Darling Mills Creek to Parramatta Walk – 28 July 2018

I had visited Darling Mills Creek back in 2015 (see here). I can remember before that trip – Bob pointing out Darling Mills Creek while driving along the M2 and he mentioned that there was a walking track along it. So, not long after that I had explored the track. But it turns out, Bob had not walked down the creek, so I thought it about time for another trip. The weather forecast was not the best, so we thought a more local trip would suit.

This time, we met outside Beecroft Station, and caught a bus along Aitken Road to the Richard Webb Reserve where we started the walk.

The walk starts from the Richard Webb Reserve through a nice section of forest that takes you to a road near some houses. Then another trail starts – this time through the Bidjigal Reserve. From there it is bush all the way along the creek to near Lake Parramatta.

The walk is a combination of fire road and walking track. It is all clearly marked and for the most part pleasant walking.

The trees are nice, and from all the squawking, they provide homes to a lot of birds. The creek itself looks polluted, and some low bushes dropped with plastic and other rubbish does not look the best. But most of the bush is in quite good condition – this is a nice bushland remnant.

Where the M2 crosses the creek, we noticed a cave high on the side that seems to either have been used by a hermit or perhaps a kids cubby house. A lot of rubbish is nearby.

Not far past this, the track crosses the creek on a high wooden bridge and then climbs up over a ridge covered in Grass Trees. Below is a storm retention dam.

After dropping back down to the creek and following it for a while, the track climbs back up and passes behind a few houses in badly weed infested area.

Not too far past this, is an interesting section where the track goes along an old convict built road.

The track then goes across a flat area and ends up on a road. near a sports field. From there we walked ashore distance to North Rocks Road, crossed it and then walked into Lake Parramatta Reserve.

We had plenty of time left, so we started walking around the lake on the loop track. Part way along we stopped for lunch.

After completing the circuit, we walked some back streets to Cumberland Hospital, a old lunatic asylum and female factory. This is obviously an interesting heritage site. We crossed Darling Mills Creek here on a large road bridge. Not far downstream it flows into The Parramatta River. The bridge took us into Parramatta Park – and we followed some paths through it to a new stadium construction site. From there we followed a path along the Parramatta River to the ferry wharf. We then headed back home via the Rivercat – and not long after it departed a large storm hit.