Trevorrows Mill and Gardiners Mill plus Giant’s Circuit Loop

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.