Eurama – Numantia Falls Walk – 19 May 2022

This was an interesting walk with Bob visiting a number of historic ruins and old tracks at Faulconbridge. Neither of us had visited the ruins before.

The history of the old building can be found here and on the Blue Mountains Local History Blog 

For the trip, Bob drove to Faulconbridge and parked at the station. Then we caught a train to Linden, and then walked back down to Martin Place (Linden). We then followed a rough track along the railway line to the old property. The ruins are on private land which extends right down to Numantia Falls. But we found no fences or keep out signs.

The first of the ruins is right next to the railway line. This is Weemala, and dates back to 1877. But it was first called Numantia and was then a weatherboard house.

It was a holiday residence of Sir James Martin, a former Prime Minister of NSW.

From Weemala, you can see another ruin.

Near the second ruin is a more modern structure – a large barn type shed.

The ruin  is a large sandstone building. This is where things get confusing. It dates back to 1880’s and was then called Weemala, but later the name was changed to Eurama. It was a holiday residence of a wealthy businessman, Andrew McCulloch.

Above the entrance, you can see the escutcheon of the McCulloch clan. The family motto should read “Vi Et Animo” (which means “Strength and Courage” or alternatively “with heart and soul”).

The residence was surrounded by a large pond and ornamental gardens. Sign of these are still evident.

Here is the pond – formed by a dam.

An old stone wall –

Path –

Steps –

We carefully checked this large rock platform for Aboriginal engravings.

The only engravings we found were these initials –

And there were some cut grooves to channel water.

There is also this square cut “bath” –

The Eurama property was later sold to J W Cliff in 1899. But not far past the ruin,  we crossed in another property – this time the old Alphington estate of Sir Alfred Stephens.

On one rock that offers a great view, we found four chiselled holes. Perhaps they were for the supports of a seat?

And there are plenty more signs of old paths and tracks. Here there would have been a short set of wooden steps –

We followed an old track down to the creek, which seems to have been later called “Cliffs Gully”.

The track led through a small overhang with an old seat –

Here the track zig zags –

We soon reached the creek.

On the true left of the creek, we found a good benched track. It was overgrown but still easy to follow.

Not far along, we saw a large overhang on the far side.

We crossed over and investigated the cave. It had an old seat and a lot of graffiti.

You can read about the rediscovery of this old track by Jim Smith and Wilf Hilder in a series of articles in Hut News (Blue Mountains Conservation Society). Part 1 and Part 2. Part 2, in an old article,  describes a large cave near the creek used by Sir Alfred Stephens. This would be that cave.

We continued along the track.

Lower down, in places it was harder to follow, but it didn’t take long to reach the top of Numantia Falls.

Numantia Falls are a private waterfall.

We continued on the old track, on the true left side, down to the base of the waterfall. We passed the remains of an old shed.

From the base of the falls, there is a well known track that follows the creek downstream, mostly on the true right and it joins the Victory Track. This track seems to well made to be a “good use” bushwalkers track that developed by the passage of many bushwalkers over the years. The way it climbs along the side of some steep slopes suggests it was once a well constructed track. Perhaps is dates back to the time of Sir Alfred, who was responsible for the track upstream and used by him to visit his neighbour, Sir Henry Parkes’ property? Another possibility was that is was constructed at the same time as the Victory Track was built that links Sir Henry Parkes Track (That would have gone at least as far as Clarinda Falls) to the Sassafras Gully Track. Around 1920.

Anyway, we followed this track to the Victory Track, and then just short of Clarinda Falls, we went up a side creek to Eleanor Falls –

We continued up that side creek to a large sandstone overhang, and then continued to Faulconbridge Station.