The Goldfields Track is an established pathway that leads visitors through central Victoria's hidden treasures from deep gorges and fern-lined rivers, to the artefacts and cultural heritage of the greatest gold rush the world has ever seen.
A 210km shared use bushwalking and mountain bike trail follows the top of the Great Dividing Range from Mt Buninyong just out of Ballarat to Bendigo, allowing bushwalkers and experienced mountain bikers time to savour central Victoria’s unique combination of gold rush heritage and natural beauty. Due to the rough conditions throughout sections of this trail, we strongly advise that any trail user or cycle tourist use mountain bikes with appropriate tyres.
Originally created by a community-owned organisation, the Great Dividing Trail Association (GDTA), the Goldfields Track links the old gold rush towns at the heart of Victoria, as well as the forests, hills and lakes, straddling the Great Dividing Range.
The track is broken up into three smaller trails, each with their own name and characteristics. The 60 km Leanganook Track section runs from Castlemaine to Bendigo. For mountain bikers, The Leanganook Track is a great ride with a few pinchy climbs and if travelling from Castlemaine and great final run into Bendigo along intermingling single and double track. It’s fun riding through Box Ironbark forests, boulder strewn country and in parts following the impressive Coliban Water system. Constructed in the 1870s to take water to Bendigo, it is still operating to this day.
For walkers, the Leanganook Track can be broken into four day walks, and the 12 km Bendigo Goldfields Walk is the closest to Bendigo itself. From the forested hills above Bendigo at the Sandhurst Reservoir, you’ll travel through regrowth Box Ironbark forests devastated by mining but now part of an important series of National Parks, past mining relics, through the Salomon Gully Flora Reserve and into the Bendigo Railway Station.
Goldfields Track maps, and the very helpful Goldfields Track Walking Guide (which is also an excellent resource for mountain bikers) can be purchased at the Castlemaine Visitor Information Centre, or maps for each of the three tracks that make up the entire Goldfields Track can be downloaded from www.goldfieldstrack.com.au
You can interact with the ride profile below for further details on the track.