Wallaby Track
For much of its distance, the Wallaby Track contours through what was once a productive, working forest on top of the Divide. You traverse hilly terrain, passing through regrowth messmate and peppermint forest that has been hammered since the gold rush.
The track starts at the Creswick Visitor Centre. While riders stick to St Georges Lake Rd, walkers head through the wrought iron gates of The University of Melbourne Creswick campus to begin the new Creswick Heritage Walk. Walkers rejoin bikers at St Georges Lake.
Other features include the site of a slab hut where a founding Federal parliamentarian, W.G. Spence, spent his formative years; picking plums in an old Chinese market garden; following the state’s longest timber tramway system; and walking through an impressive one kilometre long railway cutting on a long-abandoned railway line. As you climb, you pass rich, red-soiled spud paddocks and gain views of Australia’s largest concentration of volcanic hills.
The track traverses the ridge above the twin ribbons of Sailors Falls and concludes at the cluster of mineral spas waiting for weary feet at Daylesford and Hepburn Springs.
The Wallaby Track is broken into three Walks/Rides starting from the south and heading north– see panels on the left for the features and photo galleries of each of these. The track starts with the Creswick Heritage Walk, which also forms the first part of the circuit walk for the Wallaby Track.
A downloadable gpx file of the Wallaby Track Walk is freely available by clicking here.
A downloadable gpx file of the Wallaby Track Ride is freely available by clicking here.
Refer maps 08b - 16a of the Goldfields Track Walk or Ride Guide
GUIDEBOOK AVAILABLE
But while the downloadables are great, to ensure you are on track, and to fully experience the area, seriously consider purchasing a printed map or Guidebook. You can do research before you head off by purchasing a copy of the Goldfields Track Guidebook.
The Guide does more than just show you the way, it includes informative essays and information on the area’s flora, fauna, cultural and natural history to be discovered along the track. It is highly recommended for anyone exploring the Goldfields Track.
Click here to visit the GDTA’s online shop for the walker’s only individual maps.
Wallaby Track Elevation
The Wallaby Track Walk/Ride encounters both eucalypt forest and radiata pine plantation soon after departing Creswick. This is followed by open farmland before re-entering native forest which forms the landscape all the way to Daylesford.
The first section is the W.G.Spence Walk/Ride. After leaving the Tourist Information Centre and crossing Creswick Creek by a foot bridge, walkers soon enter the University of Melbourne’s Creswick campus with its historic buildings and magnificent gardens. Because of these you hardly notice the short climb before exiting to the Creswick Plantation. Cyclists take a more direct way to St Georges Lake from the University entrance gates by following undulating roads. After a short distance walkers are in Creswick Regional Park, and follow various gently-graded tracks and roads passing a small lake with a wooden sculpture of forester John La Gerche, old stables and a grate-covered mine shaft. The path proceeds with gentle undulations before arriving at the 140 year old Oak Gully. A steep climb via the Creswick Plantation takes you to the top of Brackenbury Hill with its views in all directions; then down to Dingley Dell on St Georges Lake. A flat track is now followed along the eastern edge of the lake to a picnic ground. Next there is a short climb to a water race which takes you almost through the former Koala Park before dropping to cross Creswick Creek again via a footbridge. You now climb up to the junction where the cycle route re-joins, and then leave the former Koala Park to follow a rough-at-times track through a diggings-scarred landscape to Niggl Bridge which defines the end of the Creswick Regional Park. The next part of the route is in Creswick State Forest along various classes of roads and tracks and generally rising for some 2km to Davey Road. The historic Spence Hut site is passed on the right about half-way. There is now fairly easy riding and walking to Bowens Lane where you emerge into farming country. Grades are mainly quite easy from here to Mollongghip along rural roads and tracks.
Anderson Tramway Walk/Ride is totally within the Wombat State Forest, at times on dedicated walking/riding tracks and otherwise on former logging tracks. Although the top of the Great Dividing Range is crossed after 4km, the grades are generally not difficult to handle, and after a further 3km Wombat Station is reached.
Wombat Forest Walk starts by following an old railway formation (now a 4WD track) slightly rising for 3km. You then continue on a good gravel road with gentle grades to the edge of the former White Point Diggings. From here you are on former logging tracks with many minor ups and downs for 5.5km to Telegraph Road. Walkers cross the bitumen and enter Hepburn Regional Park, whereas riders turn left along Telegraph Road for 200 metres to Old Tom Track which is followed northwards. The walk route proceeds with slight grades for 1.5km to a junction with a link to Sailors Falls Picnic Ground which can be used as an entry/exit point. Continue northwards crossing Sailors Creek and re-linking with the riders at the north end of Old Toms Track after some short steep sections have been encountered. Cross Sailors Creek again (by ford) and climb upwards and then down again before crossing the same creek again by ford; up to Old Ballarat Road, down Goo Goo Road to Wombat Creek which is followed to Lake Daylesford largely along a former water race.
What you can expect to see
