Melville Caves campground, Kooyoora State Park

Introduction

a great little well maintained camp ground within 5 minutes walk of a very photogenic large granite boulder outcrop with lots to explore including nice lookouts and of course the granite cave you can walk into
night sky is great for star gazing as light pollution is much less than most other areas close to Melbourne
5 min walk to the massive granite boulders and batholith caves (not limestone caves)
nice circuit walks through the box-ironbark forests with lots of granite boulder features and great views - highly recommend the 2.5hr Southern Circuit walk in nice winter sun in August!
380m elevation
similar to the You Yangs but more interesting rock formations, generally warmer, drier weather, doesn't close at night and you can camp here
camp ground is nice but mostly has a gentle slope and flat ground is hard to find
- there are quite a few kangaroos which will generally happily munch away on grass while you do you thing only a few metres away
- at night you will hear sounds of various birds including owls and also the occasional koala (although I have not seen one)
- you will probably get a a pre-dawn wake up call by kookaburras
- if you are lucky you will spot an antechinus or echidna in the park further away from the camp ground
- there are raucous flocks of sulfur-crested cockatoos and corellas on the eastern circuit but thankfully seem to stay away from the camp ground
- you may see range of other birds including galahs
you can get petrol or food at the local towns which are all about 25-30min drive such as Wedderburn, Dunolly, St Arnaud, Bridgewater-on-Loddon
if you just do a day trip and only check out the caves, you are missing a lot of nature experience - do yourself a favour and camp overnight and do the Southern Walk when its nice weather and preferably mid week and not school holidays when there is almost no one around

great camp spot for clear Winter skies to admire the wonderful winter Milky Way
- August days with lovely winter sun and no winds is perhaps the best time to hike the Southern Circuit - not too hot, lovely wattle in flower, no insects, much less likely to run into snakes
- less people around
- it will get cold at night being so far from the coast!
by spring, mosquitoes may be problematic due to the many stagnant water pools and warmer weather, while in summer the hot sun, lack of potable water and flies may be additional deterrents to long walks

for solo female campers who arrive with no one else around, there are a range of opportunities for stealth bush camping not far from the campground if you feel you want that extra security
- can park your car in the main camp ground or at the caves lookout car park, or at the end of the road at Crystal Mine, and I am sure you will find other discrete spots for car as well as tent if you go down the gravel roads.
- see the drone footage above to get an idea
- obviously you should not be lighting wood fires at these camp areas (except at the end of the road at Crystal Mine) - for stealth and for maintaining a fire scar free environment

Melville Caves campground - north end in infrared with July winter sun

Please do not allow this beautiful resource to be damaged by fire - follow the signs - fires only in fire pits and no bush camping with fires outside of the camp ground
- I have seen campers leave a raging fire going and just left camp - thankfully it was winter, but this should not happen.
- the area has a lot of dry fallen timber which in Fire Danger Period could easily catch fire and burn the whole mountain down.
- Parks Vic rangers usually attend twice a week even in Winter to clean the ash from the fire pits so please respect the rules!

Getting there

2hrs from NW suburbs via Calder Freeway
- best via Bridgewater-on-Loddon and Inglewood as avoids the narrow bitumen roads from Newbridge onwards which is the route Google will send you as it is 2 minutes quicker.
bitumen highways
easily accessible with caravans

Facilities

shelter; drop toilets; rainwater tank but no potable water;
Parks Vic do a great job of regularly emptying fire pits of ash and replacing toilet paper as well as ensuring the trees are safe in the camp ground (at least they appear to be well managed)
camp ground is on a slope but there are a few flattish areas
reasonable Telstra mobile 4G internet access at most spots (except eastern circuit) if not too many users there to hog the bandwidth
dogs on a leash

