Wyperfeld Walk, Wyperfeld National Park - August 2016

Wyperfeld National Park.

Wyperfeld National Park is one of the rare spots in Victoria that I haven't really explored on foot before, I'd explored a bit in my 4wd over the years but nothing beats wandering around the scrub on foot to get a feel for an area. So with Sam and I both having a Friday night and Saturday free we decided that now would be a good time to head up and check out the park. After work on Friday night we packed up the ute and headed off from Melbourne on the 6 hour drive to the park, arriving at the massive Wonga Camp Ground just on midnight. Interestingly the huge camping area had exactly one other person camping there, I've mentioned it before but the huge fees and cumbersome booking regulations appear to be driving people away from our parks, and just in case you think the lack of crowds may be because it was a Friday night well we left the park via Wonga just after 6pm the next night (Saturday) and once again there was a grand total of one tent pitched there.

Early morning Wonga Camp Ground.

After a nice sleep serenaded by the grunts of the local emu's we awoke to a foggy morning, while cooking up breakfast though the fog lifted and by the time we'd packed up and were ready to head off on the walk the sun was out and the sky was blue. Finding the start of the Discovery Walk in the extensive grassy campground was probably our greatest navigational challenge for the day, look for a track heading off up a shallow valley between some dunes behind a toilet block and you'll soon find the track. First up this morning we were heading for the grandly named Mt Mattingley, on the way up the mountain we checked out all the interpretative signs, Sam was not happy to discover that almost every one of the covered signs housed a big spider, she's definately not a fan of our hairy legged arachnid friends. At 103 metres Mt Mattingley must be pushing the term mountain to its limit I would of thought, but in such flat desert country even this small hill gave us an extensive view.

The start of this particular walk is to the right of this dune.

Sam was not happy that almost everyone of the information signs on the Discovery Walk section was home to a big spider.

The view down from Mt Mattingley, there's a big roo just on the tree line below us.

After summating Mt Mattingley we dropped down the Discovery Walk towards a spot called Devils Pools.

Continuing on around the Discovery Walk we dropped down towards a spot called Devils Pool, on the way passing by plenty of native pines as well as a couple of beautiful park like grassy plains bordered by some sand dunes. Along here we also passed by some petrified banksia trees that had been freeze dried in a cold spell were the temperature dropped to -8 degrees for nights on end, glad I wasn't camping here then! Keeping left we headed north through some more sand dune country and soon met up with Everard Track on the extensive floodplains of Lake Brambruk. Everard Track is a management track and the rangers have placed a water tank at the junction of the Discovery Walk and Everard Track making it a nice spot for a bit of a break, which was our plan exactly, although first up we wandered along a grassy track to the shores of the dry lake to check out the wide open grassy expanses.

Today's walk featured many of these flat grassy spots in between the dunes.

These trees were killed during a series of extremely cold nights that hit the park.

Yeah, I'm still in long pants....my leg was still bandaged.

The spinifex provided a great place for the local roos to lay inside out of the wind, the buloke tree behind it is common in the more arid areas of Australia.

The Discovery Walk section of the stroll is marked frequently by these posts.

Wyperfeld National Park is looking good at the moment.

A small dune near Devils Pools.

The water tank at the junction of Everard Track and Discovery Track (coming down from the dunes).

Lake Branbruk.

Feeling suitably rejuvenated after our pit stop we headed off west along Everard Track, the walking along here was actually a little harder as the sandy track was a little on the soft side. Compensation for the soft conditions under foot was that the numerous red gums on the flood plain were teaming with birds so there was plenty of opportunity to stop and take it in. Inititially Everard Track skirts around the edge of Lake Brambruk's flood plain before following the meandering course of Outlet Creek, once passed the lake and following the creek the track surface firmed up a bit and the management track was great walking again. Outlet Creek only flows when the Wimmera River has a big enough flood to fill Lake Albacutya, unfortunately water hasn't made it this far up the system for a lot of years, not even making it during the floods of biblical proportions that hit the catchment in 2011,  unfortunately now the red gums are starting to die off and new ones can't grow due to the lack of the flood water that they need to germinate.

