Werribee Gorge Circuit, Werribee Gorge State Park

Can I start of this walk with a quick disclaimer? Absolutely nothing strange happened during the entire walk that went like clockwork. No falls, no freaks, no Yowies and no anything. This will read like just another walk, which means I might even put myself to sleep reading it. Oh well, here we go and if you’re feeling a little drowsy, just have a quick snort of cocaine to get you through. I’ll be having a cup of tea with an extra sugar to fire me up to finish this one.

Werribee Gorge State Park lies less than an hours drive from my place and I’ve been meaning to do the full Werribee Gorge circuit walk for the past year. Within the blog you can see I’ve been to other parts of the park, but I still hadn’t done the full loop. It seemed whenever I got enthused enough to do it, the gorge was closed due to heavy rain. Having done the walk now, I can see why the park gets closed, as it’d be impossible to negotiate the gorge itself without getting slightly saturated. Well, not impossible I guess, but I’d suggest you take at least a snorkel if attempting the walk after heavy rain.

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I don’t know about you, but gorge walking is a bit of an acquired taste. I like coastal areas and mountains with a view, but gorges? Well, there’s a common theme. Every bit of crap from the top ends up within the gorge itself, which usually means plenty of rocks and trees to stumble over, so it’s hard to get enthused.

It’s all subjective of course, but overall I’ve found my experience of gorge walking to be slightly ‘grim’. I was hoping this trip to Werribee would change my mind a little, as the statistics are a little mind boggling and I was hoping that would excite me.

In fact, I won’t even attempt to rewrite what I just read on the Parks Victoria website, so I’ll just quote the bare bones, “…Five hundred million years of geological history – from ancient folded sea-bed sediments through glacial material to relatively recent lava flows…” The end result is the place is bloody ancient and it’s tucked away very close to Melbourne.

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A sunny start to the day

I planned to start from the Quarry Picnic Area car park and I was aiming for an anti-clockwise circuit. That always feels a little weird, walking in the wrong direction, but that’s what my notes were telling me. I didn’t take a map and just relied on the Parks Victoria handout to get me around in one piece. It’s a pretty straightforward path that would require someone completely insane to get lost on. Oh yeah, I did take a GPS as well, which meant if I got lost, I’d have to put my hand up and declare, “Yep, that’s me. I’m the insane one.”

The weather forecast was for showers and being August in Melbourne I thought it would be a little chilly. Guess what? It was sunny all day and surprisingly mild, which meant I spent most of my time sweating to death in a t-shirt and soft-shell jacket. I didn’t bother with a day-pack, as I’m still in ‘neck recovery mode’.

Starting off from the carpark there’s a steady rise that’s one of only two hills to climb for the day. It was enough in my brutally unfit state to induce puffing and I was glad to come across an information sign, which gave me an excuse to stop. The sign indicated there were remains of an old farm owned by the Hanson family in 1870 nearby in the bushes.

Oh, they’re not to be confused with ‘The Handsome Family’ who are a great alt-country band, which if you haven’t listened to before I can thoroughly recommend. So, I went ‘bush’ looking for the remains of the farm and in some places I couldn’t tell if things were man-made or just natural rock formations.

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This looks like an old wall

Hang on, that looks suspiciously man-made

Hang on, that looks suspiciously man-made

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Um… So does this

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I’m pretty confident I’ve found the old farm

What causes a stone building to fall apart like that? I’m always surprised at the state of ruin of buildings in Australia, which aren’t that old, as I remember being in 500 year old buildings in England. Even Pompeii is in better nick than this 130 year old farm. There’s probably a rational answer, but I couldn’t be bothered Googling it right now and I’m really just musing about the whole thing. In fact I don’t need to know the answer, as I might need this musing to pad out another blog entry in the future.

Anyway, I accounted for the farm, although I don’t think I found everything listed on the sign.

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The sign’s straight. It’s my hand that wasn’t when it took the photo.

The path continued to gradually climb, as I made my way to the next goal of the day. Eastern Viewpoint. I was hoping there would be a nice view to the east from that spot.

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As the track began to level off, I found the sign to Eastern Viewpoint. As it said, there was a view to the east and it wasn’t too bad if one could ignore the Western Highway in the distance. It had a nice view of ‘The Island’, which I’d walked to earlier in the year. It was a pity I was looking into the sun, as taking nice photos was a little problematic.

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Eastern Viewpoint

Okay, that was done and now I was off to the next place of interest called ‘Picture Point’. I was hoping at that point I’d be able to take some nice pictures.

It was pretty comfortable walking now and it wasn’t long before I found the stop-off and it consisted of practically a vertical cliff with views to the gorge below. The pictures don’t really show how high up and how steep the viewpoint is, and it’s definitely not a place to get too close to the edge. If you’re suicidal it’s a perfect spot though and by all means go close to the edge as you won’t be disappointed.

