Babbington Hill, Wombat State Forest - December 2020

Manna Gums on Babbington Hill.

As I've eluded to before on my blog my post Covid lockdown activities have been fairly severely limited due to the fact that my work requirements have gone off the scale since the shutdown finished. This weekend the best hope for a walk was for early Saturday although scouring the weather forecast on Friday conditions looked a bit underwhelming... at best. Grey and overcast skies were the order of the day in and around Melbourne. So it was more in hope than expectation that I jumped into the ute before sunrise and motored up to the tiny settlement of Lyonville near Trentham this morning.

Parked up on Tram Street, Lyonville. It was another early start today.

I quietly snuck out of town this morning.

Pulling up in Tram Street before 8am there wasn't a lot of activity in Lyonville at this early hour this morning. Keeping as quiet as I could I pulled on my boots, grabbed my pack and set off west down Tram Street before joining a grassy track and leaving town. The Wombat State Forest has been fairly extensively modified by man over the years, mining and logging being two of the industries that have altered the forest the most, so walking up here generally involves following old tracks that are in various stages of disrepair. So leaving town this morning I wasn't expecting a pristine wilderness style of walk as I dropped down the grassy track. Arriving at the edge of the cleared land at a corner on a fence line I picked up an un signposted old track dropping gently to the west down towards the Loddon River, while it wasn't sign posted this track was fairly obvious as motor bikes had been using it. After crossing the Loddon River on a rough bridge the track conditions improved as I climbed, still heading more or less west, up to cross over the fairly major Babbington Road on a gentle crest in the open forest.

I followed this grassy track / easement out of town.

Reaching the edge of the cleared land I took the rough track on the left which dropped down to cross the Loddon River.

Climbing away from the Loddon River the old track became more defined.

My first objective this morning was to visit Bullarto Reservoir and I now dropped down the gravelled access road. After crossing Kangaroo Creek I followed the road around to the dam's grassy picnic area. There are a lot of signs here warning of all the activities that you can't do however I didn't see one banning walking... so that's good I suppose! According to my notes walking along the dam wall (or even below it) was not allowed. Checking out the situation on the ground it appeared that the top of the dam wall was a no go zone (it had some police tape fluttering in the breeze pegged out with a couple of star pickets) however there didn't appear to be any warnings to keep off the road that ran below the dam wall so I dropped down there. If anyone arrives and finds a warning sign that I could of missed (there are a lot of signs here!) then it would be possible to cross the low fence to the west and follow the rough motor bike track across the gully below the dam wall and then re-join my route on the north side of the dam wall.

Kangaroo Creek flowing into Bullarto Reservoir.

Bullarto Reservoir

There is no shortage of warning signs up here - I couldn't find one featuring a fat walker though!

Bullarto Reservoir

The grey skies were sucking my Feral mojo away a bit this morning, however I still had a go at trying for a decent photo at the spillway, I'm thinking that on a blue sky day the photo from here would be quite good. I now followed a pretty rough 4wd track as it first swung around the north of the dam before abruptly turning 90˚ and climbing away from the water, now I say that not because the sentence flows off the page... no it's more because this is fairly important navigational spot. There are a few informal (mostly trail bike) tracks heading away from the dam however keep an eye out for the obvious main track, there was a small cairn on the corner and a medium sized tree across the track at the corner when I visited. 

I was trying for the reverse infinity shot from the spillway here... I wasn't getting a lot of help from the overheard conditions though.

The Bullarto Reservoir Spillway.

This is the spot where my old track turned 90˚ and started climbing away from the reservoir.

I now shuffled off towards the walks second objective, the climb up Babbington Hill. Climbing away from Bullarto Reservoir I passed through some nice older growth forest as I once again crossed over Babbington Road. Once again things were pretty vague as I picked up an old track which climbed fairly solidly up the western slopes of Babbington Hill, the go up here was to avoid a track heading off left after the steepest section of the climb, if you find yourself sidling the west slopes of the hill heading north like me...go back! Once on the right track again the walking was very nice, arguably the best of the walk actually, as I crossed what is nicely forested plateau on top of the 822 metre high Babbington Hill. 

Climbing away from Bullarto Reservoir I was back in some nice forest again.

Climbing towards Babbington Road.

Crossing Babbington Road I picked up this old track on the right.

Climbing Babbington Hill I started to get some nice views through the trees.

Babbington Hill is really a broad plateau.

