Mt Wilson Mt Irvine Bushwalking Group Volume 23 Issue 8 August 2013

BOX CREEK FALLS AND MORONG FALLS TOPIC for the drive to Kanagra-Boyd OUR JULY National Park, rain began to fall and it had that ominous set- WALK in look. Unperturbed we set off BOX CREEK FALLS and along Road. MORONG FALLS in the Many thanks to Robbie, Fred, KANANGRA-BOYD Alex Halliday and John Meade NATIONAL PARK for providing their vehicles and th for driving the longish route to Friday 19 July 2013 our destination for today. It only needed a couple of shabby cigarette-smoking cattle dogs We proceeded through the sitting on the roof and a eclectic landscape of workboot-wearing cockatoo picturesque farms, pine forests flying overhead screeching and native bushland and ‘Struth’ and it could well have Winter in the Bush dropped down the sinuous been a scene from bush ribbon of road carved into the cartoonist Ken Maynard’s mountainside which delivers us Ettamogah Pub. My seriously weird mind to that monumental edifice; the conjured up that thought as I watched the first Grand Arch at Jenolan Caves. What an group of our walkers in Rob Bearup’s ute evocative sight this is. The Blue Lake below being ferried across the ford at Morong Creek. us to the left, that window to the sky which is (Incidentally, Ken Maynard’s cocky wears the Carlotta Arch high above to the right, fleeting boots because the corrugated iron roof of the glimpses into the mysterious darkness of the pub is far too hot for its feet.) Devil’s Coachhouse and the yawning mouth of the Grand Arch inviting us to enter the Cartoon images may well have popped into bowels of the limestone mountain. Having my mind at that instant however some of the emerged on the other side of the mountain and actual images we were treated to today were passed the charming Caves House we began magnificent. the steep, rather tortuous climb out of this The weather did not look too promising when enchanting valley. we gathered at Mt Victoria Station for a At the junction of the Jenolan Caves and vehicle rationalisation. We welcomed Alice Kanangra Walls Roads we met Rob Bearup in Simpson and Robbie Feyder who are not able his 4WD ute; he then led our little convoy, to join us all that often; they were keen to give carrying fifteen walkers, into the Kanangra- their shiny new 4WD a taste of what unsealed Boyd National Park. The wet road surface roads and fire trails have to offer. As we made took on an ochre sheen as it led us through our way toward Hampton, where we met Fred open woodland; the colours of the bark on Roberts and further rationalised the vehicles 2 Mt Wilson Mt Irvine Bushwalking Group smooth-trunked trees, and of the foliage Following a check walk Helen and I did in this generally, were intensified by the moisture. area with Rob Bearup in March this year, Rob Should we have been following this track in returned and placed ribbons at suitable the late summer of 1931 we may have intervals to indicate the path to the falls; quite encountered a young couple pushing their fetching they were too with their blue and infant son in an unusual looking pram; their white stripes. much-loved dog accompanying them. That Soon after we set off along the obviously couple would have been Myles and Margaret seldom-used fire trail a long low bank of Dunphy. Myles, as well as being father to the granite was noted off to the right. This natural young boy in the pram, became known as the array of lichen-encrusted boulders gave the Father of Australian Conservation. Myles appearance of a well-built dry-stone wall spent many years exploring and mapping this created by the hand of a master craftsman; area; he came to love it so much that he named some would say that is exactly what it was. the young infant in the pram Milo Kanangra Having come to the end of discernible fire trail Dunphy. Myles and Margaret modified and we began following Rob’s trail of engaging fitted out the pram to carry camping striped ribbons. They led us along the ridge equipment and provisions as well as their then skirted around a dense thicket of tea tree, eighteen month old son on the one hundred across a rock shelf and up a small gully and ten kilometre walk from Oberon to pockmarked by the foraging of fauna. The Kanangra Walls and return. Their dog was not drizzle had almost stopped by now and forgotten, they made leather boots to protect glimpses through the trees to the left revealed its feet on the long journey; both the pram and that the clouds were lifting and opening up the the boots are now in the National Museum in distant views so we