Mount Worth State Park located in the Gippsland area of Victoria has a great selection of trails that can be linked together in multiple ways to create different lengths from a short 1km stroll to a lengthy 10km+ hike. This hike incorporates the Giant’s Circuit Walk, Trevorrows Mill, and Gardiners Mill with a total distance of 3.95km.
This is a Grade 3 walk. Total distance of the track is 4km. Suitable for most ages and fitness levels. Formed earthen track, few obstacles. Width: variable and less than 1200mm. Kept mostly clear of intrusions and obstacles.
Into The Forest
As you leave Lorkin Creek and enter the forest, conditions become cooler and wetter.
Look around you and you will see the types of plants that thrive in these conditions such as ferns, mosses, liverworts, fungi, and lichen.
Notice the tall Soft Tree-ferns. Touch the trunks to see why they are called ‘soft’, and look for a contrasting Rough Tree-fern along the track.
As you continue you will see holes in the track with mud thrown out or sometimes built into a chimney. This is the home of the tiny burrowing crayfish. There are several species, but here it is most likely to be the Gippsland Burrowing Crayfish. They are more active at night than during the day but if you are lucky you might see one near its burrow.
Trail Head Options:
- Drive to the start location in Allambee at Moonlight Creek Picnic Area.
Wildlife
The dense forest canopy does not let much light through so very few plants grow on the ground.
In addition, Superb Lyrebirds keep the soil disturbed as they scratch around for insects and other food.
You may be lucky enough to see a male lyrebird with its beautiful tail. If not you may well hear one as its ringing call imitates those of Pilotbirds, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos, Crimson Rosellas and other birds.
Mammals in this forest are mostly active at night and secretive so very hard to see, though you might find evidence of their activities. If you go slowly and quietly you are likely to see many birds and maybe a Swamp Wallaby or a Short-beaked Echidna.
As you continue, look for a Balnket-leaf tree. If you can reach the large leaves and feel their soft underside you will guess why this plant has its name.
Trail Features:
- Mount Worth State Park
- Giant Mountain Ash
- Trevorrows Mill
- Gardiners Mill
Trail Statistics:
- Starting Point: Moonlight Creek Picnic Area, Mount Worth State Park, Allambee.
- Hiking Trail Difficulty: Grade 3
- Distance: 3.95km
- Trail Type: Loop Hike
- Elevation Gain: 100m
- Elevation Loss: 100m
- Minimum Elevation: 315m
- Maximum Elevation: 360m
- Time to Complete: 1 hour
- Ending Point: Moonlight Creek Picnic Area, Mount Worth State Park, Allambee.
Trail End Options:
- Jump in your car and head home.
- Try another short hiking trail in the area, to be added shortly.
Detailed Hiking Trail Guide:
This hiking trail starts at Moonlight Creek picnic area in Mount Worth State Park near Allambee. Your only option is to get there by car as it is quite remote. The drive leading up to the area is quite scenic with rolling green hills.
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Standing Giant
This giant eucalypt is commonly called a Mountain Ash; its botanical name is Eucalyptus regnans. These are the tallest flowering plants and hardwood trees in the world.
Estimated at more than 300 years old, this tree has a huge buttressed trunk about 14 metres in circumference.
This tree is approximately 60 metres tall, but used to be even taller before age and storms or lightning took away its top branches.
Some Mountain Ash trees have been measured at over 100 metres.
The flower and seed capsules grow so high in the canopy they are hard for us to see. The capsules open when they mature and many seeds drop out. An individual seed is smaller than the end of a pin yet amazingly grows into this huge tree.
As you continue, look for plants growing on other plants.
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Historical Relics
At various points in the park, you will see relics of the timber mills that operated on the slopes around Mount Worth.
During the 1920s, twelve timber mills operated here. Steam-driven saws turned the huge logs into timber ready for dispatch to towns along the main Gippsland Railway.
Getting the timber from these remote hill sites to the railway sidings at Darnum or Yarragon was a major problem. High rainfall turned steep bush tracks into muddy quagmires. The solution was to build tramways along which horses hauled wagons laden with timber. Sawdust was laid between the tracks to soften it for the horses hooves.
Some of the walking tracks in the park follow the same route as the old tramways.
Continue along this path to Trevorrow’s Mill.
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Fungi
The forest you are walking through would not exist without the role that fungi play in turning decomposing material into food for plants.
Fungi are not plants. They reproduce by spores and do not get their energy directly from the sun. Instead, they form a special relationship with the roots of particular plants. The plant delivers energy from the sun to the fungus, while the fungus supplies nutrition to the plant. It is a mutually beneficial relationship without which neither would survive.
Most of the fungus is hidden from us growing beneath the surface. The part we see is only the small fruit body of a much larger organism made up of microscopic thread-like filaments called hyphae. A large mass of hyphae is referred to as a mycelium. Fruit-bodies often last for only a few days although some, like bracket fungi, last for years.
You will see fungi growing everywhere: on the trunks of living trees, on dead logs, tree-ferns, leaf litter, grass, animal dung and on your compost heap at home. Some species even grow on caterpillars.
As you continue your walk, look for the large bracket fungi growing on the trunks of trees. How many other types of fungi can you see and where are they growing?
Trevorrow’s Mill
All that remains of the sawmill that once operated here from 1923 to 1927 is a heap of sawdust and some old machinery. Further back on the track you will have passed the remains of the boiler that made the steam to drive the saws.
Imagine what it would have been like here when the mill was working.
This would have been a large clearing with sheds, piles of timber and the noise of steam-driven saws. Twenty men were employed on the site.
Although much of the forest has grown back, you can still see what is left of the sawdust heap where some plants are only now beginning to return.
Off The Ground
The dark, cool, moist conditions here are perfect for ferns.
Ferns and other plants that grow off the ground (on rocks or on other plants) are called epiphytes. Because they have no roots in the ground they have to obtain moisture from the air and from their surroundings. They are usually found in very damp places like this. All the epiphytes here are ferns, except for the climbing Fieldia. Look for Fieldia bell shaped flowers or oval fruits as you continue.
More than 20 different species of fern have been identified in this park. See how many you can find on this walk.
We will be adding further walks in the near future that you can continue on to from Moonlight Creek Picnic Area.