Old River Circuit Hike (16.7km)

Stretching across more than 44,000 hectares between Daylesford and Bacchus Marsh, Wombat-Lerderderg National Park brings together the former Lerderderg State Park and substantial areas of the former Wombat State Forest. The landscape changes considerably from south to north. Around the Lerderderg River, steep slopes and broken ridgelines fall into a rugged gorge cut through sandstone and slate, while further north the country rises into the forested uplands around the Great Dividing Range, with broader ridges, gullies, creeks and headwater streams. These contrasting landscapes give the park a sense of scale and variety that is unusual this close to Melbourne.

Vegetation changes with elevation, rainfall, soils and exposure. The drier country around the Lerderderg Gorge supports open forests and woodlands dominated by stringybarks, boxes and other species adapted to the rocky slopes, while wetter forests become more prominent through the higher country to the north. Messmate stringybark, narrow-leaved and broad-leaved peppermint, manna gum and candlebark are characteristic of parts of the former Wombat State Forest, while manna gum and other riparian species line sections of the Lerderderg River and its tributaries. Together, these forests and waterways form an important block of connected habitat, including habitat for threatened species such as the Greater Glider.

The landscape also carries a long history of mining and forestry. Gold discoveries around Blackwood and elsewhere from the 1850s brought extensive mining to the district, leaving water races, tunnels, diggings, stonework and other remnants along gullies and river valleys. Much of the former Wombat State Forest was heavily worked for timber over more than a century, and large areas of today's forest are regrowth shaped by that history. Older trees and hollows remain important habitat, particularly in the wetter northern forests, while old tracks, tramways and other forestry relics survive in parts of the park.

Wombat-Lerderderg National Park lies on the Countries of the Dja Dja Wurrung, Wadawurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples, whose connections with these landscapes extend back thousands of years and continue today. The park now protects a large and varied section of central Victoria's forested highlands, from the enclosed river country and rocky slopes of the Lerderderg Gorge to the cooler upland forests further north. For walkers, that means the character of the park can change markedly from one area to another, while remaining part of the same connected landscape.