Three weeks of bushwalking in the Greater Bendigo region (and slightly further afield)

From the end of September to early October 2024, I took three weeks of annual leave from my job, with the intention of just relaxing and “getting away from it all”. Sure, there were jobs to do around the house, but I managed to arrange my schedule in such a way that (almost) every day of the break I could spend at least a few hours exploring new areas of the Greater Bendigo region (although I did stray slightly further afield on one occasion).

Because our house looks out on to Mount Sugarloaf Nature Conservation Reserve to our north, and Wellsford State Forest to our west, the majority of my efforts were focused here. Really, it is all one big linked forest, and with recent changes having incorporated parts (but not all) of the Wellsford State Forest into the much larger and very disjointed Bendigo Regional Park, it can sometimes get confusing as to what section you are actually talking about. For the purposes of the exercise however, I will be referring to the entire connected section of forest located to the east of Bendigo, north of the McIvor Highway, south of the Midland Highway and west of the Axedale-Goornong Road as Wellsford State Forest, unless I’m particularly referring to the main ridge line of Mount Sugarloaf itself.

Other areas around Bendigo that I visited during my break were the oddly named Crusoe Reservoir and No. 7 Park on the southern edge of Bendigo’s suburbs, and two areas to the north that have now been included in the larger Greater Bendigo National Park, but are more commonly referred to separately as Whipstick forest and Kamarooka forest. As mentioned, I did also broaden my horizons on one occasion to include a visit to Mount Korong Nature Conservation Area, about an hour’s drive north of Bendigo near the town of Wedderburn.

My recent purchase of a Canon 7D Mk II camera, combined with my Sigma 150-600mm F5.6 Contemporary telephoto lens has given me a setup that allows me to shoot multiple frames per second with excellent auto-focus – ideal for photographing birds and other wildlife. This has also allowed me to set up my Canon 60D, which is still a great camera, with a Tamron 17-50mm wide angle lens, or the super-sharp Canon 70-200mm f4 L lens, which I use for wildflower photography.

The resulting photos are far too numerous to include in this blog post, so over the next few weeks I will be setting up a couple of pages, one dedicated to the birds of Bendigo, and the other dedicated to wildflowers of the region. These pages will continue to grow as I discover more of the wonderful flora and fauna of this region. A third page will contain information describing some of the walks themselves. More to follow…