287. Frith Gully - Mt Misery Loop. Enfield State Park

January 25, 2024

U3A Hike No 287

Hike Report by Colin Fraser

Eight hikers assembled outside the Marty Busch Reserve in Sebastopol for an 11.5 km hike on the Frith Gully-Mt Misery Loop in the Enfield State Park. We travelled in two vehicles to the start of the walk at Bald Hill on Incolls Road, Enfield. The walk was graded as moderate, and described as continuously hilly.

We walking paths and rough bush roads through isolated parts of the park. There were deep gullies with lush vegetation, high ridges with open scrub, and areas that still bear the scars of extensive surface mining in the 19th century.

We followed Misery Creek Road south then the Misery Creek and Forest Park walking tracks to Surface Point Picnic Ground, where we had smoko. Before arriving at Surface Point we were accompanied overhead by the raucous alarm calls of a group of cockatoos warning of our intrusion into their forest.

Coincidently this occurred just near Mt Cockatoo!!

We shared the picnic table with a man who was camping there and gold prospecting. He said he was a busker, and described himself as a ‘Typewriter Poet’ (Whatever that is!).

There is a small monument at the picnic ground to the Chinese who mined the area for gold. The inscription in Chinese characters reads, ‘In memory of the Chinese who worked and died in this area.’

We then set off on the Long Gully and Frith Gully walking tracks back to the vehicles and lunch. The weather was kind – not too hot and not too cold, and dry.

PS: I was told I had to mention the Hyacinth Orchids we saw on the walk. (There, I’ve done it)

Photos by Andrew Parker