I was keen to attend this walk in Royal National Park as it was to places that I had never visited before. It was a walk led by Brian Everingham for the National Parks Association of NSW.
The plan was to visit two headlands near Maianbar, both on Port Hacking. In the past, around 1870, both the headlands were “developed” with buildings – houses and more. The remains of these structures now have considerable heritage value.
The group met up and parked on the Maiainbar Road, and then set off down a track towards Red Jacks.
On the way, we passed some magnificent Angophora costata trees.
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Native Iris
Fringe Lily
Brian had planned the walk to coincide with the presence of a group of volunteer bush regenerators, members of the Friends of Royal National Park. They had worked over recent years removing weeds from the point. They have done an amazing job.
The weeding group is led by Dave Robson, and he told us this ruin was completely covered by weeds when they first started.
It was probably built by Costyn around 1870. And access would have been by boat.
Unfortunately, photos taken of the building in the 1980’s show it used to be a lot more complete. It seems like some people have stolen some of the heritage stone bricks to add to their own homes. A shame!
The whole headland is also a midden.
Nearby are some miniature islets –
A second ruin lies not far way –
We walked over to a nice grassy area to have morning tea.
Little Pied Cormorant
Great Egret
I think this is likley to be a sullage pit-
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Bonnet Orchid – Cryptostylis erecta
Tiger Moth
Xyris sp.
Leptospermum sp.
Fringe Lily
Onion Orchid – Microtis sp.
After walking back up, we drove a short distance back along the Maianbar Road, and parked at the top of the Costyns Point Trail. We then started walking down, quite different terrain to Costyns Point.
Christmas Bells – Blandfordia nobilis
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo
Hyacinth Orchid – Dipodium roseum
At the bottom were more ruins.
Costyn moved from Red Jacks to the next point upstream, what is now known as Costyns Point, where there was deep water access. We had lunch, then inspected the ruins.
It was very interesting to wander around.
We then made our way back up the hill to the cars.
Variable Swordgrass Brown Butterfly
Again – many thanks to Brian for leading the walk. And also to Helen for a lift down and back. Much appreciated.