The weather in Sydney recently has beeb quite wet, and it is nice to try and find a gap in the rain to spend some time outdoors. For a while, I had been wanting to head back to Long Reef on the Northern Beaches to see the migratory birds before they leave, and also the local raptors.
Ruddy Turnstone
The forecast for the afternoon looked a fair bit better than the morning forecast, and the tide was lowest around 2 pm, so I caught a bus to Collaroy and walked out to Long Reef. Continue reading
Wet weather was forecast , but not as wet as the previous few days, so I caught an early train to Faulconbridge, and was soon walking down the Victory Track. The water in the creek was nice and high – which would help me get a few photos of waterfalls.
Eleanor Falls
A few posts back, I had spent some of the wet weather stuck indoors working on a project researching the history of Sassafras Gully at Springwood. One question I had not answered was where were Eleanor Falls? I had thought I had found their likely location – in Parkes Gully, and higher up in the creek than Clarinda Falls. But that spot only fit if you assumed the creekbed had moved. That assumption was reasonable given that the only information we have on the falls was an old postcard. Continue reading
With continued wet weather, it has been difficult to get outside. But after seeing a break on the weather radar I decided on a late afternoon short excursion to nearby Sydney Park. The ponds at the park were very full and the one at the Island Pond was full of vegetation growing on the water. The lower large pond had fair bit of this too.
I wandered around with my camera. I first looked for the resident Tawny Frogmouths – but had no luck spotting them. So I headed to the ponds. Continue reading
I was heading up the mountains with Bob and what was forecast to be a wet day. So we had dismissed any ideas for canyoning and then considered some other options. We decided to first visit Murphys Glen in Blue Mountains National Park at Woodford.
This turned out to be a very interesting place to visit. I had been there several times when I as a child, but Bob had never been there. We decided to walk in via the Turpentine Track which leaves the fire road just about the rim of Murphys Glen – which is a diatreme (volcanic crater). Continue reading
This is a work in progress. Last revision 6 February 2024.
I grew up at Springwood and as a child was a frequent visitor along the tracks in Sassafras Gully, and also learnt to swim on family bushwalks to the large pool where Sassafras Gully meets Glenbrook Creek – which was named “The Lagoon” on early maps. Since then, I have visited the area on a regular basis, with a particular interest in the fungi that is found there. Also, on these bushwalks I have wandered along some old tracks and thought about when they were made.
It has been interesting looking at old maps and searching old newspaper articles and guidebooks that are online at Trove. I expect to update these notes if I find errors or more information. Any new information from readers will be greatly appreciated.
Aboriginal History
There are signs of a rich history of Aboriginal occupation in the main valleys and the smaller side creeks, and on the ridges above. This includes cave art, rock engravings, occupation shelters, stone tools, and sharpening grooves.
Here are some sharpening grooves high up in a tributary creekbed.
And in another creekbed –
Here is come charcoal cave art, in small shelter cave in one of the main creeks –
These engravings are in a tributary creekbed, high up. The first is a kangaroo.
This one appears to be a large snake –
This engraving, probably a kangaroo, is on a large rock platform on a ridge above the creeks –
And some stone tools found in occupation caves –
These rocks are not local to the area and have clearly been imported. Their edges have been worked.
William Dawes
According to this post on the Blue Mountains Local Studies blog, by John Merriman, the first European to visit Sassafras Gully was William Dawes, on his attempt to get to “Round Mountain” (Mt Hay) in 1789. Continue reading
I was planning on going further afield but a rail lockout meant no trans were running, so I decided to use a bus to go to Bexley North and then walk down the Two Valley Trail along Wolli Ck and then keep following up the Cook River.
Early on, Illoura was quite a good place for small birds. Here’re some – Continue reading
This was a nice day out with Valerie and Sue. We decided to head to Royal National Park and walked down Lady Carrington Drive to Bola Creek and then look for fungi as well as keeping our eyes open for birds and orchids.
We had a very interesting trip. The fungi was not that abundant although we did find some interesting species. Continue reading
More local birds. I was originally intending to go further away – eg to Oatley Park, but there was trackwork effecting the railway line to Hurstville, so I decided to use bus transport and stay closer to home.
My first bus took me to Tempe where I visited the Tempe Wetlands and then Tempe Reserve. The wetlands were fairly quiet. These photos were taken in Tempe Reserve – Continue reading
I decided to make another visit to Birdwood Gully at Springwood to see how the fungi was going.
However I left out an important item of equipment – the camera and macro lens I use to take my fungi photos. I did have the camera and telephoto lens I use for birds photos and I had to make use of that for the fungi photos. This was less than ideal. I did not have plate to mount the camera on my tripod and then minimum focussing distance was around 1.6 metres. So most fungi photos were taken hand held at a high ISO and some taken wit the camera resting on a log or stone. Continue reading
It was time for another canyoning trip with Bob. Last week we had visited Claustral Canyon. This week, we decided to visit the Tourist Section of Wollangambe Canyon. That would allow us to check out the syphon that had killed a few people and had resulted in the canyon being closed for a fair while. We could also wander up Water Dragon Canyon – and that would allow me to take some photos. On an earlier trip to that canyon, I had forgotten to take a memory card for my camera!
So we set off from Mt Wilson on a hot day. On the way down we passed a group of track workers building a new track down to the canyon. The new track work started at the Blue Mountains National Park boundary which is fair way down the track, where the basalt ends. Continue reading
