Gold Creek Reservoir is a well-known Brisbane birding hotspot, located at the end of Gold Creek Road in Upper Brookfield in Brisbane’s western suburbs. The open water of the reservoir usually has a decent range of water birds, and is surrounded by open eucalypt forest, patches of rainforest, riparian habitats, and some grassland. This variety of habitats has resulted in an impressive eBird list of 216 species. There is a long and fairly difficult circuit track around the reservoir, but we will restrict our walk to the dam wall, the spillway below the dam, and a few hundred metres of the road (which has some high-quality riparian vegetation).
This will be another walk during which we will focus on bird calls, though not exclusively. We will start by walking up to the dam walk to see what water birds are present (they mostly don’t call, but some might). There may be some early rising raptors here. We will then walk down by the spillway, which usually has some bush birds. This is also a good spot for Azure Kingfisher (not guaranteed) along the creek. From there, we will walk along the road. As this is the end of the road, the traffic is light. The last few hundred metres of Gold Creek Road usually has some species more associated with rainforest. We can end the walk with a return to the dam to see if raptors have woken up.
If you would like to check some bird calls on your birding apps before the walk (Dave Stewart’s ‘Australian Bird Calls’ is excellent), here is a list of some of the birds we are most likely to hear. This list excludes very common species, but we would be unlucky not to see and hear some other less common species too.
Brown Cuckoo-Dove, Wonga Pigeon, Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove, Shining Bronze-Cuckoo, Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Australasian Grebe, Azure Kingfisher, Australian King-Parrot, White-throated Treecreeper, Scarlet Honeyeater, White-throated Honeyeater, White-throated and Large-billed Scrubwren, Brown Thornbill, Varied Triller, Rufous Shrike-thrush, Golden Whistler, Rufous Whistler, Grey and Pied Butcherbirds, Grey and Australian Rufous Fantail, White-eared, Black-faced and Australian Spectacled Monarch, Eastern Yellow Robin, Mistletoebird.
How to get there: From Moggill Road at Kenmore Village, drive along Brookfield Road to the Brookfield Show Ground. When you come to the roundabout, take the second exit, which is Gold Creek Road. Drive a few kilometres to the end of Gold Creek Road, where there is roadside parking.
There are toilet facilities at the site.
This is a grade 2 walk, with a short moderately steep walk up to the dam.
Bring a sun hat, water, chair, and morning tea.
