This hike was an out and back section of the Royal Coastal Track in the Royal National Park, passing through the Wedding Cake Rock, Marley Beach, Little Marley Beach, Wattamolla Beach and ultimately, Eagle Rock. The hike took us about 7 hours to complete and the group walked a total of 31 kilometres that day. The day…
Mt Victoria-Mt York & historic roads; Saturday 16th August 2025. The weekend of this walk was the first dry weekend for many weeks, enabling a chance at last to get out in the bush. I’m sure that the international students are wondering what is going on; it’s not “sunny New South wales”, it’s “saturated New South Wales”. And August…
The Six Foot Track, as the name suggests, spans approximately 46 km from Katoomba to Banda Bush Camp in the Blue Mountains. Our group chose to walk a 12 km out-and-back section from Megalong Cemetery to Bowtells Swing Bridge above Cox’s River. Most of the group members met up at Central Station, arriving on time for the 8:55 am train. After a…
Lost World lookout is a relatively unknown unfenced lookout in Springwood with a pretty good view of Glenbrook Creek and even the city skyline. If it were not for its distinctive cross commemorating Rev. Raymer (who died in 1953 not at the lookout but rather in Wollongong), it would be indistinguishable from any other nearby cliff edge. I had…
Afternoon walk: Kamay NP La Perouse, and maybe see Mercury, Fri 4th July 2025 There’s lots of photos for this walk, including 8 by Alice (labelled, thank you Alice), so enjoy. Most of us met up at the “Light Rail” stop next to Central Station for the trip to Kingsford Juniors then bus to La Perouse. Because the…
Brooklyn Area walk (part of Great North Walk) Sunday 8/6/25. Because of the looming exam period, I made this a (mainly) afternoon walk so as not to use up too much of students’ study time; just enough of a break to relieve the stress. So we met up at Hawkesbury River Station at just 5 minutes before midday after a one hour train trip from Central (and 20 minutes for me coming from the north). On arriving…
![The Castle trip [Round 2]](https://www.subw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_7759-1080x675.jpg)
Round 2 of conquering The Castle finally gained success after a failed round 1, where we were unable to recruit a driver. The date was changed to the weekend right before the National Park’s early closure of the summit track. Being the final weekend in 6 months to access this track summoned large groups of bushwalkers, and even a few commercial tour groups. It’s unfortunate…
On the 17th March 2025, an email titled “Sydney Uni Bushwalkers Collab??” was sent to our rivals down south, Melbourne University Mountaineering Club (MUMC). The back and forth that ensued manifested in an awesome 3 day walk through Wilsons Promontory down in Victoria that saw 5 from SUBW and 5 from MUMC head through “the prom” down to the southernmost point of mainland Australia. We each…
Katoomba to Leura via Prince Henry Cliff track. Sunday 4/5 (“May the Fourth be with you!”). The travel arrangements for this walk were different to a “normal” Blue Mountains walk, as trackwork required Blue Mountains trains to start at Blacktown Station. This needed the group to catch suburban trains to Blacktown, with a 20 minute wait for the train to Katoomba. Some people…
For the first time in nearly 12 months, SUBW returned to Kosciuszko NP to spend our midsem break away from the assignments we should be doing and the lectures we should be catching up on. The initial plan was that we would camp at Mt Twynam on night 1, take a side trip to Mt Sentinel on day 2 and camp at Mt Tate that night, before returning to the cars and camp at Island Bend for night 3. Just about…
A 4-day, 3-night road trip around Gariwerd (Grampians) National Park in western Victoria, 3 hours west of Melbourne. Gariwerd is the Aboriginal name of the national park, comprising gar meaning nose, and werd meaning shoulder. The group arrived in Melbourne the day before, spending a day exploring the city or doing some remote work, followed by a pre-trip dinner and dessert run. At roughly…
Freshers Trip is a SUBW tradition enshrined in the constitution. As with the PBT, running the Freshers Trip forms part of the official duties of the committee. The idea is to give new members of the club an introduction into overnight bushwalking so that they can venture into many of the more difficult multiday walks that require previous experience. This particular…
For many many months, bushwalkers have mourned the temporary closure of Ruined Castle. The days of crying ourselves to sleep after viewing the NPWS alerts page are no more. Ruined Castle is back open, and what better way to celebrate than climbing it at sunset? So, from Katoomba station at 11:11am, our party of 11 set off bound for the newly reopened track. We began…
Taronga (Athol Wharf) to Chinamans Beach 15th March (The Ides of March) 2025. This walk replaced one originally planned to go to Patonga near Woy Woy, but changed because of expected hot weather. It turned out to be a wise choice as the temperature on the mostly unshaded track at Patonga reached 33 degrees C in the day. It was…
There is a storied history of nude bushwalking in the SUBW, which is part of a broader tradition in which cultural figures such as Percy Grainger and conservationists like Myles Dunphy were among the best known participants. In recent decades there has been renewed interest in the practice, especially where it involves skinny dipping in wild places. SUBW’s nude…
Helensburgh-Burning Palms-Figure 8-Otford Walk 2/3/2025 This walk had some interesting turnarounds: weather being the opposite of what was forecast, a previously easy track now getting overgrown, leeches spooking some people, and myself forgetting to bring something important. Read on….
My friend from Schofields really misses Kosciuszko and wants a trip there. While he couldn’t make it at the end I’ve found the perfect long weekend with time to get there and back comfortably. It’s when a clinical placement ends and another one starts- back to back with 3 days to stretch. Inside my…
Wondabyne Station is a halt on Mullet Creek on the north side of Hawkesbury River. The tiny platform is only long enough for one carriage so you have to sit in the back carriage and tell the guard you need the extra stop at Wondabyne. There is no other way to get there and apart from bushwalkers the halt seems to exist only for people with water-only access houses on the Hawkesbury. The tiny…
Attendees Abseiling and camping Ashley Burke Olivia Carolan Jag Ganti Han (Vicki) Long Carrie Ke Isla Shen Lin Wang Yuxin (Clara) Liu Danniella Larobina Randi Horstrup Vincent Lai Tim Hanigan Cowen Zhang Jiankang Dong Camping Only Aidan Pollock Eszter Coombs Victor Caxala Qiuyue (Moon) Hu Bill He Yiming Zhao Walked in from Katoomba Sean Armson Vyom Arya Sunil Jassal Turned up Independently Jo Boyd Joe Brischetto Roger Lembit David Noble Robert Hynes Jiri Svec Catherine Svec Cameron and Jayden Svec (children) Mitchell Isaacs Chantal Bronkhorst Trip Report The Christmas Dinner Walk is an annual SUBW tradition dating back to the 1970s. I have…
My hiking trips come at only inopportune times. We were looking at doing some canyoning on Saturday but the threat of lots of rain and thunder had me thinking about a bit of exploratory walking instead. The only real parameters I had for the trip were that it should involve a bit of rough walking somewhere new and that it should incur a bit of suffering. In the…