diverted to a group of Canberra. granite tors to take in the vista now on offer. After about seventeen kilometres along Wisps of mist were rising from the deep Kanangra Walls Road we turned onto the valleys and beyond the tree-clad mountains Kowmung Fire Trail. This trail took us there were large expanses of open grazing land past two large tracts of swamp, the first on the distant slopes. A wonderful panorama. unnamed, the second being Boyd Hill Swamp; Presently we were looking down onto a both of these swamp areas provide feedwater section of the Box Creek Falls, the water for Box Creek. We travelled through plunging over one of the many cliff edges it impressive open forest, which has very little encounters on its journey to the valley floor. understorey, noticed the presence of granite We made our way to the top of the falls, along outcroppings and after about eight kilometres the way getting a view of one of the many arrived at the Box Creek Fire Trail. We parked lower pools and of the first drop of the falls. here near Gillespies Lookout, a cluster of Here the tranquil clear waters suddenly granite tors, which normally affords become a surge of turbulent white as they panoramic views across the Kowmung and plummet down this ravine. The height of the Tuglow toward Shooters Hill and stream at this time meant there was no Porters Retreat; today the light rain and low convenient safe spot to cross and clamber cloud obscured that vista. down for a view back up the cascades so that We donned our rain gear and had a quick option was abandoned and we made our way morning tea break in the light drizzle while back to the cars. Along the way we passed admiring Alice and Robbie’s newly-christened many tallish banksias carrying an abundance BMW, beginning now to look like a ‘real’ of small flower spikes; they were examples of 4WD with a generous coating of Kanangra- the Silver Banksia (Banksia marginata) . I had Boyd mud; it can now parade proudly around only seen this banksia as a small windblown the suburban neighbourhood. shrub on exposed heath and was surprised to see them growing so tall. Also the edges of the 3 Mt Wilson Mt Irvine Bushwalking Group narrow leaves were not toothed, another aspect was a meandering undulating walk to the end I had not encountered before. Fairley and of the fire trail through lovely open forest Moore state this shrub does have either dotted with granite tors. A scramble down a toothed or entire leaf margins; the variations in narrow footpad led us to a viewing spot near nature appear endless. the top of Morong Falls. Once more in the cars Rob led us back along What a grand sight. Above us the water the Fire Trail for about two tumbled down between granite cliffs and a kilometres where we turned onto the Morong jumble of giant granite boulders. The foaming Creek Fire Trail, a further two and a half agitated water calmed briefly as it pooled kilometres brought us to a clearing adjacent to below our feet before leaping once more over Morong Creek, here we paused for lunch. the edge of a precipice to continue its plunge ‘Morong’ is an Aboriginal word for ‘ bleak’. toward the Kowmung River in the Morong Paradoxically, the conditions here beside the Deep, about two hundred and fifty metres creek were far less bleak than earlier in the below. Nearby a narrow silver band of water day. dropped from beneath a huge rounded boulder, On the origin of place names Jim Barrett states below which a smaller almost spherical in his book on the subject that the Aboriginal boulder nestled, and splashed into a clear name Koo-nang-goor-wa applied to the rippling pool, a splendid cameo; the wonders section near the junction of what is of nature never fail to delight the eye. now known as . William After resting here awhile, taking in the sights, Govett used a corruption of this when he sounds and atmosphere of this magnificent named the stream Kanangaroo Creek in 1833. , we made our way back to the gate The name Kanangra, which was ultimately where Rob once more transported us back applied to the area and many features within it, across the creek. Libby was offered a seat in is an Aboriginal word for ‘beautiful’ or the front but she was quick to refuse, keen to ‘beautiful view’; appropriate enough but a ride in the back with the rest of us hillbillies. further step away from the mystical sounding Back at our lunch spot we had our usual after original Koo-nang-goor-wa. The origin of the walk cuppa, yet this day was far from usual. It ‘Boyd’ part of the Kanangra-Boyd name has was the three hundredth walk