Ingliston Granites Walk, Werribee Gorge State Park - March 2020

Looking up towards the Ingliston Granites from down on the Werribee River. I'd jagged some great weather today.

Once again I decided to revisit an old favourite this morning, my Saturday walk this week had me travelling out to Werribee Gorge State Park where I was planning on heading out to check out the rarely visited Ingliston Granites. Now straight up I've got to say that this is a great little walk. This walk has a little bit of everything for me, wildlife, swimming, rugged views and some off track walking - and all that less than an hours drive from the Melbourne CBD.

I set off from the small Ironbark Gorge Car Park, if you pass beneath the railway bridge you've gone too far.

Parks Vic have done a lot of work on this track since I was last out this way. There is room for around a dozen vehicles in the car park.

Pulling into the almost deserted carpark at around 9am I soon had my boots on and was on my way. Parks Vic have done a bit of work around here since the last time I accessed the park from up here (probably 15 years ago;), there is now a good track with plenty of signposting dropping down to cross the headwaters of Ironbark Gorge, things were a lot more informal back in the day. While I bypassed Ironbark Gorge this morning however I did stop long enough to check out the nice rocky bluffs illuminated by the low early morning sun, the view down into the gorge wetting my appetite for a future walk. After following a dry tributary of Ironbark Gorge up stream for five minutes I started a solid climb up through the dry open forest before arriving at a signposted track junction.

Dropping into Ironbark Gorge first thing this morning.

Crossing the head waters of Ironbark Gorge. There is actually a route that involves dropping all the way down this gorge off track until you emerge at the Werribee River in Werribee Gorge. I've done this route before, however I believe that since then access has been denied for the section that crosses some private land so it hasn't featured on my blog...hopefully that'll change one day.

I scrambled my way upstream through Ironbark Gorge for five minutes....

...before climbing steeply into the open forest.

The morning light was pretty sweet.

The first half of this walk is mostly through open dry forests.

Arriving at this track junction I took an old 4wd track that headed east out onto a broad spur. This loose rocky track drops a little before arriving at the stunning Falcons Lookout. This lookout has to be one of the best nature view points close to Melbourne I reckon, the view east this morning down Werribee Gorge was only marred by me having to take photos into the low sun. The cliffs below Falcons Lookout are one of Melbourne's more popular rock climbing venues and there is a lot of climbing hardware hammered into the rocks around here, what there wasn't a lot of this morning was climbers, actually there were none. Over the years I've explored a lot of this area on foot, both on and off track, and standing on this lookout looking down on a the steep spurs dropping down to meet shimmering dark pools of water far below me I was remembering many of those past little adventures.

Dropping down to Falcons Lookout the track starts off fairly easily....

....before getting a little steeper and looser.

Even though I was looking almost directly into the morning sun I still thought that the view from Falcons Lookout was pretty sweet. This is the view looking east down Werribee Gorge towards Bacchus Marsh.

The view to the north west was pretty nice too. That flat top hill is Whyte Island, I did a nice off piste walk from there down over the river, up over the saddle in the middle ground and back down to the river again last year.

The Werribee River flowing through the depths of Werribee Gorge below Falcons Lookout.

After reminiscing for awhile at Falcons Lookout I retraced my route, climbing back up the rocky spur to again reach the track junction that I mentioned earlier. Instead of heading back to the ute though I swung right along the sign posted track towards Ingliston Granites. The track now headed west a few metres to meet a fence line that marks the border between the state park and the private rural land, before swinging north and descending towards the gorge along the fence. This is one of the reasons that I like this walk, I'd now emerged from the dry woodland and was walking open grassy slopes with plenty in the way of long distance views which are always a good thing for my Feral mojo. It's while dropping down this fence line that the actual track section of today's stroll fades away for a fair while, by the time the fence line (and my route) turns west my track had become an intermittent pad at best, still the combination of the fence line, the open slopes and the prominent gorge all made navigation pretty easy really.

Climbing away from Falcons Lookout I was in forest for a little while...

...however soon after starting to drop down the Ingliston Granites Track the country changed to open grassland.

The track had largely gone by now. There was the very occasional track marker around.

