Anakie Gorge Circuit, Brisbane Ranges National Park - June 2018.

The track up Anakie Gorge follows an old road cut in the 1870's when Lower Stony Creek Reservoir and the Geelong pipeline were being built.

It’s been a couple of weeks since my big bike crash and, with the bruising having gone down a fair bit I figured it was time to head out on a bit of a rougher walk. The Anakie Gorge Circuit (or Ted Errey Nature Walk as it’s also known) is not a particularly rough walk really, but it was certainly harder than anything I’d been doing recently. So anyway that’s how I found myself re-setting my GPS, locking the ute and, somewhat gingerly, shouldering my pack and setting off from the Anakie Gorge Picnic Area early last Saturday. Incidentally, is it just me or is this spot the a pain to find? I’ve been here a few times over the last thirty years, but I don’t think I’ve managed to arrive at the car park once without some form of navigational embarrassment.

Leaving the Anakie Gorge Picnic Area things were fairly quiet this morning.

I seems that most of Victoria has been burnt severely in recent years and the Brisbane Ranges are no exception, the land here was badly burnt in 2006 and I haven’t been back to the Anakie Gorge section of Brisbane Ranges National Park since. Last time I was over here my main memories were of the Koala’s grazing in the Manna Gums down near the creek and grass tree in the drier county above the gorge, so I was interested to see how the country was recovering. Leaving the car park this morning I set off into Anakie Gorge along the dry Stony Creek under a blue sky, keeping a close eye out for Koala poo, yep my life is exciting!

Blue Sky above the gorge, always a good thing in my eyes!

These old tunnels in Anakie Gorge aren't the usual old mines, they're the tunnels for the old pipeline.

The start of today’s stroll had me walking the easy track into the gorge for about a kilometre before I left it and climbed up into the dryer country above. The track up through the gorge was originally cut way back in the 1870’s when the pipeline supplying water to Geelong from the Stony Creek Reservoir was being built, now days the old track makes it very easy to pass through the surprisingly rugged topography. After 15 minutes or so I arrived at the turn off for the Ted Errey Nature Walk and started climbing out of the gorge, thankfully climbing out of the shade into the weak winter’s sunlight. This short steep climb is actually the roughest section of today’s stroll but really it’s pretty reasonable, the good news this morning was that as I was now in the sun the surrounding bush looked a lot better in my photos.

I was still well and truly in the shade down in the gorge this morning.

Once I started climbing it wasn't long before I walking under the weak winters sun.

Climbing out of the gorge I was starting to get some more extensive views.

The 2006 fires killed a lot of the bigger mature trees here.

The Grass Trees loved the fires though.

Apart from the warming sun on my back the other good thing about this climb is the number of lookout points. Arguably the pick of the lookouts is Nelsons Lookout which is a few hundred metre side trip off the main track. Nelsons Lookout allows for long range views out to the rugged country to the north and west, the Lower Stony Creek Reservoir which was visible nestled in a valley, was where I was slowly making around to. After leaving Nelsons Lookout I rejoined the circuit track, walking along a burnt fence line to arrive at the next lookout, Bellarine View. Looking out across rural land to Corio Bay and the Bellarine Peninsula, Bellarine View is situated right on top of the Rowsley Fault. The Rowsley Fault is the geological feature that allowed for the creation of the Brisbane Ranges around a million years ago when the land to the east sank and the land to the west rose, which created the Brisbane Ranges in the process.

Looking out towards Melbourne, the flat land marks the edge of the Rowsley Fault.

Nelsons Lookout.

Cinnamon Fungus is a big problem over here.

Corio Bay and the Bellarine Peninsula from Bellarine View.

The You Yangs.

The walk now slowly meandered it’s way around to the west and then north as I headed for Lower Stony Creek Reservoir. Now when I say the track meandered it’s not an exaggeration, on meeting the gravelled Switch Road the track dives straight back into the bush to complete a loop around Aqueduct Track before once again arriving back at Switch Road again a few hundred metres to the south this time. After crossing Switch Road the walk then arcs around to meet Outlook Track which I followed around to the imaginatively titled Outlook at the end of another short little side track. Being a little further into the park this lookout probably supplies the best perspective of the Brisbane Ranges National Park, the rugged ridge lines receding into the distance. Standing at the Outlook this morning it wasn’t just the rugged country that I was checking out, the approaching dark clouds also caught my eye, with rain forecast to arrive around the middle of the day I was thinking that maybe I’d be getting a little wet before arriving back at the ute.

