Length: 4.3 km

Time taken: 1 hour (including breaks for pictures)

Grade: Easy

Climb: 33 metres

I was pleasantly surprised at how nice this walk was considering it runs behind the Deakin university and schools in Burwood. I was expecting the creek to be fairly small and narrow, but it was quite full and flowing when I was there. I’m not sure how much this was due to the flash flooding a couple of days earlier. The flooding had flattened some of the marsh grass (if that’s what you call it) along the side of the creek.

The walk was very easy and relaxing. I was tempted to stop and watch the water flowing over the rocks for a while.

Map

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The marsh grass had been flattened by the flash flooding a couple of days earlier.

One of the rocky sections of the creek along this path

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One of the bridges that cross the creek

The Deakin University carpark through the trees.

A really nice section of the path where it winds around a bend

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At Burwood Rd a u-turn has been created in the path

Another bridge

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Length: 8 km (Longer than in the book due to accidentally back tracking part of the path!)

Time taken: 2 hours (including breaks for pictures)

Grade: Easy

Climb: 35 metres

This was a surprisingly pretty and interesting walk considering it was partly down streets and along the back of houses. How we managed to prematurely end up back at the beginning of the walk and not realise until we saw the car is a mystery, but the mistake thankfully only added an extra km to the walk.

The first half of the walk is along a creek that backs onto houses, but it’s quite nice and was reasonably busy with walkers and joggers while we were there. The next part of the walk is crossing a main road and down a National Trust Classified street with some very interesting looking houses. I didn’t even know streets could be National Trust Classified! The last part of the walk was a circuit of Blackburn lake, which is surprisingly large and picturesque.

The walk was easy, but longer than the usual lake circuit walks in the book when combined with the streets and creek.

Map

The creek

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There were some interesting water fowl hanging out in the creek. You can see it standing on the concrete.

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This tree fell over the track, but instead of removing it the council has erected signs at both sides warning walkers and cyclists not to hit their heads!

A small lake within the creek

Another water fowl

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The National Trust Classified Street sign on Jeffery St

Blackburn Lake

One of the platforms over the lake

Another view of the lake