Waverley Flora Park to Howrah Beach 2019

Today we're making the trip over to the Eastern Shore of the River Derwent to take a walk up to and around Waverley Flora Park, last done in 2016. I'm leading.

Parking at the end of Wentworth St. next to Clarence High School, we head towards the hills.

End of Wentworth St. with Taroona in the distance

Wirksworth House, used by the Education Department

This house has an interesting and surprising history. You can find out more by CLICKING HERE.

A few clouds behind us aren't going to affect our mood

 We make our way up various streets, mainly by following rights of way between houses, until we reach the entrance to the park.

Entrance off Waverley Street

Climbing brings on a need for a wardrobe adjustment

Spring, and the wattles are out

I have a GPS track, but planned not to follow it, instead we'll explore some of the many tracks.  Bob's been up here and suggests a turnoff once we reach the top.

Still smiling, that's a good sign

Bob leads us into an old quarry. This is the Pitfield Sandstone quarry, active from about 1850-1890. The stone was used in several buildings in Hobart and shipped overseas to New Zealand and beyond.

A closer look reveals tool marks left by the quarrymen.

Leaving the quarry, we have some views of Warrane and beyond.

Warrane and distant hills

Following the track brings us to a rocky lookout.

More track over there. We'll walk some of it

The view

From here, we head up to the top of Morning Hill for Morning Tea.

We'll be back at this spot for lunch, so photos will wait until then.

After our break, we explore some of the tracks.

I should explain that back in 1836 a young Charles Darwin arrived on the 'Beagle' caught the river ferry to Bellerive and explored the area. This led to the creation of the Charles Darwin Trail.

Walking around the park it seems every track is labelled Charles Darwin Trail! There three running in parallel on the map. Perhaps Charles had been at the ships rum supply.

We make our way along a track leading around the outer boundary for a while before coming upon a newly upgraded track leading up.

 Looks like a memorial walk, and indeed, it was opened in 2019 to replace the original, created back in 1918 after WWI to commemorate men lost in that war.

This represents the butt of a rifle

 We leave the track after reading some of the stories on the memorial plaques.

A small track leads us to a lookout I remember from before

We started the walk near the water at the far left

Wellington Range in the distance

Some weather coming over Mt. Wellington

We have a few spots of rain during lunch, but not enough to warrant putting on wet weather gear.

Lunch at the top of Morning Hill. Do you get the feeling you're being watched?

Lunch finished, we follow a track off into the bush that finally brings us down to a track that will start us on our return journey.

We come across this seat carved in the sandstone on the way down

Maybe there was a good view from here in the past

Mornington

On the way, Peter discovers the first (for us) orchid of the season.

Group of native orchids

The track continues down past a large water storage tank. At the bottom we make a little loop (every little bit adds to the distance walked).

On this little loop a couple of unique gums are spotted. I've never seen any others of this species before.

Pete said at the time he thought this was a WA species and the website he found seems to confirm that.

So, our mystery gum is a Eucalyptus conferruminata or for our non-Latin speakers a Bald Island marlock or bushy yate.

Suitably enlightened we continue on, heading down to the streets of Howrah.

Looking towards Droughty Hill

We walk to the far end of Tilanbi St.

Here we bear right and down to Tilanbi Park, passing through to Shoreline Drive, heading towards the water and Howrah Beach.

Once on the beach, we head northwest to the other end and the cars.

Howrah Beach

Mt. Wellington. The weather looks better

The other end of the beach with the old sandstone steps. Now we climb up wooden ones

We had 15 walkers and covered 9.41km in 3:54hrs. The weather stayed fine with only a couple drops of rain. Quite a few interesting tracks to explore.

Click here to download GPX file