Melville Caves Campground to Mt Kooyoora Camp via Crystal Mine, Kooyoora State Park - November 2020

The view across towards Mt Korong from my camp up on Mt Kooyoora was a nice one.

Well my Corona lockdown has ended… for now. Yes, I can’t help thinking that this new found freedom is just one extended family gathering away from being snatched away from me again! Yep, the scars are going to take awhile to heal I think! Pretty much wanting to be alone with my demons today I decided to head up to Mt Kooyoora after I finished work early this afternoon. Mt Kooyoora is on the far side of Bendigo and the summit is an off piste job so I was hoping the combination of distance from Melbourne and a lack of a track would see me camping on my own… and for once my cunning plan paid off.

I left the ute at the Melville Caves Campground.

Melville Caves Campground

As I’ve eluded to my day started off with a typically hectic 8 hours at work before I was able to jump in the ute and well and truly burst my bloody 25 kilometre bubble. After safely making its through the Corona war zone of Melbourne’s northern suburbs I settled in to listen to a bit of soothing Sepultura as I cruised north up the Calder highway, arriving at the busy Melville Caves Camping Ground just on 4:30 pm. By the time I organised my pack it was closer to 5 pm by the time I shuffled off down the dirt road… and 15 minutes later again by the time I locked at my map, realised I was going the wrong way and scrub bashed my way across to the right track… yes, my life was slowly returning to normal. Anyway, after scaring the local roos as I completed my off piste detour lets just say that the day was getting on a bit by the time I finally set off.

Alright, I was off...

... for a couple of minutes before I realised I was heading the wrong way. I then headed off on a short scrub bash to get back on track...

... startling a few locals along the way!

After passing the car park for Melville Caves I picked up Mountain View Road and set off an a fairly short road bash. Heading north for 15 minutes I left Mountain View Road which swung off to the north-west and continued shuffling my north, now on Kirwans Road. Soon Kirwans Road started dropping into a valley to the east however once again I kept north, now on Crystal Mine Track. After a few minutes walking I crossed a barrier stopping vehicles and started to drop down a little for the short side trip to the old White Swan Mine Site. This old mine basically just consists of a fairly large open-cut that had a little bit of water in it today and a mullock heap in the scrub, I didn’t do an extensive search of the bush however I didn’t notice any off the rusting machinery that I sometimes find at the old sites.

Passing the car park for Melville Caves I set off down the dirt Mountain View Road.

Mountain View Road.

Our latest drought had pretty well broken while we were locked down and the country was locking good on this trip.

Mt Kooyoora in the distance - from Mountain View Road.

Looks like Parks Vic have a decent budget for white posts and reflectors! I went right.

Gnarly trees and Granite Rocks are Kooyoora State Park staples.

Kirwans Road dropped away to the right. I went left towards the Crystal Mine.

With the day slipping away pretty quickly and with me still having a mountain (mountain is fairly generous really, Mt Kooyoora is really just a large hill I reckon) to climb off track. Retracing my way back up to the barrier that I mentioned earlier I left the track and headed off into the scrub on a bearing. Initially I headed just west of north as I aimed for a wide gentle saddle in what was fairly open forest. The fairly open country made for reasonably quick off track walking and I was soon crossing my saddle and starting my climb of Mt Kooyoora, which looked its most intimidating from this low vantage point. I now basically climbed north east to pick up the main Mt Kooyoora east - west ridge line. Yeah, that all sounds easy enough hey. Well it wasn’t too bad I suppose but for someone who hasn’t done any real walking for the best part of 10 months it still had me raising a sweat this afternoon.

The old Crystal Mine and my feeble attempt at an arty shot!

The old Crystal Mine site.

Mt Kooyoora looks a little more substantial from the Crystal Mine Track.

The main issue with the climb is safely negotiating the large granite slabs that buttress the mountain, that was the reason I’d swung away from the summit and onto the ridge - the direct route from the saddle to the summit while shorter looks a little sketchy for a old campaigner like myself. Once on the ridge I climbed to the west, negotiated a few niggly bands of scrub and rock before arriving on the summit just after 6 pm, yes it had been a big day!

The huge granite slabs could make the off piste walking easier - providing that they weren't too steep.

I was dropping gently to cross a broad saddle in the scrub before swing to the right to eventually pick up the summit ridge.

Climbing towards the summit ridge.

The flanks of Mt Kooyoora.

After putting my new Zpacks tent up that had been gathering dust at home for most of the year I settled in to enjoy the serenity off this pretty place. The summit of Mt Kooyoora consists of huge granite rocks interspersed with beautiful flat grassy openings, and with plenty of long range views available from various rocky perches it made for a very pleasant camp tonight.

