Hmmm.....I wrote this post up in early November when I was a bit bitter and twisted about the fires up at Binna Burra...seems that my thoughts are still accurate now, maybe even more so with the fires around Sydney....and summers barely started!
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| The Powder Magazine. |
I had some big plans for when I arrived home from Sweden. Before Christmas I wanted to head to both South Australia and New South Wales and do some overnight walks. Yes I was gunna do that, except that, well, work got in the way. So instead of heading interstate to some (relatively) exotic walking destination I’ve been stuck at home in Victoria.
To make things even more depressing the weather on most of the recent Saturday’s that I’ve had off has been the grey and overcast kind. We’ve had snow predicted in the mountains around Melbourne for the last 5 days, not that unusual in Winter but pretty odd for November. Soberingly as I type this post up large areas of New South Wales and Queensland are on fire with over 100 houses burnt and tragically three people dead. Of course the conservative politicians and their media mates are on the front foot already declaring that now isn’t the time to talk about climate change - although when will be the right time for Slowmo and his fossil fuel loving mates to talk about meaningful action on climate change is a little less clear - fuck!
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| Early morning on Barrack Street, Heathcote. |
Anyway with the Melbourne weather not looking all that conducive for taking photos I decided to head over the Great Dividing Range to Heathcote and try my luck there. After a fairly uneventful early morning drive I parked the ute near Visitor Information Centre in Heathcote and set off on my stroll under a blue sky, all good! This is a walk that was written up by Mr Tempest and I swear he added the first (and last) 300 metres just to add to the stats a bit, as after parking the ute on a side road I wandered back up to the main road through town and followed it south for 300 metres before turning left and heading for the hills where the real walking began. After leaving the main drag along Jenner Street I crossed over McIvor Creek on a suspension bridge (always a bit of a novelty in Australia) and made my way up to the historic Powder Magazine.
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McIvor Creek
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| I headed up the middle track towards the Powder Magazine. |
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The grounds of the Power Magazine would make a nice spot for a picnic I guess, although at 8:30 am on a day where the temperature was well down in the single digits there wasn’t any picnicking going on this morning. Apart from the Powder Magazine itself there is also a couple of pieces of rusting machinery here which are worth checking out here. Leaving the historical site my route entered the Heathcote-Graytown National Park and started climbing into the hills, after 100 metres or so meeting what would be my return route later this morning. Turning right at this track junction I now climbed for 10 minutes up to check out the Devils Cave. The forebodingly named Devils Cave is an overhang in a rock slab, the cave facing east towards the hills and not east over the valley as I’d imagined it would of.
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There is a couple of old relics slowly being wasting away on the Powder Magazine Picnic Grounds.
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I been pretty lucky with the weather so far this morning.
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Climbing...fairly easily...up to the Devils Cave.
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| Devils Cave |
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Leaving the Devils Cave I continued climbing as I headed up onto the crest of the McIvor Range to meet Range Drive. As I was now gaining a bit of altitude my views down towards Heathcote and south towards The Great Dividing Range started to open up a bit, while I’d been shuffling my way up onto the range under blue sky the view of the dark clouds to the south west had me thinking that I’d be getting wet sooner or later. After what was a very pleasant climb I arrived on the ridge crest and set off south along Range Drive. For the most part Range Drive stayed fairly close to the crest, with the 4wd track making for fairly easy progress as I climbed up to the highest point on the McIvor Range at 369 metres (yes, we aren’t talking huge mountains up here).
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The climb up to the crest of the McIvor Range is a pleasant one.
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I was starting to get a few views south towards the Great Dividing Range now.
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Heading south on Range Drive.
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| There are a few old mine shafts off the side of Range Track. |
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With the black clouds closing in on me I dropped steeply down (the un-signposted) Pannells Track, to arrive at some private land at the bottom of the descent. The private land marked the spot where I’d turn north along Hylands Track, it also marked the spot that the rain caught up with me although thankfully, while it looked pretty dodgy there wasn’t as much in it, I didn’t even bother pulling on my wet weather gear. Hylands Track followed a dry gully for a fair distance before eventually climbing up onto a ridge where I did a bit of a left-right dog leg and started to drop down Pannels Track.
