Ker-Bur-Rer Walk, The Briars - June 2019

Bracken and open woodland, a fairly typical scene at The Briars.

The Briars Reserve is a fairly low key environmental and cultural park situated inland of Mt Martha on the Mornington Peninsula. I’ve walked around this area a fair bit over the years but until this morning I’d never walked inside the park. After my usual extensive couple of minutes on google I found a map online and decided to head off and walk the Kur-Bur-Rer Walk. According to my notes Kur-Bur-Rer is the Boonoorong name for Koala, hmm I probably should of read my notes before doing the walk I guess, needless to say I didn’t see any Koalas this morning!

I had a beautiful Melbourne winters morning for this stroll.

Anyway, after breakfast down in Mornington I arrived at The Briars under a beautiful blue sky, Melbourne’s winter weather co-operating today. Pulling on my boots I set off to find the start of the track which can sometimes be the hardest bit of a walk for me however today my luck was in, the well signposted walk heading off from in front of the visitor centre. After passing through the electric fence that encloses this part of the reserve I crossed Stockleys Creek and Balcombe Creek in short order, both creeks flowing nicely after recent rain. Shortly after crossing Balcombe Creek I avoided Woodland Walking Track off to my right and started climbing gently along Kur-Bur-Rer Walking Track.

Immediately after passing through the perimeter fence (in the background) I came on this small billabong on Stockleys Creek.

Balcombe Creek

The walk is very well signposted.

Kur-Bur-Rer Track slowly swings away from Balcombe Creek and starts heading east through dry and open woodland now, there were a few information plaques and numerous benches bedside the track as I headed east to add interest. I was half expecting to see some roos through here as it looked like the kind of habitat that they enjoy, it turns out I probably should of been looking for Koalas. I was mostly enclosed in the open forest although the track did get close to the perimeter fence in a couple of spots where I got glimpses of some of the private residences that border this section of the small park. With the track still heading east I crossed a fire track, walked a small section of boardwalk and then started to descend down towards Balcombe Creek again, crossing a couple of bracken filled gullies on the way.

Ker-Bur-Rer Track

Apparently Ker-Bur-Rer means Koala in Boonoorong dialect... I probably should of read my notes before I did the walk I guess.

The track started to cross a couple of the bracken filled gullies as I dropped down towards Balcombe Creek.

What a sensational day.

Once back down near Balcombe Creek the track alternates between heading downstream along sections of boardwalks through Paperbark swamps and then sometimes climbing the side of the valley and contouring through more of the open Stringybark and Manna Gum forest. When the track does go high there are some quite good views across the valleys of Devilbend and Balcombe Creek and over to the surrounding green paddocks. Eventually Ker-Bur-Rer Track climbs again to reach a lookout and track junction, the lookout up here looks down over the Balcombe Creek Wetlands and provides what is probably the best view down into the valley below.

Down near Balcombe Creek I walked some nice sections of boardwalk through the Paperbarks.

Ker-Bur-Rer Walk.

When the track climbed away from the creek I was getting some nice views.

There was a bit of wildlife out and about this morning.

Ker-Bur-Rer Walk

At the track junction near the lookout I decided to take a quick loop to the north along Woodland Track, like my initial walk along Kur-Bur-Rer Track the walking along here was through open woodland and bracken. I walked this short loop in a counter-clockwise direction this morning and it only added 15 minutes to this mornings walk, having said that it didn’t really add a lot to the stroll apart from increasing my stats a bit. Back at the lookout after my quick loop I checked out a large humpy before heading off along the Tichin-Goroke Link.

Looking down towards the wetlands on Balcombe Creek.

My Woodland Walk loop featured...woodland.

The Briars Humpy.

Walking down Tichin-Goroke Link Track was slightly dodgy this morning, it wasn’t navigation or terrain that made things dodgy through, nope it was the actual track. Tichin-Goroke Link Track crosses Balcombe Creek and it’s nearby wetlands on a series of boardwalks and bridges and these boardwalks and bridges were super slippery today, I had to be very cautious along here, especially as the boardwalks made the slight ascent and descent onto the bridges. Arriving at the Wetland Walk I took the short side trip to the left to check out the Chechingurk Bird Hide, slightly disappointed to see that the very flash bird hide had fully enclosed glass windows so there was no real opportunity for any great photos unless I wanted to take them through the glass.

The Tichin-Goroke Link Track featured one of the slipperiest boardwalks that I've shuffled along for awhile.

Some of the locals were also out enjoying the beautiful morning.

Balcombe Creek

Retracing 50 metres or so I now followed the Wetland Walk back towards the visitor centre. This track is nearly all boardwalk and it once again makes for very easy walking, the boardwalk along here being mostly constructed out of recycled plastic which was a lot grippier than the treated pine boardwalk back on the Tichin-Goroke Link Track. Passing by the Boonoorong Bird Hide I dropped in for a bit of a look, the good news at this bird hide was that I didn’t have to take photos through glass, the bad news being that there was a distinct lack of birds to photograph, oh well. After leaving the Boonoorong Bird Hide I re-joined the Wetlands Track and was passing back through the perimeter fence at the visitor centre within a couple of minutes, my walk now effectively over.

It's mainly Paperbarks down near the creek.

The Dirt.
I walked 4.7 kilometres and climbed 91 metres on this mornings easy stroll. This walk was a bit of a surprise, I only really decided to do it as I wanted to stretch my legs a bit after my traditional Sunday morning breakfast down in Mornington so it was a bit of an after thought in some respects. Now having walked it I’ve got to say that it was a very pleasant walk, the open forests and wetlands made for a very nice walk. A quick google search of The Briars will give you enough information to be able to complete the walk safely. Ken Martin has also written up a version of this walk in his Walks of the Mornington Peninsula book if you have it.

Relevant Posts.
Balcombe Estuary Nature Park Trail, 2014.
Mt Martha, 2016.
Mt Martha Park, 2015.

Wetland Walk stays fairly close to the perimeter fence.

Wetland Walk

The Briars Visitor Centre.