Goin' Feral One Day At A Time: Coimadai Creek Trail, Long Forest Flora Reserve

Nice walking along the Coimadai Creek Trail.

There was a nice flow of water coming down Coimadai Creek today.

This is another of those walks that it had been many years since I'd last step foot on. Coimadai Creek is only a few minutes through Melton and I always seem to be passing through heading for more exotic walking destinations. With a grey winters day forecast ahead of me today I decided that the time was right to head back down to Coimadai Creek in the Long Forest Flora Reserve and check things out again. I've got a few sets of walking notes for this stroll, although with the most recent of my notes dating back to 2005 I was expecting a bit of freelancing this morning, so I was pretty happy to arrive at the small car park off Long Forest Road beside Happy Valley Track and find everything pretty well matching up on my mud map.

This walk is extremely well signposted ... now.

Leaving the ute I headed off into Long Forest to see what I could see. Initially I was aiming to drop down to meet Coimadai Creek along Happy Valley Track and I had memories of this being a particularly tricky section to navigate back in the day... not today though. Happy Valley Track is now well signposted all the way down to Coimadai Creek and while there are still a multitude of tracks heading off into the bush at random tangents everything was pretty clear on the ground. Setting off there were some farming relics slowly rusting away on the forest floor to check out before the Happy Valley Track skirted around a large dam and then settled on a westerly bearing as I made my way down towards the creek. Long Forest Flora Reserve is famous for its Bull Mallee Trees (or maybe that's just the circles that I move within!), which are the only Mallee Trees growing south of the Great Dividing Range.

There is a fair amount of European history out here.

The soil here is pretty poor, however the moss seems to be thriving.

Apart from agriculture there is a lot of mining history as well.

Dropping down Happy Valley Track towards Coimadai Creek.

Setting off along Coimadai Creek Trail.

After dropping steeply down to Coimadai Creek I took the well signposted Coimadai Creek Trail and headed off up stream. This trail was another surprise, both the fact that it was well signposted and track marked but also that there was an actual track to follow... back in the day I remember making my way upstream using the path of last resistance along the creeks banks, crossing and re-crossing the creek quite a few times as I made my way up to Long Point. The next surprise I had was that the track stayed entirely on the eastern side of the creek, now while that meant no wet boots for me today it also meant that I did a fair bit more climbing than last time as the pad climbed up and over numerous rocky bluffs, this was particularly so on the southern section of the creek walk. After passing by some reminders of the areas old mining heritage and then walking some pretty creek side flats my creekside track eventually deposited me onto Long Point Track, this was basically my turn around point.

Coimadai Creek Trail.

The southern end of the valley is more of a gorge really.

More mining history down on Coimadai Creek.

Coimadai Creek.

Long Forest Flora Reserve.

Getting closer to Long Point the valley opened up a bit.

Coimadai Creek Trail stays on the eastern side of the creek now... sections of the track can be a little rough though.

Before starting to head back towards the ute I dropped down Long Point Track to check out the ford across Coimadai Creek, it isn't all that common to see a decent flow of water coming down Coimadai Creek so it was nice to see it flowing well this morning. After a quick break on a convenient bench at the Coimadai Creek Trail and Long Point Track junction it was time to make a mile back towards the ute. I now climbed away from Coimadai Creek for awhile as I looped inland along Long Point Track and then back down towards the creek along Coimadai Track. This short inland link is actually better than might be expected I think, as this section passes by some particularly nice Mallee Trees as it winds it's way through the bush.

Long Point Track crossing Coimadai Creek - this was my turn around point.

Manna Gums at Long Point.

Morning smoko was enjoyed at Long Point.

As I climbed Long Point Track away from the creek I got some nice views.

Climbing Long Point Track.

This is the only spot where these Mallee Trees grow south of the Great Dividing Range.

Dropping back down towards the creek along Coimadai Track the sun finally made an appearance.

Long Forest Flora Reserve.

Back down on the creekside flats and heading south.

Once I'd dropped back down Coimadai Creek to re-join my outward route it was just a matter of retracing my way back downstream. Thankfully the sun was now making a bit of a belated appearance, so even though my walk back along the creek was through familiar territory it was still taking me awhile. Half an hour or so after re-joining Coimadai Creek Trail I arrived back at Happy Valley Track and the hard work began. The climb up Happy Valley Track was probably the hardest section of today's stroll although really the worst of it was over within twenty minutes. Once the steepest bit was over I meandered my way back though the forest, arriving back at the carpark near Happy Valley Track to find it a lot busier than when I'd set off first thing this morning.

Coimadai Creek Trail.

This is the spot where I crossed the creek on my visit here twenty years ago - back in those days there was only a rough pad (at best) to follow.

Long Forest Flora Reserve.

I'm about to climb over that bluff.

Coimadai Creek Trail.

Coimadai Creek.

Climbing back up Happy Valley Track.

The Dirt.

According to my GPS I walked around 11 kilometres and climbed about 277 metres on what I'd call an easy-medium walk. This walk is all on either 4wd or walking tracks, the walk along the Coimadai Creek Trail is a lot more civilised now than it was back when I first walked here. The other thing that I was mildly surprised about today was how well signposted and way marked the tracks were, back in the day the navigation in Long Forest took a fair bit of concentration. Versions of this walk have been written up by various bushwalking guide book writers over the years, I used an old set of Mr Tempest's notes out of his 2005 book Daywalks around Melbourne along with my GPS topos. Interestingly (if you a walking nerd like me!) there is very old book dating back to 2002 called Jack's Track Notes, written by a guy called Jack Myers - this guy is the John Siseman of the country west of Melbourne and it is worth hunting down this book if anyone enjoys walking in the Lerderderg, Long Forest, Werribee Gorge areas.

Relevant Posts.

Pyrites Creek Walk, Lerderderg State Park, 2019.

The Scenic Rim Walk, Lerderderg State Park, 2017.