Kedron Brook

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TAKING the train to Nudgee Station, I started the sunny walk heading through the old suburb before passing the large cemetery heading downhill to a path crossing the Gateway Motorway to reach Nudgee Beach Road. From there I headed along the path to the entrance to Boondall Wetlands almost missing a small brown snake curled up on the path quickly slithering away into the long grass as I approached.

Upon reaching the entrance to the Boondall Wetlands, I returned along the path a short distance before crossing the road to the start of the Jim Soorley Bikeway (and walkway) path. Just inside the entrance was a well positioned drinking fountain with a notice saying this is the last water for seven kilometres.

After a long drink I set off along the path heading through the scrubby bush (as pictured above) before reaching mangrove wetlands which in turn gave way to the long and straight channel of water separating the Nudgee Golf Course to my right from Brisbane Airport. I could hear the roar of planes taking off and landing and seeing them approach and leave the runway hidden behind the forest of casuarina trees on the other side of Kedron Brook. Birds apparently don't like these trees, so they've been deliberately planted at the airport to minimise bird strike.

The tide was still rising as I followed the path upstream along Kedron Brook, a good two or three hundred metres wide here. It is a very straight stream, with channels coming in at 45 degree angles on the other side, indicating this is largely an artificial channel to help drain the airport land and also the swamp land the track was following.

Once past the golf course, the land opened up into a large grassy area extending a long way. The Gateway Motorway was just a couple of hundred metres away, but otherwise there was very little development in this area, making it hard to believe this is part of a major city. This area of land floods a lot, especially with the heavy rains of last summer, so there's no point in building here.

The path meandered its way between Kedron Brook and the motorway, until eventually passing under it as the motorway crossed the brook. The track continued through grassland until passing under Nudgee Road. It was a long track, but there were markers on the pavement every hundred metres showing how far I had come and how much further there is to go to the track's end at Toombul Shopping Centre.

Eventually the grassland gave way to lawn as I passed a large bicycle training circuit. The brook was substantially smaller now, just fifty metres wide and flooding with the incoming tide almost full. The sun started dropping low in front of me as I approached the end of the track at the start of the Toombul Shopping Centre, which has permanently closed after the floods at the beginning of the year. The centre has over the years been frequently affected by flooding, but the big floods of earlier this year when nearly a metre of rain fell in this area over three days was the last straw forcing the centre to close.

Now I was back in civilisation, I followed the footpaths along the road heading southward across the brook, here at its tidal limit, and heading through Clayfield, Hendra, and Ascot where the path followed the railway line until I reached my destination at Doomben Station where I caught the train home.