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The Great Dividing Trail – Dry Diggings Track

Walking the Great Dividing Trail

Castlemaine

Length: 57 kilometres
Walk: 3 days
Track: Moderate
Grade: Easy/medium
Start: Corner Forest and Wheeler streets, Castlemaine
Finish: Lake Daylesford
Nearby: Castlemaine
Permits/bookings: None required
Best time: Spring or autumn.

The Dry Diggings Track is part of the Great Dividing Trail, a superb 260 kilometre trail that, when completed, will connect the towns of Ballarat, Bendigo, Daylesford and Bacchus Marsh.

The walk takes you through a diverse series of historic mining landscapes where gold was first discovered in the 1850s, and the main spa areas of Vaughan, Glenluce, Hepburn and Daylesford.

There are three main legs of the trip:

  • The section between Castlemaine and Vaughan is 17 kilometres and follows the historic Poverty Gully water race through the extensive goldfields of Eureka, Spring Gully and Fryerstown.
  • The section between Vaughan and Mt Franklin is 23 kilometres through the isolated and ruggedly beautiful Upper Loddon State Forest.
  • Another 21 kilometres takes you from Mt Franklin to Hepburn Springs and Daylesford through the northern park of Wombat Forest and along the Tipperary Track.

As the track ascends the surrounding bush ranges from Ironbark around Eureka in the north to dry box and stringybark to wet, high altitude candlebark and messmate forests at the southern end of the walk.

In late winter, Golden Wattles blooms and during spring, the area is ablaze with wildflowers. The area is home to grey kangaroos, wallabies and echidnas, and birds of many varieties.

The Federation Track between Daylesford and Ballarat will take you past stands of white-trunked manna gums, fertile open farmland and pleasant lakes. The Leanganook Track linking Castlemaine and Bendigo and the Lerderderg Track from Daylesford to Bacchus March are expected to be open later in 2003.