Devilbend Natural Features Park
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 9.28 mi
- Elevation gain
- 95 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Easy
- Elevation loss
- 95 ft
- Max elevation
- 328 ft
- TrailRank
-
73
4.3
- Min elevation
- 328 ft
- Trail type
- Loop
- Time
- 3 hours 5 minutes
- Coordinates
- 1383
- Uploaded
- October 20, 2017
- Recorded
- October 2017
near Tuerong, Victoria (Australia)
Viewed 4632 times, downloaded 40 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
Devilbend and Bittern Reservoirs were once back up supply for the areas drinking water. In December, 2000, the reservoirs were made redundant. Six years later, the Devilbend Natural Features Reserve was opened to the public for the first time in 70 odd years.
It is now a significant area for birdlife included the near-threatened Blue Billed Duck and hosts the only known breeding pair of White Bellied Sea Eagles found on the Morninton Peninsula.
The reservoir has a large population of introduced fish species including Redfin and more recently has been stocked with Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout and Estuary Perch.
This walk began at a small carpark away from the main picnic area and followed the marked Catch Drain Circuit which as the name suggests, follows a catchment drain, but is basically a Rangers vehicle track. Also known as 'Reservoir Circuit Trail' it follows this vehicle path, over Hodgins Rd, until it meets up with the 'Bittern Circuit Trail', where it evolves into a bushwalking track. Unfortunately I found myself on the wrong side of 'Devilbend Creek' and missed one of the more remote sections at the Sth end of the reservoir itself, so where possible, stay on the path nearest the reservoir.
A small picnic area is found near the carpark.
After crossing over Hodgins Rd again the 'Reservoir Circuit Trail' is signposted as Dangean Track. This track follows the waterline, albeit quite a distance from the waterline through dense ferny bushland, open grassed areas, pine forests and native bushland.
Along the way, there is evidence the land was once used as farmland, with rusting water tanks, old fence lines and ornate trees such as apple.
The last few kilometres take you along the shoreline on well formed tracks, past the fishing platforms and leading you to the main carpark and BBQ area, before walking alongside the road, across the dam wall.
Wildlife seen on the walk included Eastern Grey Kangaroos, Black Cockatoos, two varieties of Rosella, Blue Wrens, and among the various waterfowl encountered, I manged to get within a few metres of a Black Swan and its four cygnets.
The trail was just shy of 15km and took a little over 3hours to complete with a few short stops for snacks and chats with other people I encountered.
It is now a significant area for birdlife included the near-threatened Blue Billed Duck and hosts the only known breeding pair of White Bellied Sea Eagles found on the Morninton Peninsula.
The reservoir has a large population of introduced fish species including Redfin and more recently has been stocked with Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout and Estuary Perch.
This walk began at a small carpark away from the main picnic area and followed the marked Catch Drain Circuit which as the name suggests, follows a catchment drain, but is basically a Rangers vehicle track. Also known as 'Reservoir Circuit Trail' it follows this vehicle path, over Hodgins Rd, until it meets up with the 'Bittern Circuit Trail', where it evolves into a bushwalking track. Unfortunately I found myself on the wrong side of 'Devilbend Creek' and missed one of the more remote sections at the Sth end of the reservoir itself, so where possible, stay on the path nearest the reservoir.
A small picnic area is found near the carpark.
After crossing over Hodgins Rd again the 'Reservoir Circuit Trail' is signposted as Dangean Track. This track follows the waterline, albeit quite a distance from the waterline through dense ferny bushland, open grassed areas, pine forests and native bushland.
Along the way, there is evidence the land was once used as farmland, with rusting water tanks, old fence lines and ornate trees such as apple.
The last few kilometres take you along the shoreline on well formed tracks, past the fishing platforms and leading you to the main carpark and BBQ area, before walking alongside the road, across the dam wall.
Wildlife seen on the walk included Eastern Grey Kangaroos, Black Cockatoos, two varieties of Rosella, Blue Wrens, and among the various waterfowl encountered, I manged to get within a few metres of a Black Swan and its four cygnets.
The trail was just shy of 15km and took a little over 3hours to complete with a few short stops for snacks and chats with other people I encountered.
Waypoints
Car park
305 ft
Carpark
Carpark
Information point
269 ft
No public access sign
No public access sign
Intersection
Picnic
Car park
292 ft
Bittern Reservoir parking
Bittern Reservoir parking
Lake
Photo
Door
Bridge
Comments (12)
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Did you see any koalas on this walk?
I have followed this trail View more
Information
Easy to follow
Scenery
Moderate
Thanks Mr. Womble.... just finished this hike. Only recently discovered Devilbend, but hadn’t hiked round both reservoirs. Loved the trail! Really appreciated all the proximity alarms also! 🙏🏻 (only found Wikiloc this morning! Is awesome) was an easy hike, flat all the way.
Hi deb9, sorry for the late reply.
I did not see any koala's. Echidna's are pretty prevalent in the reserve, and kangaroos.
There are also introduced deer within the park.
Hi Bruce,
Wikiloc is great hey!
What do you mean by proximity alarms? I've not followed any trails as yet, do WP's give you an alarm?
Cheers, Mr. Womble.
Hey Mr. Womble.... you know on Garmin GPS devices how you can set a ‘proximity alarm’ for places of interest... like water sources, nice views etc. when I exported your track to my Garmin 750 proximity alarms went off often for trail crossroads, places where water birds were, road crossing.... all kinds of stuff. You didn’t add those? How would they get there?
Hi Bruce. No, I just run wikiloc through my smartphone and use the GPS within it.
Looking at the map and my waypoints, is it possible the alarms were set off by my WP's? ('Fishing platform', 'Swan & cygnets' etc)?
Yeah maybe? They were cool to have along the way.
OK. I'll keep using them when time permits.
Thanks for following. Are you local to Devilbend, Bruce?
Ok awesome. Yeah I’m in Mornington. Let me know if you want a go hiking sometime. I’ve become addicted to hiking! 😂 head out at least twice a week.
OK. I'm Somerville. I don't do it as much as I'd like.
As you can see by some of my trails, I kinda like doing overnighters when I can to make the most of my free time!
Cool.... I haven’t done any overnighters yet, looking too soon. Been more serious about bushwalking for the last year and a half or so.
I do a lot of night hikes.... that’s when my free time is mostly.