The Britannia Creek runs through district of Wesburn, 60 km east of Melbourne, and is a tributary to the Little Yarra River.
The Creek is "fed" from Tugwell Creek, originating high up in the Yarra State Forest wilderness, creating the obscure and rarely visited Britannia Falls.
Gold was discovered in the area in the 1850s and the district later became a logging region.
There was enormous loss of forest in the huge bushfires of 1939, and logging in the region is now very closely controlled, with only a handful of sawmills still operating in the general Warburton region.
There are Upper and Lower Falls. The Lower Falls are accessed via a gated 1 km jeep track, known as Bedggood Way, starting at the junction with Britannia Creek Rd, adjacent to the disused sawmill. This Track runs parallel to the creek, past beautiful ferns and tall Mountain Ash. There are many fallen logs in the forest,left there after the timber cutters moved out in the early 1900s.
The Upper Falls are reached by an overgrown rough extension of Bedggood Way, or via a foot-track from Britannia Creek Rd.
Nearby is the large Britannia Park, originally constructed as a Girl Guide Camp, but available for the general public. In a pleasant forest environment, it contains barbecue facilities, a picnic area, a Rotunda, a swimming pool, cabins, community centre, and tall trees believed to be hundreds of years old.
I explored this area on October 7, 2007, visiting the Lower Falls and Britannia Park.
See all of the images of the trip at my Photo Album
The Creek is "fed" from Tugwell Creek, originating high up in the Yarra State Forest wilderness, creating the obscure and rarely visited Britannia Falls.
Gold was discovered in the area in the 1850s and the district later became a logging region.
There was enormous loss of forest in the huge bushfires of 1939, and logging in the region is now very closely controlled, with only a handful of sawmills still operating in the general Warburton region.
There are Upper and Lower Falls. The Lower Falls are accessed via a gated 1 km jeep track, known as Bedggood Way, starting at the junction with Britannia Creek Rd, adjacent to the disused sawmill. This Track runs parallel to the creek, past beautiful ferns and tall Mountain Ash. There are many fallen logs in the forest,left there after the timber cutters moved out in the early 1900s.
The Upper Falls are reached by an overgrown rough extension of Bedggood Way, or via a foot-track from Britannia Creek Rd.
Nearby is the large Britannia Park, originally constructed as a Girl Guide Camp, but available for the general public. In a pleasant forest environment, it contains barbecue facilities, a picnic area, a Rotunda, a swimming pool, cabins, community centre, and tall trees believed to be hundreds of years old.
I explored this area on October 7, 2007, visiting the Lower Falls and Britannia Park.
See all of the images of the trip at my Photo Album
We visited in June 2013 and there are a few changes to the access at this spot. Firstly Bedggood Way/ doesn't exist anymore. That track is now part of a property which was purchased from the Shire recently. There's now only one access point to the falls and that's 2km past the girl guides camp up Britannia Creek Road. There's a road marker indicating "Britannia Falls Track" to the left when you get there. You can even take 4WD vehicles down the falls track but its only a short walk if you want to leave 2WD vehicles at Britannia Creek Rd. The falls track gives you access to the huge boulder formations at the main part of the falls and also the pretty series of cascades further upstream. Incidentally, the girl guide camp back at the old access spot is not open to the public, its private property.
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