29 Jan 2011 A Wander on the South Bullen Range

Maps: Tidbinbilla and Tuggeranong 1:25000

Getting There

This walk was organised and led by me as a CBC walk:

Saturday 29 January - A Wander on the South Bullen Range - M/E-M,ptX. Replaces the advertised walk. Starting from the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, join the fire trail to its communications tower and climb to the crest of the Bullen Range. Follow the new fire trail SE through Brett trig, then S to 'Calvary'. Return via the edge of the Nature Reserve for an iced coffee. Around 13km and 350m climb. Maps: Tidbinbilla and Tuggeranong. Leader: John Evans - jevans@pcug.org.au, (h) 6288 7235. Transport: ~$5 per person.

5 of us met at 7.30am at Bunnings and drove to the CDSCC car park.

Further Information

Rob H has been called away and I'm happy to facilitate a wander. He'd already determined that there is too much water to cross the Murrumbidgee (which suits me, as I have a morbid fear of water). So we'll walk the South Bullen Range from the W, finishing with an iced coffee at the Moon Rock cafe.

An early start to beat the heat of the day.

Photographs

Access all photographs here. All thumbnails in the walk report are active - click for a larger picture.

Walk

Track maps: thumbnails are active - click for a larger picture
Track overview	Track 1	Track 2

We hopped the fence at the corner of the tracking station (with hindsight from the return leg, if you don't want to do this, wander back along Discovery Drive to the nearby gate and start of the fire trail). Quickly picked up the fire trail running along the E boundary of the complex. Followed it up the hill. A few blackberries ready to eat, very nice. Up to the communications tower, through the various track junctions (extras well shown on Google Earth) and onto the fire trail heading up E. At the junction with the new S Bullen Range fire trail (UTM 55H 680760-6081751 (GDA94)), we headed up to the S and along the crest of the range to Brett trig. Some reasonable views W and E at times. A pause for morning tea at 9.45am.

Around 500m S of Brett trig we were treated to fabulous Lyrebird song! Now I've read about this many timew, but never heard it till today. The first lyrebird was not 10m away from us, behind a log. We could just see his beautiful tail feathers fanned along his back over the top of the log. Initially I thought there had to be a kookaburra close by as well, but then a magpie, a currawong, wattle bird and several others. It was truly amazing! We were enthralled and I only had the presence of mind to pull out the camera and begin recording just as he finished and was gliding away. However, another one started up on the other side of the fire trail and I managed to record a bit ... listen to the Lyrebird song .

We wandered on down the fire trail and just after the trees thinned, struck off W-ish towards Calvary. The wattle regrowth in this area is pretty dense, the big spiders hanging in their webs even denser. A spider stick to wave in front was useful.

We had a poke around Calvary, then contoured out along the fenceline to the track and down to the corner fences. I'm afraid we took the easy way home from here, following the track down Larrys Creek on private property, rather than staying in the W edge of the Bullen Range Nature Reserve.

The dishes came into view and we headed for the poplars at the bridge over Larrys Creek on Discovery Drive. A second delight here, as we spotted some long-necked tortoises swimming lazily in the creek.

Back to the car and a little treat at the Moon Rock cafe.

A pleasant little wander with a couple of surprises. Thanks for your company Gavin F, Stephen and Lisa M and Joslyn v d M.

Distance: 13.5km Climb: 350m. Time: 8.10am - 12.05pm (call it 4hrs), with 10mins of stops.
Grading: M/E-M,ptX; M(9)

KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: South Bullen Range

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This page last updated 25Aug22