January 2009 Deep Creek

Down a creek without water

One of the vital ingredients of paddling is water. Water that a boat and kayaker can float in. Water that a paddle blade can be immersed in. Water that a series of strokes in will propel you down a river. On Deep Creek we were seriously without that vital ingredient.

As Melbourne experienced its wettest day of the year it seems that there would be an opportunity to paddle the fabled Deep Creek, a tributary of the Maribrynong River. To be able to paddle the river you needed local heavy rain – check, even a phone call to my boss in Sunshine confirmed that it had been raining all day; over 1 metre at the Bulla Gauge – unknown or at least ½ metre flowing over the weir at Bulla – also unknown. The only thing was to go and give it a go.

The guide book described the rapids as Grade 3-4 and one even a 5! Other paddlers had described it as intimidating with epic swims and shattered confidence. We were a bit apprehensive as we met at Bulla Reserve at the get in point. What would the river hold for us?

Brendan, Brandon and I looked at the gauge and the weir. The level was 0.8 and only about ¼ metre was flowing over the weir. It was on the low side. We headed to check out the get out, 6 ks away at a quarry off Leoman’s Road. The gate was locked so we walked down the 1 k track to the river. It looked low but paddleable and we confidently marked the get out with a piece of white pipe.

Back to Bulla and in to our boats for the Deep Creek experience. The river was low and we worked out way scraping over rocks and bending under branches. This would be a bit nasty in high water. At the 2 k mark the gradient and the big rapids started. When I say big rapids, you really need water to make a rapid so it was really long sections of big rocks. The water we had had vanished beneath the rocks. You could see that with water these would be decent rapids and fairly intimidating. But for us it was just hard work, hauling our boats over the rocks, floating a pool and then more hauling. I’m not sure that this would qualify as a pool-drop river but there was certainly lots of dropping and cursing!

In a vain hope that the water would re appear and that we could actually paddle, we continued on. Eventually we decided that it would be easier to go up and along. The planes taking off from the airport were nearly overhead indicating that we couldn’t be too far from the end.

We dragged our boats up the side of the steep river valley and then along the bear hills. We could see the quarry just over there. As the crow flies it was close but the river and the valley did a big horseshoe making it a fair slog away. We decided to head down to the river, over the neck of the horseshoe to the river and the quarry beyond.

Back down at the river there was a large pool and jetty, together with a sus. looking caravan which we avoided. The highlight of the trip was Brendan seal launching off the jetty and just vanishing. The enjoyment was short lived as we then had to haul our boats up a scree slope on the other side of the river. Back down the other side and a short paddle, yes actually paddling, to the quarry.

We had made it. I don’t think we could claim to have paddled it but it had certainly been an experience. And a final treat awaited us, the 1 k uphill walk with boats back to the car! That’s the last time I whinge about the Yarra.

Alison