Warepil Lookout Circuit, Hattah-Kulkyne National Park - August 2017

Warepil Lookout, Hattah-Kulkuyne National Park.

Most of the walks that I've done up at Hattah over the years have either featured lakes or the river, so it felt a little odd on this one to be walking away from the water and into the semi arid scrub on this walk. Thankfully the temperatures up at Hattah at this time of the year are generally pretty reasonable, this wouldn't be a walk to do on a hot summers day. This track starts at the Lake Mournpall Camp and initially follows the Lake Mournpall Circuit Track for a couple of hundred metres before branching off into the dunes to the west.

My route followed the Lake Mournpall track for a few hundred metres before heading off to the west.

Red dirt and blue sky, it doesn't get much better for me.

Like most tracks up at Hattah this one is a sandy swathe cut through the Mallee trees marked by fairly frequent track markers on recycled plastic poles. Apart from the track being a bit soft it's was pretty easy going as I struck out towards Warepil Lookout, the dunes covered with tussocks of Porcupine Grass and the occasional native Cypress Pine or Bullock trees. For the most part though I was passing through the ubiquitous Mallee Trees, the multiple trunks of the trees coming out of the ground are the give-away for those that aren't sure. The rangers have actually fenced off the lakes section of the park to control the local populations of macropods, the semi permanent water of the lakes leading to big population explosions in good years, which denuded the country. Passing through the fence it was obvious that the country on the outside of the fence was more heavily grazed, although whether it was by the local native animals or the cattle back in the day when the park was a cattle station I'm not sure.

There were some large patches of Porcupine Grass near the start of the walk.

As well as the occasional Bulloak tree.

The Kangaroo Fence.

After passing through the fence the track crossed a few slightly larger dunes, at one stage tracking along the top of one for a short section which allowed for a bit of a view over the undulating terrain. With my route slowly curving around to the south I kept thinking that I'd soon spot the lookout, from every high spot I'd look out at the sea of green but it wasn't until I was around fifty metres from the lookout tower that I could actually see it, this country is a nightmare to navigate through with just a compass as it's very hard to see any distance to take a bearing, thankfully the GPS makes things a lot easier and safer nowadays. Climbing up onto the lookout structure the view was slightly better than that on the top of the dunes, in one direction I could see the telecommunication repeaters beside the Calder Highway, in the other direction I could make out the bigger trees that live in the wetter areas around the lakes. Mostly though all I could see from the lookout was wave after wave of Mallee Trees receding into the distance.

The country on the other side of the fence was a little more denuded.

My route climbed onto the crest of this dune for awhile.

Before arriving at the fairly modest Warepil Lookout.

The view back towards Lake Mournpall from the lookout.

The lookout more or less marked the halfway point of my stroll and soon enough I set off on my return journey. The return trip was more of the same initially, crossing low dunes and tunnelling through sections of Mallee and Tea-Trees. Passing back through the roo fence I picked up an old fire trail, passing the Camel Pad Walk which heads out of the park to Hattah general store. Giving the Camel Pad Track a miss for today I continued to follow the old fire track, passing an old dam on a clay pan I soon arrived at Mournpall Track. This is the main access road through the park but it actually makes for a reasonable road bash, there wasn't a lot of traffic to annoy me and the wide smooth surface made it very easy to take in the surrounding bush. After cresting one last dune the ute came into view through the Black Box trees and my little stroll was over.

Heading back the track started of with more of the same.

Arriving back at the Kangaroo Fence I was met with a multitude of gates and fences.

After passing back through the fence line I followed this old sandy track back out to the more substantial Mournpall Track.

There's an old dam along here that may attract some of the native wildlife at sunset and sunrise.

This walk is extremely well sign posted.

The Dirt.
I walked 7.4 kilometres at an average speed of 3.9 kph today, with 109 metres of climbing involved then I'd definitely rate this as an easy walk. The track is well marked and sign posted at all the intersections so there is no navigational difficulties, the soft sand surface is probably the only real issue on the walk. If you really don't like walking you can actually drive to within a couple of hundred metres of the lookout tower if you head north along the gravelled Old Calder Highway, in my opinion the walk is the better way to access the tower though. Parks Vic have enough free stuff on line to complete this walk, the Daly's have also written it up in their Take A Walk in Victoria's National Parks book if you have a copy, or alternatively you could just get the Meridian topo map (which I recommend) for the area and use that.
Relevant Posts.
Lake Mournpall Circuit, Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, 2017.
Wyperfeld Walk, Wyperfeld National Park, 2016.

Mournpall track, check out the Cypress Pine growing from the old Bulloak trunk.

I stalked an Echidna for while trying to get a photo but it buried it's head in the sand every time I had a chance so you'll have to settle for this Cockatoo. 

And that's another nice walk coming to it's end.