The Lake Brambruk Floodplain.

Everard Track made for some soft conditions under foot.

Native birds were a feature of today's walk.

After following Everard Track for a couple of hours we turned down Black Flat Walking Track, once again the intersection was marked not only with a signpost but also a water tank, quite handy in what is a pretty dry environment. Once heading south on Black Flat Walking Track we were again going against the grain of the land so we had a few dunes to climb over, Black Flat Walking Track is also a walking track in the traditional sense, by that I mean that it isn't a 4wd management. This area looks like it has't been burn't for awhile and at time the walking track was through a tunnel of mallee trees as well as having plenty of the ubiquitous cypress pines. We had our only close encounter with an emu along here, we could hear it grunting in the distance and when we got to a large sand blow he started charging towards us which made me happy because I thought that I'd get a good photo, however Sam wasn't so keen for an up close encounter, when he was around 15 metres away he must of finally noticed us and quickly hung a u-ey and headed back into the scrub at a great rate of knots.

Heading south on Black Flat Walking Track through a tunnel of mallee trees.

It gets pretty harsh out here sometimes.

This emu was coming over to check us out.

Reaching an area of bigger dunes we met up with the Tyakil Nature Walk and started to follow the well signposted trail around the edges of the impossibly green Black Flat, the dry lake looked more like it belonged in South Gippsland rather than the semi arid Mallee region of Victoria. The Tyakil Walk section of todays stroll featured a bit of indigenous history, notably in the form of the canoe trees - trees were the Wotjobaluk People had carved the bark from some of the red gums to form canoes. This section also featured a bit of early European History as well in the form of an old bore and trough, cattle were run in this area dating back to around 1847. A slightly unusual sight near the bore was what looked like in in ground pool - complete with pebble mix concrete! Looks like the old pasturalists knew how to look after their cattle, I can just imagine the cows kicking back around the pool on a baking hot summers day on their banana lounge, sipping on a drink complete with a small umbrella in the glass.....what's that, oh its only me....

The old bore beside Black Flat.

Well it looks like an old in ground pool to me, complete with pebble mix concrete!

One of the dunes bordering Black Flat.

Arriving at the Black Flat Car Park it was time for another short break, from here on we would be following the gravel Black Flat Track all the way back to the ute at Wonga Camp. While the hard surface of Black Flat Track was hard on our feet it was a bit of a change from the soft sand that had we had been walking on for the majority of todays stroll. The quiet road made for reasonably quick walking and there was always something of interest to check out, initially the wide open expanse of Maiden Swamp, then some nice dunes. Next up we got to a small hill with some strange fencing like contraptions on the open grassy slopes, it turns out that this place is called Bee Rack Hill and that the racks date back to 1925 when a lease was granted for bee keeping in the area, ants invaded the hives so the farmer suspended the hives on these fence like contraptions. Passing over Bee Rack Hill Wonga Camp soon appeared in the distance, after passing through a small gap in the fence around the camping area we were  soon back at the ute and enjoying a late lunch.

Black Flat Track crossing Maiden Swamp.

Bee Rack Hill.

Walking the hard surfaced Black Flat Track we had plenty of nice scenery to take our mind of our sore feet.

The Dirt.
We walked 20.2 kilometres and climbed 149 metres on todays stroll around Wyperfeld National Park. I used the notes out of the Glenn Tempest book Daywalks Around Victoria, I'd rate this walk as a medium walk mainly because of the distance on the soft sand, there is virtually no climbing involved on the walk though. This walk is all on well signposted and marked tracks and the Parks Vic people have place water tanks at the junction of Everard Track and the Discovery Walk, as well as at the junction of Meridian Track, Everard Track and Black Flat Walking Track. There is no shortage of wildlife to be seen on this walk as well, we saw numerous birds as well as the usual numerous kangaroos.
Relevant Posts.
Tyakil Nature Walk, Wyperfeld National Park 2016
Desert Discovery Walk, Little Desert National Park 2016

Almost back at Wonga Camp.