REEF HILLS STATE PARK
(www.northeastvictoria.online)
Reef Hills State Park is located just to the south-east of Benalla, and is noted for its box-ironbark forest, a major remnant of this once widespread vegetation cover of northern Victoria.
Access to the Park is by taking the Midland Highway exit from the Hume Freeway, and then heading towards Mansfield. The entrance to the Park is then about 200m clear of the Freeway ramp system, with the appropriately named Reef Hills Road providing access to the only formal picnic area in the Park.
As the Park’s name might indicate, Reef Hills is a former gold mining area, with gold being discovered in this area during the 1860s.
Evidence of the gold mining can be found at several points around the Park, however the fauna and flora of the Park are just as interesting, and the Park is one of several areas of Victoria where the Box-Ironbark ecosystem is preserved.
Several species of Box are found in the Park, including Grey Box, Red Box and Long-Leaf Box, all of which provide shelter for a range of wildflowers (very scenic in September), as well as a surprisingly wide range of birds and mammals.
Despite all these natural assets, one of the more popular pastimes in the Park is trail bike riding, and for this reason (unless you are a keen rider) the Park is usually best avoided on weekends, and during holiday periods. The Park is also a popular mountain biking and gold prospecting area.
More details are available from a downloadable PDF on the Parks Victoria website (see below). This shows the principal road network, as well as the location of the designated prospecting areas.
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COPYRIGHT © 1995-2020, Chris McLaughlin.