The Environment
A diversity of landscapes and wildlife
The essence of the Goldfields Track is its environmental diversity. Along the way you will encounter three peaks, a mountain range, one river, a many different forests and grasslands with their own distinctive flora and fauna.Â
Heading south from Bendigo towards Castlemaine is a granite mountain (Mt Alexander or Liyanganuk/Leanganook), over 700 metres tall and surrounded by a regional park. On the mount you will see huge granite boulders and slabs with lichen and moss mats where, among many tiny plants, are found the very rare Southern Shepherds Purse.
Either side of the mount, towards Bendigo and beyond Castlemaine are rare Box-Ironbark forests and woodlands. The underlying geology of sandstone providing the nutrients for these unique forests as well as yielding the gold that created the towns you will meet along the way.Â
The track’s only river, the Loddon, is crossed at Vaughan Mineral Springs. The riverside vegetation is dominated by shrubs, herbs and grasses.Â
Towards Hepburn and Daylesford you will pass by an old volcano, Mt Franklin or Lalkambuk. South of Daylesford walkers and riders enter the realm of big trees (some up to 24 metres in circumference) – the Wombat State Forest, the environment of Great Dividing Range. This range is 3,500kms long, stretching from the north Australia, along the eastern coast into Victoria. Trees here include messmate, broad and narrow leaf peppermint, white gum, stringy bark and spotted gums. The Wombat Forest is dominated by a plant known as the common pink heath which is the official floral emblem of Victoria and is depicted on all Victorian driver licences.Â
Between the Wombat Forest and Creswick are volcanic plains with distinctive red soil.Â
Around Creswick the geology again changes, more gold-bearing land, this time hosting trees that enjoy wetter conditions. Along the creek flats there are manna gum, swamp gum, blackwood and silver wattle.Â
The Goldfields Track begins/ends at another volcano, Mt Buninyong, which is an extinct scoria cone that is over 700 metres tall. The mount’s Aboriginal name meaning ‘man lying down with bent knee’ as it has that shape when viewed from a distance. The mount is surrounded by a nature reserve with an overstorey of eucalypts with a tussock ground cover.Â