Blue Mountains Bushwalking Club. The Greater Blue Mountains National Park- Blue Mountains National Park- Coleraine Rock to Cleary Memorial Lookout, Kings Tableland - Monday 9th March

2020- Track Notes

The party at Sunset Rock. Left to right, Emma, Rob, David, Michael, Brian, Keith, Jen, Yidan, John A, John F, and Harold. Photo: Emanuel Conomos.

Title The Colraine Rock to Cleary Memorial Lookout, Wentworth FallsDate Monday 9 March 2020Leader Brian FoxMaps etc Department of Lands, topographic map, 1:25,000, Jamison 8930-2N

Third edition, GPS setting WGS 84.Walk description and route

Half day walk, some scrubby areas or alternate easy track. Explore the exposed cliff top sections between these two lookouts.

Star rating and Membership qualifying status

3MX

Gear issues First aid kit, 2 litres of water, electrolytes, GPS PLB, Appropriate head and footwear

Numbers Max 12, 9 places left Meeting point 0830 at the junction of Tableland Road and Kedumba Valley Road

(where the old hospital is located). Just over 4km along Tableland Road from the Great Western Highway, Wentworth Falls.

Transport Club Cars Close of Bookings

Contact leader

Enquiries Brian Fox brianandelaine@aapt.net.au

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The Party

Brian Fox, leader, Michael Keats, Emanuel Conomos, Yidan Saladine, Harold Thompson, David Sanderson, John Anderson, Rob Hanly, Emma Hanly, John Fox, Jen Buick and Keith Maxwell. 12.

Plot of the walk overlaid on a topographic map. Recorded and prepared by Harold Thompson.

The Weather

A mainly overcast day with a tendency to light rain on occasions. Temperature range 12 to 19 degrees, Excellent walking conditions

Local Place Names

Colraine (Coleraine?) Rock is a rock jutting out over the top of the cliff line on Kedumba Walls, 220m south east of Sunset Rock Lookout, Kings Tableland.

Accessed via Tableland Road and Kedumba Valley Road, Wentworth Falls. This old name is so precisely and beautifully inscribed on a rock face overlooking the Jamison Valley that it may have been executed by a stone mason. Date uncertain, possibly c.1910. Ref: Coleraine Visitor Information Centre, United Kingdom records, “Coleraine means Ferny Nook or Corner. Maybe it could have been etched by someone originally from here.” J 566 608.

A compass point on the rock face, usually has the north point as the arrow head. But in this case, it is the west point which shows the arrow head. Now if you check the position of Colraine Rock on the Jamison Topo Map you will see that exactly due West you have the

rock formation, Ruined Castle

Left. Coleraine Castle in Ireland

So Ruined Castle to the

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engraver (and it may well be A. W.) was a reminder to him of the ruined Coleraine Castle in Ireland.

Coleraine Castle was a castle, a ruin since 1228, situated at Coleraine, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

The Annals of Ulster reports that the Earl of Atholl, Thomas fitz Roland, built the castle in 1214 It was later destroyed by Hugh de Lacy and the King of Tír Eoghain, Aodh Méith Ó Néill, as evidenced by the same source in 1223.

The Colraine Rock engraving. Note the compass pointer left of the word Colraine and the initials “AW” lower left hand side. Photo: Emanuel Conomos.

Colraine Rock compass pointer. The pointer is a direct line of sight to Ruined Castle. Photo: Emanuel Conomos.

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Track Notes

While we were waiting outside the old Queen Victoria Sanatorium for the last of the party to arrive, the conversation ultimately drifted towards the sprawling pile of decaying buildings that have remained shuttered for decades.

It all started in 1890 with an initiative by Kelao King. Briefly the former Queen Victoria Sanatorium is a large complex of buildings in an otherwise isolated location on Kings Tableland beyond the main residential development.

At the centre of the group is the original Kelso King country retreat (now known as the Central Block), which pre-dates the main hospital complex. This is a well-preserved single-storey late Victorian house facing east. The roof is hipped, originally with an internal valley which has been roofed over with a low pitched hipped roof. A bullnose verandah wraps around the front and sides of the house. The roof is of corrugated steel and the walls are clad with rusticated weatherboards. The verandah is supported on cast iron columns. A timber balustrade with a simple cross braced pattern has been added to the verandah. The house is approached by sandstone steps. The front door of the house is set in a doorcase with arched sidelights and a toplight. French windows are located to either side of the door.

