Sutherland Creek, Brisbane Ranges National Park - January 2018

Sutherland Creek

With the temperature in Melbourne predicted to be in the reasonable range on this Saturday I was thinking that a walk out west might be the go. I’ve waffled on about it before but I tend to find it a bit hot and dry in the open forests to the west of Melbourne over summer, when I walk over there in the warmer months I’m always looking for a walk that has at least the possibility of a swim. Today I decided to re-visit a walk that I’d done a long time ago (surprise, surprise), returning to Sutherland Creek. I vaguely remember walking up this untracked valley once and passing by a pool that looked deep enough for a dip, that was a long time ago though and I wasn’t too sure how accurate my ageing recollections were.

The country is looking a little dry at the moment.

So anyway after my almost routine Saturday morning of a Macca’s coffee and toasties I parked the ute in the dry and dusty Steiglitz Court House Carpark. My first impressions this morning, looking at the parched landscape (we’d just suffered through consecutive days in the low 40˚ in Melbourne), was that finding enough water for a swim in Sutherland Creek was about as likely as Andrew Bolt admitting climate change is real. I consoled myself that at least today wasn’t stinking hot, actually the day was a little overcast as I set off this morning with a forecast temperature in the mid twenties. As is tradition (well my tradition anyway) I walked around twenty metres this morning before stopping to take a photo of the historic Steiglitz Court House, and tradition also dictates that the photo is fairly ordinary, but hey, that won't stop me trying!

Steiglitz Court House.

After the court house stop I headed along the dry and dusty Stawell Street towards Wrixon Street, now when talking about streets here we are talking about what was a street back in the mid 1800’s during the gold rush, the bush has all but reclaimed the streets. Heading up the old alignment of Wrixon Street there are a few bits and pieces scattered around providing clues that there was indeed a bustling town of 1500 people here at one stage, but what there wasn’t was much of a pad, thankfully it didn’t really matter as walking through the open forest isn’t too hard and I basically just headed up hill until I met the gravel South Steiglitz Road.

Stawell Street.

Wrixon Street has been more or less reclaimed by nature.

If you poke around enough you can find a few remnants from the old town.

The walk along South Steiglitz Road follows the crest of a ridge and while the views are a little limited, the many grass trees along the sides of the road more than make up for the lack of far reaching vistas. The road is a bit dry and dusty though, the open eucalyptus forest wasn’t casting much shade so I was pretty happy to reach the southernmost end of the road and drop off the ridge down a very old fire track. This fire track follows a shallow gully down until it reaches Sutherland Creek, judging by the number of old mine shafts scattered around the scrub I’m thinking that this old fire track might be a left over from the mining days. Whatever the case the old track made for nice walking this morning.

The walk south along South Steiglitz Road features a lot of grass trees.

South Steiglitz Road

At the southern end of South Steiglitz Road I dropped down to Sutherland Creek down a shallow gully along this old fire track.

Arriving at Southland Creek the scenery ramps up a bit.

Once I reached the banks of the bone dry Sutherland Creek my easy walking was over for awhile, I now had to make my way up stream for around 4 kilometres through the trackless valley. I was in a pretty good head space this morning though, I was expecting an off track walk so was mentally prepared for a bit of a scrub bash, but initially at least everything was pretty good. I started my walk north up the creek, alternating between strolling the fairly open areas bordering the creek or rock hopping my way down the actual bed of the creek. The creek bed option allowing me to check out a few water holes remaining in the dry creek, things weren’t looking overly promising as far as having a cooling dip, but at least the walking was good.

There were a few pools left in Sutherland Creek, nothing I'd swim in yet though.

Easy creek bed walking.

Climbing in and out of the creek was a little difficult in spots though.

Walking the gassy, lightly timbered flats beside the meandering creek was actually easier than walking the rocky creek bed, but walking the flats meant numerous crossings of Sutherland Creek and each crossing involved me negotiating a two or three metre almost vertical entry and exit, not the easiest thing for this broken walker. Apart from the fairly numerous small water holes and the reminders of mining history scattered about, the other feature that was getting my attention this morning were the rocky bluffs towering above the creek. With the valley almost gorge like in spots these rocky buttresses, with their sparse covering of grass trees and Ironbarks backed up by the now blue sky, meant the little creek was punching above it’s weight today really.

