Canberra Nature Park: Gungaderra Grasslands Nature Reserve

General Information

Grading:  easy

Distance:   4 kilometers

Total climb:   128 meters

Time taken:   1 hours 15 minutes

Maps:   Canberra 8727-2N 1:25 000

Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO:   8 kilometers

Start point map grid reference:  Canberra 55H FB 92425 01103

Destination map grid reference:   n/a

End point:  Same as start

Route

Description

This walk commenced just off the Barton Highway outside the entrance to the 1RPH radio station. We had to climb a barbed wire fence near a locked gate to get into the reserve (we found a few other wire fences during the walk but we were able to find gaps in them).

Proceeding up the track inside the gate our first order of business was to find some ancient gnarly trees that we had heard about. This required some backtracking, but we eventually found the trees one after another in the light forest to the left of the track.

 

After finding the trees we walked up to the top of Gungahlin Hill (map ref. 55H FB 92348 01747) before heading northeast to another hill at the northern end of the grasslands (map ref. 55H FB 92173 02334). There were some nice views across the grasslands from here.

Turning back we headed for a third hill in the grasslands (map ref. 55H FB 92933 01600), also with some nice views.

 From here it was a short walk back through grassland and light forest back to our starting point.