Introduction

In the southern suburbs of Hobart lies the municipality of Kingborough. Within this region there are an abundance of walking opportunities, including a lot of good short walks. The local council has a very informative and clearly organised web page for describing many of these walks.

Along with friend Jillian I decided to combine two creek walks which we had not previously done – Nierinna Creek Track and Margate Creek Track. The walk notes and maps on the council web page showed how these two walks could be easily joined into one longer walk.

We decided to do the Nierinna Track first as it sounded more interesting and had the best parking. Parking notes are given with all walks described by Kingborough Council, very handy. Here is a link to the relevant part of the site for the walks and maps.

Nierinna Creek Track

We started at the Burnaby Drive end where there is plenty of safe road-side parking as well as a pleasant grassy area with table and bench for picnics or a cuppa.

The walk follows Nierinna Creek behind some properties, moves from grassy slopes to various types of native bushland and to patches of lovely ferns.

The track criss-crosses the creek several times.

Although the notes say the track is “very steep in parts” it is not really that steep and there are steps for any uphill bits.

The track held our interest and was easy to follow. Lots of different birds to be seen and heard.

The highlight of the day was a platypus in one of the dam/ponds. We were able to spend a long time watching as the platypus swam, dived and ate. Such a treat.

We returned to the beginning of the walk by retracing our steps.

Margate Creek Track

The Margate Creek Track is easy to access from several points. We left the car where it was in Burnaby Drive and walked to the start.

This walk follows a path between several paddocks with friendly horses and cattle, it then winds along the grassy bank of Margate Creek, behind the houses, towards the Channel Highway.

Again, we returned via the same route.

It is a pleasant walk and shorter than the Nierinna Creek walk but we didn’t think it was quite as interesting, especially the vegetation.

Conclusion

There are many walks in the Kingborough area and the walk notes on the Council web site give clear and accurate information. We found the times given for the walks were generous but when you stop to look at birds, platypus, plants and other things of interest, they are accurate. We plan to do lots more in the future.

Cally