Briagolong State Forest
The Briagolong State Forest provides for a variety of activities including picnicking, camping, walking, swimming, sightseeing, and car touring.
Note: The Freestone Creek Road is a narrow 2WD gravel road and is not suitable for caravans; other tracks are best attempted with 4WD vehicles.
Picnic and Camping Spots
Picnic spots are located throughout the forest with the Blue Pool as the centrepiece. Located on Freestone Creek this site provides interpretative facilities, barbeques, shelters, Freestone Creek toilets and walking tracks. The pool itself has formed at the bottom of narrow basalt gorge and provides a wonderful deep swimming hole during the warmer months. The creek can be accessed via a walking track starting from the car park.
Other sites with basic facilities include the Froam, Lee Creek and Pretty Boy Hill Picnic Areas. McKinnons Point, Shady's Place, Johnstons Flat, Lloyd Knob & Alistair Fieldings provide excellent camping areas with water available nearby. Blue Pool is the only site within the forest with a toilet. In areas without toilets, bury toilet waste in a 15 cm deep hole at least 100 metres away from campsites and watercourses.
Walks
The Freestone Creek area offers a variety of walks, ranging from 5 minutes to three days in duration are an excellent way to discover the many wonders of the forest. Walks are all marked and easy to follow.
1.Blue Pool Walking Tracks
The Bluff
Skill Level: Basic
Fitness Level: Low
0.2 km return (5 minutes)
A short 5 minute walk to a lookout point that provides excellent views of the Blue Pool below.
Peregrine walking track
Skill Level: Basic
Fitness Level: Average
3 km return (2 hours)
As the name suggests Peregrine falcons may be seen from the lookout during the September to December breeding season. The track winds its way through dry open forest made up of predominantly Red Box, Stringybark and Ironbark. A mine and chimney ruin along the way are reminders of its past. You may continue all the way to McKinnons point and return via Gladstone Creek and the Froam Picnic area via Track 96.
Fern Gully
Skill Level: Basic
Fitness Level: Average
1 km return (30 mins)
A small gully provides just enough moisture to provide a much different range of plant species to that of the surrounding dry ridge.
2. Track 96
Skill Level: Intermediate
Fitness Level: High
60 km one way (3 days)
The walking track, as well as being interesting historically, traverses some very scenic forest with camp and picnic sites along the way. The total network of tracks that make up Track 96 total 60kms of walking, providing various degrees of difficulty for the casual or experienced walker. The first section may be commenced just north of the Blue Pools walking tracks. Track 96 was retraced and cleared during the 1990s thanks mainly to the efforts of the Ben Cruachan Walking Club who have helped retain a vital link with our past.
On leaving the town of Gladstone, Track 96 crossed what is now private property known as Paddy Melon Gully. To pick up Track 96 you will have to walk around the Boundary Track or take the shorter route via the Freestone Creek Road. The track takes you through the Lees Creek mining area, up into the main range, to finally finish at the southern end of the Granite Creek goldfield.
3. Lees Creek Walking Track (Alistair Fielding Memorial Track)
Skill Level: Basic
Fitness Level: Average
3 km return (2 hours)
Alistair Fielding was a park ranger from Briagolong who saw the potential of opening this area up to the public but died tragically however before his vision was completed. This walk takes you back to the Lees Creek alluvial gold mining era of the 1890s where you will be able to view old house sites, alluvial diggings and a water race used to bring water from a dam to the diggings. Nature also abounds with lyrebirds, giant Mountain Grey Gums (Eucalyptus cypellocarpa), tree ferns and maybe the Fringed Helmeted Orchid (Corybas diemenicus) with its bright red flower along the way.
4. Granite Creek Walking Track
Skill Level: Basic
Fitness Level: Average
Comprises 1,2 & 3 Circuits
Circuit 1-45 mins, Circuit 2-1.5 hrs, Circuit 3-3 hrs
Complete circuit - 8 km return (4-5 hours)
An information board at the picnic area provides further details on the circuits. The walks mainly follow old water races that lead to Granite Creek. After completing each circuit there is the opportunity to continue or turn back. Along the way you will encounter old house sites, dams, a battery site, and diggings which include the Evening Star Mine.
Location
Freestone Creek Road, Briagolong 3860 Map
Web Links
→ Briagolong State Forest (PDF)
