I've been wanting to write up a walk in Sherbrooke Forest for awhile now, this beautiful pocket of bushland in the Dandenong Ranges National Park has one of the best displays of Mountain Ash close to Melbourne and I was pretty keen to get some photos of them. Now there's a reason that I was keen to get some photo's online and that is, to use a sporting term, this area is due. Not due in a good way either, I reckon this area is due for a big fire, the last big fire to come through here was Ash Wednesday fires back in the 80's and since then the fuel load has built up substantially, I really hope I'm wrong but the bush looks primed to me. One of the worrying things about this, apart from the beautiful bush going up is that since the last big fires up here the number of people living in the area has increased significantly, and they all have to get in and out of the area by the same old windy roads, not ideal in an emergency.
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Grants Picnic Ground.
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| If your not into big trees then maybe this is the wrong post for you. |
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Anyway with the promise of a nice early spring afternoon in the offering I jumped into the ute and took the shortish drive up to Grants Picnic Ground. If you are a visitor to Melbourne or if you are hosting visitors, then Grants Picnic Ground seems like the place to go to check out some native Australian birds, there's even a dedicated bird feeding area if you want a close up experience within the local Rosella's. I was pretty keen to get away from the tourists though so quickly pulled on my boots and set off, straight onto the crux of todays walk, the crossing of Monbulk Road, after a quick twenty metre dash I was across the busy road and enveloped into the safety of the bush.
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After crossing the busy Monbulk Road I was soon enveloped by he bush as I dropped down through a ferny section to cross Clematis Creek.
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Dropping a bit I crossed the ferny Clematis Creek and started climbing steeply up towards O'Donohue Picnic Ground, this short climb is the steepest of the walk and with all the recent rain the track was fairly slippery and muddy today. Now I'd come up to Kallista to do this walk and get some, hopefully, nice photos of the towering Mountain Ash which meant that the climb was punctuated with plenty of photo stops so the climb never really taxed me too much. Emerging from the bush onto Sherbrooke Lodge Road I walked the extensive grassy verge of the road down to the picnic ground, now while Grants Picnic Ground was a hive of activity O'Donohue Picnic Ground was deserted, so I suppose if you're looking for a peaceful spot for a picnic then this place might be the go.
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The tops of some of the towering Mountain Ash have been loped off by the wind or in some cases, lightening.
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| Back in the fringes of suburbia on Sherbrooke Lodge Road, it's still pretty nice strolling though. |
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My route now followed a bit of a convoluted series of tracks, firstly dropping gently down to a long bridge over a tributary of Sherbrooke Creek, imaginatively named Long Bridge. After crossing the bridge the route gently climbs up Wattle Track before following another track, this section was only a stones throw from the busy Sherbrooke Road but the traffic was never intrusive. Eventually I dropped down and crossed the ferny Sherbrooke Creek again before heading down Hackett Track, once again the main views along here were of the arrow straight trees (as you can tell from my photos this walk is all about trees).
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The remains of the Sherbrooke Forest humpy.
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The imaginatively named long bridge.
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| I tracked along beside Sherbrooke Road for a little while. |
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Well there was one other point of interest on this walk apart from the trees I suppose and that was Sherbrooke Falls, now Sherbrooke Falls haven't got the biggest drop of any falls that I've ever seen, but they certainly broke up the sea of green that I'd been taking photos of up until that time. After doing my best to capture the essence of Sherbrooke Falls I started to head down the famous (well to me anyway) Hillclimb Track. This track was one of the first bush walks that Sam and I did together, infact most of our early walking trips were in the Dandenong Ranges National Park as we lived in Belgrave for awhile. Hillclimb Track was a fairly muddy and slippery walk today, there was even a Parks Vic signpost at the top to warn me of the impending danger. Carefully making my way down, only stopping occasionally to remove the odd leach or take another impossibly green photo, I was soon at the bottom of the slippery descent. Now if I'd had company the Micawbar Tavern which marks the end of the descent may have tempted me in for a drink, but being a solo rambler I figure it would be a bit sad to go in and drink alone.
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Alright, I reckon this post needs a few more photos of Mountain Ash trees.
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There were a few wattles livening up the understory.
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Hackett Track.
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Sherbrooke Falls.
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| Hmm not quite Mr Fiasco's quality, but I do what I can do. |
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Bypassing the tavern I made my way back across the busy Monbulk Road and started the final climb back up to Grants Picnic Ground. Instead of climbing straight up though my route notes had me climbing up above Monbulk Road for awhile before I climbed solidly east along Tregellas Track to meet up with Coles Ridge Track. Coles Ridge Track used to be the old road between Belgrave and Kallista back in the dark ages and now days makes for very easy scenic walking, the gradient is fairly gentle and the wide grassy verges make for softer walking on your feet if you get sick of the gravel. The grassy verges also are a good spot to see the odd lyrebird or unfortunately nowadays, deer, although all I was lucky enough to spot this afternoon was a kookaburra. My walk on Coles Ridge Track was fairly short today and within twenty minutes of joining it I was entering Grants Picnic Ground by the top entrance and arriving back at the ute.
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Hillclimb Track even got its own warning sign today!
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It was a little on the muddy side I suppose, but you gotta expect that in Melbourne in winter I reckon.
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| I bypassed the liquid refreshments on offer at Micawbar Tavern this afternoon. |
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The Dirt.
Ok first up I have to mention that my old GPS finally expired on this walk so I'll give the distance out of the guide book which is 9.5 kilometres. Speaking of guide books, for this walk I used the notes out of Glen Tempest's Daywalks Around Melbourne, it is walk number 78 in the book. Being one of Mr Tempest's books probably means that the kilometres walked is fairly accurate although there are no metres climbed stats in this old book, unfortunately the book is out of print now though I think. This is a medium walk with a little bit of climbing and a few slippery muddy tracks to negotiate, the tracks are all well sign posted. Both Grants Picnic Ground and O'Donohue Picnic Ground make great places for lunch, and the Micawber Tavern is also a viable option if you work up a thirst. Lastly I have to say that if you like big trees then maybe consider this stroll, the Mountain Ash are beautiful trees and they are a feature on almost the whole walk.
Relevant Posts.
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| Climbing back up towards Grants Picnic Ground, the track stayed high above Monbulk Road. |
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| Coles Ridge Track. |
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| That's the ute peeking through the tree, I'm back at Grants Picnic Ground. |
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