Lerderderg State Park

Lerderderg State Park (incorporating the former Pyrete State Forest) is a 14,250-hectare park located between Bacchus Marsh and Blackwood, an hour's drive from Melbourne, Australia. The park is part of an Aboriginal cultural landscape in the traditional country of the Wurundjeri People.^[1][2] There are several maintained tracks for walking through the park and camping is allowed.

Lerderderg State Park Victoria
IUCN category II (national park)
Lerderderg State Park
Nearest town or city	Blackwood
Coordinates	37°32′S 144°24′E
Area	142.5 km2 (55.0 sq mi)
Managing authorities	Parks Victoria
Website	Lerderderg State Park
See also	Protected areas of Victoria

The park is named for the Lerderderg River which has cut the 300-metre-deep Lerderderg Gorge through sandstone and slate, almost bisecting the park.^[3]

Parks Victoria maintains six designated walks: three short walks of 3.5 km or less; Blackwood-O'Briens Crossing and return (22 km); O'Briens Crossing-Cowan Track loop (14 km); and the overnight walk O'Briens Crossing to Mackenzies Flat (20 km).^[1]

In addition, one leg of the Great Dividing Trail, the Lerderderg Track, passes through the park, entering from Blackwood in the park's northwest, and exiting south towards Bacchus Marsh.^[4] Bicycles are prohibited from one section of this track, due to a conservation area.

References

Aerial perspective of O'Brien's Crossing in Lerderderg State Park, Victoria.

Top-down aerial perspective of O'Brien's Crossing in Lerderderg State Park

1. Lerderderg State Park, Parks Victoria, retrieved 29 January 2012
2. Robin Taylor (1 January 1999), Wild Places of Greater Melbourne, CSIRO Publishing, p. 162, ISBN 978-0-9577471-0-4, retrieved 30 January 2012
3. "Lerderderg State Park". Visit Melbourne. Tourism Victoria. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
4. Lerderderg Track, Great Dividing Trail Association, retrieved 29 January 2012

See also

• Lerderderg Gorge
• Lerderderg River
• Lerderderg River diversion tunnel
• Wombat State Forest