What – Three short walks Wallaby Rocks, Paddy Castle and Burrong Falls
Where – North Central Grampians/Zumsteins areas via Roses Creek Road, Wallaby Rocks Track and Lodge Road. (Maps required and 4wd advised on Wallaby Rocks Track)
How far – About 2km walking but considerable driving in between
In 10 words – Explore, climb, wildflowers aplenty, water, diverse rocks, imagination runs wild
You could spend a year doing walks in Gariwerd and still not find them all.
As the Peaks Trail prepares to officially open, we take you away from the big name attractions to a few short walks and tracks. This was done over two visits in the Zumsteins, Assess Ears and Roses Creek areas and involved some four-wheel driving – principally on Wallaby Rocks Track.
We start our drive on Roses Creek Road which off the Mt Victory Road, about 1.5km after the turn off to Lake Wartook and McKenzie Falls.
In the first couple of km along this road we saw a multitude of wildflowers so keep an eye out. It was amazing and well wort stopping to look and take some pics. Make sure you park safely off the road when you do this.
Here are a few of them – just magic. I has been a great spring for flowers this year.
About 4km along this road and you will come to Wallaby Rocks Track which is on your right.
The windy track is four-wheel drive only and not well signposted and the day we were there was so windy at one point, about 3km into Wallaby Rock’s Track, we were not game to stand too close to any edges as a freezing, powerful wind attacked us from the west.
As we looked west towards the Black Ranges the horizontal rain almost turned to snow as it attacked us.
There were some magical views, especially the escarpments that form long and impressive walls of rock on the eastern parts of the track.
In the right weather, it would probably make a great walking.
At times this rocky, windy track follows a creek, takes you up big hills and, in spring when we were there, past a rainbow of native flowers.
The other thing that strikes you are the rocks. Not your typical Gariwerd variety – if there is such a thing – and almost like they have been stacked. Mother Nature’s answer to Lego. Other flat ones resemble a rock mosaic, round rocks jammed together and possibly flattened over time by water and those harsh winds.
Other stacks of these stones perch at the edge of a cliff, almost directing your eye to the amazing views below and into the distance.
Wallaby’s Rocks is off the track probably about 10km in and this is where the rocks really star. It is only a short walk but take time to look at the plants and the rocks all around.
From here you can turn around and head back towards Roses Creek Road and continue your exploration to Burrong Falls and Paddy Castle.
The Falls turnoff is about 3km after the Wallaby Rocks Track intersection, and it is a 850m return walk.
It is a pretty good track. We passed a bloke who had ridden his trail bike halfway down – not the smartest move and probably highly illegal – but it gives you an idea that it is a wide and robust until it turns into steeper steps (that the motorcycle did not traverse).
As you descend to the falls you are so busy looking at the mass of flowers that you forget to scan for the water and then it bursts out of the mess of rocks and bush.
Knots of white water from Rose Creek roll over the shiny stones, sometimes multiple heads of thick, long white hair.
Like Wallaby Rocks, Burrong stones are a stacked creation from Mother Nature’s Lego Design studio, in this case a set of almost perfectly cut steps installed for the little creek’s grand descent.
I find a few different vantage points and wonder if these were the falls where, as a shy 13-year-old at my first day at a new high school, I was unceremoniously bitten by a bull an on the bum. No chance of applying the bracken fern treatment on that day for fear of the being the butt of many strangers/ jokes.
We head back up the hill, noticing even more flowers than we did before, and get back in the car and head towards and Scrubby Creek and Paddy Castle.
We take Phillip Island Road, which an Age article from April 9, 1894, tells me was ‘so called because in the Winter it is surrounded by water’. I am not sure if we saw Phillip Island – which is a tiny bit of land at the southern end of White Bull Swamp, which runs for several kilometers beside Phillip Island Road and is fed by Rose Creek.
At the intersection of Phillip Island Road and Lodge Road you find Boreang Camping Ground which looks like a great spot to stay and hosted a few campers. Paddy Castle is a couple of Km west of this ground.
The Age article also describes this castle, although it does not say who Paddy was. Paddy was a derogatory term for an Irishman so perhaps this was a name given to the rock by a non-Irish settler.
The 1894 writer talks of ‘A bold rook jutting out from the mountain side, with an apparently loose stone on the extreme top, looking like a brick on a chimney.’
It is another short walk but an impressive one as you take a path to the rock and then skirt around its base, gradually climbing it from the northeast side. Paddy Castle is like an island in the bush and its rounded rocks do resemble tall towers
Up the top there is a peep hole in the rocks which provided a jagged vantage point to the Victoria range in the southwest.
One rock does look like a chimney or more fittingly a turret and another sits like a throne, from which to regally cast your eye across this grand kingdom.
Denim mountains rise from a sea of bush that spreads across the landscape, with different views from various vantage points along the short walk across the elevated courtyard complete with bulokes.
I wonder at its significance for first nations residents over thousands of years and what Paddy – or whoever gave its current name, thought when they first climbed its rocky path and sat on that throne.
There is another Castle further down the road, which we don’t see today but, on the way, back along Lodge Road there is a fine castle wall view of the Victoria Range and its distant ‘moat’ with round swamp.
Yes it is a bit of driving but there is heaps to see on the way and the walks make nice breaks in the journey. Have fun and I hope you will agree that Gariwerd really does rock!
A few tips for these walks
Watch out for snakes when walking and kangaroos and deer etc when driving.
Get a map and take it with you – won’t won’t have mobile range all the time.
Avoid driving after dark and also stay right away on high fire danger days.
Drive carefully on the tracks, especially 4WD as they are winding and narrow and not good for seeing ahead.
Respect the bush and respect the traditional owners on the land on which you walk – they have been the custodians of this land for 1000s of years.
52 weeks 52 walks 