This was a pleasant walk in the Mt Alexandra Reserve near Mittagong. I was walking with Bob. I hadn’t been on this walk before, but Bob had quite a few years earlier. The walk is described in the National Parks Association’s book “Bushwalks in the Sydney Region, Volume 2“. A pamphlet available at the Southern Highlands Visitors Centre at Mittagong describes two parts of the walk. You can download it here.
After getting copies of the pamphlet at Mittagong, we continued on in Bob’s car to Welby and soon found the start – a large carpark and picnic area.
We set off along the track, past a dam and across creek to what was clearly an old railway formation. We continued on through cuttings and along embankments. Easy walking.
Coal had been discovered in the Nattai Gorge in the 1850’s and in the 1880’s attempts wee made to extract it. A standard gauge railway was constructed along a 6 km route to above the mine.
The mine only operated for about ten years, then the rails, sleepers and other material was removed.
Near to the mine site, the track passes through a nice tunnel.
Not far past this is aside track to a lookout giving great views.
In the far distance you can see Mt Cloudmaker.
Walking back towards the tunnel, there is a large flat area where the hauling mechanism for an inclined railway would have been located.
Our route took us down the steep incline. A metal cable is in place to assist. The inline goes down about 160 metres vertically at an angle of around 45°.
This took us down to a basalt floored side creek, and it was a short walk from there to the Nattai River.
Now the going became a bit rougher. The track along the river is well marked and easy to follow for the most part. It starts with crossing of the river on boulders.
Signs of floods are apparent as you walk upstream.
At one spot the track passes under a natural arch.
The there is another crossing on larger boulders.
We then crossed two siege creeks, the second of which is the one with Forty Foot Falls. At this creek we reached another track that goes upstream further towards Mittagong. We followed this track in the other direction and soon arrived at the base of Forty Foot Falls.
This is an impressive waterfall.
We had lunch on an open rock slab at the base of the falls.
The track from here on is much better. We climbed up a ladder to the base of the falls.
it was now possible, and well worthwhile walking down to cave behind the waterfall.
Than back, and some more climbing to the top of the falls.
From there it was easy walking along a track and fire road back to the Box-Vale Track and then back to Bob’s car.
This had been an interesting walk with nice historic features and great scenery.