Ewen Maddock Dam Walk

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Posted 2023-12-07 by Roz Glazebrook ⇒ follow

I had only been to Ewen Maddock Dam once before. On that trip about five years ago I had kayaked on the dam. I did see the walks around the area and was keen to go back and explore them. I recently had the opportunity to return and explore some walks around the dam.

Ewen Maddock Dam is near Landsborough in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. The dam supplied water to the Sunshine Coast until 1989.

Most of the coast's water now is from Baroon Pocket Dam behind Montville in the Blackall Ranges.

The dam is on Addington Creek and the dam wall is 666 m and was completed in 1982. There is a lovely beach area, playground, picnic tables and toilets. Ewen Maddock Dam is a popular recreation destination for locals and visitors. It is an un-gated dam, meaning that when it reaches 100 per cent capacity, water flows over the spillway and safely out of the dam. The dam is named after an early pioneer of Mooloolah whose family built a small cottage where the base of the dam wall is today.

A group of twelve of us from my bushwalking club drove up on a recent Sunday morning. We arranged to meet up at the Maddock Park car park. We turned onto Steve Irwin Way and onto the Mooloolah Valley Connection Road which was about 6 kilometres past Landsborough on the left. We followed this road to the car park. After everyone arrived we did a car shuffle and took some cars to where we planned to finish the walk.

We planned to walk around a network of trails, which are shared with horses and mountain bikes. I liked the idea the walk was relatively flat with only minor ups and downs, unlike other walks besides dams I have done which have very steep ups and downs. It was a hot day, but we had a lot of cover from the trees.

We walked through a variety of interesting habitats, including melaleuca swamps and paperbark forests for about 13.5 kilometres. We passed a few people riding horses and some bike riders on the tracks. We saw a large kangaroo and lots of water birds along the way. There were some beautiful native flowering plants including some interesting green banksias, native hibiscus and mauve orchids. We even saw Santa Claus on the dam.

We had morning tea sitting on some logs in the forest. I got two ticks in my head, which wasn’t good as I already have Mammalian Meat Allergy from a tick bite. I was the only one to get any ticks. I had put Bushman’s on my legs and arms and around my face, but the ticks found some spots where I hadn’t put any at the back of my head and forehead under my hat. I did have some “Tick off” spray to kill the ticks by freezing them with ether and I did find them quickly so hopefully they won’t cause too many problems for me. I haven’t been able to eat any mammal meat for four years now.

The blood test Alpha Gal is picking up a lot more people with this meat allergy from ticks. Many people have had it for years before they get diagnosed.

Eventually, we came out of the forest and found a coffee cart where we had lunch.

We had coffee, cold drinks and delicious sweets and toasties. The owners of “The Leaky Teapot” told me they are on the site three days a week. It was a real luxury to have a hot drink and snack during a walk. We walked for another couple of kms after lunch then decided to drive back and have a swim before facing the Sunshine Coast Sunday afternoon traffic before heading home. The traffic wasn't too bad. It was a very pleasant and relaxing day.

It was a nice, interesting walk, which was well signposted with a variety of habitats, including scribbly gum, eucalypt and paperbark trees in the woodland. It was a hot day, but there was a lot of shade under the canopy. It was lovely walking along beside the dam. The water was lower than my last visit, but should have improved after all the recent rain.