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| The Grass Trees are a highlight of this walk. |
It’s been a long time since I’ve walked out in this section of the Brisbane Ranges National Park. Back in the day I’d done a long, off track walk out here that I’ve always wanted to return too, however a severe bushfire, track closures and a cinnamon fungus outbreak in the area meant that Parks Vic had stopped access - or so I thought. Reading through Woodslane’s snappily titled Best Walks of Geelong, the Bellarine and the Brisbane Ranges book I stumbled upon a walk called Spring Creek Loop Track, a walk that meandered around a similar area of the park to my old walk. It was time to go back and check out.
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| Heading west along Spring Creek Track first thing this morning. |
Pulling up this morning I was greeted by a nice mild Melbourne spring morning, complete with the occasional bank of fluffy clouds floating by. Now I know that’s a really boring sentence but it is a little relevant to the walk. The walk as I did it this morning, is a little short of grand scenic highlights, so I was going to need everything going for me to try and eke out a couple of interesting photos I was thinking. After re setting the GPS I set off into the dry bush down the wide and well signposted Spring Creek Track, straight away passing through a forest of Grass Trees, always a favourite of mine but appreciated even more today as I'd just returned from a month in Sweden (Grass Trees were a little thin on the ground above the Arctic Circle;). After following Spring Creek Track for a few minutes I headed right down Island Track and the walking got a little more interesting.
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| The tracks are all signposted on this walk. |
Island Track dropped a little through the open forest before arriving at a fire dam (I’ve mentioned it before but when I start taking photos of fire dams you know I’m struggling). Apart from giving me an excuse to stop and take a photo the fire dam also marked the spot that I turned down Loop Track to the east. I was now heading towards Spring Creek but for the most part the gorge was hidden below me in the trees. After turning onto Glider Track (the signpost was lying on the ground) I started a section of the stroll that mostly meandered around contouring above Spring Creek.
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Ah yes... my standard fall back... an inky black fire dam.
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Loop Track
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Well, I didn't say that all the signposts were still standing!
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Glider Track
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| Spring Creek is down in that gorge. |
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There were a few spots over the next couple of kilometres as I followed Glider, Loop and Bluff Tracks, that allowed me to get some longer range views through the trees, but really long views aren’t real a feature of this forest walk. I did see something interesting along here though, remember I mentioned early about my enjoyable off track walk that I did here years ago and how the area had been closed off by Parks Vic for years? Well part of that old walk had me following a fence line that marked the border of the Brisbane Ranges National Park and some private rural farmland (the open grassy walking was a highlight). Looking across the Spring Creek Gorge this morning I could see the farmland, now with some huge wind turbines on it. Maybe I’m thinking too hard about this, however I couldn’t help but wonder if the government wanted this section of the park blocked off whilst the turbines were built? Who knows.
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I got a perfect Melbourne spring morning for this stroll.
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| Bluff Track is slowly returning to nature. |
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After meandering along above Spring Creek for around an hour I once again arrived at Loop Track right next to…you guessed it, another fire dam. Yep the scenic highlights were coming thick and fast now. Turning south I climbed fairly easily up Loop Track until some cleared rural land came into view in front of me, this was the spot where I re-joined Spring Creek Track and headed east back towards the ute. The farmland actually providing a bit of variety this morning. Heading back to the car park along Spring Creek Track was a very easy stroll, the Grass Trees being a real feature on this bit of the stroll I think. Avoiding Island Track, my outward route, I retraced the last couple of hundred metres back to the car park and my mornings stroll was over.
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Another fire dam...it must be my lucky day!
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....a little bit further along...another Feral 'go to'
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Climbing up Loop Track towards Spring Creek Track I crossed a couple of green and lush gullies...not something that is all that common in the Brisbane Ranges.
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After climbing Loop Track I met Spring Creek Track beside some rural land.
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Spring Creek Track
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| Very easy walking on Spring Creek Track. |
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The Dirt.
I walked 8.4 kilometres and climbed 147 metres according to my GPS on this easy walk. Now on reading this post the walk all sounds a little underwhelming however in reality it wasn’t that bad, while the dry open forest is a little short of ‘oh wow’ moments it still makes for some nice walking. There is a fairly high chance of spot some Roo’s, if you are a twitcher then the birdlife is plentiful, there can be a lot of wild flowers in Spring and for me there is always the Grass Trees. All of the tracks are signposted however Bluff Track is starting to get a little overgrown so you need to keep an eye on that. As I mentioned earlier this stroll has been written up in the Woodslane book Best Walks of Geelong, the Bellarine and the Brisbane Ranges, I used the notes and map out out of the book along with my GPS topo’s this morning.
Relevant Posts.
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| I'm thinking that this is almost the reverse image of the second photo? |
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| There is plenty of parking at the start of the walk - although I don't think anyone will be battling crowds on this one! |
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