Earlier in the day, I had been to Wentworth Falls with Bob and we had visited two nice but obscure waterfalls. That trip had finished well before lunch, so we next headed to Faulconbridge to look for an interesting site I had been told about recently. We had no luck with that, so next had lunch and then decided to complete a walk that had ben on my “to do” list for a while. It was a circuit walk that starts from Birdwood Gully at Springwood.
The plan was to star from Boland Avenue and walk down the Birdwood Guly Track to the junction of Shellys Creek, and then follow the track downstream, along what is now called Springwood Creek. Then we would complete a loop on the western side.
We soon made our way down Birdwood Gully and along the track down Springwood Creek. On the way we noticed the turn off to the left – known as the Gooch Track. We would go return to the creek that way. Not far downstream, the track crossed Springwood Creek and followed on the true right bank.
It was a pleasant walk along a well formed track. At times the track went through rainforest.
At one point, a side creek came in on the right -and there was a nice pool and waterfall just above the junction.
Below this our track was much rougher.
We continued down on the true right back until an area of slabs. Here we crossed over left the creek.
We followed a rough, but reasonable track up onto the ridge to the end of Lindsay Road.
The track ended between houses at the end of the Lindsay Road. We then walked up the road, and turned left and followed Chapman Parade to the start of the Gooch Track. This starts not far past the Norman Lindsay Gallery, and we left Chapman Parade near a bus stop before Patrick O’Possum Place. No track was obvious – so we followed by the side of a fence for a bit and then through bush till we did reach a track marked with pink tape.
This track was probably made by a former local resident – Nicholas Gooch. I knew Nicholas back in the 1970’s and early 80’s. He was a good friend and a well known bushwalker, and a member of the Kameruka Bushwalking Club. At that time, he worked at Paddy Pallins in Sydney, and eventually worked his way up to manager of the Sydney store. He was a good source of knowledge of bushwalking trips and bushwalking gear. It was on one of his exploratory walks that he and his wife came across what is now known as Goochs Crater near Bell. At one time, the Gooch’s moved to Chapman Parade Faulconbridge, and they would have used that track as a shortcut walk to Springwood Station.
The Gooch Track is a short and delightful walk. It follows the path of a small creek through open rainforest.
Nicholas Gooch was a very competant and fit bushwalker. I can recall him telling me that when he arrived in Australia as a migrant from England, he didn’t know how to swim, nor how to abseil or rock climb. He joined the Kameruka Bushwalkers, and his first walk was a trip from Mt Wilson to Wollangambe Crater and back. On the way, the party crossed Bell Creek Canyon and some other rough country. By the end of the walk, he had learnt how to abseil, how to swim and a lot of other skills. He was sold on bushwalking. After he and his wife moved to Faulconbridge and started their family, he kept fit by cycling. He died way too young after being hit by a truck while riding his bike along Castlereagh Road.
Back in the main Birdwood Gully Track, I stopped to photograph some fungi.
This was short but very pleasant walk.