Werribee Gorge Circuit, Werribee Gorge State Park

Werribee Gorge Circuit, Werribee Gorge State Park - 7.5 Kms

March 17, 2022

U3A Hike No. 188

Hike Report by Moya

Well, a surprising number of brave souls gathered at Kirk’s Reservoir for the justifiably “Difficult” graded 10km Werribee Gorge Circuit, not so much for the distance but definitely for the hilly and rocky terrain not to mention the scrambling.

The name Werribee is thought to be derived from the aboriginal word ‘Wearibi’ meaning spine/backbone or swimming place. Despite its name the Gorge is located about 8 km west of Bacchus Marsh and about 26km away from the township of Werribee itself but on the Werribee River. The Gorge was declared a State Park as a result of a campaign by the Bacchus Marsh Tourist and Progress Association in 1907. No doubt as a celebration of this auspicious event no less than 800 School Students visited the gorge on a day trip on 9^th November 1907.

Leaving the Western Highway at Pentland Hills Road, the bumpy descent down the windy roads into the Meikles Point Picnic Area did bear witness to the rain and rockfalls the area has experienced recently but our Driver Theresa competently negotiated the sharp corners and potholes!

From our assembly point it was all uphill for the first few kilometres, stopping briefly to point out the locality of Hanson’s a long-gone potato farm which presumably yielded a healthy crop due to the rich volcanic soil in the area. After huffing and puffing up the hill we had our morning tea at the scenic Eastern Viewpoint with panoramic views of a landscape created by intense volcanic activity including Mt Blackwood and Mt Bullengarook.

The Western Viewpoint afforded views of the Werribee River but unfortunately when pushing on past Blackwood Pool we did not see any platypus playing in its deep waters. Continuing along to Picnic Point we started to make our descent. At this point Gordon did regale us with the details of the demise of a walker a couple of years ago who took a step backward into the abyss after taking a selfie of the view behind. In actual fact there have been many fatalities within the Gorge over the years including the sad passing of an inebriated Surgeon by the name of Dr Wilcox in June 1866 who due to his “overindulgence in alcoholic liquors” lost his footing and fell over 500 metres according to “The Argus” of Melbourne. Remarkably his faithful dog apparently retraced its steps to the Doctors home in Mt Egerton some 20 miles away “as if for the purpose of obtaining assistance”. Full details of this story can be found in tomelbourne.com.au/a-sad-story/.

We continued onto Needles Beach named for its fascinating formations. These are vertical shale deposits which have been tipped on their ends and broken by inward pressure as tectonic plates have moved together. This created such huge pressure that some of the sediments changed their structure. After some rock scrambling with the aid of a section of cable handrail over the more perilous sections, we reached Lions Head Beach where some of us could see one Lions Head, others none, and one person said she would see a Pride of Lions if she’d had a couple of glasses of wine!!

The last section was the a nice flat walk following the path of an old Aqueduct which had previously provided water to Bacchus Marsh which lead us back to the parking spot and lunch after a very interesting and varied walk, definitely my favourite one this year. Thanks Gordon!!