since the eluded Jim Barrett (and me). formation of the group in May 1990. Libby of To continue on to Morong Falls we needed to course is the only one of those original cross Morong Creek at the nearby ford. Rob seventeen still walking with the group. Indeed had very thoughtfully brought some planks she would have walked on the vast majority of and a couple of besser blocks in the back of those three hundred walks; the person who had his ute to perhaps form a walkway across the the second longest active association is the co- ford. During the lunch break Rob had founder of the group Mary Reynolds. inspected the ford and found it much wider Helen Cardy created a beautiful cake for the than he had anticipated, too wide for his occasion, decorated with native flora (not from planks, but that it would be negotiable in his the national park of course), mounted on a 4WD ute. The group divided in two and the board and surrounded by a selection of first adventurers clambered aboard to be photographs from past walks. The cake was transported across the waters. As well as delicious with most people having seconds; I getting us across the creek with dry feet Rob displayed my usual will power and self- continued on to the gate on the Morong Falls restraint and had two and a half pieces. Fire Trail, saving about one and a half kilometres walking. And so, with the light beginning to fade we headed for home after a wonderful day on the From the gate, beside which someone had Kanangra-Boyd Plateau. built a rather artistic cairn atop a boulder, it 4 Mt Wilson Mt Irvine Bushwalking Group Light rain again began to fall and driving in Bruce was a multi-talented and ever willing the dark on wet forest roads is not all that ‘Mr Fixit’ who helped out so many people pleasant so once again many thanks to our on the mountain not only by repairing some drivers. By the way Alice and Robbie, have piece of machinery or appliance but also you washed the trophy mud off the BMW yet? with his cheery presence while doing so. John Cardy Helen and I had the good fortune of meeting Bruce when we first walked with OUR AUGUST WALK the group in March 1996. Though not tall of Friday 16 th August 2013 stature Bruce was a mountain of good will, good deeds and good cheer, my lingering Extensive Valley and Mountain Views, image of Bruce is of a broad smile on an Impressive Cliffs, Open Forest and a Large always-happy face below a shock of snow- Slice of Early Colonial History white hair. Coxs and Lockyers Roads – Mt York to Sincere condolences go to Sue and her Hartley Vale and Return family on their loss from all those who had The group last walked this circuit in June the good fortune to have walked, either 2007; it is a relatively easy walk with a literally or figuratively, with Bruce. steepish descent into the valley via Coxs Road John Cardy and a gentler climb out via Lockyers Road. ______Come along and walk a path first trodden by Europeans 200 years ago, touch pick marks FUTURE WALKS (Tentative schedule) cut by convicts in 1814; soak up the history as NB: you absorb the beauty of the natural The walk has been surroundings. moved from September to October to take advantage of the extra available daylight. Meet at the Mt York parking area at the Friday 20 th September – Little Zig Zag, end of Mt York Road at 9.00am or at Bushrangers Cave and Rienits Pass at Mt Merry Garth at 8.20am for an 8.30am Victoria departure. Friday 18 th October – Blue Gum Forest, Perrys Bring morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and Lookdown to Govetts Leap Lookout plenty of water. Friday 15 th November – Fortress Ridge north Contact Libby Raines on 4756 2121 (after 7pm) or Helen and John Cardy on 9871 of Leura 3661 or on mobile 0418 646 487 if you need to leave a message. BUSH CARE VALE BRUCE GAILEY Bush Care is held on the second Friday of each month from 9am to Noon. Any help, One of the foundation members of this even for a short time, would be appreciated walking group, Bruce Gailey, sadly left us both by the other workers and by the native in early July. Bruce and his wife Sue were vegetation. among the seventeen walkers who ventured th to the Tessellated Pavements at Mt Irvine 9 August at Founders Corner on Thursday 17 th May 1990, the inaugural 13 th September at Wynne Reserve walk for this group. Bruce and Sue were 11 th October at Silva Plana regular walkers with the group and were willing bush care workers until they left Contact Libby or Beth Raines on 4756 2121 their much-loved property Circadia at Mt for details Irvine to move to the North Coast.