Churchill to Trig Point Lookout, Churchill National Park - February 2017

Now this is something you don't see every day.

My most notable wildlife encounter this week didn't actually happen on my stroll in Churchill National Park, it happened as I was riding home from work on my evening commute. My ride home from work follows a creek for the majority of the distance and with an extensive series of wetlands on the other side of the track, it's not unusual to see the odd snake, I probably average 1 or 2 a month in the warmer weather. So riding home on Wednesday night I wasn't overly surprised to come upon a large Red Bellied Black Snake sunning itself on the track, in fact it wasn't even worth stopping to take a photo really. Riding on a few hundred metres more I got to something that was though, this time there were two Red Belly Black Snakes entwined on the track making baby red bellies! This was something that I've never come across in all my travels, so after dropping my bike a respectable distance away I wandered back for a bit of a sticky beak. I've got some bad news for all the blokes out there, these snakes had some stamina as they were still going strong after thirty minutes, hmmm, maybe they were teenage snakes;) Eventually I thought that I'd better leave them in peace and headed off home, at least I'm not sitting inside a car stopped in traffic on my daily commute.

This is the best I could do with my phone, funnily enough they were a bit toey if I got too close!

In contrast to my commute this weeks walk was a pretty tame affair, now by tame I don't mean it wasn't any good it's just a walk around Churchill National Park doesn't really feature any wow moments. What it does feature though is a few hills, some nice open forest and some history. Leaving the ute I managed to locate the unmarked track I was looking for without too much drama, once on my way there would be no more navigational difficulties for the rest of the walk. Climbing away from the the car park I emerged out of the scrub onto the wide Channel Track, this track follows an old water race that used to supply water to Dandenong in the ye olde days, now days the track beside it provides for easy, level walking as it contours around the hillsides. The Track passing underneath the huge electricity high tension lines that supply Melbourne with power from the Latrobe Valley, before doubling back to meet the power line again.

Heading along Channel Track I was never far from the power lines.

A typical Churchill National Park scene.

On meeting the huge power lines for the second time I left Channel Track and climbed steeply up an unmarked track beneath the lines. After a short but solid climb I topped out on the top of a ridge, from up here if I squinted enough I could see the high rise buildings in the Melbourne CBD in the distance, in the other direction was the sprawling south eastern suburbs of Melbourne. From the ridge top I followed North Boundary Track, which as you'd assume stays close to the northern boundary of the park. With a quarry just outside the park to my left I wandered along the fire track for awhile before taking an un signposted short cut along a grassy fire break. With Churchill National Park now being almost enveloped by suburbia I wasn't on my own along here, there was a constant trickle of lycra clad power walkers out enjoying the sun this morning too.

From the top of my first climb if I squinted I could just make out the Melbourne CBD.

Heading along North Boundary Track.

Turn left here for the grassy short cut.

With my grassy short cut joining back up with the fire track I left Churchill National Park and crossed into Lysterfield Lake Park and started climbing. I was now heading to the highest point of today's stroll, Trig Point Lookout, at just over 200 metres it's not exactly a giant though. While I was moving around the summit area taking a couple of photos I noticed an Echidna nosing around looking for a feed, as soon as he saw me he did the usual Echidna thing in that he buried his head in the ground, sounds like a politician hey. Pulling up a rock I sat and waited, sure enough after sitting pretty still for a couple of minutes my spiky mate pulled his head out of the ground and resumed foraging for food while I snapped away trying not to move, managing to get plenty of photos of his head I think I've discovered the secret to photographing Echidna's.

Looking towards Mount Dandenong from Trig Point Lookout.

Trig Point, looking towards the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

How cute is this....

I just sat still on a rock with the camera up and ready to shoot and he started foraging around again.

After my wildlife encounter I shouldered my pack and headed off again, I was now heading down the appropriately named Grassy Spur and this was the best walking so far. The open spur along here was giving me great views in both directions but it wasn't long until I turned off onto Woodland Walk and started descending. I reckon Mr Chapman (who's notes I was using) has a bit of a masochistic streak in him as the next couple of kilometres basically involved my descending a spur beside a gully, crossing the gully at the bottom of the spur and then climbing back up another parallel spur on the other side of the gully, it makes the stats look more respectable though I suppose! Topping out I briefly re joined my outward route and crossed back into Churchill National Park, before dropping down again to Stonemasons Track.

Grassy Spur lived up to it's name, and made for some of the best walking of the day.

I'm assuming Stonemasons Track is named that because it passes by an old quarry, although treat that as a Feral fact. I was now gently descending beside a gully and on turning onto Syphon Track I crossed the gully on a dam wall, now while the old dam might have made for a good photo I gave it a miss because it definitely looked like it would be home to it's fair share of snakes and without gaiters on I wasn't keen to go too far off piste. Syphon Track was the only really bushwalking type of track for the days walk, being a single file track with the local flora crowding the sides of the path I was keeping a close eye out for snakes along here too. With the huge power line guiding me back I met up with an old pipeline which looks like it fed the channel that supplied Dandenong's water.

Wandering down to Stonemasons Track, the morning slightly overcast conditions had brightened into a beautiful day.

I'm assuming that the name of Stonemasons Track had something to do with this old quarry.

Sure enough the pipeline did go to the channel and I was soon back on Channel Track and heading in the direction of the ute. The open forest along here has been burnt in the last few years by the look off it and the stark trunks gave me something else to stop and photograph. If you ever have some visitors and they want to see some kangaroos around the Dandenong area then Churchill National Park is worth a try and in particular Channel Track, there are plenty of open grassy areas just off the track that the roos would love. With the power lines once again ahead of me I rejoined my outward link track back to the car park, arriving at the ute a few minutes later after what had been a very pleasant little stroll.

Syphon Track spat back out onto Channel Track.

Back on Channel Track and ambling my way back to the ute.

The Dirt.
I walked 9.4 kilometres and climbed 275 metres on this stroll. I was using Mr Chapman's notes and he rates this as a medium grade walk so I'll go with that, but really it's borderline easy. This is walk # 21 in the 2011 edition of Day Walks Victoria. This little walk is a fairly inoffensive little stroll, while there are no outstanding scenic highlights Churchill National Park does allow you to escape the suburbs and enjoy the sights and smells of the Aussie bush, and in my case it's very close to home. I just used Mr Chapman's notes and mud map as well as my GPS but I'm sure Parks Vic would have a free map online that would get you through, there are a lot of tracks criss-crossing the park so you shouldn't really get lost.
Relevant Posts.
Lysterfield Lake, Lysterfield Lake Park - 2016.
Birds Land, Birds Land Reserve - 2015.
Jells Park, 2016.
Braeside Park, 2016.

The picnic ground at Churchill National Park marked my start and finish point.