Kurrajong DISCOVERY TRAIL A scenic bushland circuit Drive summary through quieter parts of Blue t LN DJSDVJU t ISUPESJWF DJSDVJU Mountains National Park and t )JHIXBZ OBSSPXTFBMFESPBET VOTFBMFESPBETBOE8%USBJMT8%FTTFOUJBMGPS 8PMMFNJ/BUJPOBM1BSL"öOF complete trail. t 4UBSUBOEöOJTI,VSSBKPOH cycling tour. Highlights include t "MFSUT*ODMVEFT8%USBJMT%SZXFBUIFSPOMZ several lookouts and walking tracks and two national park U4 Mpplpvu camping/picnic areas. Fruit Ejtdpwfsz!Usbjm; Nbjmft Sjehf Vqqfs!Dpmp stalls and galleries on Bells LVSSBKPOH Spvuf Npvoubjo Line of Road and in Kurrajong Mbhppo 5!Ljmpnfusft Xiffoz!Dsffl Heights. 33 Dbnqjoh!Bsfb be Sp po hp e Mb l b f p o Dsf 26 j z S ub fo o f z Route Description v i p p X s Cm f bymboet N m Kurrajong village is just o! Bells Line of n fm p C mt Mjo Sj Road (and the main Greater Blue Mountains f p D ehf Spbe g Sp Drive and The Botanists Way) but well worth Cjmqjo 5 51 be ) Cpubojtut Xbz* the diversion for its cafes and galleries. Lvssbkpoh Spbe Lvssbkpoh tu Travel west along Bells Line of Road and up Fb Ifjhiut Bellbird Hill. Don’t miss the view over The 21 Cfmmcjse Mpplpvu Hawkesbury from Bellbird Lookout. Turn left at Kurrajong Heights into Warks Road, follow Cvssbmpx 9 8 Dbnqjoh it to Burralow Road and turn left again. Lvsnpoe Bsfb Lvssbkpoh The road goes along the ridge-top until a Wjmmbhf Opsui large communications tower is passed on the C Sjdinpoe HSFBUFS!CMVF v Hsptf right. Now a 4WD trail enters Blue Mountains s s Cpxfo Wbmf NPVOUBJOT!ESJWF!0 b National Park and descends into the Burralow m Nuo p 51 Valley through superb forest. CPUBOJTUT!!XBZ x D Wbmf SJDINPOE At the intersection in the valley, turn right l Mpplpvu to reach the camping/picnic area on a large alluvial "at – the site of an early experiment in irrigated rice-growing in Australia. An easy walking track to a ferny grotto begins from here. Back on the main trail, The isolated settlement here is based on rich Turn right and descend to Wheeny Creek cross Burralow Creek and climb out of the soils. An excellent diversion here is to take QJDOJDDBNQJOHBSFBXJUIJUTTVQFSC4ZEOFZ valley onto Paterson Range which is followed 4BNT8BZBSPVOEUIFMBHPPO UVSOPOUPUIF Blue Gums and grass "ats. along the edge of the Grose Wilderness back 4WD T3 Trail and follow it to the impressive Comleroy Road climbs up the other side of to Bells Line of Road. views from T3 Lookout over the Colo River gorge and Wollemi Wilderness. the Wheeny Creek valley then south back to Turn left towards Bilpin then right onto Bells Line of Road near Kurrajong. the sealed Mountain Lagoon Road. Back at Mountain Lagoon, a 4WD trail Mountain Lagoon is a natural small lake, DPOUJOVFTLNFBTUEPXOBMPOHJODMJOFUP an unusual feature caused by geological join Comleroy Road. tilting of the plateau (similar to the origin of Thirlmere Lakes). Kurrajong DISCOVERY TRAIL: an account of things to see and do along the trail The Kurrajong discovery trail is more of an – can still be seen scattered around the "at. away to the high basalt tops that rim the BEWFOUVSFUIBONPTUPGUIFPUIFSUSBJMT The grassy clearing is now just a great place western and northern edge of the largest attached to the Greater Blue Mountains to camp or picnic. XJMEFSOFTTJO/FX4PVUI8BMFT"SPVOEUP Drive. the east, the "at-topped Mount Yengo is the The short and