Mt Wilson Mt Irvine Bushwalking Group Volume 30 Issue 1 & 2 January & February 2020

BLUE MOUNTAINS BOTANIC GARDEN TOPIC from Australasia, written by OUR William Charles Wentworth after whom Wentworth Falls DECEMBER was named? WALK “---- How mute, how desolate thy stunted woods, BLUE MOUNTAINS How dread thy chasms, where BOTANIC GARDEN at many an eagle broods, MOUNT TOMAH How dark thy caves, how lone Friday 6th December 2019 thy torrents roar, As announced in the December As down thy cliffs precipitous newsletter we did not schedule a they pour, ----” walk for January so this is the Freda Moxom kindly led this first newsletter for 2020; as usual walk. The constant musical I shall start with a review of last Summer in the Bush accompaniment of the waters year’s walks. of Jamison Creek burbling and I had been struggling to think of purling across rock shelves, the a theme to use for that review until I hit on the magnificent views into the Jamison Valley and brilliant idea of prefacing each walk with a back to the upper section of Wentworth Falls verse or two of relevant early Australian from vantage points along the way, and lunch poetry. I selected verse which had a in the shady oasis of Freda’s front yard to end the day are highlights from this walk. connection with the following walk, some obvious, some tenuous, some verse well In March we ventured onto a new walk for this known, some obscure. group; we visited Odin Head and the Blair The ‘brilliance’ of the idea is that it saves me Athol Coal Mine; Freda leading the first from racking my brain to write introductions section and I led the second. It was a still, to each walk. Cheating? Perhaps, but here we cloudy day and Charles Harpur’s A go, a look back on the walks of 2019, a year Midsummer Noon in the Australian Forest with a few disruptions and disastrous fires; captures some aspects of the bush on such a nonetheless, a year of very enjoyable walks. day; here is the first verse. In January our planned walk was cancelled “Not a bird disturbs the air, due to extreme temperatures and total fire There is quiet everywhere; bans. No walk, no verse. Over plains and over woods What a mighty stillness broods. February saw us on Darwins Walk and Even the grasshoppers keep Undercliff and Overcliff Tracks at Wentworth Where the coolest shadows sleep; Falls. What better verse excerpt to choose than Even the busy ants are found 2 Mt Wilson Mt Irvine Bushwalking Group Resting in their pebbled mound; Give us when noontide comes Even the locust clingeth now Rest in the woodland free – In silence to the barky bough: Fragrant breath of the gums, And over hills and over plains Cold, sweet scent of the sea. Quiet, vast and slumbrous, reigns.” Give us the wattle’s gold Memories from this walk include the array of And the dew-laden air, intriguing stone cairns along the way to Odin And the loveliness bold Head, the magnificent views, from the Loneliest landscapes wear. headland, of rugged cliffs near and far. Also These are the haunts we love, the torch-lit walk of about two hundred and Glad with enchanted hours, fifty metres down the incline into the mine, as Bright as the heavens above, far as the flooding waters. Fresh as the wild bush flowers.” April saw us exploring the Victory and Images stored in the memory bank from this Sassafras Tracks from Faulconbridge to walk include the new Bowerbird’s bower near Springwood. We started in perfect conditions the Sunbath and Helen, Jenny and Freda lying under a veil of cloud but, shortly before we on their backs in that Sunbath looking like finished the clouds burst. Two verses from three chooks having a dust bath. Also the Henry Lawson’s Rain in the Mountains seems expansive views into Megalong Valley, the an appropriate way to introduce the review of intriguing Marks Tomb cave formation and this walk. the stark freshly exposed vertical sandstone “The valley’s full of misty clouds, cliff left by the October 2016 rock fall near Its tinted beauty drowning, ‘The Coliseum’. Tree-tops are veiled in fleecy shrouds, June saw the group at Jinki Ridge off the Bells And mountain fronts are frowning. Line of Road. The chosen introductory poetry The sky is leaden grey, for this walk has nothing to do with a daytime Save where the north looks surly, walk on Jinki Ridge, however, if one were to The driven daylight speeds away, be on the Ridge in the evening, I feel it would And night comes o'er us early.” be eminently relevant. Here is Furnley The vivid greenness in the moisture-laden Maurice’s Bush Night rainforest sections of the walk, (Oh for some “On either hand moisture-laden bushland at this time.) the The gums like bowed monks stand; bright orange tiny stalactites, stalagmites and The night’s deep blue columns at Clarinda Falls and fungi of all Shines like a staunch faith through. colours and shapes emerging from the leaf When over this shaken blue litter beside the track and on trunks of tree Comes the moon’s encrusted light, ferns are just some of the memories from this What