Leanganook Loops
Mount Alexander Regional Park
Start - Joseph Young Drive
Length - 10.7km (Figure 8)
Elevation - 371m
Time - 3-5 Hours
Classification - Grade 3
Dog Friendly - No
Date Hiked - 26th December 2019
Best Time - Autumn to Late Spring
Trail Type - Walking
More Info - Goldfields Track
Cost - Free
Traditional Custodians - Dja Dja Wurrung People
The Hike - With the family-in-law Christmas in Daylesford this year, it was an opportunity to once again head out in Central Victoria and find a hike to do on my own. Having previously done the Tipperary Track and Werribee Gorge, I set my sights on the area around Daylesford for an enjoyable summer hike of a semi-decent length. My original thoughts were somewhere around Wombat State Forest and a number of interesting hikes came up in my search. In the end I was perusing Uncle Hal's library and found a few guide books on day walks in Victoria. Flicking through there were a few that peaked my interest but after it was announced that the rest of family were headed to Castlemaine for morning tea on the day of my hike, I decided on the Leanganook Loops hike as it's located right outside of Castlemaine.
Getting out to the hike was an experience in itself as Uncle Hal had kindly lent me his new (to him) Jaguar XK for the drive as our hire car was more practical for transporting multiple people in comfort. With a 4.2L V8 and a pretty coupe body, this was the most stylish way I've ever rocked up to a hike but given the early departure time it was a pretty nerve-wracking experience. Dodging kangaroos and rabbits on the highway as I drove the 45 minutes it took to get to the start, I was very cautious not to wreck Hal's new toy. The bark of the engine was a smile inducing sensation every time I had to accelerate away and was a lovely way to start the experience. As I got closer to Mount Alexander, there was a spot on the side of the road where the profile of the hill could be seen so I stopped for an early morning photo. Finally reaching the park, there is a winding road leading past the Leanganook Campsite and over the top of Mount Alexander. The start point for the walk in the guide was a small gravel area just off the road where the sign for the Goldfields Track is. Comprised of two separate loops, I had a bit of a guess as to which way to tackle it and decided in the end to do it as a figure 8, doing the smaller loop to the south first in an anti-clockwise direction and then the longer northern loop in a clockwise direction.
One of the reasons for this was a place called Dog Rocks was right near the car park and in the direction of the southern loop. The morning light was looking good in that direction and I was keen to start exploring the rocks. A jumble of massive boulders set among the smooth barked eucalyptus trees, it's a very cool spot to walk through and admire. Joining the Goldfields Track, a 211km walking track running between Ballarat and Bendigo, this will be home for a while as you head towards the Leanganook Campsite. Walking up the hill, you enter the maze of boulders that form Dog Rocks and the trail becomes a little haphazard. With this part of the track being dual use between hiking and mountain biking plus the easy access for car visitors, there are multiple lines weaving their way through the area. It's not really an issue, you just find a path that works for you and head in the direction of what you want to explore. Some of the bigger boulders are really imposing from the base but head up the hill a little more and you can climb on top of them for some cool views looking north towards the summit of Mount Alexander. After having a bit of fun scaling the boulders, I located the path again and headed off towards where the loop leaves the Goldfields Track and heads to the Leanganook Campsite.
While hiking around Central Victoria in summer is never going to yield lush, green terrain, I was surprised to still see a good amount of life hanging about. Instead of endless fields of dry grass under the woodlands, it was great to see a carpet of yellow wildflowers that admittedly were on their last legs. In the golden light of the morning illuminating the edges of the trail, the walk up the hill was made a lot easier. The first of the expansive views is not far up the path with a rocky platform providing a great opportunity to take in the landscape to the west. What will be a theme for the hike, it was unsurprising to see a sea of yellow, full of farmland and lacking a substantial area of forest (much like most of the southern half of the country unfortunately). A bit further on I reached the sign for the Leanganook Campsite and knew that it was time to leave the official Goldfields Track as this marked the rounding of the bottom loop back towards the start. The downhill trek to the campsite was a pleasant one with a kangaroo sighting, a few boulders strewn about the place and more carpets of wildflowers.
Spotting a bus, dirt bike (not a wanted sight) and a few cars meant I had arrived at the campsite. A pretty large area, it is dog friendly and has some good facilities for campers like a water tank, BBQs and toilets. I felt like an intruder as I wandered through the campsite with the campers that were awake eyeing me off as if walkers were an alien concept. Not wanting to stick around and with a tight schedule to keep I moved through and found my way out of the campsite. I've never found car camping areas to be particularly nice places to walk through anyway so was happy to be out on the road and making my way towards the next section of walking trail. As I passed a body of water and walked along the edge of the road trying to find the path heading north, I had a cool wildlife experience. A Black Wallaby popped out of the undergrowth and once it realised I was there, quickly headed back. It stopped long enough for one photo and it was nice to see a different kind of wallaby to the ones we get in Western Australia.