Lake Hattah to Ki Bend, Hattah~Kulkyne Circuit, Hattah~Kulkyne National Park - September 2018

Today's objective was to camp at Ki Bend on the Murray River.

I’ve had this walk lingering in the dark recesses of my mind since I first read about it over fifteen years ago. For numerous reasons I’ve never managed to make it up to Hattah and do the walk though. With a long weekend in Melbourne I decided that the time was finally right, the weather was still not getting too hot and the environmental floods that fill these fresh water lakes had receded far enough that all the tracks were open.

It wasn’t all easy though, just to get to the start of the walk this week required a bit of effort. Sam was away up in Queensland with her parents so I was living the bachelor lifestyle, unfortunately that corresponded with work going crazy which meant on the three days preceding the walk I was heading off on the mountain bike at 4:30am and not getting home until 7:30pm. To top that all off I started to get another dose of man flu - my second for this year! Not to be deterred, after work on the Wednesday I set off on the drive to Hattah at 10:30pm, eventually pulling off the Calder Highway around Wycheproof in the early hours of the morning for a few hours sleep. Yeah it’s definitely not all business class travel and 5 start hotels in my Feral world. When the sun rising over the flat Wimmera Plains woke me next morning I jumped back into the driver seat and drove the rest of the way to Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, only really stopping to stash some water out near the Murray River, which I planned to pick up as I walked through later that afternoon.

I grabbed a few hours sleep in the front seat beside the Calder Highway.

Arriving at the visitor centre car park at Hattah-Kulkyne National Park at 11am, the first thing I noticed after stepping out of the ute was how warm it was, I’m not talking baking hot but the temperature was definitely in the high 20˚ range. After pulling on my boots and resetting the GPS I shouldered my pack and wandered off down the sealed road towards the Lake Hattah Campground. I haven’t actually carried a full pack with all my gear since finishing the AAWT last year, so not only was I a little crook but I was also a little out of condition as well, ‘suck it up princess’ I remember thinking to myself.

I left the ute at the visitor centre at Lake Hattah.

Rather than walk the road through the camp I walked the sandy shoreline of Lake Hattah until the water forced me up onto the levee that separates Lake Hattah and Little Lake Hattah. Crossing over the regulator that controls the flow between the two lakes I was now walking the sandy Bugle Ridge Walking Track, a track that I’ve walked a few times over the years, most recently a few weeks ago with Sam. This sandy track rises very slightly onto low dunes and strikes out almost due east, on the journey passing by Lake Hattah, Lake Bulla and Lake Brockie, all off on the right hand side of the pad. The good news today was that all the lakes had good amounts of water in then so the desert was not only alive with Kangaroos and Emus but the skies and lakes were featuring a wide variety of waterbirds.

Walking the sandy shoreline of Lake Hattah is more pleasant than the road through the campground I think.

Lake Hattah

Little Lake Hattah is getting fairly dry.

Bugle Ridge Track crossing the regulator between Lake Hattah and Little Lake Hattah.

Easy going along Bugle Ridge Track.

There was a little shade from the occasional Casuarina along this initial section.

Lake Bulla

Lake Brockie

Bypassing Brockie Track, which headed off on my right, I continued, now along Nip Nip Track. The country out here is generally a bit drier than around the bigger Lake Hattah, but passing Lake Tullamook and Lake Nip Nip I could see that they both still had a good amount of water in them as well. Lake Nip Nip also marked the spot that I’d start heading north. After a bit of a dog leg through the Kangaroo Fence I picked up Stockyard Track, the first section of the walk that I’d been on an open vehicle track since approaching Lake Hattah at the start of the walk, not that that mattered much as I wouldn’t see a vehicle for many hours yet. Stockyard Track travels against the grain of the land a bit and I was soon crossing some small red sand dunes as I made my way north.

Nip Nip Track

Lake Tullamook

Lake Nip Nip through the Blackbox.

Choices...I headed left (north).

Lake Nip Nip

I'm about to clamber over the Kangaroo fence.

After trudging my way north along Stockyard Track for half an hour or so I arrived at the old stockyards that the track is obviously named after. These weather beaten yards are worth stopping to check out, I’m always in awe of the bush skills that these old timers showed and these yards are a good example of their bushcraft. The stockyards also mark the spot that Stockyard Track meets up with Chalka Creek, there are a few tracks coming and going along the next few hundred metres but after ten minutes I was happily trucking along Chalka Creek Track, which not surprisingly follows Chalka Creek fairly faithfully.

Stockyard Track made for fairly easy walking.

Stockyard Track was open to vehicles, although I didn't meet anyone.

Part of the old stockyards after which Stockyard Track is named, I'm guessing.