Leaving Bellarine View I started a meandering journey over to the Outlook.

Aqueduct Track

Me and my mates at the Outlook.

Being further into the park The Outlook showcases the rugged nature of the Brisbane Ranges a little better.

After leaving the Outlook I passed through another boot cleaning station (Cinnamon Fungus is a real problem out here) and started to descend back towards Anakie Gorge. Like the climb out of the gorge earlier, the drop back down is a little on the rougher side, the track drops to cross a bit of a gully on some interesting duck boarding before climbing a spur and making the final descent down to meet Stony Creek again in Anakie Gorge. Once back in the gorge there was a choice to be made, head left up to check out Lower Stony Creek Reservoir or head right and start walking back to the ute, I went left. Now remember I said that this was the first real walk that I’d done since my stack couple of weeks ago, well it was along here that I had sudden reminder of that fact. Doing a little off piste work as I looked in vain for an interesting photo I somehow managed to trip on a little sapling and ended up face down on the ground, fuck me! It’s not that I’m generally clumsy, I managed to walk to Canberra and only go arse over once or twice, but of course Murphy’s Law would come into effect today! Thankfully I landed head first today and didn’t tweak my old injuries but I still wasn’t overly impressed with my clumsy effort.

Dropping back down to the gorge I crossed this interesting section of duck boards.

Walking up Anakie Gorge the concrete retaining wall of Lower Stony Creek Reservoir eventually blocked the valley. Dropping my pack on a rock I stopped for a bit of a break, surprisingly the surrounding ridges were now lit up by the sun again…maybe that rain would hold off after all? After climbing up the steep side of the gorge I was able to see into the reservoir, with long grass growing where the water should of been I’m thinking that the dam has been fairly dry for a fair while.

Lower Stony Creek Reservoir Wall.

Lower Stony Creek Reservoir looks like it's been pretty low for awhile.

After exploring around the dam wall for awhile I grabbed my pack and started off back towards the ute through Anakie Gorge. Like I mentioned earlier the walk though the gorge is fairly easy, following a very good track, complete with stepping stones and bridges to make the numerous creek crossings easier, although with the creek bone dry on this visit they weren’t really needed today. Now I was back down near the creek the vegetation was a once again a little greener, it was along the creek that the Koala’s use to graze the Manna Gums, but on this visit I didn’t manage to see a Koala, now while I was hardly conducting a thorough search it looked like the numbers of Koala’s along here are somewhat diminished. Judging by the thick regrowth of saplings through the gorge I’m thinking the lack of mature trees might be the issue for the Koala’s.

The bushfire regrowth in the gorge was prolific. 

Arriving back at the turn off for the loop walk, the rain was imminent.

The walk through the gorge is a pretty easy stroll for the most part.

Less than an hour after leaving Lower Stony Creek Reservoir I arrived back at the Anakie Gorge Picnic Area, while the car park had been more or less deserted when I set off this morning it was now standing room only, no doubt being fairly close to Melbourne’s western suburbs adds to it’s appeal. Now while I didn’t have any good luck when it came to Koala sightings today I did have a bit of good fortune. Yeah, the predicted rain arrived around an hour late and I was comfortably ensconced in ute, driving home when it did finally start to rain.

You'd be braver than me if you crawled in here to explore.

There are stepping stones and bridges to facilitate the many crossings of Stony Creek through the gorge.

The Dirt.
This is a nice enough walk, although I’m thinking early Spring might be the time to do this one, the wildflowers would be out and with a bit of luck there might be some water flowing down the creek. According to the GPS I walked 13.1 kilometre and climbed 469 on this medium grade stroll. As far a walking notes and maps go there is a fair bit of stuff published for this walk, I carried Mr Chapman’s notes from his Day Walks Melbourne book today but Mt Tempest, Mr Thomas and Mr Daly have also published versions of this stroll. Parks Vic have also got some free stuff online as well. For the most part this walk follows good well sign posted tracks, it’s only on the climb into and out of the gorge that things get a little steeper and rougher. There is a nice picnic area at the start or end of the stroll as well as one at Stony Creek Picnic Area at around the 9 kilometre mark.

Relevant Posts.
Yankee Gully, Brisbane Ranges National Park, 2014.
Boar Gully, Brisbane Ranges National Park, 2016.
Sutherland Creek, Brisbane Ranges National Park, 2018.

Anakie Gorge Picnic Ground was deserted when I got back....

....but the car park was very busy.