Car-free walks in central VIC

[AlexB]

Hi all,

New to the boards but I've been reading avidly for a while now. I recently started bushwalking again after a long break (haven't done much since my early 20s) and I'm just ramping up past the local nature trail type walks and wanting something a bit more challenging.

But speaking of challenging, I'm one of those car-free people who gets around on shanks pony/bicycle/public transport, and I like it that way, so I'm interested in finding walks that don't require me to have a car. Since I don't have gear, I'm looking for daywalks at present, though I'd like to get enough gear together to start doing overnights eventually -- something to aim for!

I'm based in Ballarat and so far I've been exploring the local tracks around town, eg. the Yarrowee River track out to Gong Gong reservoir and down to Magpie, and some walks around Buninyong. I'm hoping to jump on a bus out to Creswick and have a wander around there too.

So far my list of accessible walks reads like this:

On Myki card, in Ballarat or by bus from Ballarat:

* Yarrowee River Trail
* Buninyong - various
* Creswick - various
* Follow GDT/Goldfields track from Buninyong-Ballarat or Ballarat-Creswick

Daywalks further afield, accessible by public transport (VLine and/or Melbourne Metro), able to go there and back in the same day:

* Ballarat-Skipton Rail Trail (60km to Skipton, vline bus stops at various points along route)
* Ararat - Ararat Hills Regional Park is close to town
* Eastern Melbourne eg. Dandenongs (could get to eg. Belgrave or Ferntree Gully by late morning at a guess)

Accessible by public transport (VLine) + taxi (probably expensive though):

* Ararat - Langi Ghiran State Park 15km from Ararat
* Lerderderg State Park or Werribee Gorge State Park - 15km from Bacchus Marsh station

Accessible by public transport (VLine and/or Melbourne Metro) but timetables mean I'd need to stay at least one night, or perhaps more to make it worthwhile:

* Maryborough - surrounded by bush, various day walks
* Daylesford - ditto (also day walks from Hepburn Springs, accessible by local bus from Daylesford)
* Castlemaine - ditto
* Mornington Peninsula (Sorrento back beach, Arthur's Seat, etc)
* Great Ocean Road - Lorne or Aireys seem like a good places to do daywalks from?
* Grampians - vline bus to Hall's Gap (not sure how easy it is to get around to day walks within Grampians from there)

Would need camping gear (something to dream of!):

* French Island (daywalks from basecamp, no overnight backpacking I think?)
* GDT/Goldfields track sections (most are 4 days in length between towns mentioned above, all VLine accessible)
* GOW (VLine via Geelong)
* GSSW (VLine to Warrnambool then Portland)

Does anyone have any other ideas, or know any of the areas I mentioned above and can give advice on walks around there that are accessible without a car?

(I know one suggestion will be to find buddies with cars or join a local bushwalking club. The thing is, I've discovered I really like going solo, so I'd like to see how far I can get on my own for now.)

Thanks!

[peregrinator]

Alex, I also like getting to walk locations by public transport where possible but I haven't done day walks, only overnight camping. (I'm based in Melbourne and I prefer to start from as far away from here as I can!) I can suggest several good walks once you are set up for camping.

Do you have any chance to go on weekdays? There are a few more services then compared to weekends. Even so, having a quick look now at several V-Line timetables, you'd have quite limited time for a decent day walk. But, as an example, you'd get five hours to walk into and out from Muckleford Conservation Reserve from Welshmans Reef. That's only about 5km from the bus stop.

If you want to investigate that, plus many other possibilities, I recommend this site: http://nremap-sc.nre.vic.gov.au/MapShare.v2/imf.jsp?site=forestexplorer

It identifies areas of public land that may not be obvious. You can measure distances, see topographical details, and so on.

[AlexB]

Thanks peregrinator... yup, I'm self-employed (or underemployed, as it happens) so weekdays are great for me. I mostly look at the VLine timetables for weekdays as they're more reliable and regular than weekends! And in some cases, services only run on certain days of the week.

Thanks for that website link! I've mostly been working off the Parks Victoria map at http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/explore/parks# but yours definitely has more options shown, eg. around Ballarat I can zoom in and see eg. the Canadian State Forest (contentious area that locals want to see turned into a State Park) which doesn't appear on the Vic Parks map. I'd like to find out more about walking in that area but god only knows who's actually got that info... though the map I just found at http://delwp.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/p ... ea-map.pdf looks like a good starting point.

Anyway, yes, I definitely want to get some gear together and start doing overnighters again (which I haven't since I was at uni, more or less) but see the above comment on underemployment So that'll have to wait a while. For now, day walks!

A.

[AlexB]

Oh, I should also say: peregrinator, I'd love to hear your overnight walk recommendations even if they're a little way in the future! I can add them to my list for later, and it'll give me inspiration

[madmacca]

For trips further afield, V/Line to Bright, then the summer bus (3 days/week) to Hotham to access Feathertop, AAWT and the Bogong High Plains. http://www.omeobus.com.au/#!timetable/cyg

Also, there is a once a week bus service from Mansfield to Woods Point, which provides some interesting opportunities.