Bushwalks

several medium length day walks from the picnic area or from the camp ground taking you in circuits around the rocky outcrops
McLeod's Lookout short walk
- great walk from the camp ground if you don't have time to do the whole southern circuit
Southern Lookout short walk
- starts and finishes at the picnic ground - follow the sign to Mcleods Lookout but deviate to the Southern Lookout
- 2km ~60min walk uphill on the way and then you descend back to the picnic ground
southern circuit track / erroneously marked Long Rock walking track (“Long Rock” is on the eastern circuit, “large rock” is on this circuit)
- this is the BEST walk to do - especially on a sunny winter's day in August - I highly recommend it for the views and the range of boulders, bleached fallen trees and yellow wattle - do it CLOCKWISE for best views
- starts and finishes at the picnic ground or at the camp ground
- 5.6km ~2.5hrs, 145m ascent and 145m descent (if walking clockwise from camp ground, most of the ascent is from picnic ground back up to the camp ground, so you could avoid this with a car shuffle)
- if starting at the picnic ground, head towards sign saying McLeods Lookout, you will pass a nice unnamed large boulder to the right which gives views plus the 150m path to the Southern Lookout, you then continue up to the junction where the camp ground track joins, then continue to McLeods Lookout, then down near the half-way point it passes “large rock” then “rock pool” which is a small depression in the large rock filled with water and from there is a rather gentle flat walk through valley until you get to the picnic ground
- Telstra mobile internet is available for most of this circuit if not all of it if there is no one else around to use up the bandwidth (4G as of 2024)
- see my photos of the Southern Circuit walk in late August
eastern walk circuit
- starts and finishes at the “eastern carpark” at the bottom the gravel Back Road east of the camp ground
- do it CLOCKWISE for best views (the larger track at the car park)
- 4.6km just over 2hrs without stopping (although sign states 3hrs) with 100m ascents and 100m descents and passes long rock as well as other large rocks with rock pools and views but not as nice as the Southern Circuit and the track can be very slippery - take great care in Winter - mobile reception is unreliable on this circuit, so take a radio beacon if walking by yourself in case you break an ankle
- see my photos of the Eastern Circuit walk in late August
- flora:
  - red stringybark, Blakely's red gum (this is the most easterly location for this species), Long Leaved Box (Bundy), Red Box, Dean's wattle, Box mistletoe, wallowa (an acacia), hop bush, Snowy mint bush, mat-rush, pea bush, spring annuals (white paper daisy, scaly buttons, tall raspwort, rock fern), mosses on the granite boulders.
- see also:
  - https://goinferalonedayatatime.blogspot.com/2018/09/melville-caves-eastern-circuit-kooyoora.html
“loop track”
- I would grade this as an average bush walk - no views but a nice stroll through bush
- starts between the camp ground and the caves car park
- takes a meandering loop back to the bottom the gravel Back Road east of the camp ground - the “eastern car park” (can also walk further south along the back road and then take a right turn up a walk track back to camp passing further rock formations instead of walking back up the Back Road)
- easy circuit from the camp ground is ~3.7km and takes about 1-1.5hrs
Caves lookout track
- if you are feeling energetic this walk takes you to the caves and lookout from the picnic ground and then you return via same route or via one of the above from the camp ground
- NB. you can DRIVE right up to the caves and lookout, so there is no real need to do this walk if you just are wanting to see the caves and the lookout, but it does add an interesting climb amongst boulders.
Crystal Mine
- drive down to the car park at the end of the road to the mine (signposted Kirwans Rd),
- very short walk down the the old quartz mine but you could do further exploration of the area (watch out for mine shafts)
Mount Kooroora
- for the super adventurous, you can apparently bush camp at the top of this adjacent 480m elevation mountain with panoramic views but needs a 120m ascent hike up there
- apparently, according to locals, you can take the Mount Kooroora Track by car then find a walking track (perhaps following the creek), or, you can find a walking track via the Crystal Mine (360m elevation)
- see https://goinferalonedayatatime.blogspot.com/2020/11/melville-caves-campground-to-mt.html
  - bush bashed his way through light undergrowth from Crystal Mine car park northwestwards to cross a shallow saddle then ascended to the top via the SW flank negotiating large granite boulders - see his map, noting that for some reason he started his walk at Melville Caves carpark

