Lerderderg Track Stage Four

Lerderderg Track Stage Four

April 4th 2019

U3A Hike No 63 

By Peter Treby 

On Thursday 4^th April 2019 nineteen of the usual suspects met at Kirk’s Reservoir car park to attempt the next section of the Lerderderg Track. The plan was to walk from Blackwood township to Nolan Picnic Ground, generally following the Lerderderg River upstream through the Wombat Forest. Distance around eleven kilometres, not much elevation change, and rated easy.

The morning was a little chilly early on, but warmed to perfect walking temperature when the gloom lifted before we started walking.

Arranging our fleet of cars at the start and finish of the planned walk unfortunately went a little cock-a-hoop.  We headed towards our destination via the Blackwood-Trentham Road, then turned left onto the gravel at Wheeler Road. I saw Karen’s car in the rear-vision behind me turning on to Wheeler Road, but didn’t bother checking behind me again. By the time the lead group of cars reached the intersection of Wheeler Road and the Lerderderg Road, there were no cars behind. I had made the rookie error of losing sight of the car behind. The lead cars proceeded on to Nolan Picnic Ground, and Andrew returned to find the rest of the convoy, which had wisely stopped at an intersection to await re-grouping. 

The Convoy Catastrophe lost us half an hour’s walking time. But in due course we headed off on the well marked Great Dividing Trail out of Blackwood. In the gullies between Blackwood and the Jack Cann Reserve, there were plenty of tree ferns, the Man Fern Dicksonia antarctica or the Rough Tree Fern, Cyathea Australis. These fetch high prices from collectors. Andrew relayed the story of having surprised a Dutch collector by being able to identify some prize tree ferns which had found their way to Holland. Nothing like a bit of local knowledge. We also spotted a rufous fantail in the shelter of the understorey near the Garden of St Erth.

We made an early stop for morning tea at the Jack Cann Reserve just above Garden of St. Erth, the Diggers Club western headquarters. Here the mandatory group photo included a display of at least seven new U3a breathable wicking monogrammed shirts. A proud corporate identity established for some, envy for the rest. The walkers with new shirts made a magnificent display in bright blue and yellow, which goes very well with grey hair. The bright new shirt proved useful for observing stray members of the group who may have thought they had a little privacy when heading off-track for ablutions.

The track follows several sections of water race to the remains of Crown Dam, built during the gold era in the mid 19^th century. The dam wall has been washed away by floods, but right now, the Lerderderg River was quite dry, save for some evil-looking blackwater ponds. Some sections of this track boasted tall stands of candlebarks, broad leafed peppermint, red stringbark and messmate, and manna gum. 

In the last kilometre, we diverted off Lerderderg Road to have a look at remains of old  Pioneer sawmill, with the saw-pit and a large pile of sawdust still evident. Ken and Ingrid elected to stick to the road, and so beat everyone else to the cars.

Back at Blackwood the pub was not offering lunch, and hadn’t received messages warning of our arrival, due to a telecommunications lightning strike, so the story goes. We therefore headed to the Post Office Coffee Shop, and crowded in to order delicious flakey pastry pies, with barista quality coffee. I enjoyed a vegetable pastie, with an added helping of humble pie to atone for my rear-vision mirror sin earlier in the day.

In the end, this was a great walk mainly along single track in moderate gradients, through beautiful forest, as always well organised and led by Andrew.

Photo's by Mark Bevelander

 

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