04/04/2026

Gadget, Brooke, Wisie, Jess and meeeeeee

Some of my earliest memories are of 4wding and camping with my dad in the Wolgan Valley.

The valley has a Genius loci.

A sense of place.

An allure.

It’s history of occupation, both Aboriginal and European, hangs in the air and hides in the undergrowth.

It’s special.

I remember times when it was less known, camping far down the river on unexpected flats.

I remember the hight of popularity when you had to get there early (On the Thursday or even Wednesday prior) to get a good spot on a long weekend.

And I remember more recent trips, where the restricted access returned a feeling of being almost alone in the valley.

So when an old footy mate offered to let me camp on his block of land hidden deep up a gully rarely travelled by the masses I jumped at the chance.

It’s Easter weekend, we wont be alone in the valley. Many campers were utelising Thomas’s shuttle, cabins and camp facitlities at Newnes Cabins. A few more walked in and set up in the NP camp ground (Why they still require bookings and charge fees when it’s walk in only is beyond me).

The road up to our campsite was rough and overgrown in parts but passable. The old hut was no longer there, another casualty of the Gospers Mountain fires, but the block itself every bit as beautiful as always.

We could have been a million miles from anyone, anywhere, and anywhen.

We are up and on the trail early. The pass up via the Pipeline trail is straightforward and Kylie leads us out along the ridge top that separate Newnes from Glen Davis. There’s a good trail for much of the way but as we near the top of Devils pinch creek we veer off, taking a short cut over a knoll and down into the creek.

H leads us down the creek to the first drop, there’s nothing really indicating the deep chasm to come.

We bypass the first few scrambling drops, favouring the longer drop off the ledge to the right.

I set the rope and Kylie leads the way in.

I’d forgotten how spectacular the top section of Devils Pinch is.

Gagdet remarks it’s second to Crikey in feel of depth and narrowness.

The second abseil comes straightway and has a very tricky start but Gadget is on anchor duty and guides us down no dramas.

The canyon walls open out and we make our way down to the lower constriction.

Some scrambling and careful bridging keeps us out of the manky water, mostly.

And soon we come to the 20m abseil into the drier lower hallway.

As the canyon opens out we pause for lunch, then dump our canyon gear and make our way along the base of the cliff for a couple of hundred meters to the bottom of Starlight Canyon.

While worth doing on it’s own from the top I think combining it with Devils Pinch in this way makes it a great day out.

We reverse up the canyon, there’s a couple of scrambles but nothing overly tricky, unless you decide to try an alternative squeeze up a chute rather than the easy climb up and along the tree roots like I did…

The bottom of Starlight is like a hidden world and you half expect triceratops to be grazing on the fernery.

And then the canyon closes in.

I get the camera gear out and send the others ahead.

Your description of a tunnel section severely under sold this. They say when the meet up halfway through as they were coming back down. “Cavern” would be more appropriate.

Over head bats chittered and fluttered.

But we need to head back to the light.

We follow the cliffs back around to the bags then make our way down to the river and back to camp.

“Because when you stop and look around, this life is pretty amazing.” — Dr. Seuss

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