We knocked off early on Anzac Day to have a stroll along the Wirilda Track from the W3 ‘road’ downstream. (I am still recovering, slowly). You can put a canoe in here and with some difficulty paddle down to the old Morwell pumping station at Wirilda Park.
The river used to be clearer (and may be again) but if you do not mind a bit of bottom scraping and the odd portage it is a very enjoyable 3-4 hours pretty much anytime – as there is a constant water release for environmental purposes.
The river is ‘canoeable’ from at least Growler’s Track on the Western Tyers from where it would take nearly a week to get to the pumping station – by which time you might even have grown sick of eating fresh trout, blackfish and spinyback crays!
After you descend to the river you have to cross on some of the old water supply pipelines – the oldest ones were made of wood, and can still be seen here and there. There used to be a number of weirs on the river to supply the Latrobe Valley with water before they constructed the Moondarra Reservoir. If you carry a pruning saw such as this, you can ‘improve’ the experience for others. There are some tea trees hanging a little closely over the river in places (and some pebble races could use a few stones moving). You can get through however, and there are many lovely still pools and campsites with beautiful river reflections -such as this:
There was no-one else about, even on a public holiday, and a beautiful day!
There are many little drops like this.
And splendid limpid pools.
In which the surrounding bush was mirrored.
The surface only rarely disturbed by water boatmen or trout.
You can use the Wirilda Track as an introduction to the Upper Yarra Track – if you need to walk it entirely utilising foot or public transport. There are many posts about this, eg beginning here: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2015/11/17/upper-yarra-track-update-section-one-moe-yallourn-rail-trail/
Della’s Snaps (she is a better photographer than I):
The dogs certainly enjoyed themselves.
See Also:
& etc…
