Karkarook Park Walk - October 2020

Waterbirds are a feature of this walk.

Karkarook Park, hey...yes, I'd never heard of it either! These Corona restrictions have certainly thrown up some interesting walking options. I found this little piece of green as I scoured my 25 kilometre radius map, hoping to find somewhere to go for a stroll that maybe I'd overlooked on the previous 100 weeks (well, it feels like that!) of lockdown. Spying the tiny Karkarook Park I did a bit of Googling and found a short walk on Alltrails. After a close look at the map it seemed that I'd be able to add a few extra tracks and make up a half decent length walk... the only thing that I didn't know was whether the park was actually any good. 

There is a lot of parking here... which is just as well as it looks like it's a popular place.

So arriving at the car park just off Fairchild Street in Heatherton just before 6pm on what was a sunny Saturday afternoon I was a little surprised to see vehicles overflowing onto Fairchild Street... judging by the crowds then maybe I'd been missing something. Our restrictions had eased a little recently and groups were now being allowed to meet outside and judging by the amount of groups picnicking on the extensive lawns here then people were making the most of the new regulations. Me... well to be honest I'm always a bit gun-shy around crowds and now I'm even less comfortable than normal, so I quickly passed through the groups of revellers on their picnic rugs. Instead of a picnic I headed straight for the impressively named Dragonfly Lookout, this raised boardwalk and lookout allowing me to get a bit of height to take in the views across Karkarook Lake.

Dragonfly Lookout

The view from the lookout across the extensive lawns towards Karkarook Lake.

Karkarook Lake is the main feature of the park and with the old sand quarry stocked with fish it looked like it was a popular spot for the local fisherman. Instead of heading off on the more popular lakeside circuit I dropped down off the lookout and meandered my way around what I think is the Wetlands Walk (is it just me or do other people think that the latest version of the Parks Vic website is pretty well useless?). After making my way north through the wetlands I reached the break near the Dingley Bypass and swung left along the gravel path, only to be greeted by a nice sized Copperhead out enjoying the late afternoon sunlight. The healthy looking snake certainly got my attention as it slowly slithered off the path and into the verging grass. After circumnavigating the wetlands area in a anti-clockwise direction I passed by the lookout again and dropped down the join the lakeside circuit.

Wetlands Walk. I'd got a very nice afternoon for this walk.

Wetlands Walk, Karkarook Walk.

This bloke was out enjoying the sun along the Wetlands Walk.

The Copperhead looked better from this side I think.

Wetlands Walk tracks beside Warrigal Road for a few minutes.

The Grevillea were flowering today.

Wetlands Walk, Karkarook Park.

The Karkarook Lake Circuit is a sealed shared path and it made for a pleasant, if uneventful stroll this afternoon. There are quite a few side tracks that head down towards the waters edge and I took a few to check things out, there also appears to be rough pads down near the waterline created by fisherman which could be followed and would make the stroll feel a bit more like a bushwalk, although these informal pads could be pretty snakey I reckon. While the lakeside circuit is longer than the wetlands circuit it's still a pretty short and easy walk, even accounting for me mucking around trying to get a couple of decent photos the loop only took me just over half an hour.

Karkarook Park

Karkarook Lake

The lakeside circuit is along a sealed shared path.

Karkarook Lake is used for fishing and passive watersports.

Karkarook Park

Karkarook Lake... the lake is actually a re-claimed sand quarry.

The Dirt.
According to my GPS I walked around 3.7 kilometres and climbed around 21 metres on this very easy stroll. There are no steps or staircases along this stroll so it's a walk that would be suitable for wheelchairs, the tracks themselves vary between crushed granite and sealed paths. From my extensive Feral observations it appear that this little park is a very popular spot with the locals, there are a lot of good picnic facilities, plenty of good walking tracks along with the lake for fishing or un-powered watersports. There isn't a huge amount of information around about Karkarook Park, as I've already eluded to the Parks Vic website isn't much of a help, I found a walk on the Alltrails website although really I got most of route off Google maps and my Garmin topos. Now having said that this was another of my suburban Corona Walks so you are hardly going to get lost on this one.


Relevant Posts.

Braeside Park Walk, 2016.

Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary Walk, 2015.

There were plenty of fisherman out enjoying their afternoon.

Who would think that Woodhens would be a highlight of my walk?!

Walking the last few minutes back to the ute in the weak late afternoon sunlight.