Creswick - La Gerche Gully Circuit Walk
The La Gerche Gully Loop Walk is a 2km, 60 minute easy to moderate walk.
Access this trail from Sawpit Road, off the Midland Highway. Look for the sign directing you past the old stables to the wide gravelled start of this well-signposted walk. The highlight of this walk is the 120 year old Oak Gully, which was planted by John La Gerche in 1887. Here you can enjoy spectacular displays of autumn colour.
Map of La Gerche Gully Circuit Walk
The La Gerche Gully Circuit Walk is the purple line on the map.
History of the La Gerche Gully Circuit Walk
The La Gerche Gully Circuit takes you on a journey through time. Sawpit Gully Plantation reveals the story of John La Gerche, Creswick's first forester and one of Victoria's first Landcarers.
Using his own initiative, La Gerche created a large and unique experimental plantation with a diverse range of conifers and deciduous trees.
John La Gerche's vision for the future and enduring efforts were formally recognised when the Sawpit Gully Nursery and Plantation area was listed as a Heritage Place in the Victorian Heritage Register, 14 November, 2014.
Forward thinking
Born on the island of Jersey (Channel Islands) John La Gerche emigrated to the goldrich colony of Victoria in 1865 and came to nearby Daylesford to operate Wombat Sawmill in the Bullarook Forest until its closure 1875.
A sawmiller-turned-forest guardian, John La Gerche was a man ahead of his time. By his actions alone he prevented further destruction of the forest by prop cutters, wood carters and later wattle-bark strippers.
La Gerche took the first steps to revegetate the foothills and gullies laid bare by miners in their feverish search for gold.
His achievement is remarkable given that many of the tree species he planted had never been trialled before.
Radiata pine is considered one of the principal softwood plantation species in south-eastern Australia today. This was not the case at this time and La Gerche was able to prove differently.
Imagine the early days - 1850s to 1880s
Victoria's gold rush was taking place in a rapidly changing world. The Eiffel Tower was being built, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb and Alexander Bell made the first long-distance telephone call.
Closer to home a weekly mail service between Australia and England commenced and the first cable trams appeared on Melbourne streets. Nellie Melba made her debut in grand opera and 'Banjo' Paterson published his first poems. Here at Creswick the fabulously rich Berry deep lead mines were attracting wide-spread interest.
Gold was discovered in Victoria 1851. The 'rush' was well and truly on with 370,000 immigrants arriving by late 1852. In just two years Victoria's population had grown from 77,000 to 540,000. Victoria contributed more than one third of the world's gold output in the 1850s.
1882 - the ravaged forest
When John La Gerche was appointed as the forest bailiff for the Ballarat-Creswick State Forest in 1882 his first priority was to prevent the illegal cutting of timber.
The forest had been ravaged - first by miners, then by wattle bark strippers and prop cutters.
1883 - early days Sawpit Gully Nursery
Forest bailiffs were unpopular in forests of the goldfields - and his bureaucratic masters constantly questioned the costs he incurred. On his own initiative La Gerche sought seeds from other foresters, reared them in small forest nurseries, and planted the trees by hand.
He began the immense task of re-stocking the forest modestly, experimenting with one pound of Blue Gum seeds. The crop largely failed, but La Gerche was not easily discouraged.
1889 - nursery relocated until 1908
About 100,000 seedlings raised at the Sawpit Gully Nursery were moved to the abandoned New Australasian Mine site just North of Creswick. It remained here until it returned to Sawpit Gully in 1908.
A pioneer of forestry in Victoria
In his lifetime John La Gerche turned a landscape full of 'diggers holes and gullies' into 'the most valuable forest land in Victoria'.
A new Conservator of Forests, George Perrin, was appointed in 1888 and took a special interest in La Gerche's Sawpit Gully Plantation.
Encouraged by the success of his previous planting, and with official support the variety of tree species expanded to include planes, oaks, English Maple, limes and several pine, eucalypt, sycamore, elm and poplar species now being grown at the nursery.
From little seeds
By 1889 La Gerche had planted over 19,000 trees in the plantation area. Aided by Albert Wade, a retired miner, the enormous task of fencing, digging holes and planting seedlings had the plantation reaching it's largest size ten years later in 1899, covering 300 acres with 24,600 trees.
"We started planting on the 11th May and finished on the 10th Sept. During that period we planted 8,544 trees... Since these last were planted there have been hard frosts and no moisture.
The rabbits have also done some damage amongst the pines... The Macedon trees are growing slowly with few failures & the Pinus insignis which I reared from seed are also growing pretty fair. I could not get enough trees from Macedon to fill the holes we had dug so I tried planting pines which had grown from seed... I am sorry to state that most of them have died." - John La Gerche, 30 November 1888.
For the complete story of John La Gerche, see Angela Taylor's book, A Forester's Log, published by Melbourne University Press, 1998.
Access for Dogs:
Dogs are permitted on leash
Review:
This is a wonderful walk, especially during autumn when the leaves are changing colour. There are information signs along the way and significant trees are labelled.
There's a good sized car park which is well signposted at the end of Sawpit Road. From the carpark head along the fenceline of Parks Victoria Creswick Office. After a short distance there's a branch to the left, which is the Landcare walk. The John La Gerche commemorative statue is a short distance along this track on the left on the Landcare walk.
The track is easy to follow with regular track markers along the route. There are plenty of seats to rest on. This walk follows part of the The Goldfields Track from Sawpit Road to the Oak Gully. At this point the Goldfields Track heads due south uphill through the Creswick pine plantation of Hancock Victorian Plantations to the Brackenbury Hill lookout.
The gully of oak trees is stunning. We visited late in the autumn season and it was a wonderful experience walking through the leaves on the ground while leaves gently fell to the ground with a soft sound.
Note that bikes are not permitted on this walk.
Photos:
Location
Sawpit Road, Creswick 3363 Map
