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| Considering that this is an Aussie (mainly) walking blog I probably don't feature enough coastal walks. |
Wow, what a week we had last week. The Orange Headed Buffoon otherwise known as the president of the free world picked a fight with Truffles Trumbull, apparently Mr Trumbull is our president, who knew? The good news is that the Orange Headed Buffoon did manage to achieve something positive, at least he got the left and the right of Australian politics to agree on one thing, yep everyone seems in agreement that the OHB is a complete tool! On a brighter note it looks like the Neo-Cons aren't happy with slowly destroying the planet by doing everything possible to avoid tackling climate change, nope they are gonna speed up the whole destruction process by starting a war with China as soon as they get the chance. With the OHB and his puppet master Bannon in charge, expect next winter to be a nuclear one. Maybe they'll forget about this shitty little out-post at the bottom of the world hey, err no, google Pine Gap to find out why little old Australia is up to its neck in it, just as well that we've got staunch leaders like the OHB to help us out......oh wait. Now what's all this got to do with a coastal ramble around Wonthaggi, stuff all actually but I had to vent!
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| Why have I stuck a wind turbine photo in here, I'm not really sure but hey, it's my blog! I'm thinking that a dislike renewable energy is something that both the Orange Headed Buffoon and Truffles Trumbull could maybe patch up their differences on. |
I've been waiting for a nice day to revisit this stroll, the coastal heathland, not to mention the beach are best seen under a blue sky I think. With a temperature in the low 30˚ predicted along with sunny clear conditions last Saturday, it was time to jump in the ute and motor on down to Wonthaggi. Instead of starting this walk in town I started it where the Bass Coast Rail Trail crosses South Dudley Road. Parking the ute under a shady tree I pulled my boots on, re-set the GPS and wandered off on todays journey. My first objective today was to explore the Wonthaggi State Coal Mine Historic Reserve a bit, Wonthaggi was the home to one of Victoria's first coal mines and there is a fair bit of history preserved in the reserve.
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| Today's ramble started by following a short section of the Bass Coast Rail Trail. |
Leaving the rail trail and entering the old coal mining reserve it was obvious straight away that this small historical park needs a little love, a lot of the signposting and trail marking was overgrown and sun faded and it required a fair bit of interpreting my notes and map to make sure that I was heading the right way. After checking out the McBride Tunnel, well the entrance anyway as I reckon the old tunnel looked like almost a perfect habitat for Tiger Snakes, I headed south a 100 metres or so to the old No.5 Brace. This huge skeleton like structure which was built in 1910 is slowly collapsing to the ground, it's a little hard to paint a word picture of this structure (at least it is with my limited vocabulary) so maybe you'll just have to check out the photo. This old building was where 100's of young boys were employed to sort the stones from the coal, OH+S wasn't big back then and there were many deaths here, 19 in the McBride Tunnel alone.
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McBride Tunnel, now I might be feral but I'm not totally stupid, I decided against checking out the tunnel as it looked like prime tiger snake territory to me.
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| No.5 Brace. |
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Leaving the dilapidated No.5 Brace for now I climbed up onto the Western Area Haulage Line and struck out along the old tramway towards the Baxter Wetlands. The arrow straight tramway soon leaves the dry grassland and heads through native bush, the trees at least giving me a modicum of shade on this warm day. Crossing West Area Road I entered Baxter Wetlands, the track now became a mowed swathe cut through the grass. Things were a little on the vague side through here and after 5 minutes I got to a Y intersection, I decided that left would be the go and off I went. Ten minutes later and noticing that I was getting further away from the wind turbines that I knew that I was meant to pass underneath I reluctantly turned and retraced my steps back to the Y intersection. This time I headed off on the right hand fork, after walking for a few minutes, and with the wind turbines getting closer, I was confident that I was now on the right path and anyway the little detour would make the stats look a little more respectable!
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The old signal marks the start of the Western Area Haulage Line.
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The Western Area Haulage Line heads arrow straight out to West Area Road.
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It's not far along the old tramway before the walk enters native bush.
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Unlike me, take the right fork here!
