Tooms Lake

Friday 3rd March 2017

Tooms Lake

Tooms Lake has been on the to do list for some time and I finally decided to walk it today. The reasons why I had put it off included the distance that I had to drive from home and the fact that it needed to be done in the dry season. Anyway, I have done it now and it turned out to be an enjoyable walk. It took me 2'15" to drive there from home and even with all the speed restrictions on the Midland Highway, I thought that was quite good. To get there turn off the highway on to the C307, a few kms. north of Oatlands and just follow the signs to Tooms Lake. Park somewhere around the toilet and short term parking.
The weather was very gloomy when I arrived, so some of the earlier photos are a bit dark, but it brightened up later on and became a perfect day.
I set off down the track and across the spillway where the water was only about 25mm. deep. Obviously it can get quite deep here in the wet season so care would have to be taken and I would only suggest doing this walk when it is dry. The track was easily followed around the lake shore.

Looking towards dam wall

Crossing over the spillway

Downstream from crossing

The track right around the lake is an old 4WD track and is good in some places and severely rutted in others. Walking is very easy and it was mostly dry except for a couple of boggy sections which were easily walked around. I walked in a clockwise direction and there were many opportunities to walk down to the water's edge along the way.

Camping spot

I was expecting to get wet feet when I reached the place where the Jimmys Creek flows into the lake but there was no inflow at all and was fairly dry.

Nearing Jimmys Creek

Nearing Jimmys Creek

Around Jimmys Creek

Around Jimmys Creek

 From here I just carried on around the lake, stopping at various points to check out the lake. The place was alive with all sorts of birds and there were countless wallabies.

Around Watch House Bay there was a wet area and from there the track headed slightly uphill to another track before descending back to the shoreline where there were numerous camping spots.

I just kept following the track along the shore until it met up with Tooms Lake Road and then followed that back to the car. I then walked along the dam wall to get a couple of photos.

This was a quite easy walk and mostly flat but is fairly long. It was enjoyable anyway.
Distance: 19.6 kms.
Time: 4'21"
Ascent: 200 metres
Click here to download GPX file.