After setting up camp on the summit of Mt Kooyoora I had a bit of a poke around before sunset.

The summit is crowned by yet more huge rocks.

Looking north from my camp.

The Dirt.

According to my GPS I walked around 5 kilometres this afternoon and climbed around 224 metres on what I'd call a medium grade walk. I'm calling this a medium grade walk this afternoon as the climb up Mt Kooyoora is totally off track and while the scrub is fairly light there are some steep slabs and huge boulders that need to be negotiated. I parked the ute at the large Melville Caves Campground and there is normally plenty of room here. My Mt Kooyoora Camp featured a nice grassy flat area and plenty of rocks to climb onto to check out the different views, the camp has no other facilities. I used a combination of Mr Tempest and Mr Thomas' notes and mud maps on this stroll, as well as my GPS topos.

Relevant Posts.

Melville Caves Eastern Circuit, Kooyoora State Park, 2018.

Kooyoora State Park Walk, 2016.

Dusk from Mt Kooyoora.

Mt Korong in the distance.

My camp on Mt Kooyoora... I'd been waiting a long time to get out of isolation in Melbourne and spend some quality time on my own in the bush.

Moorooduc Quarry Walk, Moorooduc Quarry Flora & Fauna Reserve - October 2020

Moorooduc Quarry Flora & Fauna Reserve.

After finishing another week in the salt mine I once again was casting around for my weekly mental health walk, although with me still being stuck in my 25 kilometre Corona bubble my choices of where to walk were still a little anorexic. Anyway, after sorting some stuff out in Frankanstan I headed over to a spot where I'd spent a fair bit of time in my youth, the Moorooduc Quarry. I'd spent a fair chunk of my teenage years within as easy bike ride of this quarry and had spent many hours swimming... and generally getting up to no good down here, so after around 40 years I was mildly interested in a revisit. 

Setting off from Two Bays Road.

Now the quarry is only an easy ten minute walk from the car park on Two Bays Road so I figured that I needed to pad things out a little this afternoon, which explains why on leaving the ute I headed off in the opposite direction. Yes, instead of heading up to the quarry I dropped down through the picnic area to cross Balcombe Creek on a nice section of boardwalk before tracking south west, crossing Two Bays Road and entering the large Mt Eliza Regional Park. The Mt Eliza Regional Park is a large and fairly manicured area of parkland that my ageing memory tells me use to be the local refuse dump - I've got very vague memories of coming here to dump rubbish with my dad when I was a very young kid.

Leaving the picnic area off Two Bays Road I entered the bush along this path - there is little to nothing in the way of signposting along this walk.

Straight away I passed by the Moorooduc Humpy.

There was plenty of flowering Wattles this afternoon.

I crossed Balcombe Creek on a nice section of boardwalk.

Balcombe Creek

After passing though Mt Eliza Regional Park, all the time staying fairly close to Balcombe Creek, I entered the large car park that services the Mornington Railway Preservation Society. Yes it's time to cue the harp again... back in my very early years Mornington was serviced by train from Frankston and that little journey was a fairly exciting outing for me when I was a little kid, the railway line has long since gone for most of it's length between Baxter and Mornington, however a short section from Moorooduc to Tanti Park survives and the Mornington Railway Preservation Society run a steam train along here on selected dates. I wasn't catching the steam trail this afternoon though, I was heading through the car park to pick up a fairly informal 4wd track that would take me west until I hit Wooralla Drive. I'd now left the Mt Eliza Regional Park and the walk took a turn for the worse for awhile, the 4wd track that I was following was badly degraded with muddy and eroded sections along with the occasional dumped vehicle and other assorted rubbish.

We've had some good spring rain in Melbourne.

Mt Eliza Regional Park.

Mt Eliza Regional Park.

Conditions were a little unsettled this afternoon.

Leaving Mt Eliza Regional Park I headed west towards Wooralla Drive along a rough 4wd track.

The old 4wd track was good in spots...

...and particularly shitty in others.

Emerging from the scrub on Wooralla Drive I turned right, crossed over Balcombe Creek again and then started climbing up towards Mt Eliza. There was a good sealed shared path running beside the road along here however I was looking for a track that was heading east back into the bush. As I've mentioned things were a little rough and ready on this section of the walk, trying to identify the right track was a little hit and miss as informal Mountain Bike tracks criss cross the side of the hill. Eventually I found a track heading in the direction that I needed to go however I'm pretty sure it wasn't the same track that was marked on my very basic map. Whether I was on the exact route or not didn't really matter too much as I knew exactly where I was on the map when I started to see the flash houses of Mt Eliza above me. After tracking along the side of the hill for awhile, sneaking a few views through the trees across the Mornington Peninsula out towards Westernport Bay, I once again found another series of informal tracks to drop me off the side of the hill and eventually back down into Mt Eliza Regional Park.

