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  2. Werribee Gorge Circuit (8.5km)
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  • Length: 8.5km

  • Duration: 3.5hrs

  • Grade: 3

  • Style: Circuit

  • Start: Meikles Point Picnic area

  • End: Meikles Point Picnic area

  • Location: Werribee Gorge State Park

  • Closest Town: Bacchus Marsh

  • Distance from CBD: 69km

  • State: VIC

  • Latitude: -37.6692193

  • Longitude: 144.3562038

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2WD Access
Gravel Road
Large Car Park
Winding Road
Picnic Table
Untreated Water
Campfire Pit
Public Toilets
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2WD Access

4WD Access

Public Transport

Bitumen Road

Gravel Road

Steep Road

Winding Road

Speed Bumps

Vehicle Ford

Entry Fee

Large Car Park

Small Car Park

Accessible Parking

Accessible Toilet

Public Toilets

Drinking Water

Untreated Water

Picnic Shelter

Picnic Table

BBQ Facilities

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Camping Area

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Rock Scrambling
Gravel Path
Rough Trail
Exposed Ledges
Steep Terrain
Scenic Viewpoints
Untreated Water
Swimming Spots
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Werribee Gorge State Park...

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Concrete Path

Timber Boardwalk

Gravel Path

Sandy Trail

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Undefined Trail

Prams & Strollers

Manual Wheelchair

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Mountain Bike Trail

Historic Rail Trail

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Urban Walk

Coast & Beach

Historic Lighthouse

Waterfalls & Lakes

Rainforest Walk

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Aboriginal Art

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Alpine Huts

Exposed Ledges

Rock Scrambling

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Bush Bashing

River Crossings

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Trail Running

Horse Riding

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Werribee Gorge Circuit is an 8.5km, grade 3 circuit hike, located in Werribee Gorge State Park, Victoria. The hike should take approximately 3.5hrs to complete.

Hike Summary

This Werribee Gorge Circuit hike explores the length of the Werribee Gorge. Starting at Meikles Point Picnic area follow the Werribee River to the north west. The first part of the walk follows a disused water channel built between 1926 and 1929 to supply irrigation to the local area.

The trail is quite awkward from this point until Needles Beach as it hugs the base of a few small cliffs. Needles beach is a good place for a rest stop. Follow the trail along the eastern side of the river as far as Blackwood pool. The trail then leaves the river to ascend a rocky ridge to western viewpoint. A great spot to take in the twisting river below.

Continue to walk east from Western viewpoint past picture point, which overlooks Needles Beach, and on to Eastern Viewpoint where you can take in a view of the Island. From Eastern Viewpoint you now have the option of following the short circuit trail back to Meikles Point or continuing east past the Hanson Farm ruins back to the quarry car park.

The trail from the carpark now follows Myers road for a few hundred metres. Leave the road and follow the trail across a few shallow gullies before descending Pattersons spur via a vehicle management track and back to Meikles Point.

Tips

  • Trail can be taken in any direction.
  • The river is prone to flooding so avoid after heavy rains.
  • Walking poles will be beneficial.
  • Alternate short circuit walk.
  • Additional return walk to The Island via Centenary track.

GPX File

Total distance: 8484 m
Max elevation: 356 m
Min elevation: 138 m
Total climbing: 353 m
Total descent: -343 m
Download GPX File

Hikes Nearby

Previous
Werribee Gorge Circuit via Short Circuit Track (7.6km)

10 thoughts on “Werribee Gorge Circuit (8.5km)”

  3. Best to start this hike from Meikles Point Picnic area (the very bottom car park) then head ANTI-clockwise (as oppose to the above directions). This will get all the uphill section out of the way at the start, and let you enjoy the river section on the way home with no more ascents.

    Also, sticking to the trail, the full circuit hike is only 8.1km, which, most people will do in under 3 hours. Not sure what the 9.3km described is based from.

    Good hike, but could do with some additional signage, due to its proximity to Melb, get alot of tourist hikers, and admittedly, when your in the carpark, its kind of hard to understand which way you need to go and how the 3 carparks all link up. People often wonder ‘where is my car?’ because they’re actually in a different carpark.
    Additionally, because of the circuit and it being uni-directional, the track seems very busy, you’ll constantly be crossing paths with people coming the opposite direction.
    A nice easy hike, but don’t expect solitude.

    1. Thanks Ragnar (nice fake name by the way). The hike description does mention starting at Meikles Point Picnic area. People can choose any direction they like to complete this circuit. I always try to detail circuits on this site so that people are ascending the steepest sections because I have a lot of people mention to me that this is easier on their knees than struggling with a steep descent. Up to each person how they prefer to approach it really.

      The trail distance of 9.3 has been updated, thanks for picking that up. That was an error in the gpx file as it included the short circuit track option. I have now removed that section and the recorded distance is now 7.6km. If you still believe it is 8.1km it would be great if you can share your gps recording with me so that I can update the site info accordingly. The 7.6km was the recorded length when I last did the hike. GPS devices do vary so I’d be interested to see how you calculated the total.

      Agree with it being busy. I used to love coming to this park for the solitude it offered and would hike here every weekend but these days it is very heavily traversed.

  4. Great circuit for those new to hiking (like me).
    Did this with my wife and found it challenging enough while enjoying the surrounding scenery. Will definitely return to explore more of the area.

  5. First time poster!

    Did this on the weekend! We completed it much faster than we expected, 2 hours and 10 minutes with a short 5 minute pause to take in the scenery at Western Viewpoint. It’s seriously beautiful, and great for people just getting into the hiking spirit. There is a section that requires you to climb around the bottom of a small cliff whilst hanging onto ropes secured to the rock face, unexpected (and fun!) but not super challenging so don’t be put off.

    Darren, I haven’t been able to add trails to my favourites or mark them as completed.. am I doing something wrong?

    Cheers all, happy hiking!

    1. Hi Tori, thanks so much for the additional info on this hike. Glad you enjoyed it. With regards to adding items to your favourites and completed, you need to be logged in first to be able to do this. I am assuming you are so we might have to have a more detailed conversation about what is going on. Feel free to email me at [email protected] so that I can help sort this for you. Sometimes ad blockers running in your browser may prevent the java script from doing what it is meant to do so maybe try disabling that if you are running an ad blocker

    1. That would be awesome, my email address has been mentioned in my reply to your other comment.

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