign of a camp, in fact there was no sign of even a track in the near vicinity, strange. Anyway after picking my way through the scrub avoiding a few old mine shafts I soon popped out onto the gravelled Anderson Road.

Wandering through the scrub 'off track' I came across these dog bowls, very strange?

Heading into the low sun towards Andersons Road.

I had to be careful when wandering through the scrub 'off piste' as there are plenty of mine shafts around.

It was getting fairly late in the afternoon now but I was at least heading back in the direction of the ute. My notes now said to turn off onto Chalk Mine Road and that this one would be signposted, well guess what, no signpost, although there was a new steel post at the intersection so maybe Parks Victoria are in the process of fixing up the signposting. The other slightly confusing navigational problem along here was that my topo map and the topo maps on my GPS had tracks by the same name but in different spots, hmmm. It was whilst navigating my way through this labyrinth of tracks that I came across a lonely grave that wasn't in my notes or on my map, the bush grave marked the final resting place of Mary Patterson who was buried here in July 1867, she was aged only 6 years old.

What I think was the intersection of Andersons Road and Chalk Mine Road, the post had nothing on it and my GPS begged to differ when it came to the names of the tracks.

Mary Patterson's lonely bush grave.

The last few kilometres today provided no great difficulties and apart from stopping to try and get some photos of the bush lit up by the late afternoon sun, I was quickly back at the ute. Arriving at the car park I noticed an old Ford parked in the corner nearest the humpy and camp fire smoke coming from the humpy, it appears that someone was actually living there, well at least sometimes. Pulling off my boots I gave Sam a call to tell her I'd be a little later than I'd planned and headed off on the two hour drive home, only stopping at the small town of Lal Lal to get a photo of their old bluestone railway station.

There is no shortage of grass trees on this walk, which is always a good thing.

Heading down the last descent, a couple of minutes from the ute.

The Dirt
The Lal Lal Forest walk is not for everybody, you need to keep a close eye on the map and be confident off track, you will probably not always be confident that you know exactly where you are but you really shouldn't get 'lost' as there is always a track going in the direction you need to go. It looks like trail bike riders have created numerous new tracks in the park and at the same time any signposting that used to exist has gone, once I'd left the Blast Furnace Car Park I didn't see a signpost until I got back. The walk passes through typical dry eucalyptus forest which, with its sparse understory makes for pleasant off track walking. On the subject of off track walking you have to be careful of the old mine shafts that are scattered around the hills. According to my trusty GPS I walked 10.88 kilometres and climbed 344 metres on this stroll, I'd rate this as a medium walk. I used John Chapman's notes out of his 'Day Walks Melbourne' book, its walk number 9 in the book.

The old bluestone railway station at the tiny town of Lal Lal.

Heading back home in the late afternoon light.