The rocky spurs and bluffs around Southerland Creek were looking good under the blue sky.

There was the occasional sign that others had walked here before.

Sutherland Creek was teasing me a little, plenty of water but no spot deep enough for a dip.

There are plenty of old mine shafts scattered around the creek flats.

The further I walked up steam today the rougher things got, the easy open creek bed walking morphing into a scrubby stream. I was hemmed in a little too as the open grassy flats beside the creek were now frequently blocked by interlocking spurs which meant a little more climbing and descending on the rough broken ground. If all that sounds a bit serious then don’t worry too much about me, it was along here that I found my water hole that I’d remembered from years ago. This waterhole is backed by the usual rocky bluff on one side with a course sandy beach on the other. Stripping off I waded into my deserted swimming hole, happy to find the water over head height in the middle. As I mentioned earlier we had suffered through a few stinking hot days recently which meant that the water was just at that nice temperature meaning I could linger for awhile and explore my watery wonderland.

The walking got a bit rough the further north I went.

Hey, hey, this'll do me!

The best kind of summer bushwalking.

I even had my own beach.

All good things eventually come to an end though and all too soon really I emerged dripping onto my deserted little beach to have a bite to eat, while at the same time I waited for the sun to do it’s work and dry me off a bit. While jumping into these swimming spots is always a joy, pulling on my hot and sweaty clothes and boots afterwards isn’t always that pleasant, so I procrastinated as long as I could before succumbing to the inevitable and climbing back into my sweaty gear. Continuing my creek ramble northwards the valley got rougher and rougher until I arrived at the base of a small dry waterfall, with the creek now full of scratchy scrub I was mostly keeping to it’s banks which meant climbing over a few low spurs. On reaching the dry waterfall I easily scrambled my way up on the left, stopping at the top to get a photo of the somewhat dubious looking water in the plunge pool.

Heading up stream again I reached this waterfall.

It was now early afternoon and the sun was packing a bit of a punch as I continued to push my way up stream, the open forest giving me no cooling coverage. The good news was that a couple of hundred metres after climbing the waterfall the valley started to open up a little and the walking got a little easier again. Continuing on I arrived at another dry waterfall, this one dropping down a side gully, this waterfall is part of the original route of the long(ish) distance Burchell Trail, the walk has now been re-routed to start from Fridays Camping Area and is still walkable. I now picked up the end of Deadmans Loop which signalled the end of my off piste ramble for today, the walking track now short cutting Sutherland Creek a couple of times it headed easily back to Steiglitz. Passing Wrixon Street my circuit was over, after retracing a few hundred metres I was back at the ute taking my sweaty boots off and settling in for a relaxing drive home. Life was good!

The original alignment of the Burchell Trail use to climb this waterfall up a side gully.

The last section of my walk today had me following the Deadmans Loop Track.

The Dirt.
I walked 9 kilometres and climbed 130 metres on today’s medium grade walk. I was lucky to find enough water in Sutherland Creek to take a cooling dip but you wouldn’t want to be relying on that in summer. There is a fairly long off piste section on this stroll and while it’s very easy as far as off track walking goes you still need to concentrate a bit, if off track walking isn’t you’re thing then maybe call this a hard walk. The open flats beside the creek would make a nice spot for a picnic but you need to be a little careful of the old mine shafts scattered about. I used the notes and map out of the House of Chapman’s Day Walks Melbourne, it’s walk number 7 in the 2017 edition of the book. If you are in Melbourne and are looking for a walk with a fairly remote feel about it, maybe a bit of gold ming history or the possibilities of a bit of wild swimming then this walk is worth considering, avoid very hot days though.

Relevant Posts.
Boar Gully, Brisbane Ranges National Park, 2016.
Yankee Gully, Brisbane Ranges National Park, 2014.
Little River, Brisbane Ranges National Park, 2013.

Heading back into Steiglitz along Stawell Street, I've just arrived at Wrixon Street and my circuit is complete.