The Badger Weir Picnic Reserve is in the Yarra Ranges National Park, 7 km east of the town of Healesville, about 60 km from Melbourne.
Named Coranderrk after the local Aboriginal reserve, the Weir and pipeline system were officially opened in January 1909, and supplies water via the Corandeerk Aqueduct to the Silvan Reservoir.
Walking tracks pass through the forest, on both sides of the Badger Creek, reaching the Weir.
The original Weir was replaced by the current facility in 1929, upstream. Its remains may be inspected, just off the Lyrebird Track, partly covered by vegetation and detritus.
I visited the Reserve on Tuesday afternoon November 17 2009, on a 3 km circuit hike which took me along the Lyrebird Track and Coranderrk Aqueduct Track.
In the picnic area, hordes of brightly colored parrots and cockatoos congregate, waiting for seeds!
The Weir is temporarily closed to visitors, to be reopened by the end of 2009, due to construction work.
The name "Badger" was introduced by the early settlers. One version is that they thought that the wombats were like English badgers. Another version suggests that the name was that of a horse, which had become bogged!
See the complete set of Photos of my visit!
The Weir and its surrounds are listed in the Australian Heritage Database - comprehensive information about its history, construction and evolution is at
http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;place_id=102623
I live in Healesville and you have reminded me to go to Badger Weir. Our bushwalks here are wonderful.Tons of birds of gorgeous colours and sounds to carry you through a beautiful bush trek.
ReplyDeletehi we also live in badger creek and love to walk we are elderly but was up for the challenge to walk to the weir and back again via a different way, there were very few signs and we were beginning to feel anxious as we kept walking not knowing where we were going up or down please do some more clear signs thank you
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