Hiking in Melbourne Water catchments

[fairman]

Was driving along the Acheron Way today and a question came up - is it illegal and punishable to hike past the closed catchment gates in the Yarra Ranges? Feel free to not admit to anything, but I'd be interested to know what people know about this.

Guessing it's a technical illegality, given the conditions of the 1975 national parks act, but have any hikers actually been fined or caught?

Thanks!

[MickyB]

I know of a lot of interesting places behind those gates, although I have never been to them. I have also heard stories of hikers parking their vehicles close to these gates and having authorities waiting for them to return. Not sure how much the fines are.

[fairman]

I have also heard stories of hikers parking their vehicles close to these gates and having authorities waiting for them to return.

Right so... Park your car a bit away, or get a lift to the trail head?

[MickyB]

fairman - PM sent

[sambar358]

Public access is not permitted in any of the Melbourne Water Catchement areas under gate closures.....so no walking, fishing, hunting, bike riding etc allowed & I would expect that approriate signage stating this would be placed at these gates to inform the public of this. This exclusion is intended to keep the drinking water that goes to the residents of Melb and surrounds "pure & uncontaminated"......and of course the fish and other aquatic creatures are prohibited from relieving themselves in that water as are the animals and birds that come to the water banned from falling-in and expiring in there. I believe that quite a substantial fine is applied to anyone nabbed in these locked-up catchement areas, the areas are patrolled from time to time and I would expect any unattended vehicles parked near closure gates would attract a level of attention from MMBW staff. Cheers

s358

[MickyB]

the areas are patrolled from time to time

I have been told by someone who works for Melbourne Water when these areas are patrolled. Will not mention it here but it was surprising

[walkon]

Yes it is illegal to bushwalk in these catchments and as samba has noted this is done to stop the water catchment from getting polluted.

Interesting to note, Legally allowable activities permitted in these zones that apparently don't pollute include the following; bulldozing, logging, burning and spraying pesticides.

[fairman]

I would expect any unattended vehicles parked near closure gates would attract a level of attention from MMBW staff.

"MMBW" staff? Showing your age there, Sambar... Hasn't been called that for 25 years! Next you'll start talking about the Forest Commission...

Thanks for the tips, folks. I suppose I was under the impression that given hiking can be a far lower polluting and sediment-ing producing activity compared to, say, 4WD-ing, the access restrictions were primarily aimed at the vehicular kind. Oh well!

[sambar358]

I would expect any unattended vehicles parked near closure gates would attract a level of attention from MMBW staff.

"MMBW" staff? Showing your age there, Sambar... Hasn't been called that for 25 years! Next you'll start talking about the Forest Commission...
!

You're probably right there Fairman......and it's likely that it was 25 or more years ago that I last drove past one of those catchment closure gates and thought about all the giant trout in the water and the no-go bush full of unmolested sambar deer. I doubt if much has changed these days except there are more deer in there & the MMBW is now been re-badged......probably for the 10th time since then and no-doubt would be a mere shadow of its former self ! Cheers

s358

[raider]

About 30 years ago I did work for what was then State Rivers. I was given a key to get into a particular site and was told that all the gates were keyed alike across Victoria. Always wanted to try it at Cardinia Dam which was closest to me but never had the guts. I prpbably still have the key around here somewhere. I too was thinking of the fishing.

[fairman]

Pretty certain the keys from 30 years ago would have probably changed by now - most of the gates on a lot of the catchments are relatively new, and I imagine there would have been a lot of lock changing during the shift from MMBW to Melb Water. But hey - always worth a try!

[Earwig]

People are caught and fined. Others are extra sneaky and don't get caught. There are a couple of tracks open for walking - Dom Dam Saddle to Fernshaw (Black Spur) and a walk to the top of Mt Juliet (trailhead is on the Maroondah Hwy between Healesville and Fernshaw).

[fairman]

I've been flicking through the Yarra Ranges Management Plan and it does look as though there is a designated walking track from Donna Buang to Mt. Boobyalla to Acheron Gap. Anyone done this one before?

You can check it out on p. 67 of this link: http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets ... t-Plan.pdf

[north-north-west]

I've been flicking through the Yarra Ranges Management Plan and it does look as though there is a designated walking track from Donna Buang to Mt. Boobyalla to Acheron Gap. Anyone done this one before?

You can check it out on p. 67 of this link: http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets ... t-Plan.pdf

I assume it's the same route I did some years back. A walking track from the summit of DB joins the MVO network that runs through that area. You can actually walk all the way from Warrandyte Golf Course (where the DB track starts), to Ferndene or Dom Dom saddle, via Mt Boobyalla, Acheron Gap turnoff & Mt Vinegar. The track network also passes fairly close to the summit of Mt Juliet, but the connection was out-of-bounds when I was up there.
Part of the track was closed for some time due to logging in the area (Mt Vinegar, where they logged right up to the track, which was the boundary). Don't know if that still stands.

[GBW]

I've done part of it mid winter in 2014. You can definitely walk from from Donna Buang to Dom Dom Saddle.

Donna Buang Summit

Track to Boobyalla

[north-north-west]

Nice new signs. Definitely not there last time I visited.

Fernshawe to Vinegar and back was one of my regulars. Great place to see lyrebirds. Good for fungus in season, too.

