Wallaby Track (Walk)
Walk the Wallaby Track
- 52km (approx)
- over 3 days*
Daylesford to Creswick (52km)
Roving rural labourer and 19th century swagman Joseph Jenkins wrote evocatively in his diary about “taking to the wallaby track” throughout the Ballarat and Mount Buninyong region. And secretive swamp wallabies are common the length of the track.
The Wallaby Track can be broken into three smaller walks, or combined to create a three day hike. See more information in the sections below.
* Times are based on walkers with a reasonable level of fitness and experience. Walking times are based on approximately 4km/hr.
The best way to understand the track conditions and attractions is to purchase and use the Goldfields Track Walk or Ride Guide (second edition). You can buy a copy here.
Lake Daylesford to Wombat Station (19.1km)
Daylesford’s deep leads, as well as alluvial gold, made it one of the longest living and most extensive goldfields covering over 480km2. When the railway reached Daylesford, the magnets – then and now – were the 141 mineral springs, many of which were uncovered by miners. The track leaves from Lake Daylesford, heads over the Great Divide through forest and passes along an imposing railway cutting, before ending at a Great Dividing Trail Association-built rotunda on the grassy platform of a long-gone railway station.
Andersons Tramway walk
Wombat Station to Mollonghip (7.4km)
The Andersons Tramway walk criss-crosses a 19th century tramway system used to carry logs felled in the Wombat Forest to a sawmill in Barkstead. While most timber tramways were crude affairs with wooden rails, the five Anderson brothers constructed cuttings and trestle bridges, put in iron rails and made it wide enough for capacious wagons, pulled by two horses abreast, and later steam trains.
W.G. Spence walk
Mollongghip to Creswick Visitor Centre (25.7km)
By 1885, gold mining had boosted Creswick’s population to 25,000, eight times greater than today’s. This section of the track is named after one of Federation’s founders: W.G. Spence. At Jackass Gully, you’ll pass the slab hut site where W.G. Spence was brought up. Walkers rejoin bikers at St Georges Lake and end at the Creswick Visitor Centre.Â
Elevation
The Wallaby Track traverses a variety of terrain and elevations.
