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Length: 8.5km
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Duration: 3.5hrs
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Grade: 3
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Style: Circuit
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Start: Meikles Point Picnic area
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End: Meikles Point Picnic area
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Location: Werribee Gorge State Park
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Closest Town: Bacchus Marsh
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Distance from CBD: 69km
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State: VIC
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Latitude: -37.6692193
Longitude: 144.3562038
Keep the Trail Access info current...
2WD Access
Gravel Road
Large Car Park
Winding Road
Picnic Table
Untreated Water
Campfire Pit
Public Toilets
Select items to indicate conditions for access to the trail.
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
Campfire Pit
Camping Area
Keep the Trail Features current...
Rock Scrambling
Gravel Path
Rough Trail
Exposed Ledges
Steep Terrain
Scenic Viewpoints
Untreated Water
Swimming Spots
Werribee Gorge State Park...
Select items to indicate features found along the trail.
Concrete Path
Timber Boardwalk
Gravel Path
Sandy Trail
Rough Trail
Undefined Trail
Prams & Strollers
Manual Wheelchair
Motorised Wheelchair
Bicycle Trail
Mountain Bike Trail
Historic Rail Trail
Dog Friendly
Urban Walk
Coast & Beach
Historic Lighthouse
Waterfalls & Lakes
Rainforest Walk
Goldfields & Mining
Heritage Walk
Aboriginal Art
Alpine Region
Alpine Huts
Exposed Ledges
Rock Scrambling
Steep Terrain
Bush Bashing
River Crossings
Scenic Viewpoints
Well Marked
Drinking Water
Untreated Water
Fishing Spots
Swimming Spots
Overnight Campsites
Trail Running
Horse Riding
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.
About the region
Werribee Gorge is a wild, rugged natural beauty shaped by 500 million years of geological history. A range of challenging walks amid the steep, river-washed gorge and surrounding rocky ridges offer spectacular views and access to a rock-climbing site within the park. The main feature of this park is the Werribee Gorge, through which the Werribee River meanders. This gorge has acquired some renown throughout the 20th century for its geological value.
Werribee Gorge has attracted the attention of geologists as one of the earliest known ancient glacial deposits, parts of which can be seen. The 200m deep gorge was formed about a million years ago when movements along a fault in the Earth's crust steepened the river's gradient. Since then the stream has continued to deepen the gorge through underlying rock to ancient sediments deposited in a sea more than 400 million years ago. Other geological events that have since occurred include the advance and retreat of an ice sheet and the inflow of volcanic lava.
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
Max elevation: 356 m
Min elevation: 138 m
Total climbing: 353 m
Total descent: -343 m
Hikes Nearby
10 thoughts on “Werribee Gorge Circuit (8.5km)”
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My playground 🙂
Amazing walk, with good lookouts and picturesque river scenes. Not to hard but hard enough to be interesting.
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.
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.
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.
It is a great area. Glad you both enjoyed it.
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!
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
Also Darren I’d love to submit some photos to be added to the page, what’s your email?
That would be awesome, my email address has been mentioned in my reply to your other comment.