More Glendale Drystone Wall – waypoint ‘newly discovered’

Saturday 25 April 2026: Glendale Drystone Walls * – M/R. Mystery surrounds these manmade walls, not even Tim the Yowie Man or the late Val Jeffries knowing who built them or what they were for. Come along and make your best guess. Using a less robust entry than on previous trips, we’ll walk the Brandy Flat Walking Track, then gain height on the Half Moon Creek Fire Trail. We’ll leave the latter and contour across the N flank of SH1288 to the walls. In 2022 the walls were nearly hidden by wattle regrowth. To get back to our vehicles we’ll take a direct route down to the SW. Slow walking. Around 8km and 400vm climb.

Summary

From Garmin Connect (recorded on Garmin 66i handheld) – Distance: 10.5km | Climb: 645vm | Time: 3:21 moving + 4:56 of stops = 8:17 | Grading: M/R; H(12).

Photographs

View my photographs here.

View Jenny T’s photographs here.

gpx file

Download the gpx file here.

Track Map

Here’s where we went:

Track Glendale Drystone Walls

Trip Report

I was last at the Glendale Drystone Walls on 31 Jan 22.

I did advertise this walk on Bilby as partly eXploratory! Being 4+ years older I also chose (based on a BBC walk description) an easier way up using the Half Moon Creek Fire Trail.

We were walking at 8.35am, setting of along the Brandy Flat Walking Track.

Start of Brandy Flat Walking Track signage

It took us 1 hour to cover the 2.7km and around 100vm climb to the junction with the Half Moon Creek FT.

Track junction – Brandy Flat and Half Moon Creek FTs

Our next leg was a climb of around 200vm over 2.4km in 1:10. Smoko was called.

So that was around 5.1km (half our trip distance) in 2 hours.

The rest of the walk was pretty taxing. The going was thick and spiky (lots of Cassinia and Bursaria), steep in places, and our pace was slow.

Instead of heading directly to the upper portions of the walls, a geocache GC8Z45B The Desolation (Namadgi) up on SH1288 attracted me. It was placed in August 2020, soon after the bushfires. The last find was in July 2022. I can only imagine that the going was a little easier then!

It took 1:20 to cover the 710m to SH1288. The photo below is the best of the going.

Climbing to SH1288

I’ve never spent so long, with 7 companions, looking for a geocache with no result 😒. We had lunch while we looked.

Could not find GC8Z45B The Desolation (Namadgi)

We left at 1pm for the 370m leg to the upper segments of the walls. It took us 54 minutes!

The going between SH1288 and the upper walls

I was very thankful for Matt (built like a bulldozer) taking the lead at times.

The going 100m out from the upper walls

At last.

Single small upper Glendale Drystone Wall

Horrible going. early 15 minutes to move 60m to the next section of wall.

More Glendale Drystone Wall – waypoint ‘newly discovered’

I think interest in the remaining Glendale Drystone Wall waned 😂. It was now after 2pm, so we headed (generally) for home. There were patches of small relief.

Small relief at 1170m contour

The white patch on the map segment is the start of the drainage line we followed down. It starts at a watery soak (which I didn’t photograph).

I should have tracked SW instead of W. I’ll know for next time 🤣.

We eventually broke out into the open and hit the Boboyan Road very near another geocache. I think geocaching interest had waned. The leg dow

n from the last section of wall we visited was 2.3km in 2:25.

A road bash back to the cars.

A tough and enjoyable trip with zero caches found. Thanks folks for your company.

The AllTrails map is here, where you can pan and zoom.

Party

8 walkers – Matthew F, Dianne G, Kirsty G, SF Lam, Quentin M, Phillip S, Jenny T, me.