Walk into History,Big Pat's Creek Sector

The Walk into History is a 38 km trail extending from Big Pat's Creek to Powelltown.

The small settlement of Big Pat's Creek is about 80 km east of Melbourne, not far from the town of Warburton.

The trail is considered by a number of forest planners to be one of the best scenic forest walks in Victoria.

The two day walk follows old tramway tracks passing through Mountain Ash forests, via old mills and past old logging equipment. The walk can be undertaken in small sections from several access points.

The northern section of the trail follows the former Federal Mill Tramway, linking Big Pat's Creek and the Federation Mill. The mill and tramway were closed down in 1950, but a few relics remain. Big bushfires in 1983 destroyed most of the remaining infrastructure.

I hiked a 4 km (return) section of this trail on April 6, 2008, starting at the Big Pat's Creek picnic area.

My objective is to complete the entire trail in stages - I have already done the 11 km sector from Powelltown to the High Lead carpark on the Noojee Rd.

See the Photos of the trip!

Exploring Britannia Creek, Wesburn, Victoria

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