[Drummo62]

Closer to home there are plenty of tracks and forest around Smythesdale/Snake Valley/Linton and down into the Enfield State park. V/Line bus to Smythesdale or dependiong on your fitness - ride a bike along the Skipton Rail Trail.

[AlexB]

Ooh, great to know there are walks from smythesdale and thereabouts! I'm fit enough to ride there but not there, then walk, then back in a day, so I'll stick to vline for now and maximise the walking any particular recs for walks in that area, or should I just grab a topo map and make it up for myself?

[AlexB]

For trips further afield, V/Line to Bright, then the summer bus (3 days/week) to Hotham to access Feathertop, AAWT and the Bogong High Plains. http://www.omeobus.com.au/#!timetable/cyg

Also, there is a once a week bus service from Mansfield to Woods Point, which provides some interesting opportunities.

Definitely some options to add to the multi day trip ideas! Thanks!

[Drummo62]

Ooh, great to know there are walks from smythesdale and thereabouts! I'm fit enough to ride there but not there, then walk, then back in a day, so I'll stick to vline for now and maximise the walking any particular recs for walks in that area, or should I just grab a topo map and make it up for myself?

Bodens Water race in the Ross Creek State Forest and Surface Hill Historic Reserve south east of the township are worth a look. Walks are on the link Peregrinator posted earlier in the thread. Enjoy.

[peregrinator]

While the topic refers to central Victoria, the original post also mentioned many other areas. So here's one that I've done which is similar to madmacca's suggestion.

After the bus gets to Bright, you can get a taxi to Mount Beauty, included in the price of the V-Line ticket. From there, walk along Mountain Creek Road (check maps and you'll find a short cut to get to its intersection with Fredas Lane), and then up to Mt Bogong and whatever else takes your fancy on the high plains. Needs to be done in the middle of summer to give you time to get from Mt Beauty to Mountain Creek camp before sunset.

[Mortar Art]

Peregrinator; can you clarify what you mean about the taxi trip being included in the vline fare?

Also, here's my experience with hiking by public transport, although much of it was done with a pushbike, which is only possible via coach and rail services:

Southern Cross to Bright, bike to Harrietville, foot to Mt. Feathertop

Ballan train station to O'Brien's crossing by bike, then various walks.

Southern Cross to Moe, then bike to Baw Baw National Park, Mt. Erica car park, then walk to Mt. Erica.

Both starting at Lilydale:

Bus to Healesville, then walk to Mt. St. Leonard ... additional walks in Toolangi State Forest ... also not a bad ride

Bus or bike to Warbuton, then walk to Mt. Donna Buang ... not great for views, or comfort. I do this walk for pack training before climbing a big hill.

[peregrinator]

Peregrinator; can you clarify what you mean about the taxi trip being included in the vline fare?

Mortar Art, see the note at the bottom of the timetable at http://www.vline.com.au/pdf/timetables/bright.pdf/bright

The Bright-Mount Beauty leg is operated by, I think, Mount Beauty Taxi Service. It is subsidised by V-Line, so there's no extra cost once you've paid for your return train and bus trips between Melbourne and Bright via Wangaratta.

[Mortar Art]

Well that's amazing! One of the reasons why I never went on a solo hike in that direction was because I wouldn't have been able to easily ride up and over the hills between Bright & Mt. Beauty. Have you ever caught this service? Do you think it would be difficult to convince the taxi to drop the passengers off at the base of Bogong?

[peregrinator]

Well that's amazing! One of the reasons why I never went on a solo hike in that direction was because I wouldn't have been able to easily ride up and over the hills between Bright & Mt. Beauty. Have you ever caught this service? Do you think it would be difficult to convince the taxi to drop the passengers off at the base of Bogong?

Yes, I've used this service several times.

On one occasion, another passenger in the car wanted to go on to Mountain Creek camp after Mount Beauty. But the driver had prior bookings elsewhere, so that passenger would have had a very long wait while those bookings were served. I believe there is only one driver in operation at that time of day. So if you want to ride that extra distance, you'll need to make an advance booking yourself. You will also have to pay an extra fare.

[AlexB]

Just wanted to post an update with some comments on PT-accessible walks I've done so far around Ballarat -- mostly accessible via Ballarat's bus system (and using Myki), and a few short VLine rides.

Around Ballarat the first thing anyone mentions is the Yarrowee Trail. It forms part of the Great Dividing Trail which is 210km from Bendigo to just south of Ballarat. Unfortunately the Yarrowee Creek section through Ballarat is pretty rubbish IMHO. It's a perfectly lovely urban/suburban creekside track for dogwalking, jogging, etc but you are always within sight of houses and busy roads and industry. Through the centre section the creek/river itself runs in a concrete channel (covered in grafitti) and is basically just a stormwater drain. The northern stretch (out to Brown Hill and Gong Gong) is nicer than the southern stretch (to Redan and Magpie) in my opinion. Central Ballarat out to Gong Gong and then back to Brown Hill is about 11km; take the number 7 bus (runs half hourly weekdays, hourly Saturdays) back to town. The nearest bus to the southern stretch is the number 12 Sebastopol. I've also ridden this path on my bike and just about any bike with fairly sturdy tyres will do you fine between Magpie and Brown Hill, but some of the sections up around Gong Gong are a little rougher and you might want a MTB.

