I was able to attend the 90th Anniversary of Blue Gum Forest being saved. For bushwalkers and many others, Blue Gum Forest is a very special place. It is not only a magnificent natural forest, deep in the heart of the Grose Valley in the Blue Mountains, but it is also the cradle for the wilderness conservation movement in NSW.
Ten years ago, I attended the 80th Anniversary and I wrote about some of the history on that blog post. Then I had walked in with another bushwalker from SUBW. We had started from Mt Victoria and walked along the Grose Valley to reach the forest and join the celebration. Then we had walked out to Blackheath via the track along Govetts Creek. Sadly, due to fire and flood damage, both of those tracks are not open now, so that limited options for a longer walk in or out. I therefore decided to travel up to Leura on Friday, about lunchtime and then walk out the Mt Hay Road, and then along the Lockleys Pylon Track. I would then camp on the Pylon and walk down to the forest early Saturday morning.
This plan worked out well, except for the weather. Cold, wet and windy weather was forecast, and I anxiously watched the weather radar before setting out. Conditions looked reasonable. The weather was cool when I got off the train at Leura, but at least it was not raining. It takes about 2 hours to walk out to the Lockleys Pylon turn off, and the walk was not too bad. It takes about one hour to reach the gate, and then the road is a lot more interesting in terms of wild flowers and views.
Then it took about another 40 minutes to walk to to Lockleys Pylon along a pretty good track.
Along this track, the weather started looking a bit more ominous. Dark clouds were approaching.
I made it to Lockleys Pylon just before rain hit. I quickly located a small camp cave that I had used on previous walks. It was sheltered in most directions except the south. Unfortunately that was where the weather was coming from. At first it was calm. but when it became dark the wind picked up and blew into the cave. And rain blew into the cave. Fortunately there was enough room for me to set up my small tarp inside the cave.
On Saturday morning, it was still raining lightly and also windy and cold. Too windy to light my stove, so I had a quick cold breakfast, and packed up. Then I set off for the track down to Blue Gum Forest. I think the temperature was about 2°C not including a wind chill factor.
As soon as I was off the plateau, conditions were a lot more pleasant.
It didn’t take long to reach the junction of Govetts Creek and the Grose River.
I crossed Govetts Creek on a big log and proceeded into Blue Gum. At the Big Tree I met Kitani and some others, who were setting up to welcome people. The campsite was going to be The Meadow, with is upstream on the east side of Govetts Creek. Before heading that way, I dumped my pack and headed into Blue Gum Forest for some photos.
I was surprised to still see a lot of Incense Bush. It is a native species that appears after bushfires, but it typically only lasts a season.
It was good to walk into the forest and experience the magnificent trees. Most of them are Mountain Blue Gums – Eucalyptus deanei. It was also relatively warm and calm into the shelter of the forest.
I think the marks in the tree below are bit marks made by gliders to feed on sap from the tree. I didn’t see too many marks like this on other trees, unlike what I have seen on visits before the bushfires.
After my forest pilgrimage, I made my way to The Meadow. I was the first to set up my shelter, but was soon followed by many others.
A bit before. 2pm. we all crossed back over Govetts Creek and headed into the forest for the celebration ceremony.
This was held on the banks of the Grose River – at a beautiful spot that faced the parcel of land that was bought by bushwalkers in 1932 to stop it being logged.
Over 50 bushwalkers assembled here.
Palona was in charge to introduce the speakers –
And an Eastern Yellow Robin attended –
The first speaker was Geoff Rigby, one of the sons of Alan Rigby, one of the original bushwalkers who was at the forest 90 years before. It is due to the concerns and vision of bushwalkers like Alan Rigby that we still can enjoy the forest.
Next was bushwalking historian Andy Macqueen who spoke about the history, and how the forest was saved. He mentioned that the first European explored to look down on the from Mt Banks, George Caley, reported seeing Aboriginal fires down below where the forest is. Blue Gum Forest has a very long history.
Next was ecologist Wyn Jones, who spoke about the effects of fire and flood and his concern about the long terms future of the forest.
After the ceremony, I stayed around to take a few more photos.
I then joined the party back at The Meadow. Despite some showers, we had a very pleasant evening around a camp fire. Stories and poems were shared – as well as a special cake.
On Sunday morning, I headed out fairly early to take advantage of lift to Blackheath (and then Katoomba) offered by Keith. We made good progress up to Perrys Lookdown and noticed it got much colder and very breezy the higher we climbed. We then stopped off at a cafe at Blackheath for a warm coffee. Many thanks to Keith for the lift. And also special thanks to the organisers – the “Friends of Blue Gum Forest” and the National Parks and Wildlife Service for making this special vent possible.