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| View from Track to Westernport Bay |
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| The Big Rock |
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| Grass Trees |
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| TheTrack near the mill site |
This Forest is adjacent to the southern boundary of the Park, next to large farming properties, and is the southernmost ridge.
It is reached from the Tynong North to Gembrook Rd, then up Weatherhead Rd, arriving at the start of the unsigned Weatherhead Hill Walking Track.
I followed this Track through tall forest, reaching the site of the former Weatherhead mill in a gully.
This was my turnaround point, as the track then became impassable, due to fallen trees and dense invading vegetation.
Nothing is left of the mill, apart from an old sawdust heap, almost impossible to detect.
The mill site is located next to an old creek (now dry).
This forest was heavily logged from the 1880s. The name Weatherhead derives from that of a woodcutting family (Horatio Weatherhead and his sons), who moved into the area in 1908. The trees were sawn at the mill, and taken by tramway to the railway siding at Tynong, about 10 km to the south.
Horatio had a license to mill 2,000 acres of forest and he and his sons operated various Mills from 1909 onwards.
It is known that the mill was still operating as late as 1929.
The Forest was devasted by serious bushfires on many occasions, the worst being in 1939, 1961, and 1983. After the 1939, the Victorian Government required all remaining mills to be moved outside of the forest catchment areas.
Logging in the Weatherhead Forest area ceased in 1990, and it was amalgamated into the newly proclaimed Bunyip State Park in 1992.
See all of the Photos of my 4 km hike!
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