Hitting Wooralla Drive I turned right and crossed Balcombe Creek again.

Leaving my shared path beside Wooralla Drive I headed bush again picking up a walking pad in the grass at the back of this small clearing.

Once located the track was easy enough to follow.

Getting back down into the Mt Eliza Regional Park also meant keeping a close eye on the map.

Wattles - back down near Balcombe Creek again.

Passing back through Mt Eliza Regional Park I briefly re-joined my outward route before branching of north on a walking track on what I'd call the Canadian Bay Break (there were really no names or signposts on any of the tracks that I followed this afternoon from what I could see). This walking track headed north through some Tea Tree to once again cross Balcombe Creek on a long section of boardwalk before climbing little to meet the very end of Canadian Bay Road (actually it looks like Canadian Bay Road has a missing section and is actually split into two). After crossing Station Street and just touching Canadian Bay Road I entered the Moorooduc Quarry Flora & Fauna Reserve.

I'm thinking that Mt Eliza Regional Park may have been the site for the municipal tip way, way back in the day? This kind of hardware only reinforces that old memory.

Mt Eliza Regional Park.

Crossing Balcombe Creek again on some more boardwalk, this time on what I'd call the Canadian Bay Break.

Balcombe Creek

I now started the best section of my afternoons stroll. Firstly I climbed a little as I made my way up to the short side track that leads into the quarry itself, this is the spot that I remember from my younger days. Arriving at the track today I found a large no entry and no swimming sign, yes once again it looks like things had changed since my last visit. It was fairly obvious that most punters were ignoring the warning sign though so I decided to wander in a get a couple of photos, my suspicions confirmed when I entered to quarry to find rock climbers making the most of some of the walls. I'm guessing that the quarry might have been closed off to the local teenagers after a cliff jumping accident although that's just an assumption, whatever the case it looks like this magic spot is officially off limits at the moment.

If old trains float your boat then make time to check out the Mornington Railway Preservation Society.

It looks like the old quarry is officially closed off - although it appears that not many people are taking any notice?

Moorooduc Quarry Flora & Fauna Reserve.

I now climbed high above the quarry as my track zigged and zagged up a the side of the hill to basically circumnavigate the quarry itself. This was a nice section of the walk although it wasn't exactly easy, on my climb I had long sections of steps to climb and on my descent I had an equally long staircase to drop down. I basically kept right at any intersection of tracks on this bit of the walk, although I had to avoid informal pads leading out to the quarry cliff lines (probably climbers pads). There are a few opportunities to view the old quarry from above along here, including a couple of official lookouts however the views down into the quarry are marginal as regrowth has obscured things a fair bit. Once down off the staircase it was only a couple of minutes before I emerged from the bush to cross Two Bays Road and arrive back at the ute.

Climbing high above the quarry I started to get some views across the Mornington Peninsula... as well as some ominous clouds.

Looking across the Mornington Peninsula in the direction of Westernport Bay.

The Moorooduc Quarry Flora & Fauna Reserve made for the best walking of the afternoon.

I got a bit of a view down into the quarry from the lookout. If you squint you might make out the rock climbers.

The Dirt.
According to my GPS I walked around 8.1 kilometres and climbed around 202 metres on what I'd rate as an easy-medium grade walk. This walk is a walk in two parts really, with the walking in both the Mt Eliza Regional Park and the Moorooduc Quarry Flora & Fauna Reserve being pretty good but the walking in the un-protected western section being a little on the ordinary side. There was basically no signposting or track marking along the length of this stroll when I did it so it's important to keep an eye on your map... and there is an issue with that. While I used my GPS topos as well as a map off Alltrails there are a lot of informal tracks along the length of this walk that aren't mapped. Now being a fairly urban bushland walk you are not really going to get seriously lost, however to complete the two loops as I've walked them will require a bit of navigation. The Mt Eliza Regional Park section of then walk has a few facilities and would be good for a picnic, there is also picnic tables and facilities at the car park on Two Bays Road.


Relevant Posts.

Devilbend Reservoir Walk, Devilbend Natural Features Reserve, 2020.

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

My route contoured above the quarry for awhile... 

Before dropping down this long staircase...

... and arriving back at the car park on Two Bays Road.