Gold and gemstone fossicking

you will need a Miner's Right ($28 and lasts 10yrs)
can fossick for gemstones within a 200m radius of the White Swan crystal mine (this is mainly milky quartz though but you might get lucky)
can go gold prospecting with a metal detector according to the map: https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/-/media/project/pv/main/parks/maps/fossicking-maps/kooyoora-state-park-prospecting-areas-map.pdf

Geology

see https://weekendgeology.com/2018/10/02/kooyoora-state-park/
Mt Kooyora has elevation 479m
it lies just east of the north-south Avoca fault line which separates:
- Cambrian sedimentary rock to the west of the fault
- Ordovician sedimentary rock to the east of the fault
the Kooyoora granite intrusions formed in the Early Devonian from molten magma chambers (~650degC), with the ages ranging from 411 to 386 million years old
- this granite is a Quartz-Monzonite
- as the magma cooled to form the granite, the granite contracts in size creating near-vertical joints.
- as overlying rock is eroded, the reduced pressure allows the granite to rise creating horizontal joints
- groundwater enters the joints and converts feldspars into clay resulting in weakened and rounded edges of the granite boulders
- further erosion exposes the boulders - often precariously balanced on underlying boulders when the joint materials have eroded
- a small section east of the campground is Kooyoora granite apalitic phase rock
adjacent to it on the east is a Wedderburn graniodorite intrusion
a natural spring exists at the Melville Caves site (currently re-routed to feed the toilet block), with large trees and diverse flora and fauna living at the site as a result of water availability

History

Kooyoora State Park has many Indigenous artefacts and was likely to have been an important area for the Dja Dja Wurrung people who live there
discovered by white people in 1836 by Thomas Mitchell and his party during his Australia Felix expedition
European settlement of the district began in the 1840s
gold was discovered north of Melville Caves, near Wedderburn, in 1852, resulting in a gold rush to the region
bushranger 'Captain Melville' (nee convict Frank McCallum (1822-1857) ) was thought (probably erroneously) to have used the caves as a camp and a vantage point owing to their elevation - he once made off with five billy-cans full of gold dust which were never recovered (thought to be buried at Mt Arapiles)
- in 1851, Melville created his own gang, The Mount Macedon Gang and held up wayward travellers around the Black Forest.
- there is no evidence to suggest that Melville actually ever visited Kooyoora area. In contrast Melville’s hideout was believed to have been found in 1880 to the West of Mt. Arapiles in the Dundas Ranges near Mt. Melville
- see https://makinghistoryoz.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/kooyoora-conflicted-history-final.pdf
from 1852 to 1883 the region yielded 369 nuggets weighing over 1.5 kg - most found in 1854-1857
- the Blanche Barkly nugget at Kingower, weighed 49.5 kg
- two other nuggets weighing over 30 kg were found at Rheola, to the immediate south of the Caves
- in 1980, the Hand of Faith was found near Wedderburn - the largest nugget found with a metal detector and weighed in at 27.2kg!
the White Swan pegmatite dyke Quartz “Crystal Mine” operated in what is now Kooyoora State Park during World War II, producing industrial (for making radios and radars) and ornamental quartz from an open cut mine on pegmatite dykes
- this gives an interesting short walk from the carpark at the end of “Crystal Mine Track” but which is signposted “Kirwans Road” - and then keep to the left at the fork
- the open cut part is now filled with water and frogs but there is a LOT of broken milky quartz tailings spread down the hill from that site and apparently if you go exploring there are a lot of deep holes left by fossickers looking for much less easily found more clear crystals or rose quartz
- “the dyke intrudes the hornblende-bearing phase of the Kooyoora Adamellite and contains quartz and feldspar in graphic intergrowth, with late stage plumose muscovite” ¹⁾
- why quartz crystals were mined in WWII
  - the first quartz crystal oscillator was invented in 1921 - quartz crystal oscillators were developed for high-stability frequency references during the 1920s and 1930s. Before crystals were used, radio stations controlled their frequency with tuned circuits, which could easily drift off frequency by 3–4 kHz. Broadcast stations were assigned frequencies only 10kHz apart, so it was common to experience some overlap between stations due to frequency drift. By 1926, quartz crystals were used to control the frequency of many broadcasting stations and were popular with amateur radio operators.
  - a crystal oscillator relies on the slight change in shape of a quartz crystal under an electric field, a property known as inverse piezoelectricity. A voltage applied to the electrodes on the crystal causes it to change shape; when the voltage is removed, the crystal generates a small voltage as it elastically returns to its original shape. The quartz oscillates at a stable resonant frequency. Once a quartz crystal is adjusted to a particular frequency (which is affected by the mass of electrodes attached to the crystal, the orientation of the crystal, temperature and other factors), it maintains that frequency with high stability ²⁾ once the issue of aging was addressed by using acid etching to remove microfractures from the grinding process.
  - quartz is the only piezoelectric substance with a large distribution on earth
  - in fact, it is likely that its piezoelectric qualities is responsible to the deposition of gold on and within quartz reefs - during earthquakes, the gold in super-heated fluids in rock fissures appears to precipitate out of solution onto quartz crystal attracted to other deposits of gold on the quartz - this process appears to be due to piezoelectricity generated in the quartz by the pressure waves of the earthquake at 20Hz, repetitive precipitation of the gold then results in localised deposits and even large nuggets of gold to form
  - In 1928, Warren Marrison of Bell Telephone Laboratories developed the first quartz-crystal clock. Quartz clocks replaced precision pendulum clocks and became the world's most accurate timekeepers until superceded by atomic clocks in 1950s.
  - Prior to WWII, only a few thousand crystals for radio tuning were fabricated each month with the vast majority being hand-made in small batches, mostly by amateur radio enthusiasts (hams)
  - engineers needed one crystal for each channel or frequency of interest, and frequencies were often under 10 MHz.
  - at this time, the only known source of natural quartz in quantity was from mines in Brazil, and it had imperfections and irregularities that compromised performance
  - Through World War II, crystals and oscillators were used with all natural quartz crystals. However, WWII triggered a major increase in demand for quartz crystals because of the need for frequency control in military devices such as radios and radar.
  - by a combination of major efforts in the lab, via trial and error in production using many large and small-scale manufacturers and, in the field, crystal production reached millions of units per month by the end of the war - the development of quartz oscillators became the second largest scientific undertaking in WWII after the Manhattan Project
  - By 1950 a hydrothermal process for growing quartz crystals on a commercial scale was developed at Bell Laboratories and this has since replaced the need for natural quartz crystals in electronics.
in 1985, the World Orienteering Championships were held here and in that year it was declared a State Park

