The High Camp Rail and Flora Reserve has so much to offer. There are some interesting pieces of rail history on this site, as well as an abundance of natural biodiversity. Here are some items to look out for as you wander around.
However, please remember that this precious oasis is surrounded by private property. Please don’t climb fences or go onto private land, take only photos and leave only footprints. All rubbish needs to be taken with you.
Today High Camp’s greatest public asset is its Flora Reserve which provides a wonderful display of native vegetation, dominated by mixed eucalyptus, with varied wattles and a ground cover of native grasses and wildflowers. The 11-hectare parcel of crown land is protected under a Vegetation Protection Overlay in the Mitchell Shire Planning Scheme and provides important bio links for native fauna.
The reserve is dominated by Valley Healthy Forest vegetation. This is significant because this ecological vegetation class is poorly represented in reserves and on private land within the Mitchell Shire. Native mammals, including wombats and kangaroos, have been spotted throughout the reserve as well as the endangered golden sun moth. There are several old trees with hollows which is encouraging a diverse range of native birdlife.
The High Camp Picnic Reserve will be a new chapter in the history of High Camp and a wonderful destination for walkers, cyclists, and day visitors and perhaps, in the future, cyclists and walkers travelling between Kilmore and Heathcote along an extended recreational rail trail.
Volunteers are giving their time to working bees, clearing years of overgrowth and fallen tree branches at the neglected site adjacent to the existing High Camp Flora Reserve. After many hours of sawing, pruning and hauling branches, the shape of the original platform is slowly emerging.
Volunteers working to transform the neglected High Camp Railway Station site into the High Camp Picnic Reserve.
Looking down the track.
A new sign and new life for the Reserve