Newnes Canyoning

After a prolonged Sydney winter the warmer weather finally arrived and with that the start of canyoning season!

I drove out west to the abandoned oil shale mining town of Newnes, roughly three hours west of Sydney. It was a stunning day, the only road to our destination hemmed in by the towering cliffs of the Wolgan Valley.

After arriving to the Wollemi Nation Park we packed to the our gear bags and started off down the Wolgan River towards the Starlight Canyon. Not long after we veered off from the river and hiked up a steep track via a gully that would take us to the top of the cliff line.

The tracked thinned at times, and route finding was a little bit tricky in the sparse undergrowth. We lost and rejoined the track several times, but passing through an area black with the after effects of a bush fire caused us to lose the trail completely.

We weren't 100% sure the initial abseil point into the canyon, so we decided to hike to the top of the watershed and find the creek at its inception.

The dry sandy riverbed gradually became a small steam, which gave way to a short pools of water as the cliff walls steadily rose around us and a river formed. Not long after we reached the start of the canyon proper, we could hike no further. Ahead lay a 25m vertical descent into a deep, dark and wet cavern.

As I was leading the group it was up to me to abseil down first, then make sure that the following tunnel section was completely accessible! The rappel down was fun, I donned my head torch and squeezed through the constricting walls, over and under debris, and headed into the darkness. A few minutes in I stopped, turned off my torch, held by breath, and was deafened by the absolute silence. Amazing!

I continued further along until I say daylight, then retraced my steps while the group was still waiting above. They joined me at the bottom of the cavern, and we filed back into the tunnel.

Every so often we shut off our lights and peered above, hundreds of glow worms became visible as our eyes grew accustomed to the darkness.

We pushed onwards until the tunnel ended, the canyon walls were still high above us but we could see the sky.

It was a simple matter of following the river downstream, one more abseil down a small waterfall and a few drops and scrambles down among the smooth rocks and boulders.

Late in the day we emerged at the confluence of the Wolgan River, we struggled out of out wetsuits, crossed the river and started the hike back towards camp. The trail passed through the remants of the oil shale mining, coke ovens and mines falling into disrepair.

It was close to dark by the time we found a nice secluded camp site, we started a fire and cracked a few well earned beers, while we waited for the camp-made pizzas to cook. A memorable day out!

More photos here