During the week I did a walk with my sisters and their husbands to Kingdom Come in Heathcote National Park. Or, more accurately – the walk was through the park, with Kingdom Come being just outside it.
Old Todd’s Hut
Kingdom Come, or KC for short, is a historic bushwalkers campsite on the Woronora River and it is right next to a great swimming spot – the Boobera Pool. It is a place that my parents frequently visited during the early 1950’s with other members of the Rucksack Club.
During lunch, both my sisters mentioned that, on one trip to KC with my parents, they remember being shown the ruins of an old hut – known as “Old Todd’s Hut”. So we looked for the ruins and soon found the place. After bushfires, all that remains are some stone walls. It looks like the hut was made from local materials – rocks, that had been cemented together. It is impossible work out what material the roof would have been made from.
It seems that “Old Todd” was a bushwalker, presumably old, and when he found a spot he liked, then he would construct a hut there. These huts would be built in places that would be hard to find unless you knew where to look. This is certainly the case with the one at KC. You cannot see it unless you are really close to it. I think it may have been constructed in the 1930’s.
It would be interesting to know if anyone knows who “Old Todd” was, and where else he built similar huts. Perhaps in other places near the Woronora River or in Royal National Park?
Boobera Pool
The Boobera Pool was a bit cold for swimming, but the walk from and back to Heathcote was very pleasant with lots of wildflowers out, including some nice orchids.
More photos are online on my website here.
Great to see, Dave. That was Todd Sloane of the Rucksack Club (formerly The Hikers Club of Sydney). Todd was still active in the 1950’s, but probably was a bit older than the majority of members at that time, I suspect. I also was told that some people called the track to Winifred Falls from the Bundeena Drive “Toddy’s Track”.
Hi David, thanks for sharing. I wanted to ask and send you some pictures in regards an old trail, some structures, and to see if you know or anybody else knows about the history of this area.
anyone else want pictures to help identify what these structures are, or what used to be there south of the Boobera pool trail, within the heathcote national park, my email is [email protected]
thanks in advance
Hi David,
I went to Kingdom Come on Tuesday. Excellent walk. I was wondering where Old Todd’s Hut was in relation to the campsite and old rucksack notices. Was a bit hesitant in venturing too far off track being on the other side of the river, but definitely keen to have a look.
Thanks.
From the campsite, you need to cross the river, and walk downstream on the rock slabs towards the bend. We climbed up just before the bend (on the true right) – perhaps 50 m or so. Its hard to find even if you know where to look. Tucked in under a small cliff.
Hi Dave,
I visited the hut and stayed the night at KC over the weekend.
I have been looking into old editions of SBW Magazine and The Bushwalker, I’m fairly certain the Todd in the folklore is Tod Sloane who is mentioned and published in a few editions. He is mentioned in an incident where he took issue to a ‘wireless’ interrupting his listening to the Lyre Birds at North Era in 1947 and sadly to have passed in January 1974 at 83. He has also written a few articles for The Bushwalker. I notice Matt above says there is mention of at least this hut in Rucksack Notices, I would be interested in knowing where he’s found these too.
I’m mainly interested to know what he used for the mortar in the walls of the hut. Its a very impressive hut, both in size and construction. I do hold strong doubts that it was ever finished though, hence the lack of roof. Something I have seen is using wood ash as a sort of lime, the mortar seemed to be made of sandstone as well. There was also some more construction around the hut of what I thought could only be catchment pools for water.
Another thing I found was mention of “a table and seats under a spreading Red Gum at Kingdom Come for civilised lunching” I know exactly the Red Gum and found some small slabs of concrete with some wood bolted to it near the campfire, plus a large pile of sandstone near the signs. I suppose this could be the subject of Smith’s and the Rucksack Club’s signs. Seems as though it may be in need of repairs again, do you, or anyone else, happen to know anything about the original setup? Would be a neat excuse to head back in spring.
It was a great place for the two of us to camp, the track in was rough but well marked with Cairns. Found some rebar near the tunnel which I carried in and bent into a handy pot holder for the fire place too. There was also mention in the nearby geocache logs of a ‘local’ putting effort into the area. On the way out we found a small stash of camping gear, chairs and so on, plus a rake and a perfectly raked site a little away from the ‘main’ campsite. Wonder who this could be?
Hi Hamish, I’m sorry to heat that table and seats are no longer there. My school bushwalking club used to use KC a lot during the late 60’s and early 70’s as a quick weekender walk to just chill and relax. The table and seats were still there then. We never knew that the pool actually had a name that I recall but spent many a weekend splashing about. I was lovely, relaxing spot. Tods Hut didn’t have a roof then either, and no sign of one ever having been in place, so perhaps it was never finished. I’m curious what tunnel you mention… do you mean the tunnel where the water pipe enters? I hope I never missed something down there!
I think the tunnel would be the one where the water pipe from Woronora Dam comes out of the hill.
The walk in from the pipeline to KC is not so nice anymore. The autumn 2019 burnoff around the pipeline unfortunately went all the way to the first water crossing just before Kingdom Come. The footpad has almost disappeared, but cairns have proliferated and help to find the route. The fire must have been very hot — even decent-sized trees are dead right down to the ground. Little regrowth yet, but a few sprouts from the bases of otherwise dead trees. The soil is very loose and smaller rocks are not stable. Looks like erosion due to no plants holding things together on these steep slopes. Along the pipeline, the burning has been accompanied by random felling of trees. There is lots of traffic along the pipeline fire road too: contractors doing things at the dam and on the pipe. The water flow in the Woronora at Boobera is very sluggish, and there is an immense amount of dead algae in the pools. Much less lovely a walk than it used to be.
Yes – I have to agree
That is so sad…. really sad
Brett
The coordinates of Todd’s Hut at
34.097683 S, 150.963274 E
A fascinating place. There is so much infrastructure on the ground – fireplaces, bed slabs, doorways, etc, it is almost unthinkable that there was never a roof, but, like previous posters, we could see no evidence of that.
Surprisingly high over the river – testimony to Old Todd’s searching skills to find such a position between two walls of rock.
Thanks. This will go in future versions of Getlost Maps. http://www.getlost.com.au
Found old Toddys hut today. Still standing strong and a few old rusted pots and pans in the fireplace.
Would love to know of any other co-ordinates of some other huts he build around the parks being Heathcote or other parks.
Anyone willing to share the co-ords (either lat/lon or UTM/Mgrs) to where KC is. I went for a walk down there in Oct and managed to get to the SE corner of Boobera Pool but pushing any further west was almost impossible as there was no defined track and the shrubbery was to overgrown and thick. If I had a direct reference point I could then navigate directly via alt route.
Pleased to say that all the way to Boobera is very well marked out by Cairns along the way…if you know what your looking for…even did my part.
KC is at the Boobera Pool
Recently we’ve taken to going to Todds from the ridge above it. The bush is passable and it makes for a nice loop walk. In addition, there are some fascinating rock structures along the way.
Basically, when you reach the top of the cairned track up from where the pipe goes into the hill, instead of descending immediately, strike NE and head for the top of the hill. On the summit you’ll see an incredible natural ‘cave’. Then just follow the spur as it tends N and then NW, dropping to Todds