Ingliston Granites

Pretty much immediately after turning west I arrived at the signposted Ingliston Granites area. Ingliston Granites is an area with a collection of large granite boulders scattered about, some in the state park and some on the adjacent rural land. This is a nice spot to stop for awhile and have a bit of a smoko, the views across the gorge to the grassy slopes of Whyte Island are particularly good. Sitting here for a few minutes whilst watching the Kangaroos grazing on the grassy slopes this morning life was pretty sweet. Apart from the large granite rocks and the views the other highlight of this section of my stroll were the gnarly old Red Gums that are scattered around the slopes, while these trees are particularly photogenic it always pays to be careful around them as they have a nasty habit of dropping their huge branches at random intervals.

Ingliston Granites

There are some nice Red Gums around the Ingliston Granites area.

After crossing another gully my fence line swung to the north again. There is a flash new house on the private land along here so I thought it was best to contour the slopes a little further down the hill and not get into their eye line. After passing below the house my fence line again changed direction, now dropping very steeply east down to the Werribee River. The descent down here was not only steep but also a little slippery as I dropped down the grassy slope, occasionally picking up an animal pad to make progress a little easier. I've found that one of the joys of getting older is that I have to take it a little easier on the steep slippery descents than I would of back in my younger days, my ageing joints and muscles don't tend to stretch as much when when they are suddenly pulled in different directions now!

I'm about to drop into the gorge.

Looking down towards the Werribee River - I'd climb the steep spur with all the rocks on it a bit later in the day.

The reclaimed rural land might not scream wilderness however I like a bit of diversity in my walks, so it suits me.

It was late morning by the time I dropped down to the river today and I was thinking of two things now, eating and swimming. First things first though, I wanted to make my way downstream to a spot close to where I'd be climbing out of the gorge. Now while this section of the walk is mostly through open grassy areas the actual bottom of the gorge is pretty scrubby....and it's not friendly scrub! This scrub consists of scratchy native flora mixed in with a liberal sprinkling of Gorse and Blackberries, hmm. Anyway, with a fair bit of zigging and zagging I managed to avoid the worst sections of scrub, also managing to cross the river a couple of times without getting my feet too wet. Around thirty minutes or so after arriving at water level I spied a spur that looked climbable heading back up to the Ingliston Granites area and shortly afterwards found a big flat rock with water access, lunch and a swim was now sorted!

Scrub bashing down the Werribee River.

Werribee River

Looking up towards the Ingliston Granites from the river.

It's not the toughest off piste walking that I've done however I wouldn't call it easy either.

Werribee Gorge

Werribee River

I'd walked past a couple of bigger pools as I'd made my way down the gorge however around the spot where I had lunch I really only had access to a bit of a spa pool, still with the day not being super warm a small spa pool was all I really needed today. Sitting on my rock drying off I was able to relax for awhile, the lack of a track and rugged topography making this spot feel a lot more remote than it actually is.

Still following the Werribee River down into Werribee Gorge.

Off piste in Werribee Gorge.

Time for smoko and a swim.

I look happy enough.

This part of the Werribee River feels surprisingly remote.

Werribee River

After my tasty lunch of a Cliff Bar washed down with some tasty luke warm water I grabbed my pack and set off to climb out of the gorge. Retracing my route fifty metres or so, I left the river and started climbing a very steep spur. The spur was super steep although luckily the rough animal pads that I was following allowed me to zig zag my way higher, the other good thing about climbing this spur was that the open nature of the country allowed me to get better and better views, always a good thing on a steep climb. After climbing up through the large boulders of Ingliston Granites it wasn't long before the open rural land came into view and I rejoined my outward route, from here on I just retraced my route back to the ute.

I'm about to start climbing.

Thankfully there was plenty of nice scenary to appreciate on my climb.

I picked up a few Kangaroo pads as I climbed.

Back up in the Ingliston Granites.

One final look back down towards the Werribee River.

The Dirt.
Ok, I walked 8.4 kilometres and climbed 507 metres on what I'd call a medium-hard grade walk. As I mentioned above I really enjoyed this walk, I really like the diversity on this stroll. Now on saying that this walk isn't for everybody, there are long sections off track and the walk along the Werribee River is pretty scrubby. I loosely followed a route published by Tyrone Thomas (although I scrub bashed a fair way further downstream than his notes suggested) along with using the Meridian Map Lerderderg & Werribee Gorges topo and my GPS maps.

Relevant Posts.
Werribee Gorge & Whyte Island Circuit, 2018.

Ingliston Gorge Walk, Werribee Gorge State Park, 2018.

Ingliston Granites

I was heading up towards those trees.

The headwaters of Ironbark Gorge.

The last climb back up to the ute was a steep one.