Text and photosRoger Treagus

Rocky Ponds - looking upstream from final waterfall

Long distance walking tracks around Sydney include the Great North Walk to Newcastle and the recently opened Great West Walk towards the Blue Mountains. Another obvious route is the Great River Walk following the course of Sydney’s major river, the Hawkesbury from source to mouth, a distance of 475km.

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Crossing the Blue Mountains ridges

It is an obvious addition to the long distance track network near Sydney. It traverses two World Heritage areas, cuts through a 40km-long gorge and then follows the longest and most scenic estuary on the Australian East Coast. The entire route passes nine national parks.

The route starts near Crookwell at the source of the Wollondilly, the river system’s longest tributary. The river initially flows across the Southern Tablelands, through Goulburn and then starts cutting into the plateau at Canyonleigh where the spectacular gorge begins.

The Wollondilly then reaches Lake Burragorang, a major source of Sydney’s drinking water and an area off limits to walkers. The Great River Walk diverts around the catchment area by following the ridges of the World Heritage Blue Mountains National Park through the old ghost town of Yerranderie and then north to the Coxs River, a climb onto the Blue Mountains plateau and

Katoomba. Skirting the cliff tops facing the world-famous views of the Three Sisters and the Jamison Valley, the route follows trails through an area called the Blue Labyrinth and back to the river now named the Nepean close to the City of Penrith.

Following the river downstream, the route passes the historic Ebenezer Church, the Tizzana Winery near Sackville and the ferry at Lower Portland. The route then heads along Bicentenary Road to Wisemans Ferry, then follows the World Heritage convict-built Old Great North Road through Dharug National Park, with Simpsons Track, the first road to the Central Coast, bringing the route to Mangrove Creek and back to the Hawkesbury

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Lower Hawkesbury panorama

River near Spencer. The terrain gets rougher as the coast is approached, with trackless sections to cross in Popran National Park. Using local ferry connections, Brooklyn is passed and then tracks in Brisbane Waters National Parks lead to Patonga and the ferry to Palm Beach. A final push then takes the route up the hill on Barrenjoey Headland to the lighthouse at the very mouth of Broken Bay.

This walk presents a great challenge and traverses a very diverse range of country. First proposed in 1999, a team of bushwalkers

from the Sydney Bush Walkers club set out to walk the entire distance, to prove it was a viable walking route. Starting from the source of the Wollondilly, the walk took over 4 years to complete as each stage was attempted as a separate walk for a weekend each month or so Most stages were walked but two stages were kayaked, and one stage began by flying into a remote airport in a chartered aircraft.

The main feature of this long distance track is of course the river itself. It has amazing geography. It almost surrounds Sydney, with sources on some tributaries only 3km from the coast but blocked from flowing directly to the sea by coastal mountains. Most rivers will come off high ground to a coastal plain and flow directly into the sea. Not the Hawkesbury. It starts on a high tableland and flows onto a coastal plain but then heads back into the mountains. It does this not just once, not just twice but three times.

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As the river surrounds Sydney, a city of 5 million people, you would expect many crossings of the river for Sydney to gain road and rail access to the outside world. But to the north, where lies the Central Coast, Newcastle, Queensland and the tropics, in 120km of river there is just one road crossing (with two bridges) and one rail crossing. To make up for the lack of bridges there are in fact 4 car ferries.

The Great River Walk provides access to some of the oldest European farming ground in Australia, around Richmond and also along the Macdonald River and Mangrove Creek.

The Aboriginal nations whose land the river flows through include the Gandangara people in the south and the Dharug people in the north. They call the river the Deerubbin. Their cultural legacy is rich with rock art and engravings etched into the Hawkesbury sandstone adorning hundreds of sites across this land.

Lower Portland to Oystershell Bridge

The complete walk is still to be established but the first big stage is planned to open later this year. It is a 47km section along the river’s estuary. It was the easiest section to open first as it traversed only public land, i.e., three local government jurisdictions plus a national park and used existing fire trails and tracks. It can be walked in 2 to 3 days either way with camping and accommodation facilities plus a township and a number of toilet and water points.

Each end of the stage is accessible by private vehicle but Wisemans Ferry can be accessed by public transport, with 3 buses a day from Richmond, which is on the train line from Sydney.

At the time of opening a website and app will be available to guide navigation and provide more information about the country, the history and facilities en route.

Wisemans Ferry punt landing

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