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 feels 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.
Brooke regales us with a song.
Just around the corner the deep channel is filled with light
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.
Just a hint of what’s to come
A young eastern brown snake. Pseudonnaja (meaning “Fake cobra”) Textilis ( meaning “scales like my wife’s stockings”).
And soon the walls close in futher and all light is lost
Well not all light.
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.
It’s just the way we do it.
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
The forecast was for rain, lots of it topped by severe storms…
Gaz had been keen to do Starlight canyon and I suggested the MTB/canyon combo rather than the full loop. If the tunnel was dry we’d get all the way up to the waterfall. And if it was not abseiling in from the top is not the best idea anyway.
Anyhoo. Dawn came sunny and warm and we crossed the Wolgan and pedalled our way down the management trail.
Even with a detour through the ruins the bikes turned an hour long walk into a 20min ride.
There always seems to be a handy tree to help crossing the Wolgan
Almost immediately we ran into this little beauty
She was a bit of a poser and almost seemed disappointed when we took the cameras away
Morelia Spilota Spilota
Diamond Python
Entering the Amazing Wallaby Tunnel
The light was pretty special today
There was a big colony of bats above us, as evident by the poo floating on the water
This use to be our go to winter trip before realising the impact to the Bats. The tunnel is an important hibernation cave for bent wing bats so the canyon is now officially off limits over the winter months.
I’ve done this one quite a few times and while I’ve heard tales of people be caught out by high water levels personally I’ve never had water over ankle deep before
The layer of batshit wasn’t the most pleasant part of the trip
Just before the little climb up/down in the tunnel the water became too deep/cold for us to continue today so we turned back early
Sitting on the halfway ledge enjoying the sun and a bite to eat when around that corner deep down the valley came a plane flying right at us…
Banking hard left to make the turn up the valley.
These guys did a few laps, some of the were so low it seemed we we looking down on them.
And then as it was only early and the predicted storm was still a few hours away we followed the cliff line around for a look up Devils Pinch
The better way to do this combo would be to abseil down Devils Pinch and then reverse up Starlight.
You can only get a few hundred meters up the bottom before you a blocked by a waterfall but it is a spectacular section.
Once again more water in here than usual and after a coupe of cold wades and tight canyon sections we were startled by a gawdaweful rachet and something dashing past us into the next pool.
A young lyrebird… Not sure if it fell in or was nested here and got trapped by the rising waters after a wet couple of weeks but it was was panicked and trying to swim and not doing very well.
Producing a small hand towel Mckenzie and Jodie caught it as genitally as they could and carried it back out past the deeper pools to release it at the lower end of the canyon.
For a bird renown for mimicking the best sounds they sure produce horrible pitches when they are scared.
Party size: 4 (3 experienced I beginner)
Time: 6.5hrs relaxed pace bit of photophaffing
“There is a hidden message in every waterfall. It says, if you are flexible, falling will not hurt you!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan
Most people do Newnes ( or Starlight) Canyon as a round trip, climbing up the pipeline trail, working their way around the ridges and abseiling in. And don’t get me wrong that’s a great way of doing it but there is a lot to be said about doing it as an up and back from the bottom.
The canyon is off limits over winter as it is an important hybernation cave for bentwing bats and disturbing them during their sleepy time invariable leads to a percentage of them dying as there is no food around food them to replenish the energy it takes to come out of hybernation.
Anyhoo, I had planned to do this earlier in the year on the last weekend before the closure except in the week leading up NPs put out a notice that they were hazard reduction burning and all the canyons in the area were closed…….
Fast forward to the other end of hybernation season and we were good to go.
The plan was to ride down the maintenance trail from the locked gate, stash the bikes then make up way up to the cliffline and into the canyon.
I’ve done it this way several times and have always been able to get all the way up to the bottom of the abseil point (the top of the canyon) no dramas. However, last summer people were reporting deep swims in the tunnel and while that is normal after heavy rain the fact that the water hung around post rain had me thinking maybe something in the floor or blockage had changed.
Not tha I was too worried about long swims after the dry winter we’ve had but the thought of a deep wade through stagnant, bat shit filled water wasn’t that inviting. I needn’t have worried as the tunnel was as dry as a nun’s nasty.