ever I want to do walk. Seems right.” May found us on the Wonderland Track, at I was unable to attend this walk so Karin Marks Tomb and visiting The Three Brothers Kirkpatrick kindly stepped in to lead. The below the Hydro Majestic. Some of the selected images are gleaned from photographs atmosphere of this walk is captured in James taken by Helen. They included the view across Cuthbertson’s The Bush the Upper Grose Gorge to the grandeur of “Give us from dawn to dark Asgard Head with Asgard Swamp beyond. Blue of Australian skies, The richly sculptured sandstone outcrops with Let there be none to mark thin ironstone inclusions, some incredibly Whither our pathway lies. convoluted and others sitting as flat horizontal caps. The long view down the Upper Grose of 3 Mt Wilson Mt Irvine Bushwalking Group sheer sandstone cliffs rising from the tree-clad I strive, but all in vain, talus slopes. To sing the songs of wonderland – I fail In July we visited Radiata Plateau, recently To give the notes again purchased by the State Government for That like a wave of joy thrill through and through me”. inclusion into the National Park; three hearty cheers for that after a very long fight by so Things which stick in the mind about this many. For reasons, which will become rather windy day are the amazing concentric obvious from the following highlights, I have circular and elliptical ridges and ironstone chosen as introduction to this walk the first plates rising from the rock platform where we two verses of Henry Lawson’s Reedy River paused for morning tea. The view from Castle “Ten miles down Reedy River Head down onto the Ruined Castle; dwarfed by the looming form of Mount Solitary in the A pool of water lies, And all the year it mirrors background. And an ancient gnarled and The changes in the skies. battered Heath Banksia clinging to the cliff Within that pool’s broad bosom edge. Is room for all the stars; September found us at Walls Lookout, Rigby Its bed of sand has drifted Hill and grottos on Pierces Pass. Capturing the O’er countless rocky bars. essence of the landscape we covered on this Around the lower edges day is Henry Lawson’s The Blue Mountains There waves a bed of reeds, “Like ramparts round the valley’s edge Where water-rats are hidden The tinted cliffs are standing, And where the wild-duck breeds; With many a broken wall and ledge, And grassy slopes rise gently And many a rocky landing. To ridges long and low, And round about their rugged feet Where groves of wattle flourish Deep ferny dells are hidden And native bluebells grow.” In shadowed depths, whence dust and heat Ann Mikkelsen led this walk having earlier Are banished and forbidden. checked it out with Freda Moxom. Soon after The stream that, crooning to itself, the start of the walk we came across a dam Comes down a tireless rover, carrying a crusty surface of ice with a sunlit Flows calmly to the rocky shelf, clump of reeds on the far side; on our return And there leaps bravely over. the ice had melted and the surface of the water was mirror-like, reflecting those reeds and the Now pouring down, now lost in spray surrounding eucalypts to perfection. Ann led When mountain breezes sally, the group down into the Pink Canyon, so The water strikes the rock midway, named because of the layer of pink shale at its And leaps into the valley.” base. Above the canyon the term ‘cliff face’ Early morning wisps of mist spiralling up took on a different connotation when Simon from the valley, playing like an opening and pointed out a very distinctive profile of an old closing curtain on the view of the cliffs man’s face; pareidolia strikes again. opposite. The sheer cliffs below Baltzer In August we ventured to Castle Head on Lookout and the ship’s bow form of Hanging Narrow Neck Plateau. I feel the spirit of the Rock, the contrasting cool enclosed spaces of bush is captured in the second last verse of grottos on Pierces Pass and the male Red- John Le Gay Brereton’s The Presence of the headed Mouse Spider we encountered on Bush Rigby Hill; just some of the memories from this walk. “But all too weak am I to tell the tale The spirits of the sweet bush murmur to me; Evans Crown Nature Reserve was our venue for October followed by afternoon tea at Jenny 4 Mt Wilson Mt Irvine Bushwalking Group and Greg Dargan’s nearby property. The An opal-hearted country, essential tenor, both of the Reserve and of A wilful, lavish land – Jenny’s garden are reflected in the first two All you who have not loved her, verses of C.J. Dennis’s Green Walls You will not understand – Though earth holds many splendours, “I love all gum-trees well. But best of all, I love the tough old warriors that tower Where ever I may die, About these lawns, to make a great green wall I know to what brown country And guard, like sentries, this exotic bower My homing thoughts will fly.” Of shrub and fern and flower. Stashed away for future recall from this walk These are my land’s own sons, lean, straight includes the rock shelf just off the