Coal Pit Spur Track

Time: 3 hours and 7 minutes (1.5 hours each way)
Distance: 9.2 km
Start: Car park, Craigiburn Valley Road
Finish: Same place, it's there and back
Date: Friday 23rd October 2026

Finally! Coal Pit Spur. Yay! A sweet track in the Craigiburn Forest area that links Flock Hill Station with Craigiburn Valley Road.  If you say it very fast five times it comes out as "Coal Spit Purr". 

In the summer of 2024/25, three "youths" on a school camp at the nearby Craigiburn Environmental Education Center used a spark-producing firestarter and a flammable aerosol spray to start a fire. What silly billies. They even fanned it to get it going.  They then tried to extinguish it by pissing on it - thinking outside the box I suppose (Rudolph-Steiner was mentioned in the news articles). About 1000 hectares burnt and it all cost about 1.9 million dollars. And so, the first ten minutes of today's lovely walk is through burnt beech forest. 

The track starts on the Craigiburn Valley Road, near the first car park, on an old 4wd track and we were soon walking amongst a sea of blackened trunks.  Not one leaf to be seen. With slightly snowy mountains and blue azure skies in the background, the effect is brutally beautiful.

After about 10 minutes we suddenly came to the live trees. An abrupt change from black sticks to fabulous green beech forest. Imagine how terrified those survivors must have felt as their neigbouring buddies went up in 30m high flames. Poof! Nowhere to run. They would have been freaking out and shitting terpenes. 

We carefully crossed Craigiburn River, a pretty bubbling brook, clear as glass. Kim emptied the water out of her boots on the other side and we continued on the picturesque path that followed the willow-lined river, popping in and out of the beeches. 

At some point we were near State Highway 73 and heard the rush of traffic - always out of sight. Shortly beyond the mangled campervan, we ascended a hill up to a terrace and travelled out in the open scrub under the transmission lines. This is Coal Pit Spur. I couldn't find any historical information about the name but I guess this must have been (or still is) coal country.  The sun was beating down by now.  The track was dropping and we got our first views of Lake Rua/Pearson/Ōpōrea yonder underneath Purple Hill.

After 1 hour and 20 mins we leapt Manson Creek and soon got to the end of the track at a small campsite clearing. The return was going to be mostly up hill so we first stopped by the creek for paramanawa. There is something very pleasant about sitting next to a mountain stream munching snacks.

We climbed back up the spur, then under the transmission lines, across the bubbling brook and the last bit through the dead forest. But was it truly dead?  The trees were swaying and creaking in the breeze. We stopped to listen. The bark was black and cracked but the wood looked good underneath. We took contrasty mossy photos. 

Woody sculptures were loaded into the car. Kim put her foot down and we were across the plains quick smart with a small detour to the Taste of Kiwi Cafe in Springfield (frittatas recommended). An old bloke across the way in his white karate-gi with black belt was pushing an empty wheelbarrow about. We wondered what he might be up to. Saturn Return (third) probably.