Nearby camp grounds

Moliagul is 19min away to Sth but this is just a small triangular bit of land at a road junction - you would need to be desperate or in an RV to go to this one, or are embarking on the hike up to Mt Moliagul
Wedderburn Hard Hill tourist site is 22min away to NW
Glenalbyn Forest campground (no toilets) is 23min, 20km to NE
Newbridge Recreation Reserve camp ground is ~26min away to SE $15/n per campsite but you get flush toilets and hot showers and are next to a river
Skinners Flat Reservoir is 31min to NW; 8min NW of Wedderburn; 48hr limit?; toilets were not functional Feb 2024 - so may still be out of action. Can swim there.
Laanecoorie is 32min away to SE
Waanyarra Camping Grounds is 33min away to SE - rather remote gold prospecting area with an interesting cemetery
Teddington, Stuart Mill is 45min away to SW
Maldon Mt Tarrengower Butt's Reserve camp ground is 45min away to SE - at the base of Mt Tarrengower on the outskirts of the historic gold mining town of Maldon
Notley camp ground, Whipstick, north of Bendigo camp ground Whipstick north of Bendigo is 51min away
Lake Wooroonook camp ground is 1hr away to NW
Leanganook camp ground Mount Alexander is 70min away back near the Calder Freeway - a nice forest camp at 600m elevation only 1hr drive from NW suburbs of Melbourne; flush toilets.
Echuca and surrounds is 90min away to NE
The Grampians is 105min away to SW