Engineers and tall, Track projecting out over the valley and the Where crimson parrots and grey gang-gangs uncharacteristic and unbelievable dryness, at call this time, of the rainforest along Rienits Pass. Thro’ many a sunlit hour. The fascinating ‘letter box rock’ and Bedes My friends, these grave old veterans, scarred Lookout, where the distant views on offer of and stern, the Kanimbla Valley and the cliffs below Change less throughout the changing seasons Hourn Point are enhanced by the red shale they. surface of the lookout itself. But at their knees their tall sons lift and yearn And so we come to our December walk and Slim spars and saplings – prone to sport and Christmas / end of year celebration. sway This was held on the 6th December at the Blue Like carefree boys at play; Mountains Botanic Garden, Mount Tomah. Waxing in beauty when their young locks turn From elevated areas of these gardens, the view To crimson, and, like beacon fires burn to the north, on this day, was of huge plumes To deck Spring’s holiday.” of smoke billowing into the air; smoke from Indelible images from this walk include the the Gospers Mountain bushfire. Sadly, only group sitting atop a large granite tor, their size nine days later, this fire would impact on Mt diminished by the adjacent overpowering Wilson and Mt Tomah. Crown Rock. The variety of forms and sizes of Illustrating the long history of such events, the granite tors, spherical, pyramidal, haystack here is John Dunmore Lang’s comment on the and loaf shaped; all with smoothly rounded conflagration of the forest around Sydney edges. The beauty of Jenny and Greg’s November 25th 1826. garden; an oasis in this drought stricken landscape and the view from this garden back “Fearful I stood on the moss-covered rock to Evans Crown; glorious. Whose rugged cliffs adorn our beauteous bay: The forest blazed around, volumes of smoke In November we revisited the Little Zig Zag, Towering to heaven obscured the face of day: Bushrangers Cave, Rienits Pass and Wilson And as the red sun shot his parting ray Glen. To introduce this walk I have selected Through the dense atmosphere, the lurid sky two of the perhaps less-remembered verses Glowed with a fiercer flame – spreading from Dorothea Mackellar’s My Country dismay – “The stark white ring-barked forests, As if the dreadful day of doom were nigh! All tragic to the moon, Alas! where shall the fear-struck sinner flee The sapphire-misted mountains, From that great day’s all-devastating blaze, The hot gold hush of noon. When the earth burns, the hills melt to their Green tangle of the brushes, base, Where lithe lianas coil, And with intensist heat boils the deep sea! And orchids deck the tree tops O then to stand upon the Rock of Ages, And ferns the warm dark soil. While all around the conflagration rages!” 5 Mt Wilson Mt Irvine Bushwalking Group Then of course, unprecedented The remains of the Devonshire Tea were conflagrations raged right across Australia. packed away and the supplies for lunch, again Our sincere thoughts are with all those organised by Helen, were spread among the effected by these present day infernos. group and we made our way down the hill to the Brunet BBQ Area at the Brunet Meadow. OUR CHRISTMAS WALK AND LUNCHEON Here Helen and Rosemary Knott set about First a little history of the Gardens. They sit preparing lunch while I led the group to 1000 metres above sea level on part of the explore the Lady (Nancy) Fairfax Walk. traditional lands of the Darug and This track leads us out of the formalised Gundungarra Aboriginal people. George Caley Gardens proper, across the route of the Old passed this way on his venture of discovery Bells Line of Road and into remnant and search for botanical specimens in 1804; he rainforest. Here, at the first sharp corner in the named it Tree Fern Hill. Archibald Bell, with track, sits a bronze plaque set on a granite guidance from an Aboriginal lady, discovered block which declares: “FAIRFAX WALK a route across the mountains in 1823; this of DEDICATED ON BEHALF OF THE course became known as the Bells Line of MEMBERSHIP OF THE JUNGLE BY HIS Road. In 1830 Susannah Bowen received the EXCELLENCY ADMIRAL SIR DUDLEY first land grant in the area. DE CHAIR K.C.B. M.V.O. TO THE MEMORY OF SIR JAMES FAIRFAX K.B.E. In 1934 Effie and Alfred Brunet acquired the RD property the garden now occupies and set up a MARCH 23 1929”. cut flower farm to supply florists in Sydney. In A nearby sign explains. In 1912 this rainforest 1972 they presented their land to the Sydney was under threat; a group of businessmen Royal Botanical Gardens. saved the day when they purchased 700 acres The Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens were and opened a 'conservation park'. Known as developed as a Bicentennial project; their the ‘Jungle’, the park included tearooms and a official opening was on 1st November 1987. number of tracks to features such as the The Gardens occupy 28 hectares within 252 ‘Temple of Nature’ – a grotto with sandstone hectares