It was the day I normally head off up the mountains for a bushwalk with Bob. But very wet weather was forecast, and due to a very nasty accident in the mountains a few days before, much of the Blue Mountains National Park was closed. A landslide had killed two visiting bushwalkers who were walking along a track below. Landslides can happen all the time, but I am sure they are much more likely after long wet periods when the ground is saturated – making cliffs and boulders a lot less stable. So we decided that another local waterfall walk would be a better activity.
Tipperary Falls
It turned out to be a very wet day, with lots of the tracks underwater and grassy fields sodden. But at least it meant the waterfalls would be flowing nicely. We started off at Boronia Park, on the Lane Cove River near Hunters Hill. At the park, we first visited Tipperary Falls.
This waterfall lies on Brickmakers Creek, a short distance in the park. On the way down to the falls we passed the Geoff Grace Wetland. I used to know a bushwalker called Geoff Grace who lived at Hunters Hill. We did some walks together with the National Parks Association. I later found that the Hunters Hill Council named the wetland after him as a tribute for his community service when he died around 2001.
You can get good views of the Tipperary Falls from above or below.
There are supposed to be Aboriginal sharpening grooves on rocks below the waterfall, but the water level was far too high to even consider looking for them.
We next walked down to the foreshore.
This took us to the Great North Walk track which we followed upstream, along the foreshore. There was no bridge over Brickmakers Creek and we had to wade across.
Along the way, we were on the lookout for Aboriginal engravings, occupation caves and cave art. We did check out a number of caves, and in one we found an old couch and other rubbish.
The small cave below had a massive midden out the front of it.
Further along there is a causeway covered in mangroves that extends a fair way out in the Lane Cove River. It covers the Northside Storage Tunnel – a sewage pipe that eventually goes to the North Head outflow.
A bit past this is a nice perched sandstone boulder.
After passing a saltmarsh observation platform and some boardwalks, we left the Great North Walk track and followed a track to Park Road and walked back to Bob’s car.
In the suburban area, we saw this Red Triangle Slug on the top of a gutter. It was obviously enjoying the rain.
Back at Boronia Park, near the entrance, we spot this old horse trough. According to this History Blog –
It is a Bills horse trough , one of many watering troughs that were manufactured in Australia and installed at various locations for the relief of working horses in the first half of the twentieth century. They were funded from a special trust set up by George Bills and his wife Annie
By the time we got back to Bob’s car, it was time for lunch. It was still raining heavily, so we walked to a nearby park and had lunch under the shelter of the grandstand.
After lunch, we decided to head to Gore Creek at Greenwich and see Lilly Pilly Falls. On the way we visited Longueville and stopped at an Aboriginal engraving site.
Here we saw two engravings. The one below is an Emu –
And the second shows a fish type figure.
Our last place we visited was Lilly Pilly Falls on Gore Creek at Greenwich. The waterfall is very close to River Road, but to park a car, it is best to park at the end of Fleming Street and walk down a track to the creek.
I had visited these falls before, but they were not as impressive as now.
A huge amount of water was flowing over the falls.
We then walked down the track to the Bob Campbell Oval and the foreshore. On the way we passed this side creek –
I think we had made the most of a very wet day. A fair section of South West Sydney was flooded.