Leaving the summit plateau was also a little vague. I followed the track until logging regrowth started on the slopes below me on the right, then taking the first substantial track that dropped steeply of the side of the plateau to the east (right). Once dropping down this track I stayed on the more major track until I arrived onto the major Babbington Hill Track (signposted) fifteen minutes later. 

Leaving Babbington Hill I kept the plantation on my left for a few minutes....

... before dropping steeply east down this track.

It's obviously been a long time since this area was logged.

Arriving at Babbington Hill Track I found a sign post (although my map had it as Babbington Hill Track not Hill Track).

The third objective of today's stroll was a visit to the historic Lyonville Springs and I now had the roughest section of the walk to get there. After following Babbington Hill Track north onto a low ridge I picked up a very overgrown track dropping east down towards the Loddon River (marked by an old cairn), once located this track was easy to follow. With the Loddon River beside me I left this track to drop a couple of metres down to the river bank. The Loddon River here is a beautiful little ferny mountain stream and it was easy enough to cross over with dry boots this morning. Wading through the ferns on the eastern river flats there was only really a hint of a track initially (there were some old flagging tapes scattered around although they apart from telling my that someone had stepped foot here before they were of limited navigational help), however as I climbed a bit the track once again became obvious. I wasn't too concerned with finding a track along here really as it was only going to be a short climb east to meet up with Springs Road. 

I climbed easily up Babbington Hill Track onto this low rise...

... before seeing this old cairn and dropping east down an overgrow track.

It looks like the occasional trail bike is coming through here.

Heading down towards the river the track got fairly ferny.

The go along here was to leave the track at the point that it gets closest to the Loddon River.

The Loddon River is a small mountain stream here.

Climbing away from the Loddon River there was a few old flagging tapes around... although they were of limited use really.

I did pick up a rough track as I climbed from the Loddon River up to Springs Road.

Once on Springs Road I was guessing that most of my days navigational conundrums would be behind me now, and so it was. Following Springs Road south for a few minutes I arrived at the deserted Lyonville Springs Picnic Area, a perfect spot for morning smoko. There's a hand pump here to bring up the spring water (the original spring is fenced off) as well as picnic tables and a long drop toilet. Not really being a fan of the metallic taste of the water from these mineral springs I gave the water a miss this morning and enjoyed my Cliff bar washed down by some luke warm Melbourne water that I'd lugged around the walk. Still, sitting here listening to the birds in the trees even the luke warm water tasted pretty good!

Lyonville Springs Picnic Area.

Lyonville Spring... this spring is fenced off now days.

If you really want to taste the spring there is a hand pump.

The Loddon River flows beside the Lyonville Springs Picnic Area.

Leaving the Lyonville Springs I shuffled along the now sealed Springs Road south until it veered away from the Loddon River. Picking up the rough Old Springs Road I continued to follow the river valley as I approached Lyonsville again. Interestingly there was a spring coming out of a gully along here that was absolutely gushing out, we'll gushing out enough to actually flood the track in spots. With the cleared land on the outskirts of Lyonville beside me again I met my outwards track and followed this mornings grassy track back up into town. Arriving back up at the ute on Tram Street it was still well before midday however it was time to get home and brace myself for another busy week at work.

Springs Road scenery.

Old Springs Road was fairly damp under foot.

There was a substantial amount of water gushing out of this shallow gully.

Old Springs Road climbs the valley beside the Loddon River for most of the distance, the river is pretty well hidden by the ferns mostly though.

Old Springs Road

The Dirt.

According to my GPS I walked around 11.3 kilometres and climbed about 291 metres on what I'd call a medium grade walk. The main reason that I'd call this a medium grade is that there is a fair bit of navigation involved with a lot of the tracks un-signposted and a bit un-loved. Having said that Mr Tempest has published this walk in his Victoria's Goldfields Walks book and if you buy his book you can get access to his GPS file for the walk. I'm not too worried about always staying on the exact routes so I don't bother using his GPS downloads though. Apart from Mr Tempest's map and notes I also used Meridian's Wombat State Forest map. This walk has a fair bit of variety and its made for a good few hours in the bush, the Manna Gums on the summit plateau of Babbington Hill were particularly nice and would make a nice spot for a picnic. Don't go on this stroll expecting a well manicured and sanitised track though.

Relevant Posts.

Domino Trail, Wombat State Forest, 2019.

Blue Mountain Walk, Wombat State Forest, 2019.

Heading back into Lyonville the overhead conditions were still a little drab.

Back on Tram Street, Lyonville... time to head home.