Essendon Bushwalking Club

As well as registering on this system, please also phone Ron to nominate for this event.

This walk will start with a train trip to Kyneton.  You can either meet at Southern Cross railway station at 8.45 am in time to board the 9.05 am train.  Otherwise you can board at the Footscray station at 9.00 am in time for a 9.13 am departure.

We are expected to arrive at the Kyneton railway station at 10.30 am.  From here we will walk to the Botanical Gardens where autumn colours will be on full display and where we will have morning tea.  After morning tea we will walk along the Campaspe River to the racecourse where we will stoip for lunch.  After lunch we will do a history tour of the Kyneton town and have afternoon tea before making our way back for the 3.05 pm train. We expect to be back at Southern Cross station by 4.15 pm.  Boots and poles are not required.

Mount Charlie Flora Reseve is situated between Riddells Creek and Kerrie, to the East of the Macedon Ranges. It is a small reserve with a mixed eucalypt forest, an extraordinary number of grass trees, and other flora of interest. We will visit the top of Mt Charlie and the nearby Mt Tenerife. (Both about 720m elevation).  Both have good views, but filtered through the trees.

This walk is an 11.5 km loop, with most of the walk (total 7km) being "easy/medium" along minor roads and 4WD tracks. The other sections are (i) 1km along the ridge atop Mt Charlie, untracked and a bit rocky, but fairly level - "medium"; (ii) 1.5km steep descent from Mt Charlie, 300m descent, untracked through open forest - "hard"; (iii) 1 km climb of Mt Tenerife, on a foot track, 200m ascent - "medium/hard" and (iv) 1km descent from Mt Tenerife, 200m down, untracked, steep and rocky through open forest - "hard".

As an added bonus, Mt Charlie has an interesting geological surprise at the top!

The meeting point for the start of the walk is a small carpark on the North side of the reserve (there's a slightly hidden sign for "Mt Charlie Flora Reserve" at the spot). The small car-park is on Eatons Rd, 1.7km South of the Eaton Rd/Mt Eliza Rd intersection. Near Kerrie. There is also the option of meeting at Airport West for car-pooling.

Coffee will hopefully be at the small caravan/cafe, nearby to the north.

Apart from registering here on the online system, please also contact Ron on 0429 384 057 to nominate for the base camp. 

For those interested in accommodation at the Warburton Holiday Park there are four two bedroom cabins available at a cost, for the club, of $142.10 per night.  Linen is provided in one of the rooms. For the other room you can either pay linen hire of $25 to cover the four days or bring your own.

Day 1- Monday 28 April - Meet at Warburton Holiday Park at 11 am for the Riverside walk heading East. Distance is about eight kilometres.

Day 2 - Tuesday 29 April -Meet at the Holiday Park at 9.30 am for the Redwood Forest walk and where we visit two tunnels.  Distance is about three to five kilometres.

Day 3 - Wednesday 30 April - Meet at the Holiday Park at 9.30 am for the Ada Tree Walk.This is a short trail through Myrtle beech rainforest out to the Ada Tree, which is one of Victoria's largest living trees. It is a giant Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans), the largest known flowering trees in the world and the Ada Tree is estimated to be around 300 years old.  Distance is about five kilometres.

Day 4 - Thursday 1 May - Meet at the Holiday Park at 9.30 am for the Riverside walk heading West. Distance is about eight kilometres. For those interested dinner will be at the Warburton Golf Club.

Day 5 - Friday 2 May - Return to Melbourne.

The Coliban Main Channel was constructed in the 1860's and early 1870's, to deliver water to Bendigo from the Reservoir on the Coliban River at Malmsbury. Over 70km in length through hilly country, it was, and still is, an engineering marvel; not just a channel, it included numerous flumes (elevated channel over gullies), several tunnels through high ridges, a couple of inverted siphons (pipes across deep creeks) and several dissipators (artificial rapids when the channel slope needs to be high).

This is the third of a series of walks that will traverse, from Malmsbury towards Bendigo, those parts of the channel accessible to the public - about 58km in total. Several of the walks (including this one) will be "one-way", ie a car shuffle will be needed. The car-shuffle in this case is bit complicated as the road route between the start and end-point is circuitous - hence I'm asking for an earlier than normal meeting time (9.00am).

The walk itself is a delightful 15.6 km along the channel as it squeezes itself past Mt Alexander, the major impediment to the route from Malmsbury to Bendigo. Plenty of old granite stonework as gullies are bridged, and the third tunnel and second siphon of the route. All in excellent rural scenery.

The meeting point is a (rough) car-park just North of Mt Alexander, where Harcourt-Sutton Grange Rd meets Leanganook Track and crosses the Coliban Channel. There is no toilet there - stop on the way through Harcourt?

Car-pooling also an option from Airport West.