easy Bulcamatta walking track main landmark. As the only one that requires a four-wheel- skirts around the Burralow swamp and enters drive vehicle or mountain bike, it gets right a beaut little side-canyon. As the cli!s close .BOZUJNFT*WFTPBLFEVQUIJTTDFOF in amongst some very bumpy country. The in the gorge becomes chock full of rainforest listening to the birds and marvelling at all route skirts around the edge of two big and ferns, and then ends suddenly in a small the di!erent textures and tones of tree and chunks of wilderness, centred on the wild, horseshoe waterfall. "owering shrub on the slopes below – a undammed rivers of the Grose and the Colo, cornucopia of unique Australian vegetation The four-wheel-drive trail climbs up the other and crosses two deep tributary valleys – and that won world heritage recognition for side of the valley and through drier bush BMMUIJTKVTUBOIPVSGSPNUIF4ZEOFZ0QFSB UIF#MVF.PVOUBJOT0ODF *FWFOIFBSEUIF on the Paterson Range. The many di!erent )PVTF unnerving, unmistakable grunt of a courting types of forest encountered are one of the NBMFLPBMB*UXBTJOTQJSJOHUPSFBMJTFUIBU *UTCFTUUPBMMPXBXIPMFEBZGPSUIFESJWFUP special joys of this drive. To the left lies the such an icon of Australian wildlife – fading take full advantage of the views, walks and Grose Wilderness, still much as George Caley BXBZJONBOZQMBDFToTUJMMöOETSFGVHFIFSF SFTUTQPUTBMPOHUIFXBZ0SFWFOUXPEBZT saw it two centuries ago. The trail comes camping at Burralow or Wheeny Creek. back out onto Bells Line of Road, brie"y, 4VSFMZUIJTJTUIFFTTFODFPGXJMEFSOFTT before heading down a sealed road to the 0VSTUBSUJOHQPJOUJTUIFMPWFMZWJMMBHFPG places that stand apart from the changes and OFYUVOVTVBMMBOEGPSN.PVOUBJO-BHPPO Kurrajong, in a quiet setting just o! Bells pressures that humans always bring, places set aside just for nature, in all its complexity, Line of Road (also known as The Botanists This isolated settlement of small farms and strangeness and beauty. Just two per cent Way and part of the main Greater Blue hideaways is based on rich soils – as shown PG/FX4PVUI8BMFTIBTCFFOGPSNBMMZ Mountains Drive). When you can drag by the few massive blue gums that are still protected in this way, as wilderness. ZPVSTFMGBXBZGSPNBMMUIFöOFGPPEBOEBSU standing. The lagoon itself is a natural lake, Bells Line leads westward into the wilds. perched on a ridge-top way above where T3 lookout can be a memorable place to At Kurrajong Heights a four-wheel-drive BOZTFMGSFTQFDUJOHMBLFTIPVMEöOEJUTFMG watch the setting sun spread golden light trail enters Blue Mountains National Park This is again because of the mountains uplift across the ridges and fade into darkness - and winds down through increasingly twisting the local drainage pattern. but depending on your plans you may not lush forests to the "ats of Burralow Creek. XBOUUPTUBZTPMPOH'SPN.PVOUBJO-BHPPO The lagoon is on private property, but you Filtered views of the Bell Range and into the BXFMMXPSOöSFUSBDL PQFOUPUIFQVCMJD can snatch a glimpse of the reed-beds and Grose Valley give a taste of what’s to come. descends a long ridge to the east. This is EVDLTGSPN4BNT8BZ UIBUFODJSDMFTUIF usually the roughest driving encountered on *GZPVIBWFTPNFPWFSFOFSHFUJDQBTTFOHFST MBLF1BSUPG4BNT8BZIBTCFFOQMBOUFEBT UIF,VSSBKPOH%JTDPWFSZ5SBJM CVUTUJMMATPGU on board, you can