Coningham Reserve Tracks 2019

Today Bob's taking us on a walk around and about Coningham Reserve. The weather is fine and it should be a good day.

Parking on Old Station Road just past the end of the tarmac, we gear up and set off.

Onto the first track

This first part is downhill on an old road

Tinderbox across North West Bay

Eventually, we come to Coningham Beach turning right and heading for the far end.

Another crowded beach

Looking back at the other end and Mt. Wellington in the distance

Just past the boat sheds we head up a track called Snug Point Track. We'll turn off long before the point, however.

On the way we find a couple of fairly old signs with information about the area.

Strangely, "Kunanyi" is the one that has been chosen. I suppose shorter is better

Mount Wellington is now referred to as kunanyi/Mount Wellington. Yes, no uppercase 'K'.

Suitably educated, we continue on.

Snug Point Track

 It's not long before we come to another sign with a map of the tracks and trails in the reserve.

The squiggled lines in red and orange are bike tracks. If you look at the track map at the end of the blog, you may see some similarities with the orange track.

Now we turn off and begin to climb.

It's getting close to Morning Tea time and Bob finds a fine spot for our break.

Morning Tea

I wonder where that track goes?

Tea finished we start down the track above, but Bob tells us to stay while he has a look. Unfortunately, it continues downhill, which isn't acceptable, so we turnaround and begin to climb.

Waiting for Bob

We begin to climb an old logging track

Lots of young gum trees

It's steep country

The reserve is roughly 490 hectares in size with the highest point on Sheppards Hill. A brief history below is from the Tasmanian Parks & Wildlife.

The area of land which now comprises the reserve was originally a Crown land block. Forest licenses were held over much of the land by local saw-millers until the 1950s, with grazing leases in place until the late 1970s. The land had relatively low levels of clearing and very low grazing pressure. In 1975 the land was first reserved as a Regional Park with the recreational and natural value of the reserve being recognized through the creation of a state recreation area on 30 July 1979 under the Crown Lands Act 1976.

The track loops up through some interesting bush.

Snug and Snug Bay in the distance

A few rocky outcrops, this one has been filled in for bikes

I wonder what this will look like in 50 years?

Short break for oxygen

It's not long before we set off again, heading for the top of Sheppards Hill. The top is a large cleared area, maybe a mill was located here in the past.

Top of Sheppards Hill

Surrounded by gum trees, there is no real view, so we set off following a bush track.

The undergrowth is full of blossom

Looking back

The track is fairly flat

We continue on for a while before suddenly taking a sharp left turn off the main track.

Why follow a large track when a smaller one is available?

This is a foot track leading who knows where? Well, Bob hopefully.

Past one of the old giants that would have populated the area before logging

A glimpse of Kettering in the south

We loop around and find our bearings with a couple of views through the trees.

Wellington with Sleeping Beauty behind

Sleeping Beauty looks like she had a serious accident from this angle.

We begin to descend and come to the track from this morning, turning to head towards Old Station Road. However, it's not long before Bob takes us off on another track leading up.

They seem to have gotten away from me...

...not for long though

I think this is our old favourite,
Drosera pygmaea

A tiny carnivorous plant growing on the bank of the dam shown below.

We finally come back to Old Station Road, with a short downhill walk to the cars. I'm glad we didn't have to retrace out steps from the morning.

This was a very enjoyable walk with some new areas thanks to Bob.

We had 14 walkers and covered 10.5km in 3:46 hrs.

Click here to download GPX file