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Werribee River from Picture Point

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More of the same.

I did enjoy the views from the top of the gorge, but I had a suspicion it wouldn’t be as much fun once I dropped down to river level. On I walked and there was a nice sight of ‘The Island’ again, which I assume was a nicely forested hill before the white blokes arrived and cleared it for farming. It’s amazing how bare it is, other than one solitary tree sitting on top, which is quite distinctive. Initially, at a distance it looks like a trig point or something similar.

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The Island

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Solitary tree on the Island

It was now time to move on and the next spot on the map was guess what? Well, it was the Western Viewpoint and again I was expecting a nice view to the west (how long can I keep running this crap joke for?).

I was actually looking through the photos and I have no idea which ones are from the Western Viewpoint. I must have mentally switched off, but I think the following pictures are from that vicinity.

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Werribee River from Western Viewpoint

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The track now began a gradual descent downhill. I was surprised how easy the path was to descend, as I was expecting it to be a little steeper. I’m sorry to say, but there was no falling over at all, which would have spiced the blog up, but it was good for my neck.

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During the descent, I kept an eye on the sky behind me, as there were some lovely cumulus clouds in the sky or for the less technically minded, ‘big fluffy ones’.

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I do like my clouds to be fluffy

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It didn’t take long to reach river level and then I could see why the gorge would be off limits after heavy rain. There were signs of debris from the flooding we’ve had this year throughout this section. A lot of this debris was sitting in trees quite high off the ground and also right up to the edge of the gorge walls.

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Trees showed signs of flooding.

I was actually becoming a gorge convert at this point, as the path followed the sandy surface next to the Werribee River. It was peaceful and the scenery was lovely, which reminded me of the quote from the Glenn Tempest book ‘Daywalks Around Melbourne’ regarding this area, “…the gorge is unexpectedly spectacular”. This to me always meant, “You thought it was going to be crap didn’t you? It’s actually not that bad.”

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The isolation is deceptive though and civilisation is not far away, which I was reminded of when at a distance I thought I saw a large roll of liquorice lying in the trees. It wasn’t until I got a little closer, that I could see that was something a little more rubbery.

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Anyway, besides the odd tyre, the view was quite nice with a number of reflective water pool.

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Falcon’s Lookout, which Ben and I had visited earlier in the year loomed above and although it’s a popular rock climbing spot, I couldn’t see anyone up there. The polariser was loving the blue sky, although it’s a little controversial. I’ve been told the ‘bonkers blue’ looks a bit artificial, but hang on, all it’s doing is cutting out the glare, so I’m sticking by the polariser for the time being.

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Falcons Lookout

During this walk it was never really going to be plain sailing was it? I did start to come across the ‘gorge speciality’ of fallen trees along the way. It wasn’t too bad though and certainly not as crazy as the visit Ben and I had at a much larger gorge along the Lerderderg River. That really was a bit of a stumbleathon.

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Flood debris to stumble over.

My next stop was ‘Needles Beach’ which is a sandy bank on the side of the river, which I’d visited before in my walk near here the previous year. In order to get there though, I had to negotiate a wall of rock next to the river that had me concentrating for a minute, as I wasn’t keen on accidently falling in.

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Sticking to the rock wall on the left…

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…and successfully surviving.

I made it to ‘Needles Beach’ in one piece and it’s quite a nice spot to stop for a relax. There’s a large pool of water hemmed in by sheer rock walls that would be nice for a dip in summer.

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Needles Beach

I mellowed out, taking a few photos and noted the rock opposite. I had a hunch it was marine sediments tipped on their end and broken by inward pressure as tectonic plates moved together. At the same time, about 350 million years ago, these rocks were lifted above sea level. I think.

What else was there to look at? Well, besides the sheer rock walls of the gorge, there were quality reflections in the water along the way.

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On I continued and I was amazed how quickly I was racing along the gorge, as there wasn’t a lot more walking to do. Next up on the agenda was Pyramid Rock and I was hoping it’d be a rock, shaped like a pyramid (I thought I could sneak in that crap joke one more time).

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Pyramid Rock

One thing I noticed was I was either blind or they were well hidden, but there didn’t seem to be much wildlife around. I have the super zoom lens on my camera now and I was on the look out for some birds, but I saw very few. Even the cobwebs were empty.

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Walking towards Pyramid Rock

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I guess one highlight was another pool of water near Pyramid Rock called Lionhead Beach. What has a lions head got to do with the name? Well, I had no idea until I looked at the accompanying sign, which had this interesting picture on it.

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It’s certainly a happy looking lion on the sign.

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I think the artist was getting a little bit carried away, but if you squint your eyes whilst doing star jumps with the lights out, you can see what looks like a lions face on the rock wall. He’s not as happy as the drawing, but he’s not too bad I guess.

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There he is. Maybe a close up will make it easier?