Repurposing the place faces many challenges including asbestos, remoteness, susceptibility to fire, restricted access to name but a few. Meanwhile as each year passes the structures are decaying and are vermin infested.

At 0835 we bundled into three vehicles and relocated them on the access track to Sunset Rock, GR 567 611. From this spot it was a short walk to the escarpment and Sunset RockGR 567 610 (continued p.10)

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The commanding view from Colraine Rock west across the Kedumba / Jamison.Valley. Ruined Castle is just out of the picture on the RHS. Photo: Brian Fox.

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Cleary Memorial Lookout2 is at the top of Kedumba Pass, Kings Tableland, Wentworth Falls. Access is via Kedumba Valley Road, 1.7km below the locked water board (Sydney Water) gate and then 50m side track on the valley side. This lookout is a memorial to Ken Cleary, who lost his life aged 21, in a rock fall below this point while constructing a road down this pass on the 16 November 1953. Ken Cleary and his father Dan Cleary (1898-1970) constructed this road into Kedumba Valley, in which they had their farm. The lookout includes a memorial cairn and well-constructed steps leading to a platform with waist high stone wall. The memorial includes a section of a bulldozer track with plaque at its end, reading, “D6 Track used to build this road.” The view of Kedumba Valley is now obscured, but below on bend in the road extensive views are obtained. Ref: Subsequent to Brian Fox’s visit to site on 19 November 1999, it was named and placed by Brian Fox on the Jamison topographic map, 1:25000, 3rd edition, printed 2000. J 572 588.

Leaving the Cleary Memorial. Photo: Brian Fox.

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Plaque, Cleary Memorial. Photo: Emanuel Conomos.

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Part of a D6 Track repurposed as a memorial to Ken Cleary who lost his life building the Kedumba Valley Road. Photo: Brian Fox.

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Eucalyptus cunninghamii, a rare Eucalypt that led to the discovery of Colraine Rock. Photo Brian Fox

Sunset Rock. A dramatic picture taken at another time by Emanuel Conomos

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One of many still standing poles that formed the telephone service to properties in the Kedumba Valley. Photo: Brian Fox.

Sunset Rock is full of surprises including a rather dramatic overhang and a tunnel system. It also provides a great view over the Kedumba /Jamison Valley complex. Time was spent here viewing Mount Solitary from a different perspective and noting the vertical drop of Point Repulse, the Eastern Col and of more importance to our next location, the alignment to Ruined Castle.

We left Sunset Rock at 0855 and made our way south along the Kedumba Valley Road to a point where we were about opposite the recorded location of Colraine Rock. Our journey was interrupted by a raucous screaming by a flock of Glossy Black Cockatoos. Brian with his 42x optical lens was able to capture a good image of a male eating seeds of a Hakea sp. On the walk out to Sunset Rock we had seen Hakea seeds on the ground which had been broken in half by the powerful beaks of these birds. The seeds defy all human effort to crack without a hammer.

At 0915 we left the road and began scrambling upwards through old forest which had not been burned for decades. We arrived at Colraine Rock at 0924, GR 566 608. It is a tiny location, perhaps 1.5m x 1.5m. At most two could visit per time. While waiting for may turn it was a good opportunity to address some of the puzzles which surround this place. First, the

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spelling. What is neatly carved into the rock is the word Colranie. If it is related to the location in Ireland, then it should be Coleraine. Was it a spelling error because the person who carved the name was not well educated? or was it a contraction of two names Collin and Lorraine? Or was it something private that only the creator understood/ we will never know

The telephone line was constructed at minimum cost. A great variety of insulators was used. Photo: Emanuel Conomos.

The next question in my mind was who was the creator? Was it the man behind the initials, “AW”, or is that just a coincidence? Was this man a patient at the Queen Victoria Sanatorium? or was he a workman at the same establishment? Or, was he a local with time on his hands? Again, our questions are unlikely to ever be answered.

