Redgrounds and Endrick River FT
Posted: Mon 10 Jan, 2022 11:23 amHad a lovely couple of days away just before NY - Walked in via Redgrounds Track and then cut across from Quilty's Clearing to the Endrick FT to camp at junction of Endrick and Sallees creek. Mostly pretty easy walking from Quiltys Clearing to Endrick other than a small patch of thick wattle, although coming back I followed a nice easy clearing too far east and then we had heaps of thick wattle to get through to get back to the Redgrounds track!
Camping at the junction was fantastic with a lovely waterhole for swimming. Spend the middle day exploring upriver to the Falls and then continued up river to the Redground-Endick FT junction. Easy walking along the river, only a couple of small patches of thicker stuff - a great change from normal Budawangs walking, showing how completely cleaned out it still is after the fires - no sure how much longer that will last though given the thickets of wattle we did see. Still none of the dense tea trea that used to be all arounf the Endrick though.
Was great to see the recovery well underway, our last trip in Sep 2020 (9 months post fires) was very disheartening, but 15 months later really starting to see the firt signs of recovery in the bush. However it was very quiet in terms of wildlife, birdlife was very sparse, heaps of insects (and spiders!) and saw quite a few of roos, plenty of signs of wombats. Very few lizards around (a couple of water dragons and skinks only), didn't see a single snake! Wildflowers were spectacular. The river flats were extremely sandy as a result of the floods that followed the bushfires, which made the river walking pretty easy.
The fire trails were in a huge mess and we were shocked at their state. It looked like NPWS have bulldozed them very recently while the track was wet and boggy. There was heaps of erosion and I reckon I could have gotten my 2wd along almost the whole track! Not sure of the reasoning for this work as the tracks were pretty open anyway and I'd have though maybe just some slashing/pruning of the regrowth would have been enough. It seemed incredibly destructive to me, considering the state the area was already in. The lovely muddy tracks they made showed heaps of wild pig activity so clearly they are a problem too.
Anyway have added a couple of photos comparing photos from 2019 ( before fires) with sept 2020 and Dec 2021 - interesting to see the recovery.
More photos are at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/yCxtdGGFBA2F1io38
Camping at the junction was fantastic with a lovely waterhole for swimming. Spend the middle day exploring upriver to the Falls and then continued up river to the Redground-Endick FT junction. Easy walking along the river, only a couple of small patches of thicker stuff - a great change from normal Budawangs walking, showing how completely cleaned out it still is after the fires - no sure how much longer that will last though given the thickets of wattle we did see. Still none of the dense tea trea that used to be all arounf the Endrick though.
Was great to see the recovery well underway, our last trip in Sep 2020 (9 months post fires) was very disheartening, but 15 months later really starting to see the firt signs of recovery in the bush. However it was very quiet in terms of wildlife, birdlife was very sparse, heaps of insects (and spiders!) and saw quite a few of roos, plenty of signs of wombats. Very few lizards around (a couple of water dragons and skinks only), didn't see a single snake! Wildflowers were spectacular. The river flats were extremely sandy as a result of the floods that followed the bushfires, which made the river walking pretty easy.
The fire trails were in a huge mess and we were shocked at their state. It looked like NPWS have bulldozed them very recently while the track was wet and boggy. There was heaps of erosion and I reckon I could have gotten my 2wd along almost the whole track! Not sure of the reasoning for this work as the tracks were pretty open anyway and I'd have though maybe just some slashing/pruning of the regrowth would have been enough. It seemed incredibly destructive to me, considering the state the area was already in. The lovely muddy tracks they made showed heaps of wild pig activity so clearly they are a problem too.
Anyway have added a couple of photos comparing photos from 2019 ( before fires) with sept 2020 and Dec 2021 - interesting to see the recovery.
More photos are at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/yCxtdGGFBA2F1io38