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From the high point on the McIvor Range I could see the black clouds getting closer.
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Pannells Track drops fairly steeply in parts.
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| Looking east towards the Great Dividing Range from Pannells Track. |
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As you’ve probably guessed already from my dry write up, this is one of those walking by numbers jobs, with a lot of left / right / left kind of navigation. After dropping down Pannels Track for a few minutes I turned left onto Gormans Track, the rocky 4wd track again dropping fairly gently until I eventually arrived at some farmland. It was very interesting to see how dry the country was up here north of the Divide, both the native bush and the rural land were looking very stressed. I mentioned the fires burning up north earlier but large sections of Australia are currently in a once in a lifetime drought…the second one in the last twenty years! With the somewhat parched paddocks in front of me I soon picked up Range Drive again and started a fairly gentle climb again.
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Meeting Hylands Track I headed north for awhile.
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Heathcote-Graytown National Park
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Hylands Track
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Eventually Hylands Track climbed up onto a ridge.
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Heathcote-Graytown National Park
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Gormans Track
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| Gormans Track |
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This section of Range Drive provides 2wd access up to Viewing Rock and its picnic ground so it made for pretty easy walking this morning, the main interest for me was an interesting rib of rock, just off the side of the road that I managed to take a very average photo of. Arriving at the deserted Viewing Rock Car Park I quickly picked up the walking track that would drop me me back down to the Powder Magazine and Heathcote, only stopping to climb the actual Viewing Rock itself to check out the view down to Heathcote through the trees. Like the walking track that climbed the range at the start of the day the walking track that drops down here is another good section of the walk, these two sections of walking track being a lot more enjoyable than all, the 4wd tracks in my humble opinion...
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The country north of the Great Dividing Range was looking very parched.
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This is a fairly ordinary photo of this rock rib... you'll have to trust me that it looks a lot better in real life.
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| Looking down over Heathcote from Viewing Rock. |
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It was only ten minutes or so after leaving Lookout Rock when I arrived at my outward route back at the track junction above the Powder Magazine. From here on I was just doing a bit of a retrace, although with the sun being a bit higher in the sky now (when I could actually see it, that is!) I still mucked around a bit taking a few photos. After crossing back over McIvor Creek I once again followed the main drag back up to the Visitor Information Centre, Heathcote now bustling with a lot more activity than it had been back at 8:30am this morning. Avoiding the bright lights of town (being a mostly solitary walker tends to mean I generally don’t go to a lot of the small cafés that I see on my walks, a situation that I may remedy one day) I was soon back in the ute and heading home.
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Viewing Rock
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The walking track that drops down from Viewing Rock to the Powder Magazine makes for nice walking.
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| The historic Powder Magazine dates back to 1864 and was built from locally quarried stone. |
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The Dirt.
I walked 12.8 kilometres and climbed 389 metres on this easy - medium grade walk. This walk features a fair bit of old gold mining history along with a few decent views through the trees on the McIvor Range. The walking along the quiet 4wd tracks through the dry Eucalyptus forest can be a little ho hum sometimes, although while the scenic highlights might be a little thin on the ground I still enjoy walking in what is fairly quintessential Victorian scrub. Navigation on this walk is fairly easy although with so many tracks heading off on on random tangents you do need to keep an eye on the map. For today’s stroll I used the notes and map out of Mr Tempests
Victoria’s Goldfields Walks.
Relevant Posts.
Mt Ida & Dargile Forest, Heathcote~Graytown National Park, 2018.
My Ida, Heathcote~Graytown National Park, 2017.
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| Crossing back over McIvor Creek on the suspension bridge - a bit of a novelty on an Australian walk. |
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| The main street of Heathcote was a little busier now than it had been when I trudged through at 8:30 this morning. |
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