The next mystery is the direction arrow which points to Ruined Castle. It is usual practice and convention to always have direction arrows pointing North. This one points west. Does this strengthen the theory that there is a connection between Colraine Rock above Kedumba Valley and the ruined castle of similar name in Ireland?

We leave it to the reader to decide what the answers should be. All theories are welcome. Now it was my turn to visit the rock. It is a very special place. The workman would have to be very careful. He would also need to be quite athletic either riding a horse from Wentworth Falls with his gear or walking from the Sanatorium or even travelling up from Sydney by train.

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I was just coming out of my reverie when I heard Brian explaining how Colraine Rock came to our notice. It was through the work of a Botanist, David Colby in 2018, who was searching for the rare Eucalypt species E. Cunningahmi. It just so happened that Colby was searching along the cliff edge when he found a specimen of what he was after and noticed the rock carving. Ultimately Colby contacted with Brian Fox.

At 0945 we left the site and made our way further south along Kedumba Road towards the locked gate. Now the NPWS and/or the RFS had conducted a controlled burn along the eastern side of the Kedumba Road to protect the Kedumba Valley and houses further east. This action mean that we had the opportunity to look for artefacts along the road as we walked. We were not disappointed and at 0954 the remains of the original telephone service from Wentworth Falls down to the original farms in Kedumba Valley were revealed, GR 569 608. I was familiar with the section of the telephone service that went down the very steep Goat Track1 having walked it several times,

Three more poles and insulators were found before the locked gate. Further south of the gate, another 8 sites were recorded.

Male Glossy Black Cockatoo, Calyptorhynchus lathami. Photo: Brian Fox

1 Goat Track. This steep track followed the spur line towards the Kedumba River and was an original track into the valley. It is also the alignment of a much later telephone service, evidence of which can still be found in the form of wires and insulators. J 572 587.

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All the above took time and it was 1105, GR 572 581 before we reached the track head for the Cleary memorial. Five minutes later at the memorial, GR 572 588 we stopped to reflect on the role this family played in opening up the Kedumba Valley where several families wrestled nature to make a living

Michael tests out the edge of Sunset Rock. Photo: Brian Fox

A history of one family farm is set out below,

“Maxwell’s Slab Hut” Kedumba Valley Restoration & Re-use overview A Blue Mountains Community and NPWS initiative The upper Kedumba Valley within Blue Mountains National Park was first settled in the 1860s. Itinerate cattleman from the Burragorang Valley took up partially improved bush holdings, moving stock in and out of the valley for the first 30 years. These holdings were sufficiently “improved and demonstrated permanent occupancy” that in 1889 the government surveyor granted title to William Maxwell. William Maxwell was the son of two transported Irish convicts. Williams’s father, Thomas Maxwell was charged with counterfeiting and transported in 1823. Williams’s mother, Elizabeth Osbourne, transported 1831 for steeling woollen yarn.

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Three generations of the Maxwell family lived and farmed the Kedumba Valley from 1860 – 1992. During this period of Maxwell family occupation, they constructed five timber slab huts and a number of utility buildings. One of these huts, the one pictured above, built in 1925 is still standing. In 2001 a report into the huts heritage value and structural condition was commissioned. This report identified the hut as having state significance and possibly national significance, it also specified that urgent stabilisation work was required to halt the huts deterioration. These works were completed in 2004. In 2015 a report into huts condition and possible re-use was commissioned. This report recommended that the best way to preserve the hut, was to fully restore the hut to the condition and function as per the huts use in 1925. The adaptive re-use being identified as accommodation for “back country walkers”

Kedumba slab Hut precinct is an outstanding symbol of pastoral life in a place close to but profoundly remote from the main settlements of the Blue Mountains for most of the 20th century. We left the Cleary Memorial at 1120 and returned to the vehicles at 1151. To finish off the walk we adjourned to Lincoln’s Rock for lunch. Total distance walked 6.91km.

Michael KeatsBushexplorers10th March 2020

UBMBWC Colraine Rock 090320 – Track Notes

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Negotiable horizontal tunnel under Sunset Rock. Photo: Brian Fox.

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