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There’s certainly a bit of ancient history in the rocks opposite and after a few moments consideration, I figured the Lionhead formation is the dramatic remains of a syncline. About 500 million years ago fine layers of eroded material deposited by marine currents built up in the sea. These horizontal deposits were compressed and during the Middle Devonian period about 380 million years ago, were subjected to tremendous inward pressure by tectonic plate movement. This folded and faulted the layers into the synclines and anticlines found along this cliff. Well, that’s what I thought anyway. I could be wrong.

The gorge was starting to open out, which meant I was reaching the end of the interesting walking. Up ahead though, there was a bit of Indiana Jones action to come. A cable was attached to the rock wall, so you could hang onto something, whilst clambering along next to the water. It added a few thrills to the walk and it actually came in handy, as it would be a little precarious without it.

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Wire cable time

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In my ‘neck cautious’ state I was certainly taking it easy and I found out when I pulled on the wire that I’ve lost all my strength and I feel like a contestant in Mr Puniverse. I managed to stumble around in one piece though and unfortunately I’ve got no horror story like accidently falling into the water to thrill you with.

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Besides a few nice shots up the red rock walls, this was about it for the tricky gorge walking.

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Actually, it was getting a little silly around this point, as I noticed the moon appearing above the gorge and the shining sun was bringing out the colours of the rocks on the surrounding hills. In fact, let’s go a little photo crazy and I’m thinking I’m going to break my record of photos in the one blog entry at this rate.

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Wow, is that enough photos for the time being? The walk left the rocks and fallen trees behind and entered what remained of an old water race that was built in 1904 – 1906 by some bloke for the use of irrigation. It certainly was turning into a mellow stroll now, as the race made for a nice comfortable flat path to walk along.

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There were still some nice views opposite the Werribee River, but I was no longer enclosed in the red rock walls of the gorge. It’s almost an admission that I was missing ‘gorge walking’ once the sedate path started.

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I had one more final trick up my sleeve for this walk and instead of returning to the carpark, I thought I’d tackle the ‘Werribee Gorge Short Circuit Walk’ to take the long way back. The turn-off was on the way and although it headed back into the park, it meant I got to walk this shorter circuit and I would have knocked off both in the one day.

Well, what can I say about the short circuit walk?  Not a lot, as there aren’t too many sights. It’s standard Australian bush and in fact, the short circuit should be called ‘long hill’ instead, as all I seemed to do was climb up a gradual path. I guess one highlight was an old water bottle lying in the scrub. I have no idea where it originated from, but I suspect it may have been a ‘ye olde’ style ultralight hiking water bottle. Not ideal, but it would have worked for sure.

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On the way though I did come across a moment of photographic uncertainty. The light was getting dim now with the moon quite clearly in the sky and there was a moment where it was framed within the branches of tree. Now the dilemma was whether to have the tree in focus or the moon and I couldn’t make up my mind, so I took a million pictures of combinations. I still don’t know which is the best method, but I guess this one was the easiest on the eye.

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After this, I reached the top of the short circuit where it intersects with the track I’d walked on earlier in the day. It was at this point I was surprised to come across a bloke who was walking off to do the full circuit.

Light was already dim and he still had a lot of distance to cover, so I couldn’t imagine him finishing before dark. He had a small pack on though and appeared to know what he was doing, so I didn’t utter any tool remarks, which I always seem to get, such as, “Whoa! You’re walking now? It’s getting dark soon, I hope you’re equipped!” We had a quick chat and it appeared he was going to walk in the wrong direction, but he was back on track when I left him.

I’d had enough for the day, but there’s one bonus of finishing late. A few animals had popped out of the trees and a large kangaroo bounded across the path in front of me. Besides scaring the crap out of me, I was now on the lookout for any of his friends and sure enough I could see one hiding in the trees watching me. I was lucky to have the big zoom lens on the camera, as he was hidden behind some trees and with a bit of spot metering I was able to catch him.

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Kangaroos are nice to see in the wild, as they do have inquisitive faces and I always find them an interesting animal to look at. I continued on and spotted a rather beefy looking wallaby in the distance and even though I zoomed the lens in, he was still too far away.

I was going to try and sneak up, but he was watching me so closely I don’t think I’d have got far before spooking him. Light was really dim and there’s no way I could get a proper photo even with a super zoom lens.

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Well, a little bit more walking and it was all over. I arrived back at the car park to see a number of cars around mine. Huh? It must be a Werribee Gorge thing in that one has to set out at the end of the day to go walking. Anyway, I was done.

The distance for the day was 10.90 km and all up, it took me about four hours. Not a bad day out.

I guess in wrapping up I was surprised how good it was. A nice little walk with minimal gorge trauma, which was a surprise, but I’m not convinced I want to return to Lerderderg Gorge just yet though…

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wattle-werribee-gorge

How about a colourful ending?