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| If you arrive at the old tank trap (er maybe it was another old mine site) then you've gone the wrong way. |
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I know that some of our politicians think that wind turbines are a blot on our landscape (mainly the same politicians that are in the pocket of the fossil fuel lobbyists) but I actually don't mind the look of the wind farms, I think there is a certain elegance about them, but anyway maybe that's just me? Passing through the bone dry Baxter Wetlands allowed me to practise a bit of wind farm appreciation today, the route almost passing directly underneath one of the giants and passing close to a few others. After weaving my way along the mowed track I soon emerged from the Baxter Wetlands at Baxters Road, I was now heading towards the beach and the coastal tea tree and banksia soon gave way to sand dunes as Bass Strait came into view.
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The wind turbines were actually a good reference point as I made my way through the bone dry Baxter Wetlands, if I wasn't 100% sure of the correct route I just headed for the turbines.
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Once I'd passed through the wind farm my route headed through coastal scrub down to Baxters Beach
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| Bass Strait was looking pretty good today. |
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Dropping down onto Baxters Beach I made my way down towards the water, I'd timed the walk for low tide along here and I was happy to see that my footprints were the only ones on the sand. Looking along the sand in both directions there wasn't another person to be seen, to have such a beautiful stretch of coast all to myself on a perfect beach day like today was what bushwalking is all about in my mind. I spent the next hour beach combing my way down the sand, getting closer to Cutlers Beach the coast got a little rockier but with a dead low tide I had no problem getting around the rocks and the many rock pools gave me yet another excuse to stop and linger.
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That's Cape Woolamai on Phillip Island in the distance.
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There wasn't a lot of activity on the beach today.
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The closer I got to Cutlers Beach the rockier the beach became.
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| If you look hard enough you might see a small midden near the access track to Cutlers Beach. |
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The access track for Cutlers Beach marked the spot where I had to climb away from the beach, heading up through the low coastal scrub I was hit by what felt like a wall of heat. To be honest it probably wasn't that hot (the ambient in the ute said 36˚ when I got back) but after strolling along the waters edge for the best part of the last hour the sudden lack of a sea breeze made it feel pretty warm. Arriving at a labyrinth of tracks behind the dunes I was faced with a couple of minutes of uncertainty as I scouted around a bit to find my onwards route, eventually picking up a pad heading in the direction of Hamers Haven. This section of track is named Collins Track and is named after a local environmentalist, there was even a memorial seat had way along for me to have a bit of a break on. The other notable feature of this bit of my stroll was where the track burrowed through what seemed like a tunnel of tea tree, the shade that these tunnel like sections provided was very welcome today.
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Meandering my way along Collins Track towards Hamers Haven.
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| The tea tree tunnels along Collins Track gave me a bit of shade on what was a fairly warm afternoon. |
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After my pleasant stroll along Collins Track I emerged out of the bush at an intersection of wide mowed fire breaks and wouldn't you know it, none of them were signposted. Breaking out the GPS and the map I was soon heading of across the heathland and unlike my earlier navigational issue this time I picked the right route. To be honest the rest of the walk isn't really that inspiring, I had a couple of kilometres through the low coastal heath, first on a mowed track before it turned into a sandy 4wd track, then I emerged from the scrub onto Chisholm Road. Road bashes are never much fun but on a stinking hot afternoon they have even less to recommend them then normal, and Chisholm Road lived up to my lofty expectations today.
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Go left here.
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The Wonthaggi Heathland & Coastal Reserve.
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Thankfully the walk ended on a little bit of a high passing through a narrow section of remnant bushland on the out skirts of Wonthaggi before once again making my way back through the old coal mining reserve. Checking out some of the old mining hardware that is slowly rusting away, I continued on passing by the red brick rescue building before rejoining my outward route near the McBride Tunnel. All that was left to do now was to trudge back down the fire trail to the ute, once again throwing all my sweaty gear in the tray before settling in for the drive home with that feeling of contentment that I get after a walk.
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| There is plenty of old mining hardware to check out at the old coal mine. |
The Dirt.
According to my GPS I walked 18.5 kilometres today and climbed 155 metres (yeah there isn't a lot in the way of hills) on this medium grade walk. I used the notes out of Glenn Tempest's Daywalks Around Melbourne, although the book dates back to 2005 and is out of print now I think. This is a good walk if you're into a bit of history, both European and if you look hard enough along the beach section, indigenous. For me though the highlight is the deserted beach section, we are really blessed in Australia to have this kind of coastal scenery within an hour or two of our second biggest city and to be able to enjoy it without crowds.
Relevant Posts.
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| The old Rescue Station. |
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