Chamber's Gully

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Introduction

This walk had been recommended to the hikers by Ania, so when we got our new Push the Bush walking book by the Friends of the Heysen trail, we were finally able to locate a map of the area (Map 8) and make our own shorter walk.

This walk takes in some of the Cleland Conservation park - you can find out more about this park at the Cleland's web site or on Wikipedia.

Chamber's gully was originally the home of the Kaurna people. European settlement occurred in the 19th century where it was mostly used for market gardens. To fuel the growing building market it became ‘Dunstan’s quarry’ and provided bluestone for the houses of Adelaide. It then fell into the ownership of the city of Burnside and was used as a waste depot and composting site for many years, resulting in a lot of weeds being established with subsequent loss of the native bushlands. Remediation and regeneration of the site occurred and the gully was opened in 1997 for recreational purposes.

How to get there …

From the GPO, take Greenhill Rd into the hills, turn right at the Glynburn Road round-about and follow the signs to Waterfall Gully (a left hand turn on to Waterfall Gully Road). After driving 1.6 km along Waterfall Gully Road, start looking for the Chamber's Gully turnoff on the right. Park your car near the no through road sign. I have included a route map - the Travelblog people are to be congratuated - the improvements in the route mapper software make the job of creating these maps so much easier.

What happened ...

We had a lovely sunny Sunday for this walk. The trail was wide and easy to follow and would suit families. Although there were several off shoots, we just stayed following those tracks adjacent to the creek, ending up on the Bartril Spur. It was a steady, but not tiring, climb along a gentle incline, making for very pleasant walking. When we had done about 2 hours, we turned around and came back, returning to the car in about an hour.

There were interesting rock formations in the gully with evidence of building and quarrying. There were many tall orange and lemon flowers in the grassland, but none of the native trees and bushes that we are used to seeing. Apparently they have been choked out of the gully by ther feral species that predominate as a result of the gully being used as a compost site.

The bush was rather noisy - frogs in the creek, koalas bellowing, sulphur-crested cockatoos screeching and kookaburras laughing. We saw 5 koalas of various sizes high in the trees.

There was a real danger on this walk that I must warn you about - cyclists. The mountain bike riders use this track (even though it as signed as bikes not allowed) and they go so fast and quietly along the trails - I am amazed there are not more accidents. We took great care to walk on the edge of the path and in single file so if one did approach rapidly they might have a chance of avoiding us.

Dan says ...

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