Jells Park - March 2016

I've just come into some retro porn..... yeah that's right some bushwalking porn in the form of the third and fourth editions of Tyrone Thomas' 120 Walks in Victoria. With a publishing date going all the way back to 1977 for the oldest of the two books, these two books hold out the promise of many days of walking on long forgotten tracks and routes, getting lost and pushing through scrub, yep perfect for a feral adventure. I'm even thinking of cultivating the retro 'tash, although I think I'll struggle with the hair a bit. So anyway seeing that I've been reading up on some of Tyrone's finest work I figured that I do one of his walks today, nothing hardcore or old though, this one is a walk out of one of his last books that he published and is a nice easy stroll in a suburban Melbourne park, perfect for a relaxing late afternoon stroll.

This edition dates back to 1977.

Check out the 'tash, I reckon I'll struggle with the blow wave though!

It looks like it was carnage on the tracks back in the day.

Today Sam and I headed up to Jells Park for our walk. Jells Park is a large area of parkland on Dandenong Creek featuring a large lake (Jells Lake, who would of thought!), the lake is on the Dandenong Creek flood plain and the level is controlled by a small a regulating gate on a channel from the creek. I presume that apart from its recreational and conservation uses the wetland and lake may provide some form of flood mitigation for Dandenong Creek, maybe a similar situation to Birds Land on Monbulk Creek. This afternoon the main use in the park was recreation, with lots of different nationalities and ethnic groups all out enjoying the late afternoon weather and a little slice of nature in the middle of suburbia. 

Jells Lake.

We parked the ute off Ferntree Gully Road and headed along a section of the Dandenong Creek Bike path under the huge electricity pylons that bring Melbourne's power up from the Latrobe Valley. Making our way under the humming high tension power lines we quickly arrived onto the shore line of Jells Lake. Now I've got to warn you straight up, there wasn't any feral misadventures on this walk so if you're looking for tales of hardship and misadventure you probably need to catch up with Mr Fiasco's latest adventure, this'll just be a stroll in the park, literally. Once on the lake shore we headed around the lake in an anti clockwise direction, within a couple of hundred metres we entered a fenced of area of native bush that stretches right around the eastern side of the lake, and the walking improved immensely.

There is no shortage of birds on this stroll.

The water hens are the only ones I can get close to though.

The main navigational trick on our lake side walk was to keep to the left at any track junction that we came to, this kept us close to the shore and allowed for me to take some crap photo's of the local birdlife. As a photographer I make a good mathematician as I believe in the law of averages, I reckon if I take enough photos then on the law of averages one or two should be OK. The good news this afternoon was that there was plenty of bird life to keep me snapping away, everything from ducks, water hens, egrets, ibis, pelicans to rosellas.

Looking across Jells Lake towards the more manicured area below the visitor centre.

The conservation area on the eastern side of Jells Lake.

The water hens are by far the most prolific bird in the park.

After passing a bird hide we made our way out of the conservation area and over the channel that connects the lake to Dandenong Creek and entered the large grassy area below the visitor centre and cafe. Strolling across the open grass land we gently climbed up towards the visitor centre, while I tried to do something with the late afternoon sun, not having a lot of luck with the sun I got the almost obligatory shot of a tree trunk as a consolation prize. The slight rise in elevation as we climbed up to the visitor centre provided the best over view of the lake that we would get for the walk, complete with power lines in the distance.

Dandenong Creek.

Looking down towards the lake from the visitor centre and cafe.

Now instead of heading the rest of the way around the lake and back to the ute, less than a kilometre away now, Mr Thomas' notes suggested heading back the way we came (probably to crank up the stats a bit). So back around the long way we wandered, although this time as we passed through the conservation area we stayed closer to Dandenong Creek and a little away from Jells Lake for awhile. Meeting up with the gently humming power lines again we retraced our last few metres back to the ute after another pleasant stroll.

Rosella

These guys were nesting in the hollow of the dead tree.

The Dirt.

We walked 5.8 kilometres and climbed 35 (!) metres on today's easy walk, This walk is suitable for strollers and young children as well as the elderly. Jells Park has a lot of good picnic facilities as well as a cafe over looking the lake, there are over 9 kilometres of trails in the park, a lot of them are shared use so its a good place to bring your bike as well. Parks Vic have a lot of free stuff online which would be more than adequate for a walk in this park. If you want more then I used notes out of Mr Thomas' book 40 Bushland & Park Walks in Metropolitan Melbourne. The Chapman's have also written up a walk around here in one of their books that I'll probably write up at some stage, just in case you need another post to help you sleep.

These three photos are the essence of Jells Park for me.