Plenty River & Blue Lake, Plenty Gorge Park - June 2018

This little park punched above it's weight when it came to scenery this morning.

With a few hours to spare and a cracker of a weather forecast I decided to head up to Plenty Gorge Park this morning. This little park is in Melbourne’s leafy outer eastern suburbs although for the most part, once you're down near the Plenty River you wouldn’t know it. In the hope of enhancing my photos a bit and also avoiding any crowds, I decided that an alpine start was called for today. So jumping in the ute I meandered my way north in the pre dawn light. Arriving at the deserted Yellowgum Carpark this morning the sun still wasn’t up and with the temperature hovering around 2˚, it was a little hard to leave my heated seat this morning.

It was an alpine start this morning, both in relation to the time and also the temperature.

After taking a pre-dawn start photo I set off down the through a picnic area to check out my first point of interest, a view overlooking Blue Lake. Now Blue Lake isn’t a natural lake it’s actually an old quarry, there's a bit of a story about this quarry too. The quarry dates back to around the late 1950’s. It seems that the owners of the quarry blasted the floor of the quarry below the water level of the nearby Plenty River and when they hit a spring in the 1970’s the quarry flooded, hmm. With the early morning mist slowly rising this morning the old quarry was quite a picturesque place, although no blue sky above meant no blue lake at this early time of the day.

Blue Lake wasn't looking so blue in the dawn light.

It's pretty cliffy around here so keep an eye on the little ones.

Leaving the lake lookout I back tracked, left the main lake access track and headed south east down an old 4wd track into a gully. Once in the gully I picked up an even older 4wd track and followed it down the gully to arrive on the banks of the Plenty River withers a few minutes (this isn’t a long walk). Standing amongst the Yellow Gums in this valley, suburbia felt a long way away, although the planes descending above me as they approached Tullamarine kind of gave the game away a bit. After checking out the river near water level I picked up an old track climbing south east up onto a bluff above the gorge for another view of this surprisingly rugged spot.

The sun was still an hour or two away from Plenty Gorge this morning.

Plenty Gorge

Looking south west down to the Plenty River from the unofficial lookout on my little side trip.

Backtracking down to the river again I then picked up another unmarked track to climb very steeply for a couple of minutes and re-join the main gravel access track. Suitably warmed up after my short, steep climb I meandered my way down the lake access track stopping frequently to check out the view down to the river. The access track actually crosses a couple of isthmus’ of land that separate the Plenty River and Blue Lake in a couple of spots, the views off either side of the track at these spots are pretty sweet.

The early morning views down into the gorge and of the river, from the main Blue Lake access track.

Blue lake

There is good wild swimming here...in the warmer months.

Once I’d descended almost all the way to water level I doubled back a little to take the side trip to the Blue Lake Picnic Area. Standing at this spot this morning watching the mist slowly rising, swimming was the last thing on my mind but in the warmer weather this is a prime wild swimming spot. Having decided against a swim I retraced my route back to the main access track and headed off around the lake. The access track actually completes a loop around the lake before eventually heading back up to the car park and I was loosely following it this morning. Reaching the northern end of Blue Lake I once again left the main track and dropped down to water level. The early morning view from down here, with the sun starting to light up the almost sheer walls of the quarry and the mist rising off the frigid water was pretty stunning actually, it made it worth climbing out of bed at such an early hour I think.

I was still waiting for the sun to appear.

Yellow Gums and the Plenty River.

Believe it or not my walk was starting to come to it’s end now. Picking up the access track again I climbed away from the lake, the Plenty River Gorge now demanding my attention as I gained height. With the sun having now made it’s appearance it was lighting up the mist, shafts of sunlight piercing the fog and lighting up the Yellow Gums on receding ridge lines. After ten minutes or so the climbing was over and I was passing through what once must have been farm paddocks before they were incorporated into the park, judging by the mobs of Eastern Grey Kangaroos they must appreciate the old paddocks. My early morning walk was now coming to it’s end though and after saying goodbye to the roos I jumped into the ute, cranked up the seat warmer and headed home, it’s not that often that I get home after a walk before 10am.

The sun finally made an appearance as I climbed back up to the ute.

There were a few reminders that I was in the outer eastern suburbs of Australia's second biggest city.

The Dirt.
I walked 4.1 kilometres and climbed 161 metres on this easy little stroll. This walk would be good on a hot day if you fancy a swim in Blue Lake, although the Parks Vic people have a multitude of warning signs around warning of the danger of the deep, cold water - so use your own judgement there. Now I loosely followed the notes in Julie Mundy’s Melbourne’s Best Bush, Bay & City Walks by Woodslane, although I did improvise a little in a couple of spots, it’s walk number 26 in the 2011 edition of the book. Mr Tyrone T. Thomas has also penned a pretty similar walk in his 40 Bushland & Park Walks In Metropolitan Melbourne if you can find a copy of his old book that was published in 2001. Depending on the exact route, this walk would be suitable for agile children although there are a few cliffs about which you’d have to be careful of. The picnic ground near the carpark would also make a nice spot for lunch I’m guessing, you may even get a visit from the local macropods.

Relevant Posts.
Warrandyte Goldmining Trail, 2015.
Blue Tongue Bend, Warrandyte State Park, 2016.
Heidi Sculpture Walk & Banksia Park, 2017.

The sun bought with it a pearler of a winter's day.

Climbing out of the gorge there are plenty of open grassy areas.

A local keeping a close eye on the Feral interloper.