Yankee Creek is an 8.5km, grade 4 hike located in Wombat State Forest, Victoria. The hike should take around 4 hours to complete.
Hike overview
The water races surrounding Yankee Creek, on the northern edge of Blackwood, bare witness to a much busier gold rush past. This hike will take advantage of the water races to explore one of the lesser known tributaries of the Lerderderg River. The hike passes through Mineral Springs Reserve and visits Shaws Lake along the way.Most of this walk follows water races and foot trails but there is the occasional fallen tree to scramble over. There is also a section of off trail walking down an open spur and along Yankee Gully, which will require basic navigational skills. One short but very steep hill is also encountered.
Route and GPX file
Max elevation: 649 m
Min elevation: 524 m
Total climbing: 342 m
Total descent: -342 m
Trail location
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Getting there
From Melbourne follow the Western Freeway for 67Km and take the Greendale exit. Continue on for 6.5Km to Greendale. Turn right along the Greendale-Trentham Road and follow it for 11Km to Blackwood. Park near the hotel.
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Explore Safe
While planning your hike, it’s important to check official government sources for updated information, temporary closures and trail access requirements. Before hitting the trail, check local weather and bushfire advice for planned burns and bushfire warnings and let someone know before you go. Plan ahead and hike safely.
Let someone know
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Gear to consider
My free planning, food and packing checklists provide an introduction to things your could consider (as well as the Ten Essentials) on your day, overnight and multi-day adventures. Customise your kit according to your personal needs, always considering safety first.Â
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Acknowledgement of Country
Trail Hiking Australia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we hike and pay respects to their Elders, past and present, and we acknowledge the First Nations people of other communities who may be here today.
3 Reviews on “Yankee Creek Hike (8.5km)”
We did this circuit today, starting from the marker for Great Dividing Trail off Whalebone Road. For some reason we had a lot of trouble finding the trail after the lake – shortly afterwards, it kind of petered out and we didn’t see a clear trail again until the northern-most section where you cross the creek with a steep downhill/uphill. From there we followed the track to the end of Moonlight Trail but again lost the path and ended up wandering around down in the gully for a while until we gave up and made our way back to Moonlight Trail and walking back to town via Old Blackwood Road. Not sure where we went wrong considering we tried to match our Google Maps location to the OCM marked trail exactly but still managed to do a whole lot of off-trail hiking that we probably weren’t supposed to do! In any case, the terrain is not too difficult although everything is damp/wet and most of the logs are very slippery, so caution must be taken when climbing over them.
We did this hike with 20kg backpacks load with water.
The 2 km riverbed section is very slippery when damp. The sky was blue but everything was damp which made it interesting. I would save this section to last as it takes it out of you climbing over slippery rocks and fallen trees. Lots of blackberries when you have to climb out of the riverbed and pass sections blocked by trees or full of water.
We had great fun (My wife, 11yr old daughter and myself) and enjoyed every bit of it but is hard going when wet and I wouldn’t do it if it is raining!
10/10 walk.