6000 x 3200 pixels digital photograph developed using Adobe's “Lightroom Classic” software from a RAW file taken with a Sony A6000 Digital camera.
Taken at Newton Shopping Centre, 23rd November 2016, 11:19 am.

23-11-2016: This was the typical view I got from my travels along St Bernards Road that got me particularly interested in the mountain.

The clouds looked particularly interesting on this day.

It is interesting to see the various rounded forms that make up the view of Black Hill from this direction.

I went home after taking this and some other photographs and looked at organising a trip to explore the mountain, and the Conservation Park.

6000 x 3600 pixels digital photograph developed using Adobe's “Lightroom Classic” software from a RAW file taken with a Sony A6000 Digital camera.
Taken at Black Hill Conservation Park, 24th November 2016, 10:19 am.

24-11-2016: I checked that the weather was going to be good – it was predicted to be fine and cool, mostly sunny, top of 22 degrees Celsius. When I looked out of my house window first thing in the morning, I saw that the weather looked superb – clear and sunny, with not much wind. I packed a bag to carry my new camera, separate telephoto lens, sandwiches for lunch, an apple, a bottle of water, a snack, sunscreen, maps, bus timetables, notebooks, sketchbook, biros. I needed to go via bus down St Bernards Road and connect with another service that ran along Montacute Road towards the mountain.

This is a view of the mountain from part way along Montacute Road.

A satellite dish and something hanging on the electricity wires in front of Black Hill.

Map:

I have indicated my starting point at the Black Hill Conservation Park on this map, entering the park after getting off the bus on Maryvale Road.

I got off the bus on Maryvale Road at Rostrevor, just outside the boundary of the Conservation Park. I found that I was right near the entrance to an administration centre that was not open to the public (including the Natural Resource Centre). I walked inside the park and looked for some signs to the Buffer Zone Track.

I went well into the park and found plenty of signs to various things but none of them referred to the Buffer Zone Track. Eventually, I came across some park employees and asked them. They were very helpful, and explained how to get to the track I wanted. I was going in the right direction.

6000 x 4000 pixels digital photograph developed using Adobe's “Lightroom Classic” software from a RAW file taken with a Sony A6000 Digital camera.
Taken at Black Hill Conservation Park, 24th November 2016, 10:37 am.

I needed to cross Fifth Creek to get to the track. The creek was running (but only just), so I looked for a suitable place to cross via some large dry rocks sticking up through the running water. I only needed to go upstream a little, and enjoyed getting across to the track.

The landscape around the administration centre and the creek reminded me of the landscape near the entrance to the Morialta Falls Conservation Park – lots of very large pale grey river gums and plenty of small shrubs.

The track was a vehicular track so it was well established and wide enough for a small truck to go along it. It quickly became quite steep, and the landscape all around changed quite quickly to having much smaller trees, smaller bushes and generally plants that were much more hardy. A little further up, I heard loud white cockatoos from above, and turned and looked up to see that there were a couple of white cockatoos flying high above. They looked tiny, but I could see that their yellow-white wings looked stunning being sunlit from above against the rich blue sky. Their calls sounded so clean and pure, and seemed to echo throughout the landscape. I realised that the park was a pretty quiet place to be in, apart from such bird calls.

I met an older man walking down the track with a tripod and a serious camera. He was a keen bird-watcher and had been taking photos of various small birds. He had a very expensive digital SLR camera with a professional-looking 600mm telephoto lens. He made the comment that you can’t take your money with you when you die (so he was using it now). He pointed out a couple of different types of tiny birds we could hear nearby. He said he was just about to go home after being there since dawn. He said the best times for experiencing lots of birds were around dawn and dusk. I wondered how he went getting enough light for that long lens at those times of low light. I continued along the track. I noticed quite a few small birds flying about just away from the track. I also noticed that there were regions of houses just below the track.

6000 x 4000 pixels digital photograph developed using Adobe's “Lightroom Classic” software from a RAW file taken with a Sony A6000 Digital camera.
Taken at Black Hill Conservation Park, 24th November 2016, 11:19 am.

Looking up towards the summit, I realised that there now seemed to be more than one summit. There seemed to be at least 3 clearly defined summits. Which one was the real summit? What were the other summits I could see? I was confused. As I walked on, the shapes of the summits changed, but I still couldn’t work out which one was the actual summit.

4000 x 6000 pixels digital photograph developed using Adobe's “Lightroom Classic” software from a RAW file taken with a Sony A6000 Digital camera.
Taken at Black Hill Conservation Park, 24th November 2016, 11:11 am.

I came across a large string of domestic properties with houses adjacent to the track (on the western side). There were quite a few trees in the park at this point, some having been burnt completely. The threat of bushfire must be a real concern for the people living so close to the park.

I heard the distinctive call of yellow-tailed black cockatoos and saw a couple of yellow-tailed black cockatoos fly over me to perch in some trees just ahead. I quickly became aware that the trees where they perched were on the banks of a small lake in the park. I could see that there was a flat walking track all around the lake. I went around the lake to get some different views of the landscape with the lake under different directions of sunlight. As I walked, I occasionally heard some scurrying sounds in the scrub nearby – I could just make out some small lizards amongst the quick movements under bushes, sticks, curled bark or curved leaves.

There was lovely quietness all around.

I continued on and came across a sign for the Wildflower Garden, that included a symbol indicating that it had toilets. I ventured inside, and saw some largely overgrown/under maintained set out pathways and garden beds. I came across some signs for some of the plants in the garden, but the signs seemed to be referring to plants that had long been removed or been replaced with other plants. I couldn’t see any directions to the toilets, and became a little concerned with being able to find my way out again through the meandering pathways. I didn’t know how big these gardens were and I couldn’t see very far into the distance through a lot of small trees.

I heard a rustling in the ground cover in the sun, and saw the movements of a small animal running very quickly through the low cover. It may have been a frilled-neck lizard – there seemed to be a larger round mass at the creature’s head. It wasn’t easy to make out the features of the creature, because it moved very quickly, but I could make out that it was a lizard, about 30 cm long.

I eventually saw a building through the foliage, and found that it housed the toilets I was looking for. The building seemed to be near a roadway, and was probably a good entrance point to the park if you have a car. It had some information about Friends of the Park, and for the Morialta Falls Conservation Park, but not really anything more about Black Hill that I didn’t already have. I found my way out of the gardens again back to the entrance to the Wildflower Gardens at the Buffer Zone track.

11:30 am. I decided to have a break and eat some morning tea, and have a good drink of water.