Gundungura and Nelly’s Glen Maps

Posted on November 16, 2017 by Dave Noble

In an earlier post I indicted that the Gundungura Guide book could be downloaded from my website. Now, from the same page, you can download copies of the Gundungura Sketch Map.

This map was produced by members of Sydney University Rover Crew in 1961 and published in 1962. There were subsequently 4 editions of the map. Thanks to Dr Geoff Ford, former SURC member and the initiator of the Gundungura Project for making scanned copies of of the map available for the first three editions. Continue reading →

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Balls Head – 6 Nov 2017

Posted on November 16, 2017 by Dave Noble

This was supposed to be a photographic storm chasing trip to Balls Head. But, by the time I got there, the storm had passed over. However, I still enjoyed a nice walk around the headland.

I travelled by train to Waverton and walked the short distance from the station to the headland. At the nursery near the Coal Loader is a large Aboriginal engraving of a whale in the sandstone. It is worth looking for. Continue reading →

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Birds at the Cooks River and Barton Park – 5 November 2017

Posted on November 16, 2017 by Dave Noble

This was supposed to be a bushcare day at Barrenjoey, but it was called off due to rain. Later in the day, the rain had eased off a lot, so I rode my bike down to the Cooks River to see what birdlife was out.

I started up the river at the Boat Harbour and spent some time watching the Pelicans. Continue reading →

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Cooks River Birds – 3 November 2017

Posted on November 14, 2017 by Dave Noble

I spent a very pleasant day on the Cooks River observing and photographing the birdlife between roughly Cup and Saucer Creek and the Alexandria Canal. I cycled between sites on the cycleway.

Cattle Egret

I started at the Dog Area near Canterbury and looked for the tawny Frogmouth family – no luck in finding them. Perhaps the sound are now old enough for them to range further away from their nesting area? I then went to The Cup and Saucer Creek Wetlands. There were quite a few baby Moorhens – Continue reading →

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Woronora River Walk – 2 November 2017

Posted on November 14, 2017 by Dave Noble

This was a pleasant and interesting walk largely in Heathcote National Park with Digi Dave. Digi wanted to visit Kingdom Come on the Woronora River and he suggested we start from Waterfall, and that way we could visit an interesting Aboriginal rock engraving site that he knew about.

We set off along a fire road and soon turned off and followed a very faint track through scrub to a nice rock platform. Here we found several large rock engravings, a few smaller ones and many sets of axe sharpening grooves. This was quite an amazing site. Continue reading →

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Vale – Graham Wootton

Posted on November 6, 2017 by Dave Noble

I was recently sad to hear about the passing of a fellow bushwalker – Graham Wootton. In some ways, Graham’s early days in bushwalking paralleled my own. He was a foundation member of my old bushwalking club – The Springwood Bushwalking Club, and also like me, joined SUBW – Sydney University Bushwalkers. And after finishing university, he also, like me, joined the Kameruka Bushwalking Club. But in all of these, he was a few years ahead of me, and I didn’t meet him until the late 1970’s after he had moved to Tasmania.

Graham Wootton – Photo by Cecilia Wootton

It was at a Kameruka Bushwalking Club meeting that I first met Graham. He was on a short visit from Tasmania and at the meeting showed some of his very beautiful slides of Tasmania. What stood out to me were his slides of Fagus – the native Deciduous Beech and also their location – The Traveller Range. This was a revelation to me and I made up my mind to go to the Traveller Range and also experience Autumn in Tasmania and see for myself the beautiful leaves of Fagus as they change colour. I think I achieved both objectives a few years later in the early 1980’s. Continue reading →

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Birds at Bicentennial Park and the Foreshore Walk to Cabarita – 1 November 2017

Posted on November 6, 2017 by Dave Noble

I spent a very enjoyable walk, partly spent at Bicentennial Park at Homebush Bay photographing birds and then finished off with a walk from there to Rhodes and along the Foreshore Path to Cabarita.

Welcome Swallow

I started by catching a train to Concord West and then walking the short way into the park. I then strolled along some of the tracks in the park. I first went of a dirt path I had not noticed before that runs along the east side of Powells Creek. I soon came to a large pod full of birds – Spoonbills, Ibis and Cormorants. Later in the day, I returned to this pool -and there were no birds at all. Perhaps it is where many spend the night? Continue reading →

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Nature Along Wolli Creek – 31 October 2017

Posted on November 6, 2017 by Dave Noble

It was time for another walk along the Two Valleys Track at Wolli Creek. I started at Bexley North and walked down to Turrella. Along the way I encounter a reasonable amount of Nature. Not that many birds – it was perhaps too hot and I was walking in the middle of the day.

Little Wattlebird

Here is some of what I saw –  Continue reading →

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Gundungura Guide – Now Online

Posted on November 5, 2017 by Dave Noble

When I was starting bushwalking one of my treasured possessions was a small guidebook – The Gundungura Guide. It was produced after a lot of research by members of SURC – Sydney University Rover Crew. This guidebook covered a large part of the Southern Blue Mountains – in particular the area between Kanangra Walls and the Wollondilly River including Yerranderie and the Kowmung River.

At first I used this guide for its notes on the Kanangra Canyons and walking routes to the Kowmung River. Later, I appreciated it more for its background material – in particular the notes on geology and geomorphology. The principal author of the guide was Athol Abrahams, who later went on to a career as a distinguished academic geographer in the United States. Continue reading →

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Colo River Walk 28 – 29 October 2017

Posted on November 4, 2017 by Dave Noble

Wendy had organised a walk for the weekend. Martin, Steffy and myself were keen to join her. Now all we had to do was to work out where to go. Steffy had suggested a walk along the lower part of the Colo River and that sounded nice.

We started from Mountain Lagoon. Some of the party (all except Wendy) had visited the first part of the walk a few years ago. On that occasion we had walked from Mountain Lagoon along Mailes Ridge to Colo-Meroo campground and returned the same way the next day. This time we intended to walk in via the same route to Colo Meroo, and then walk up the Colo River, camp part way along, and then next day keep going to the junction with Tootie Creek where we would climb out and walk back to the car via the T3 Track. Continue reading →

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