Out around Buninyong there are several walks which you can get to on the number 10 bus (half hourly weekdays, hourly Saturdays). My first was a circuit through Union Jack reserve not far from the centre of town. It was advertised in the tourist info centre's pamphlet as an 8km loop but it turns out that's from the information centre, and it's about 1.5km each way to the reserve. The walk itself has a "short loop" and a "long loop". The short loop is fairly well signposted with lots of interpretive signs about the local flora and fauna, mining history, etc. The longer loop is less well signed and I actually couldn't figure out how to complete the loop from the little map in the tourist guide and wound up backtracking at one point. Nice, easy, and fairly quick.

Also from Buninyong, in the same tourist info centre pamphlet, is a recommended route for climbing Mt Buninyong and returning via a different route, a 13km circuit in total starting/ending at the info centre. I haven't done this yet but it's high on my list.

Still on local Ballarat buses, the number 3 goes out to Creswick which is pretty much surrounded by state parks. The tourist info centre has a walks map which includes circuits up to about 8km, but I did a 15km circuit from Glenn Tempest's "Goldfield Walks" that took in St George Lake, Eaton's Dam, and then a bunch of slogging along forestry roads/4WD tracks until reaching the Le Gerche forestry walk and returning through there. A correction/update to Tempest's notes: he says there's a bridge out due to flood damage just as you exit the Koala Park, but it's been replaced now. Saw HEAPS of awesome fungus, and met some mushroomers who were gathering saffron milkcaps in the Le Gerche pine plantations. Well worthwhile. I'll be heading back to Creswick regularly and looking for more walks in the area I think! Note: the number 3 bus is irregular, and can have gaps of up to 3 hours, so check timetables! However on Saturdays it does link up with the Creswick-Daylesford-Hepburn bus, at times convenient to doing daywalks, which I'll be looking into soon!

Finally, leaving Ballarat's own bus system and the pleasures (ahem) of Myki, I've started on the Ballarat-Skipton rail trail with the first stage from Ballarat to Smythesdale. It's best to catch the number 15 Sturt St West bus out to Lucas, grab some snacks and go to the loo at the shopping centre there, and hit the rail trail where it crosses the avenue of remembrance. It's about 15.5km to Skipton and of course as a rail trail it's fairly flat and straight walking. The track is well maintained with hard packed gravel, occasional shelters, and interpretive signage. It mostly passes through farmland and rural residential property, and near Smythedale runs close to the Great Western Hwy so there's some traffic noise. Note that there's water, toilets, and other amenities at Haddon about 7km from Lucas -- this wasn't marked on any of the maps and I was annoyed at them for not having done so! There is a school near the trail (cross the sports oval, head for the playground) where I found a picnic table to eat my lunch at and watch birds. At Smythesdale there's camping, toilets, etc at the gardens that you pass on your way into town. The Court House Hotel is super comfy with wood fires and a decent "mini pizza and a pot" deal that will see you through to the returning VLine bus at around 6:30pm Mon-Fri (check timetables; it varies slightly). Ticket back to Ballarat was around $4 and I just paid the driver. I'm hoping to do Smythesdale-Linton shortly: there's a VLine bus will take me to Smythesdale around 10:30am and then the same returning bus around 6:30 from Linton. The third leg, Linton-Skipton, is longer (22km I think) but could be done the same way, as long as you didn't dawdle -- of course at this time of year the issue is sunset, not the bus timetable.

Upcoming: other than the stuff I've mentioned above, I also want to take some walks in the state forests around Smythesdale and Linton (VLine, again, will get me there at reasonable daywalk times, Mon-Fri), and the Saturday bus connections from Ballarat to Daylesford and Hepburn (via Creswick) open up heaps of good opportunities. I'd also like to do the Creswick-Ballarat section of the GDT (well, as far as Brown Hill, anyway) and explore the Nerrina Historical Area a bit more.

One final note: anyone looking for bushwalking info, maps, etc in Ballarat should go to the DEPI office at the State Government offices on Mair St (the big shiny building on the corner of Doveton St, opposite the Civic Hall). It is far more useful than the tourist information centre, which only had GDT maps and the staff didn't even know what they were. DEPI has topo maps, a selection of walking books, and printouts of many useful A4 sheets with maps/info for various nearby state parks. They also have information about fishing, fossicking, etc etc. However I'm not sure if they're open on weekends. Hat tip to a friendly Kathmandu employee for tipping me off about the state govt offices!

[Eremophila]

Thanks for the info Alex, I will probably be doing a bit of solo stuff in this region in the near future, so very handy