Johnny Boy's Walkabout Blog

Monday 13 June: Red Hill Nature Reserve – M/E *. Canberra Nature Park – a breath of fresh air for busy walkers. There are 39 Nature Reserves in the Canberra Nature Park (2021 Management Plan). How many can we walk in? The first is the centrally located Red Hill NR. Walk the north-south tracks within the Reserve, then west to near Kent St and back around the Federal Golf Course. Ascend back to the ridge and return to the start. Around 14km and 370vm climb. Some interesting background from the Red Hill Regeneration Group.

Summary

Distance: 13.2km | Climb: 410m | Time: 4hrs 15mins with 15mins of stops | Grading: M/E; M(8).

Photographs

Photographs are available here.

gpx File

The gpx file is available here.

Depending on the desktop and mobile apps you use, you can do many things with a gpx file to visualise its contents. One way is to open it in GPS Visualizer. At the Get started now! box on the landing page, in the Upload a GPS file: area, Browse to a gpx file and activate the Map it button. Activate the view link to see the data on a full page map.

Track Notes

I was last on red Hill on 15 Nov 16.

Being an inveterate list ticker, I have decided to lead CBC walks on each of the 39 Canberra Nature Park Nature reserves. It might take a year or so and here’s the first.

An overcast morning with the sun appearing about 10 minutes before we completed the walk, but at least the wind wasn’t blowing, so it was relatively warm at around 1 or 2°C.

Starting from the car park at the end of Red Hill Drive, we walked south along the spine. Down through the 6-way saddle and up the other side. No view at Davidson Hill.

We continued on through the next saddle and south-east to the survey markers overlooking Hindmarsh Drive. Here we descended to near Tamar Street, then turned north-west to generally parallel Mugga Way.

A stop at the Flinders Way pumping station to appreciate the fabulous train art (see photo above).

Turning north, we continued to the bottom of the steep stepped track which rises to near the Red Hill lookout. A convenient long log gave the 13 of us seats for morning tea.

I puffed up the track, other fitter walkers talked their way up. We arrived at the Tardis.

A few metres along Red Hill Drive we regrouped at the Lookout.

I’ve walked through the next leg of the planned route before, but haven’t paid it much attention. The first things I noticed were the freshly painted yellow survey posts at the real Red Hill. As I often say, I have strange interests.

The next point of interest, which I’d gleaned from the Red Hill Regeneration Group publication, was the location of Charles Weston’s red Red Hill plantings of Callistemons and Grevilleas. A meager sighting, but perhaps there were more down the north-east slope of Red Hill which faces towards Civic.

Down the hill a bit we crossed Gowrie Drive, walked its side for a few tens of metres, then turned right through a gate onto a management track. Soon, a left turn up a footpad and over a small crest to a seat I’d named ‘Sunset Seat’ on a walk on 29 Oct 16. On a clear evening there would be a beautiful view of the sun setting. A nice quiet spot to pause at any time.

Up to this point my navigation had been precisely to my planned route. But there are so many management trails and tracks in this area that I got off course a little. No matter, as we made our way to the Kent Street pumping station with its bird art.

Back up the track a little, then across the back of the Defence building outside the temporary fencing which has been there for yonks. Asbestos I’d guess.

Generally south-west to reach the edge of the Federal Golf Course, then around its south and east perimeter. The only excitement was a golf ball whacked to land in the midst of our party.

Up onto the end of Brereton Street, up the greenway into Red Hill NR, a management track to the 6-ways saddle and a puff up the last hill – where the sun came out. Signage explained it all.

Nature Reserve #1 ticked off. Read all about them in the 2021 Management Plan.

Track Map

You’ll find the track in AllTrails here, where you can pan and zoom.

Party

13 walkers – Adrian, Ailsa, Frank, Liz, Marlene, Meg, Phillip, Rochelle, Ross, Sharyn, Suzanne, Teresa, me.