Palmerville Heritage Park walk directions
Summary
This lovely, flat, easy walk explores Palmerville Heritage Park on the edge of Evatt, the site of an early rural settlement. The entire park is off leash and well contained with good fencing on two sides and impassible bogs/creeks on a third side. There are beautiful, mature, deciduous trees (making this a stunning walk in autumn) including a handful of heritage listed trees over a hundred years old. A short gravel track extends about a third of the way into the park with plans to extend it into a loop, and dirt tracks wander further afield. Our suggested route totals approximately 4 km but you can wander at leisure and make this walk much shorter - you can't get lost! Unfortunately there are no nearby public toilets or cafés. The walk starts and ends at the small car park at the park entrance.
Start/Finish - Palmerville Heritage Park car park, Owen Dixon Drive, Evatt
Time/Distance - Allow 60 minutes/approx 4 km but you can pick your own route for a shorter experience
Off lead rating -
Parking - Free in a small car park
Dog friendly café - none
Public toilets - none
Bins - next to the car park
Distractions - none
Children's playgrounds - none
Photo gallery - See photos taken on the Palmerville Heritage Park walk
Note - All our dog walks assume you are a responsible dog owner with effective control of your dog. See our Important Stuff page before starting any of our walks.
Map
Use the navigation tools to zoom in or out for different views of the route or click on the 'view larger map' icon on the top right hand corner of the map to view in google maps.
Directions
1. Start at the car park at the end of the access road to Palmerville Heritage Park off Owen Dixon Drive.
Palmerville Heritage Park is the site of an early rural settlement. There are several information boards throughout the park providing interesting background. To learn more about its history go to the ACT Government Canberra Tracks website.
There is a picnic table, bins and water adjacent to the car park.
2. With your back to the car park follow the gravel path leading diagonally left away from the car park towards a wide deep ditch. The path will take you to a solid wooden bridge crossing over the ditch.
The entire park is off leash, however we prefer to keep our dogs on leash until we are a good distance away from the car park and Owen Dixon Drive.
3. Once over the bridge, rather than continue ahead along a wide gravel path, take a hard left to follow a wide dirt track.
You can take any route you like to explore this park - you can't get lost! But our suggested route explores the entire park and totals around 3.5-4 km.
4. After a short distance under trees, the dirt track enters a wide open grassy area, usually quite well mown. Wander across the field veering to the right, keeping near a marshy creek course on your right. After a few minutes, as you near a band of trees up ahead, the grassy area opens up to another large grassy area to your right.
5. Veer right to enter this second open field. You can turn hard right here to circle around the field, or continue left after entering the new field to follow the marshy creek on your right.
6. Look out for a wide dirt track on your left which dives into a beautiful arcade of mature trees. Turn left here to follow this pretty track. The track continues for a few minutes until it crosses a little creek.
The wooden bridge over the creek and benches make this a very pleasant spot to stop for a while, especially in summer.
7. After crossing the creek and leaving the tree cover, the gravel track continues ahead towards a wire fence (one of the park borders) then curves left. However, rather than following the track left, veer right and follow the fence line, with the fence on your left hand side.
8. Continue following the fence line, under more trees and past another wide grassy area on your right. The track will fade and the mown area narrow as you continue along the fence line.
9. Follow the fence line for around five minutes, with the marshy area close on your right until you reach some large trees including a big pine. If your dog is off leash, stop here, as continuing will take you to the Barton Highway edge of the park which is not fenced. With your dog on leash, you can continue a short distance further to see some of the oldest trees in the park.
10. As you've reached the eastern limits of the park, turn around and follow the fence line back the way you came, until the mown area widens again. At this point, rather than continue straight on ahead back to the car park, veer left keeping the marshy creek on your left.
The towering stand of poplars on your right are absolutely stunning in autumn.
Note that dogs who are keen on water may find spots to enter the creek along this section of the park.
11. After a few minutes, look out for a wide dirt track on your right that dives into a beautiful arcade of trees. Yes! It's the same track you took earlier in the walk but it's so beautiful it's worth doing again.
12. This time, after you exit this lovely arcade and reach the gravel track, follow it as it veers left, widens, and then leads you through another, more open, arcade of trees. You'll find yourself back at the car park in approximately 5 minutes.
The huge stand of eucalypts on the left of the wide gravel track is a 'memorial forest', originally supported by a Landcare group, where each tree planted is dedicated to someone who has died.
If you'd prefer to join one of our regular guided group walks, find out more at our guided walks page.