Black Hill Reserve Walk - May 2020

There are some nice water features on the Circuit Track.

Back at the beginning of 2015 lightening strikes started a bushfire that pretty well wiped out the small Black Hill Reserve. Mr Fiasco walked up here in the immediate aftermath of the fire and while his post and photos were top shelf as usual, the park itself was still looking pretty second hand. Now if Mr Fiasco was struggling then I had no hope when it comes to knocking out something readable, so I decided to give Black Hill a miss for awhile. Anyway, after driving past this little park many, many times over the intervening years I finally decided to head in a check it out this afternoon.

There is plenty of parking at the start of the walk.

Black Hill Reserve is a small little park and I was pretty well planning on covering the lot of it this afternoon. After waiting for a light passing shower to scud through I jumped out of the ute, grabbed my pack and set off to explore a little. First off today I walked a short track, imaginatively titled the Revegetated Track. I was using some of Mr Chapman's notes and map today and he suggested that this track was a little faint and hard to follow, so with him being the master of bushwalking understatement I expected to be basically off piste along this bit of the walk. Happily for me I found a nice grassy track that was simple to follow,  and after all our recent rain there was even a couple of decent water features to check out.

Revegetated Track heads off beside the boundary fence. 

Revegetated Track - and here I was thinking they were talking about the bush!

The bush along the Revegetated Track is recovering nicely from the bushfires.

Black Hill from the Revegetated Track - yes, it is a fairly small hill.

Revegetated Track skirts around this dam... we've had some good rain in the last few months.

Fifteen minutes or so after leaving the ute I climbed up to meet an old 4wd track, this track is called the Circuit Track and I now followed it back south towards the car park for a couple of minutes before I came to another track junction. I left the Circuit Track here and climbed up Ridge Track towards the summit of Black Hill. Now when I say that I climbed well I suppose that is factually correct however the climbing is pretty short and easy, I'm guessing a bit however I think that the climb from the car park to the summit was probably only 150 metres so it's not overly arduous. Before arriving at the summit I took a short side trip out to the north to check out the Northern Lookout with its views over rural farmland and vineyards and across to the distant Mt Alexander.

The view north west from the Northern Lookout.

Looking up towards the summit ridge of Black Hill from the Northern Lookout.

It must of bee a very hot bushfire that ripped through here - the bush on the ridge is still trying to recover.

Tearing myself away from the Northern Lookout I climbed a few minutes and once again dropped off the Ridge Track to check out the Eastern Lookout - judging by the nomenclature, Captain Obvious had something to do with naming these features I'm thinking. Eastern Lookout featured more big rocks and rural views, although the views along the ridge line towards Black Hill were mostly of scrappy regrowth. Leaving Eastern Lookout I rejoined Ridge Track and climbed up to the Black Hill summit, although to be honest I'm not too sure where the summit actually is, as the ridge itself is a bit of an undulating affair.

Climbing Ridge Track towards Eastern Lookout. There has been a lot of good work done rehabilitating this park.

Just before Eastern Lookout I dropped onto this big rock to check things out...it would probably make a nice spot for lunch on a good day.

Eastern Lookout

While I might of struggled to identify the walk's high point the summit ridge still made for a fairly pleasant walk this afternoon, the regrowth was still looking fairly scrappy however there was always the big rocks and rural views to keep me interested. After ten minutes or so Ridge Track started descending as I dropped back down to rejoin the Circuit Track. Once back on the Circuit Track I set off on my anti clockwise circumnavigation of Black Hill. To be honest I think that at least until the vegetation on the summit ridge grows back a bit more then the Circuit Track is the best walk in this little park.

The Ridge Track passes by numerous big granite boulders.

Ridge Track

Back down on Circuit Track... this was arguably the best walking of the day.

The Circuit Track stays fairly close to the boundary of Black Hill Reserve as it makes its way around the park. Initially most of my interest was in the rural views along with the occasional photogenic dam. Heading around the eastern side of the park I found myself passing through areas littered with huge granite boulders again, although with the occasional light shower passing through and a temperature in the very low teens than I wasn't really lingering.

Circuit Track water features.

Circuit Track.

Rural land and native bush views from Circuit Track.

After passing through an old gate and avoiding a couple of walking tracks climbing up towards Black Hill off to my left, I arrived at the the fence marking the northern extremities of the park. Once again navigation was pretty easy as I followed a walking track beside the fence line, this short section of the walk was actually a bit rougher than the rest of the walk had been as I once again passed by numerous big boulders. After ten minutes or so of rougher walking I picked up a 4wd track again and shortly afterwards met the end of my earlier route, the Revegetated Track. After passing by the start of Ridge Track off to my left I ambled the last few minutes along the Circuit Track back to the ute... it was time to head home.

Circuit Track.

I eventually reached this fence line at the northern extremities of the park.

I got some long range views north towards Mt Alexander from some granite outcrops along the northern boundary.

The Dirt.
I've got to be honest here Black Hill Reserve is still nowhere near back to it's pre bushfire best I don't think. While it's still a nice spot to visit the scrappy regrowth along the summit ridge still needs a couple more years to get back to it's best. Now while the summit ridge arguably wasn't at its best the Circuit Track is a good walk, with its mixture of native scrub, rural land, dams and big rocks it's a nice walk. I walked 6.7 kilometres today and climbed 186 metres on this easy walk according to my GPS. It looks like there is a Friends of Black Hill Reserve Group up here that does a power of work to keep this park looking good, the facilities and walking tracks are very good and they deserve a lot of credit I'm thinking. I used the notes and map out of the House of Chapman's book Day Walks Melbourne along with my GPS topo this afternoon.

Relevant Posts.
Cobaw Forest Walk, Cobaw State Forest, 2018.

Mt Alexander Walk, Mt Alexander Regional Park, 2018.

Arriving back at the car park on Circuit Track.

There are some good facilities at the start/end of this stroll....

... and also a good map.