Mt Lofty Botanic Garden

What a great place to escape to from the city.

The Mt Lofty Botanic Garden is one of three botanic gardens managed by the South Australian Department of the Environment and is by far the largest but still very manageable in that you could see nearly all of it in a day and get a great flavour of the Garden in much less time. Do allow at least a few hours though.

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Camel’s Hump Walk – Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve

The Camel’s Hump walk is the longest and overall the hardest (though the Nils Desperandum walk , for instance, has harder sections) of the marked walks within Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve. There are two suggested ways of getting there with one departing from the Visitors Centre (19kms return) and the other leaving from the Mountain Creek car park (11.6kms return). Both walks are classified as hard with a recommended duration of 8hrs and 6hrs respectively.

Cascades Trail – Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve

This is an absolute gem of a walk and quite a contract to other walks in the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.

It starts from the Mountain Creek car-park (as do the Camel’s Hump and Lyrebird walks) and very quickly you are under a cool canopy of trees and bush as you make you way upwards along a bubbling stream towards the cascades though you don’t get to see much of the stream on the way up.

Sore Neck Walk – Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve – Spot a Koala

As you may have guessed there is, in fact, no walk in the Reserve with the name Sore Neck though for a country with places like Mount Buggery, Titwobble Lane and many more in a similar vain (see my Australia introduction review for many more) it would not be a surprise if there was. What I refer to as Sore Neck walk is in fact two walks – Koala Path, a very easy 700m loop walk which can easily be done in 15-20 minutes and Peppermint Trail an equally easy 1.8 kms loop walk which can be done in 30-45 mins. Koala Path is actually wheelchair accessible.

I have included both these walks in the same review as they are of similar scenery and intent and are indeed within the same fence enclosed area. Essentially Koala Path is a sealed surface sub-part of the gravel Peppermint Trail.

Hanging Rock Walk – Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve

A very short and easy walk.

While only 500metres in length the walk does involves some steps. Allow 30 minutes at a very leisurely pace as you meander though the eucalypt forest, partially along a creek, en-route to the Hanging Rock. This is a circular walk best done in a clockwise direction.

The Sanctuary Loop – Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve

This is an easy 2.1km wetlands walk (a half loop can be completed) which according to the guide takes 1.5hrs. It can be done in much less than this though do spend a bit of time to enjoy the walk and the sights along the way. You could spend a few hours here. The walk (apart from a couple of very short side detours) is fully sealed, has a number of seats, and is wheel chair accessible. It is a great (must-do) introduction the the Reserve.

Birrigai Time Trail – Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve

This is graded as an easy 3km walk with the suggestion that it can be completed in an hour and a half.

While there is a bit of a pull up to the Birrigai Rock Shelter the loop walk is, I agree, overall easy and I took around 55mins to complete it.

Tidbinbilla – Nature on the Outskirts of Canberra

Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve was established in 1971 and affords Canberra residents and tourists alike a fantastic opportunity to explore and enjoy the native flora and fauna of a beautiful natural valley, framed by granite topped hills, just a short drive from Canberra.

Green Mountain National Park

Green Mountain, designated a National Park in 2005, is aptly named given the abundance of flora on an otherwise barren, bleak and harsh volcanic island. It has always been an area of utmost importance to the island and its inhabitants and in the past many people resided here. Currently the British Administrator of the Island and his family are the only permanent residents on the mountain – not a bad patch he has to boot.

Corin Dam – Namadgi

Canberra has four main sources of water and consequentially four dams. Three of these the Cotter, Bendora and Corin Dams are on the Cotter River, itself little more than a mountain stream, which flows through the western part of Namadgi National Park. Bendora and Corin (the subject of this review) Dams are within the National Park.