But I get ahead of myself
While bikes arn’t necessary they do turn an hour long fire trail walk either way into the 20min ride and the ride down was uneventful, almost. Tina had a small off at the bottom of a loose down hill on a sandy corner and hurt her elbow. As a mad trail runner that didn’t bother her. a sore elbow would not stop her from running so no worries. We hide the bikes in the thick scrub and head across the river which is about as low as I’ve ever seen it.
A bridge over the wolgan
Up the hill we went taking a bit more of a meandering route than I usually take which made the climb up fairly simple, then we took in the views down the Wolgan from the base of the upper cliff before working our way around into the canyon.
Looking down the magnificant Wolgan Valley
Entering into the lower canyon is like entering another world. The micro climate is completely different to the scrub out on the exposed hill side
This is magical, Flynny, says Sav as we make our way up through ferns, coachwoods and vines so big that at first you think you are stepping over a fallen tree, only to realise its a living vine.
I smile to myself, this is just the appetiser and I think that is the reason I like doing the reverse trip of Newnes Canyon. The starlight section is so awesome that when you come through it from the top you are in such awe of the top section that you kind of over look how spectacular this bottom section is.
There are a few scrambling sections but everytime you would otherwise be blocked tree roots and vines have grown into the perfect pass up.
And then, just as you are thinking the walls are petering out and the canyon is about to open out the upper cliffs encroach and suddenly the canyon closes in
A lovely narrow section of canyon follows and again people remark how awesome it is. But again I know it gets better
Autal in the long section of deep, narrow canyon
Tina with head torch on as the walls get higher and the canyon gets darker
The canyon breifly opens out and what was dry, bare and sandy suddenly becomes damp, lush and green
Tina in the green section
And then we reach the Amazing Wallaby tunnel, better known as the Starlight section, high up the walls close in so much, become so twisted, and are jammed with chock stones that it forms a high narrow tunnel.
Autal and Rob entering the tunnel
I feel on previous trips the glowworms were far more abundant, maybe that has to do with the dry winter, maybe it’s just the time of year as I think it’s around mating season for the flies, maybe it’s just modern headlights are so bright now you don’t notice the worms unless you tuen them off and give your eyes a few minutes to adjust, or maybe the bats had a wormy feast when they awoke
After 300m or so of tight twisting tunnel the roof opens back up and just around the corner is the waterfall that is the normal absiel in point.
I have known people to absiel in here but be blocked by deep water in the tunnel so they had to prusik back out and abseil in further down. I also know of at least 1 group who pulled their ropes without checking the tunnel was passable and were forced to spend a couple of days huddled here waiting for rescue…. When absieling in the first person need check all the way through the tunnel before getting others to absiel or pulling ropes.
And after taking time to enjoy just being there we leave Ed and TJ to get about photo phaffing with their good cameras and the rest of us make our way back down
Autal in a narrow squeeze admiring the bats far above
Autal in the green section
We have a bit of lunch and then explore up a side canyon called Upside Down canyon.
Bottom section of Upside Down Canyon.
The bottom section of Upside Down involves some tricky climbs up through small holes. I made the first look far harder than it was mainly as I forgot had the go pro on a chest mount and had to do some contortioning so as not to scracth the crap out of it.
Rob squeezing up through one of the holes. It’s about 7foot straight down, if you squint you can make out Tina down below him
Rob in Upside Down canyon
Our path was blocked by this small waterfall
I remeber the water fall from previous visits and started bridging up, the walls were a tad slippery, I had no doubt we could get everyone up, what I did doubt thou was getting people back down safely without ropes… I’m sure there use to be a log or something here to make the down climb simpler.
Anyhoo despite knowing the top section has some pretty bits I decide it’s not worth the risk today so we turned tail and headed back down.
Ed and TJ are still phaffing so we sit back and just take in the surrounds
Honey comb walls. we sat and watched the bird dart in an out of pockets and holes
Supurb Lyrebird on the wing
Then it was time to head on out
I’d noticed this massive vine knotted around the base of the tree on the way up and was hopeing to catch it in the right light on the way back down. The light did not disappoint. Another advantage of doing the canyon as an up and back the changing light can be magical
And before long we are back at the Wolgan river
The ride back up the valley is a bit more difficult than the ride down but for a mountain biker it’s still better than trudging along a fire trail.
Party size: 7 mixed canyoning experience levels but all experienced outdoors
Timing: 6hr 20 with lots of photo phaffing and chilling out
People talk about their comfort zone as though it’s a place they want to stay don’t they realise your comfort zone is the most dangerous place to be