[MickyB]

Some of the hidden gems in these catchment areas, including Mathinna Falls (A few tiers with a total height of 100+m),Yarra Falls and Five Falls used to be very popular tourist attractions before access was stopped to the general public.

[AlanShortyD]

Lets keep the pressure on here. There are many attractions locked up but miles away from water storage or water courses. Melbourne Water staff are the only ones going in there and enjoying it. There are hugely signifcant trees that can be seen. And waterfalls (as mentioned by MickyB).

Apparently a lot of the area was locked up on the grounds of 'too dangerous' after a bushwalker went missing many years ago near Mt Monda. Very convenient.

As might be obvious, I find this all very annoying! Open to ideas about what we can do.

'Secret Places of the Upper Yarra Valley' is a good little pamphlet to get on these areas.

[AlanShortyD]

Here are the falls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUZwDjiO-sk

[fairman]

There are many attractions locked up but miles away from water storage or water courses. Melbourne Water staff are the only ones going in there and enjoying it. There are hugely signifcant trees that can be seen.

I agree but am also a little conflicted, too. If you do happen to get on the other side of the gates, what makes it so great is the fact is that it isn't crawling with people. I can see the merit in being more lax on bushwalkers and hikers - perhaps an "open Melbourne" like system where people are invited in on a specific weekend? - but not vehicle access. Maybe these areas could be more like the US concept of wilderness areas - people are allowed in but no motorised vehicles or devices?

Also regarding big trees - increased prominence can be a bit of a double edged sword. Heard the story of the Hackett Tree? https://thomasfairman.wordpress.com/201 ... owelltown/

[MickyB]

Lets keep the pressure on here. There are many attractions locked up but miles away from water storage or water courses. Melbourne Water staff are the only ones going in there and enjoying it. There are hugely signifcant trees that can be seen. And waterfalls (as mentioned by MickyB).

Apparently a lot of the area was locked up on the grounds of 'too dangerous' after a bushwalker went missing many years ago near Mt Monda. Very convenient.

As might be obvious, I find this all very annoying! Open to ideas about what we can do.

'Secret Places of the Upper Yarra Valley' is a good little pamphlet to get on these areas.

As much as I would love to go in and explore these areas I understand and appreciate why they are closed off to the general public. It's not like people are going to run out of options if they can't access these catchment areas. There are heaps of other places in the state to explore.

[AlanShortyD]

Lets keep the pressure on here. There are many attractions locked up but miles away from water storage or water courses. Melbourne Water staff are the only ones going in there and enjoying it. There are hugely signifcant trees that can be seen. And waterfalls (as mentioned by MickyB).

Apparently a lot of the area was locked up on the grounds of 'too dangerous' after a bushwalker went missing many years ago near Mt Monda. Very convenient.

As might be obvious, I find this all very annoying! Open to ideas about what we can do.

'Secret Places of the Upper Yarra Valley' is a good little pamphlet to get on these areas.

As much as I would love to go in and explore these areas I understand and appreciate why they are closed off to the general public. It's not like people are going to run out of options if they can't access these catchment areas. There are heaps of other places in the state to explore.

tens of thousands of people walk through Perth's catchment area on the Bibulmun track every year. There is no evidence that bushwalkers have any impact on water quality in catchment areas. Yes opening it for vehicles or other forms of recreation might. But there is negligible risk from bushwalkers.

Apart from that, the size of the exclusion zone is absurdly large.

[fairman]

Good points, but if we want to be dramatic - you could also see formalising bushwalkers access as the thin end of the wedge. First bushwalkers - then 4WD groups will lobby and claim unfair benefits to hikers - then all it takes is a state or federal government like Hodgman or Abbott opening up world heritage areas to logging, and before you know it, the Watts Catchment is the new Bogan Mecca.

Sure, I'm being a bit dramatic there... But I'd prefer to see an unspoken informal system where MW just tends to turn the other eye to bushwalkers. And like we saw above, the Boobyalla walk is technically within the catchment, but it appears to be a established track, it's just not advertised much.

[Hillwalk]

The problem with walking from Dom Dom to Donna Buang is that the track is badly overgrown (or was when I last saw it circa 2015) somewhere between Vinegar and the Nobs. It seems to be a common problem these days...

I was fined $220 for walking in a water catchment area (off Morley's track) about 8 years ago. Basically we had little idea where to go due to the track being overgrown and ended up in a restricted area. We should have known better of course, and been more prepared but it was an easy mistake for the navigationally challenged, as we were. As we later saw the signage was faded and pretty poor and the track was not fenced off.

A Melbourne Water guy was patrolling and after a lecture deceived us into believing we were getting a warning only. Stupidly we handed over ID, only to be told we would get a fine in the mail. I contested the fine and it went to the ombudsman who were absolutely useless and failed to address the issues raised. Melbourne Water upgraded their signage a few weeks after the incident, yet they claimed there was "no record" of it being changed - they didn't want to admit it was inadequate.

The whole thing dragged on for months and months so my only satisfaction was in costing them admin fees.

Ultimately the law is such that there is no discretionary power given - if you're caught in a catchment area, there is no getting out of the fine unless you can prove you had to be there by necessity, e.g presumably if there was a bushfire or something. My advice is don't risk it.

I can see the need for areas to be off limits but I agree there is too much in Yarra Ranges that's inaccessible to walkers. And there are some restrictions that make no sense, such as that you can walk on a given 4wd track up to x point, but not beyond, but then you can rejoin it a few hundred metres later...