Ben Major West, Ben Major Flora/Fauna Reserve Circuit

Ben Major West, Ben Major Flora/Fauna Reserve Circuit - 10.2 Kms

July 16, 2023

U3A Hike No 256

Hike Report by Don

15 hikers left Ballarat at 7.45 to drive to Beaufort. It was a chilly five degrees but fine, and later developed filtered sun and 12C. Despite predictions of strong winds, we were well protected in the stringy bark forest, perfect for hiking.

We headed north from Beaufort on the Main Lead road towards Raglan, then turning right onto Amphitheatre Road. We passed through the township of Chute some 13 kilometres north of Beaufort. In the 2016 census, Chute had a population of 18, but none of them were seen on this day! Chute has the honour of being the birthplace of Cyril Callister (born 16.2.1893, died 5.10.1949). He became an industrial chemist, and invented Vegemite in the early 1920’s after returning from service in the AIF. (See the link below to the Wikipedia entry).

Amphitheatre Road continues north after Chute, and we parked at the intersection with Ben Major Track, a further 4.3 kilometres onwards. This is on the margin of Ben Major Flora and Fauna Reserve. This was to be the start and finish of the walk.

We headed walking east along Ben Major track for 800m, then turned right along Big Hill Road. Appropriately named, as the walk steadily climbs up and up to a junction with Grevillea track. We turned south on Big Hill road, indeed continued over a series of low hills, to eventually reach a T-junction with an unnamed track. We turned right again, and 700m later came to the margin of the forested park, with open pasture. No surprise, the track became marked as Boundary track. In a further 500m we turned right (westwards) onto what is now marked as Boundary track. However some of the maps still mark this as Vegemite track. We refrained from singing the “Happy Little Vegemite Song”, though readers of this Blog might consult You-Tube to relive their childhood! Up till this point, the tracks had been 4WD dirt tracks in good condition, but from here on, the tracks were often filled by puddles, and more like wide walking tracks.

The vegetation, at times, had fields of pink and white heath, and others light forested areas with quite a deal of Grevillea. This park is one of the few remaining areas of Grevillea Floripendula, commonly known as Ben Major Grevillea. This develops “clusters of greenish to mauve and blackish flowers with a yellow to red style”.

I tried to track the origin of the name Ben Major Reserve, but ran into almost a session of Utopia!! The Pyrenees Shire couldn’t help, but referred me to DEECA (Dept of Environment etc). They couldn’t help, but referred me to Parks Vic, who claimed the park was perhaps named after the Grevillea. The area also includes Ben Major Mount, and I could find no reference to Ben Major as the origin of all these names (plant, flora reserve, mountain….) I await the next episode of Utopia!

We turned off Vegemite track along Fiddlers track for some three kilometres north to rejoin Big-Hill Road and then retraced our starting journey back to the cars. Hence a 10.2 km loop walk through wonderful forest reserve had been enjoyed, through a little-known park reserve. While there had been some searching for gold over 140 years ago, mostly the park had been left to the wallabies, echidnas and grevilleas. Thank goodness, and thanks to Gordon for taking us there.