Brimbank Park - February 2019

The Maribynong River at Brimbank Park.

Passing by Brimbank Park late one summer Saturday afternoon I decided that the time was right to head in and check things out. I haven’t walked in this park for at least ten years so I was interested to see what had changed in the interim. Brimbank Park is in a 55 metre deep valley/gorge which the Maribynong River has cut. Being a suburban park their is a lot of good infrastructure in this park, everything from paved paths, good toilets, BBQ’s, picnic facilities, children's playgrounds, there is even an on site café if you want a coffee. All I was looking for today though was Car Park A and I was on my way.

There was no shortage of parking for this walk.

Leaving the car park I dropped down the grassy slopes past the café, picking up a sealed path heading for the old Dodds Homestead. The good thing with these little suburban parks is that you generally don’t have too far to walk to arrive at the next point of interest and it was only a few minutes after I’d left the ute when I arrived at the old homestead. Dodds Homestead was the residence of the Dodd family, a local farming family who lived here from 1860 to 1974. I’m thinking that the permanent water provided by the Maribynong River and the fertile soils near the river would of been a pretty decent place to set up a homestead back in the day, the river valley is definitely far more inviting than the dry, rocky flat country above the valley.

I managed to avoid the gravitational pull of the café this afternoon.

The rocky plains to the west of Melbourne have a lot of old dry stone walls.... although I'm not so sure that this is a genuine example?

The Red Gums along the Maribynong River are a feature of this walk.

The old Dodds Homestead.

Leaving Dodds Homestead I now dropped down to my first crossing of the Maribynong River, crossing the old bluestone ford with dry feet. I was admiring the beautiful old Red Gums from the other bank when I noticed a temporary sign fluttering in the breeze. Shuffling over the sign told me not to drink, swim or eat fish from the river as there has been suspected PFAS contamination which had spread from the nearby Tullamarine Airport. So, here I was admiring the beautiful old trees and the lazily flowing water thinking to myself that all the ducks and fish were probably slowly killing themselves in the toxic water, fuck! Somehow the local indigenous managed to live here for 40,000 years in harmony with the environment and yet we’ve managed to stuff it in a couple of centuries.

After leaving the homestead I dropped down to cross the river.

The Maribynong River at my first ford, looks nice hey....

....yep, maybe I'll give the swimming a miss today.

This old tree has seen a fair bit of history in it's life time I'm thinking.

After crossing the Maribynong River I climbed a little before picking up a gravel path that dropped down to Kulin Wetlands. It had rained a bit a few hours ago and I’m thinking that the rain had helped the scenery in the wetlands a bit, with the vegetation clean and glistening in the afternoon sun and Taylors Creek having a decent flow in it, the Kulin Wetlands was quite a nice spot to linger for awhile. Climbing away from Taylors Creek I left the wetlands and headed south, passing an old blue stone ruin as I dropped down to a bone dry billabong beside the Maribynong River. It looks like it’s been a fair while since this billabong has held any water so there’s not much to be seen here (mind you if you are a twitcher I’m sure you’d find plenty of bird life in the Red Gums lining the river).

Taylors Creek in Kulin Wetlands.

It's been a dry old summer in Melbourne.

I passed this old blue stone ruin on the way down to the billabong.

Native grass above the dry billabong.

Leaving the dry billabong my track curved back on itself and started to climb, this section of the walk looks like it isn’t walked much judging by the knee high grass that I was pushing through. Thankfully the overgrown section only lasted for 100 metres or so and I soon emerged onto a wide gravel track that once again took me back to Taylors Creek. Whilst it can feel a bit remote down in the valley beside the river as soon as I started to climb the encroaching suburbia becomes hard to ignore, with high tension power lines, houses and the Western Ring Road all visible from some spots.

Climbing away from the billabong the track got a little overgrown for a little while.

It can feel a little remote down in the valley but I was never far from suburbia.

My second crossing of Taylors Creek.

We'd had a good drop of rain a few hours ago, so things were looking pretty good this afternoon.

After crossing Taylors Creek for the second time I followed a wide path back towards the river before once gain climbing towards the tops, this might be a short suburban loop but it’s certainly not flat walk. After a short climb up some switchbacks I arrived at what was probably the best views of the walk with views both up and down the meandering Maribynong River Valley. Having sweated my way to the the top I almost immediately started to drop back down to the river again, my track now benched into the side of the steep grassy slopes as I dropped down.

Meeting the river again I headed left up the hill here. If you look closely there is even a small track marker.

The climb up the switchbacks was the steepest for the day.

The view down over the Maribynong River and towards Dodds Homestead from the walks high point.

Looking south along the valley, the Ted Whitten Bridge is just visible on the horizon.

Once back above the river it was just a matter of heading south-east along the river bank until I arrived at another ford. Dropping down to cross back over the river at the ford I was interested to see a couple of fisherman trying their luck in the river, around 5 metres away was another PFAS sign warning of the danger posed by the water….maybe they think if the don’t see it’s not real? We have a few politicians that use that rationale I think! Crossing the Maribynong River again and looking at the deep pools on the up stream I was thinking that the local children must be pretty pissed off losing this great looking swimming hole for the summer. Climbing away from the river I made my way up some steps and emerged onto the grass near the café and my little stroll was over.

My walk now dropped down across these steep grassy slopes.

The views down over the Maribynong River along this short section of the track were fairly constant.

Approaching the Maribynong River again. PFAS sign on the left - fisherman on the right.

The fish ladder at my second ford.

Looking downstream from the ford.

The Dirt.
I walked 4.2 kilometres and climbed 119 metres on this easy stroll. This walk would be suitable for most people I think, although there is a surprising amount of climbing involved (relatively speaking). Like I mentioned earlier Brimbank Park is a good spot for a picnic with lots of wide open grassy spaces away from the river. I’m hoping that all the PFAS warnings are a case of Parks Vic conduction a bit of an arse covering exercise and the problems isn’t as wide spread as thought, although until all the testing is complete I suppose we wont know. I used the notes and map out of Julie Mundy’s book Melbourne’s Best Bush, Bay & City Walks, it’s walk number 18 in the book. Tyrone Thomas has also written about a couple of walks in the park in some of his old books.

Relevant Posts.
Organ Pipes Walk, Organ Pipes National Park, 2018.
Gellibrand Hill, Woodlands Historic Park, 2014.

Maribynong River ducks.

This spot just upstream of the second ford is normally a good swimming spot.

It wouldn't be a Feral walk without some stairs.

Arriving back at the car park - there are plenty of nice open spaces for a picnic in this park.