Chalka Creek is an anabranch of the Murray River, before climate change and irrigation requirements reduced the flow in the Murray River, the periodic floods would fill Chalka Creek which would in turn fill all the desert lakes as the flood water slowly made it’s way back around to re join the river downstream. Unfortunately the lakes were dying as the the floods were rarely high enough for the water to enter the Chalka Creek system. To keep the lakes alive it was decided to pump water out of the Murray River into Chalka Creek and create an artificial flood, an environmental flood if you like, thankfully this has so far kept the lakes and their eco systems ticking over. Chalka Creek was mostly bone dry on this visit, there were only a few of the deeper billabongs still holding water.

There's not a lot in the way of shade on these flood plains.

Chalka Creek was more or less dry on this visit.

The floodplain is bordered by red dunes.

I'm thinking that this is a Yellow Gum.

There was a lot of wildlife around today, but it was all a bit quick for me.

After walking along the floodplain of Chalka Creek through mostly Blackbox for an hour or so Chalka Creek Track left the black soil floodplains and headed into some red dunes. The track now following some large high tension power lines for a few hundred metres before once again dropping down and starting across yet more black soil floodplains. It was now getting fairly late in what had been a pretty warm afternoon, so I was pretty happy to be finally approaching the Murray River, my camp was still an hour or so away but at least the larger trees around the river would give my a bit more shade. Arriving at the River Track I dropped my pack and spent awhile poking around the regulators and pumping system for Chalka Creek, it’s certainly some heavy duty gear.

There was the occasional billabong still holding a bit of water in Chalka Creek.

I'd pass underneath these power lines on Florence Annie Track again tomorrow.

Chalka Creek Track in the late afternoon light.

Approaching the Murray River along Chalka Creek Track.

The pumps bring the water into Chalka Creek where the rocks are lining the creek bed just past the buoys.

The regulator here on the River Track is closed to prevent water flowing back into the Murray River when environmental flows are being pumped out. The regulator can also be opened on the very rare occasions that the water level in the Murray River gets high enough to enter Chalka Creek naturally.

The River Track is the a fairly reasonable dirt road and I now followed it north for ten minutes or so, passing the old Messengers Homestead on the way. It was whilst I was shuffling my way along River Road that I saw the only person that I’d seen since leaving Lake Hattah hours earlier, actually this bloke rattling by in his ute would turn out to be my only human interact for the whole day. Messengers marked the spot that I’d leave the River Track and start out along the more informal tracks that follow close to the Murray River, the tracks from here to Florence Annie Track which I’d reach tomorrow afternoon ante numerous and vague in spots, but with the River Track on one side and the Murray River on the other side you can’t go too far wrong, really.

There is some serious hardware here.

River Track allowed for my first look at the Murray River.

River Track

Messangers

I was now getting very close to the spot where I’d stashed 9 litres of water that morning, I needed to find this water for my camp tonight and tomorrows walk over to Lake Mournpall. Thankfully I had no trouble locating my stash beside a huge Red Gum. Finding the water was one thing but lugging an extra 9 kilograms to camp was another thing, thankfully I only had to meander my way downstream for another 15 minutes or so untilI arrived at the first beach on Ki Bend. Dropping down onto the sand I soon found a nice spot to put up the tent with a nearby log to sit and cook on. It had been a big day and I was a pretty tired walker when I crawled into my tent tonight.

Leaving River Track I headed right towards Ki Bend, the tracks along the Murray River are frequent and convoluted.

This water needs to get me over to Lake Mourpall tomorrow night.

The tracks along the Murray River are pretty rough and informal.

The Dirt.
Ok, according to my GPS I walked 26 kilometres and climbed around 300 metres on what I’d class as a medium-hard grade days walking. The tracks today are mostly well signposted and defined although they can be a bit soft and sandy in spots, the other thing to consider is that the tree cover is pretty sparse so their is little shade to be had. Even though the walk passes a succession of fresh water lakes as well as following and camping beside the Murray River it’s best to BYO drinking water I think, you could treat the water from the natural sources but I’m thinking that it would need some serious treatment to make it potable. Camping spots are only limited by your imagination really (although I’m not certain of the legality of bush camping away from the Murray River?), but the pick of the spots are on or above the beautiful sandy beaches on the Murray River I think. Keep in mind when choosing a camp that the beautiful old Red Gums that line the river have a nasty habit of randomly dropping huge branches so camp away from the possible impact zones, there’s no coming back if one of these things land on your head. I used the Meridian’s Hattah-Kulkyne Map, along with the Parks Vic notes and the notes and map out of 2001 edition of Lonely Planet’s Walking in Australia.

Relevant Posts.
Day 2 of this walk, Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, 2018.
Hattah Lakes Circuit, Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, 2018.
Hattah-Kulkyne Drive, Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, 2018.

Reaching the first beach at on Ki Bend it was time to call stumps for the day.

A camp with water views, this'll do me!