Sydney's Great West Walk - the walking (parts 1, 2, & 3)

The bushwalking club has now done the first three of the four stages of the Great West Walk that I'd been surveying.

Here we are, setting out from Parramatta.

Toongabbie Creek

Western Sydney Parklands

Nurragingy Reserve and some unexpected visitors

A big kangaroo in Lucy Cobcroft Park, Mt Druitt
















Below: a Western Sydney special: last night's burnt-out stolen car, still smelling all sweet and rubbery!

 (Some photos courtesy of Leah Taylor)

Sydney's Great West Walk - the surveying

The Great West Walk is a recently inaugurated track across Western Sydney, linking Parramatta and Penrith. It joins various parks, creekside tracks and bushland reserves, though there's plenty of street walking involved too.

It's 65km long, and I decided to explore it and put it onto my bushwalking club's programme. I divided it into four stages, each around 14 to 20km long:

1. Parramatta station to Seven Hills station
2. Seven Hills station to Rooty Hill station
3. Rooty Hill station to Ropes Crossing shopping centre
4. Ropes Crossing shopping centre to Penrith station

During stage 2, you get to see the northern bit of the Western Sydney Parklands.


My surveying trips were mostly done last month. It was very dry, rather hot, and bushfire smoke was in the air. I felt a bit unsafe in some of the parkland areas. I made a point of being aware always of which way to run, should a fire break out nearby. And the fact that I was usually the only one out and about, and I was alone in abandoned shopping trolley central, didn't exactly help. I came through unscathed though! 

One of many bright spots:  Rooty Hill station, with one of the finest rows of Crepe Myrtle trees (aka Pride of India).

Here's Whalan Reserve, home to a majestic collection of  high voltage transmission towers. Thought there might be a few dog walkers, joggers, cyclists etc. But no. They don't seem to do much of that round here.

Ropes Crossing was a pleasant surprise. Ponds and creek, tasteful housing, and a rather nice little shopping strip.

Then there's Wianamatta Regional Park. This used to be an Australian Defence Industries site. It's largely unspoilt Cumberland Plain bushland, and a nice place to be walking through. But here too, I was absolutely the only person there. A bit spooky.

To the west of Wianamatta is another brand new suburb: Jordan Springs. Again, quite promising, with creeks and ponds, and a central lake.

Eventually I hit the Nepean River at Penrith, and was welcomed by friendly fairy wrens and historic bridges.

Stormy weather swallows ocean pool

The drought, the heatwave, the fires, and the big winds have been and gone. It was rather a nice day today. Perfect temperature, blue sky, ideal for that trip to North Narrabeen and a dip in Sydney's best ocean pool.

But it's not to be. Recent stormy weather is still showing wreaking havoc along the east coast. So no swimming in the ocean pool today.




I wasn't the only photographer who was enjoying the dramatic views This chap had to keep running for cover as enormous waves broke around him.

Tree down, power gone - stormy weather once again

Drought, flood, big winds, in that order. So down came a whole lot of trees once again. Some of them right on top of power lines once again.

So we were without power for 48 hours early this week, along with more than 100,000 others. Some are still without power after five days.

Stop press: Ten minutes after posting this the power went off again. No wind today. It's very dark, and I'm not impressed.

Droughts and flooding rains

It was almost inevitable that our worst ever drought, hottest ever heatwave, and worst ever bushfires, would be followed by one of the wettest ever downpour events. That's what happened last weekend. My rain gauge recorded 250mm, the highest for any three or four day period in its lifetime, and some areas in the Blue Mountains recorded over 500mm.





Remembering the minor flood we experienced a few years ago during a lesser rain event, I did a bit of quick civil engineering outside, and hastily constructed a drainage channel to steer the water safely down the side of the house and out towards the street.




Dorothea Mackeller famously wrote about her love of her sunburnt country, a land of droughts and flooding rains. Several of our shockingly ignorant, coal-loving politicians having been quoting Dorothea Mackeller a lot lately, implying that climate change has nothing to do with our current climatic extremes. They're no longer managing to convince many though.

Aboard the James Craig

On Australia Day I found myself aboard the good ship James Craig, and had a little ride around the Harbour. It was my first time on this fine old sailing ship. It's an iron-hulled barque, built in the UK in 1874, and it carted freight around the world many times until it was abandoned and sunk off the coast of Tasmania. In recent times it got lovingly rebuilt, and it's now operated (equally lovingly, I observed) by the Sydney Heritage Fleet.

I'd invited myself on board to say hello to my old friend Liam, who happens to be the third mate. Half way through the trip, he got promoted to driver, or whatever that is in correct nautical terminology. It looked like a rather demanding role, and consisted of running around the back end and peering over the edges, trying to see what's ahead. He was in radio contact with people at the front (fortunately), with the chap operating the engines, and with the drivers of the various ferries that were scuttling backwards and forwards around us.



















Bringing the thing in to the wharf at Darling Harbour seemed particularly challenging.And there were the tugboats too to coordinate then.

Here's a tug shadowing us as we pass Barangaroo and the nearly-finished Crown Casino thing.

They weren't using the sails this time, but they'd used them earlier, and they were still being furled up as we started out. Looks like a labour-intensive operation, and there are 21 of them.

Lilli Pilli 2229

I explored Lilli Pilli the other day for the first time. I've probably only become aware of the suburb because of its connections to our dearly beloved current Prime Minister. (A year ago I labelled him our very temporary Prime Minister, but I'm afraid he's still there.) Anyway, he lives in a very pleasant little area, in the Sutherland Shire, on the northern banks of Port Hacking.

Scotty from Marketing isn't doing a great job of looking after Australia's environment, but I liked what Sutherland Shire Council was doing to prevent tree vandalism along the foreshore. Like in other waterfront locations, trees often mysteriously get poisoned in attempts to preserve somebody's water views and property values. Local  councils have taken to replanting them, imposing massive fines, and erecting big signs to shame the likely perpetrators. (Click to enlarge photos.)

I had a very pleasant little swim in the Lilli Pilli ocean pool. Had it all to myself. Luxury!