Captured

The Mullum Mullum Creek Trail as developed by Maroondah City Council ends here. The complex interchange where the Bypass meets Eastlink lies ahead. A simple marker denotes the new trail name. From this point you can go all the way to the City, or Frankston if you take the other path.

The easiest way to understand what happens the Mullum Mullum Creek, and also the trail is an aerial view .

The City is to the top left, Ringwood to the right and Eastlink heads down south. Mullum Mullum Creek does an almost 90 degree turn here too. That is a curious feature that goes way back in time. Up to this point the creek I have been following was actually part of a tributary of the Dandenong Creek, heading south and here it would have gone down the valley occupied by Eastlink. That was the Heatherdale Creek. The following information comes from the Friends of Mullum Mullum Valley.

River Capture or River Piracy happens when the head of an actively eroding stream, which has deeply entrenched itself, has cut back so far that the bed of a stream lying at a higher elevation is intercepted.

The water above the point of capture is diverted into the capturing stream. The head of the capturing stream is now at the head of the captured stream, and the drainage system is radically altered. The additional water accelarates the erosion process, and so the stream rapidly carves a deeper course.

The deeper valley is quiet obvious as I continue my journey, but first the path goes under the roads, the lowest of four levels of traffic.

It is really noisy down here.

Fortunately only for a short distance and once again there is a rather lovely valley.

The rocks here are natural, part of the Mullum Mullum Gorge and in the past the site of one of several quarries. Here the creek was also known as Deep Creek. Specks of gold were found in gravels somewhere near here too.

Deep Creek Road comes up from Whitehorse Road in Mitcham and becomes Loughnan Road once it crosses the creek into Ringwood. In the early 1900s it was a rudimentary track, now it is a high flyover above both creek and freeway.

Across the road is Schwerkolt Cottage and Museum. Built from locally quarried stone and felled timbers by German immigrants who purchased 63 acres in 1861. It was rescued from imminent ruin by Whitehorse Council in 1965. It is now a popular historic site, unfortunately closed at the time of my visit.

I could see a little of the museum collection in the outside enclosure. An interesting terracotta pot making machine and some pipes from the Australian Tessellated Tile Company of Mitcham. As well as stone, clay was dug in the area.