of land. The gardens were recently pagodas, ferns and rainforest trees. The bronze renamed The Blue Mountains Botanic Garden, plaque commemorated its opening. Due to the Mount Tomah. Great Depression the business closed in 1934. In 2008, with the generous support of John Twenty-eight gathered at the shelter adjacent and Libby Fairfax, the Botanic Gardens Trust to the Formal Garden where there was some protection from the stiff breeze. We welcomed purchased the remaining 33 hectares of the Faye Hargreaves and her friend Elaine; Faye Jungle, adjacent to the Gardens. That purchase walked with us many years ago and has provides a secure base for the future remained an ‘armchair walker’ ever since; development of Mount Tomah Botanic Garden Faye spent her childhood in Mt Wilson. Other and ensures a block of temperate New South ‘armchair walkers’ present were Maurie Wales rainforest for future generations. 80 years to the day after its initial opening, the Rodrigues, Anne’s husband, Beth Ihm, rd Michael’s wife and Helen Freeman. Also back area was re-opened to the public on 23 after a long absence was Jan Northam. March 2009, The Jungle is named in honour of Lady (Nancy) Fairfax AO, OBE. Here we were treated to a sumptuous Devonshire Tea prepared by my better half With that little bit of history out of the way we Helen; the logistics of preparing this and proceeded down the hillside, zigzagging transporting it from Sydney did not seem to beneath the rainforest canopy; the area was uncharacteristically dry at this time. We came faze her at all. What a civilised way to start the day. across the remaining butt of a forest giant, just a thin outer wall of wood a little over a metre 6 Mt Wilson Mt Irvine Bushwalking Group high and about two metres or more in Various walks from Mount Piddington diameter. Nearby a tangle of vines looped and The group last walked some of these tracks in twisted their way up to the canopy. Then we November 2014. We will walk four different encountered the first of two rings of trees trails, all of fairly easy grade, totalling about along this track; a circle of Sassafras trunks five kilometres; there is an option for an (Doryphora sassafras) regrowing coppice- additional two kilometres of a medium grade style around the perimeter of their long- walk if so desired. decayed parent tree. Meet at the Mt Piddington Lookout at the Soon we zigzagged back up the slope and end of Mt Piddington Road at 10.00am. If emerged from the rainforest opposite the main travelling from the east turn left into Mt entry gate to the Gardens. We made our way Piddington Road. Note that this road is up the main drive and turned right onto the discontinuous but follow the signs into Plant Explorers Walk. This took us up the hill Sylvania St and Apex Ave. If travelling past many signs telling the stories of those from the west it is probably safer to turn who roamed the world in search of new plants. right into Kanimbla Valley Rd, left into At the start of the Board Walk I waited until Victoria St, veer right into Carlisle Pde, most walkers had caught up to explain that if which becomes Mt Piddington Rd. they walked quietly and kept an eye out to the Those wishing to car share from Mt Wilson left they would be guaranteed a sighting of a should meet at St Georges Church for a couple of lyrebirds. There was some 9.30am departure. suggestion that perhaps I was the liarbird, but not so, for there beside the track were two fine Bring morning tea, lunch and plenty of larger than life sculptures of lyrebirds; I made water. no claim we would see the feathered live Contact Helen and John Cardy on 9871 variety. We then made our way across the 3661 or on mobile 0400 444 966. Formal Garden and individuals were free to wander at their leisure before returning to the FUTURE WALKS (Very Tentative BBQ area for a wonderful sausage sizzle lunch Schedule. Venues will depend upon the followed by mixed berries kindly supplied as opening of Council and National Park Tracks) usual by Ray Nesci, and various slices and Friday 20th March – Walks at Medlow Bath cake. Many thanks to all who supplied various items of food and a very big thank you to Helen for her major effort in organising it all. BUSH CARE A wonderful way to end a year of great walks, Bush Care is held on the second Friday of yet, as we made our way back to the car park each month from 9am to Noon. Any help, the plumes of smoke to the north were a grim even for a short time, would be appreciated. portend of the imminent destruction of so th much of the bushland we love. Friday 14 February – Queens Avenue opposite Windyridge John Cardy Friday 13th March – Hay Lane OUR FEBRUARY WALK Mt Wilson contact Alice Simpson 0414 425 FRIDAY 21st FEBRUARY 2020 511 or 4756 2110 As you can imagine options for walks in the Council contact Tracy Abbas 0428 777 141 mountains are very limited at the moment due to the unprecedented fires; I have managed to find one for February. Panoramic Views, two Mystery Holes and a Selection of Caves