U3A Ballarat Hikers

           Hike Report by Anne Ottrey 14 walkers met at Kirks Reservoir for our 7:45 start to this stage of the Goldfields Track. We left half of the cars at the finishing point in Sailors Creek Road and travelled through clouds of dust to the starting point in Wallaby Road. With all of these wallaby placenames, there must be wallabies somewhere, but we only saw a few kangaroos. The walk undulated through the regrowth forest of the Great Divide with fringe lilies, hop goodenia and some pea plants in flower. There were many historical sites along the way – evidence of gold mining as we passed Mullens Dam, which was used for gold sluicing. Near Mollonghip, the route followed an old historic timber tramway, built in 1866 to supply timber to the mining industry in the surrounding area. We ate lunch at the site of the former Wombat Station – one of eleven stations on the busy line between Creswick and Daylesford, finally shut down in the 1950’s. Walking a section of this rail trail brought

  Hike Report by Tim Bosher Stage 4 of The Goldfields Track - 1 December 2016 Jackass Rd to Wallaby Road.13 intrepid souls met at Kirk’s reservoir at the new assembly time of 7:45am, which allowed ample time for the increasing logistic chain of car shuffling involved as we venture further from Ballarat. We were happy to welcome Janet McKay to the group. The walk of about 16km was undertaken in perfect weather conditions through country ranging from bush tracks to open farmland. The walking itself was relatively easy with good surfaces and only fairly minor undulations. Morning tea was taken on a conveniently placed 13 person log and lunch at the Dean tennis courts. Historical interest was provided by a stop at the site of W.G. Spence’s childhood home (an important political figure in Australian political and trade union history) and natural history interest by the sight of our first snake (fortunately dead). Everyone survived the day without incident, mosquitos were surprisingly abse