Honeyeater Hike
Bungendore Park
Directions - Located 45 minutes south east of Perth, take Albany Highway until you reach Armadale. Continue along the highway up into the hills until you reach Admiral Road. Take a right here and follow it until you see the entrance for Bungendore Park. Drive into the gravel car park where you will find plenty of room, the trail head is found a short distance along the vehicle track leading into the park.
The Hike - Bungendore Park is a place I've often thought about visiting but for whatever reason, never fully researched a trip here. Located on the outskirts of Armadale, I had a really pleasant experience exploring the nearby hills and valleys of Wungong Gorge a few years ago so really this should have been a destination I had visited much earlier. I think I had been saving it for when I was beginning to run out of trails to do and given the lack of new Perth trails I've added to site in the past year, I've reached that point. With a few hours free on the cusp of a Perth winter, I decided today was the day to finally get out to Bungendore Park to see what was what.
Having limited time in the morning before a midday engagement, I was looking for a new trail to do that was a reasonable length but also fairly close to home. The Honeyeater Hike fit that bill nicely at 8.2km and a relatively short drive from Freo. Ideally this is one I'd have saved for spring but with a full calendar starting to come together and plenty of hikes that would be much nicer with all the wildflowers out, I would be doing this one early on in the hiking season. That's not to say it wouldn't be enjoyable with several of the information boards exclaiming that there is always something in bloom here and I love a good fungi hunt when the colder weather sets in. Arriving at the entrance to the park, things were fairly clear with the crisp morning air putting me in a good mood as I love this time of year for hiking. Parking up, I wasn't the only one out here early to experience the trails with a few other cars around. The official trail head isn't at the car park, instead you walk through some gates designed to keep dirt bikes out and along a vehicle track that runs parallel to Southern Hills Christian College. It was a pleasant stroll along the track with mature Marri and Jarrah trees creating a nice spot for the noisy Kaaraks to hang about.
Reaching the trail head, you will find one of many dieback cleaning stations that are scattered around the park and what a surprise it was to find one of these boot spraying varieties to be working. After giving my boots a clean to protect the area from dieback, I had a look at the information board and noted the suggested direction of the Honeyeater Hike being anti-clockwise. There are a number of smaller walks in the area including the Robin Ramble, Spinebill Stroll and Whistler Walk (the trails person must be a big fan of alliteration) if you don't want to walk the full 8.2km Honeyeater Hike. Dogs are allowed in the park but only on the designated bridle trails and not in the conservation areas that are signed and have dieback stations before and after. Walking along Dryandra Drive to start the hike, I noticed it was really starting to mist up and it didn't take long before there was a spooky fog hanging around. I love these conditions as it adds a nice atmosphere to any walk, plus the photos always look a little more interesting. Turning off the Dryandra Drive, you follow the yellow trail markers as they loop around the Christian College and the Volunteer Fire Brigade. I initially thought the Volunteer Fire Brigade structure was a weird communications or transistor structure but a closer look revealed it to be a fun looking training course.
This early section was very gentle walking and although the presence of the school distracts you a little, there is some nice Jarrah and Marri forest that has regrown after this area was logged in the late 1800s. As you start to move away from the school, some nice mature She-Oak starts to appear and it was a pleasant sight. She-Oak is one of my favourite tree types to walk through on a gloomy winters day as the thin needles that provide a carpet of soft brown covering on the ground is just a relaxing visual to me. The foggy weather took this section up a notch as the sun was starting to stream through from the east and create some interesting lighting conditions. I had fun through here photographing the little finds I had including some early season wildflowers, a few fungi and the water droplets clinging to the leaves of the young eucalyptus trees. Slowly the scenery starts to change and the undergrowth is soon dominated by Parrot Bush. I can't say it's my favourite native as the leaves are very scratchy and when in large patches, it can smell a bit like dead animal (to me at least). One redeeming quality it does have are the flowers it produces with a beautiful yellow cone protruding from the centre of a grouping of spiky leaves.
They are hardy plants, often springing to life after a fire and taking over an area. I found one example growing out of a crack in a boulder so they know how to survive. Around the time I came across the large swathes of Parrot Bush, the rain started to hit with just the hint of a slight drizzle. It added to the gloomy nature of the hike thus far but not in a good way as the Parrot Bush is not a colourful plant and expansive areas of it doesn't make for nice scenery as you're walking along. I used this time to pick up the pace and was soon in some much nicer forest with the return of the Marri and Jarrah. Here I found a bit more variety in the flora with some interesting shaped leaves belonging to some plants I'd love to see in flower. I also had some excellent fungi finds here, not surprising considering I'd recently spent a few weeks in Tasmania scanning the forest floor for all different kinds. My favourite from this walk was a large purple example that was very well hidden in the leaf litter that I was lucky to pick out thanks to its shiny top giving it away. Reaching the other access point to the park from Albany Highway, the Parrot Bush returned and gave the place a very barren feel. As I was checking out the information shelter here the rain thankfully stopped and I was treated to sunnier conditions as I walked up the wide vehicle track, wondering if this hike was going to get any better.