drop them o! at the top an avenue of exotic trees and shrubs that on the bump-o-meter. of the Burralow walking track and meet presents a lovely sight in autumn and spring. them at the bottom. This is also the best Then the more civilised Comleroy Road For those who prefer nature’s gardens the place to switch to two wheels, because the descends into the valley of Wheeny Creek to side-trip along the four-wheel-drive T3 trail rest of the trail back to Kurrajong makes a SFBDIPVSöOBMTUPQQJOHQMBDF5BMM4ZEOFZ into Wollemi National Park is a must – and a great mountain bike ride on bush trails and blue gums and rainforest thickets shade good place to get the bikes o! the roof-rack quiet sealed roads. the picnic and camping grounds along the for a short ride. The bush itself is reward TUSFBN*DBOUIJOLPGOPUIJOHCFUUFSUIBO Burralow Creek is unusual. Most of the enough, with ferny understories, massive wading slowly along the sandy bed on a DSFFLTBSPVOEIFSFBSFDPOöOFEJOOBSSPX twisting smooth-barked apples, grass-trees warm afternoon and listening to the bellbirds gorges, but the Burralow valley is wide, "at like giant green wigs and even a superb piping overhead, before tackling a picnic and and swampy, full of washed-in sediment patch of rainforest. But the climax comes at the last bit of the drive. trapped there like water behind a dam. But the end of the trail, where a rough walking it wasn’t a dam that blocked the valley; the track descends into the Colo River gorge at The return to Kurrajong actually makes a very drainage was disrupted when the area was Tootie Creek. The full walk might be for keen pleasant transition back to suburbia. The tilted up as part of the uplift of the Blue bushwalkers only, but everyone should try road exits Wollemi National Park, hits the tar Mountains escarpment. UIFöSTUöGUZNFUSFT and winds along a fertile shale ridge through rural countryside. To the west, the forest-clad There is evidence that the local Darug The track comes to an edge of rough brown escarpment of the Blue Mountains rises into Aboriginal people lived in Burralow Creek sandstone and a vast panorama opens out the hills where you’ve just been wandering. long before colonial explorer and naturalist BDSPTTUIF8PMMFNJ8JMEFSOFTT4JUEPXO Funny, isn’t it, how the bush can seem drab George Caley passed through on his epic BOESFTUIFSFBXIJMFUBLFJOAUIFTFSFOJUZ and uninspiring as you drive by from a XBMLUP.PVOU#BOLT0O/PWFNCFS Looking over Tootie Creek and D’Arcy Range, distance? But we know that all the simple IJTQBSUZTIFMUFSFEJOBASPDLIPVTF you can see the edge of the Colo Gorge joys are revealed only to those who get right (overhang) overlooking the swamp. But they – reputedly the longest in Australia – and weren’t as capable in the bush as the Darug. in there and spend some time. 5IFJSDBNQöSFFTDBQFEUPTQSFBEUISPVHI the valley, burning Caley’s vasculum and OFBSMZJODJOFSBUJOHUIFXIPMFFYQFEJUJPO The Greater Blue Mountains Drive has been established by the regions which share the mountains as their Later another early settler thought the PXOCBDLZBSEXPSLJOHUPHFUIFSUPEFWFMPQUIFESJWFJODPMMBCPSBUJPOXJUIUIF/48%FQUPG&OWJSPONFOU swampy vale would be good for irrigated BOE$MJNBUF$IBOHF 5PVSJTN/48BOE5PVSJTN"VTUSBMJB'VSUIFSEFWFMPQNFOUPGUIFESJWFQSPEVDUIBT been enhanced by the ongoing involvement of Transurban.