The Kanning Walk is one of many short bushwalks at the top of Kincumba Reserve; the track visits a large cave, which has some interesting history. The loop walk starts with the Yanina Trail, a wide firetrail, if you’re going in a clockwise direction.
After 400m there’s a large sign pointing out the Kanning Walk track, which is a bushwalking track.
This is the much more interesting part of the bushwalk. The trail passes some majestic angophoras; one of them looks similar to thought to be an Aboriginal birthing tree above the Gosford Glyphs. (Birthing trees. marked a place where women gave birth, mixing the placentas with seed that were buried underneath the trees, thus linking them to the child’s life. Some of these trees were also thought to have been shaped, meaning the branches were bent or twisted.)
The Kanning Walk trail then passes some enormous boulders, as it gets closer to the cave.
Steps or footholds have been carved into the steep rock surface (it is thought) during the 1930s, when A Glasson lived in the cave. These steps provides access to the top of the rock. Near the steps and covered by vegetation are two Aboriginal axe grinding grooves – a unusual juxtaposition of Aboriginal and European use of this bushland.
The cave itself is very deep, and partly protected by a large boulder. Unfortunately, graffiti adorns most of the surfaces, and it’s unknown whether the shelter was also used by Aboriginal people before the Glassons made it their home.
Many axe grinding grooves and Aboriginal engravings in the area around the cave are evidence of Aboriginal occupation.
After the “big cave”, the Kanning Walk passes a few more boulders and rock overhangs…
…before reaching one more cave, which is much smaller than the last: a sign helpfully points out this is NOT the big cave. A series of metal steps then goes up to the top of the cliff line.
Just before the end of the loop, the trail passes an enormous fallen tree, with its root system lying on one side of the track and the trunk on the other.
The Kanning Walk finishes at another locked gate, just near the second parking area on Kincumba mountain.
Ir’s a short walk – but combine it with a few more of the trails and you’ve easily got a half day of interesting bushwalks!
Getting to the Kanning Walk
The Kanning Walk at the top of Kincumba mountain is reached via Island View Drive, which is a partly unsealed road off Kincumber St (Kincumber). There are a couple of carparks at the top, near a toilet block and picnic facilities. Kincumba Reserve is 10km south-east of Gosford (20min drive) and about 90min north of Sydney.
More information on Kincumba Mountain Reserve
The Kincumba Mountain Reserve consists of 700 hectares of bushland between Kincumba and Erina. It’s one of the last remaining remnand bushland reserves within the Sydney-Newcastle coastal area which is managed by a local government body, and one of the largest undisturbed rainforests on the Central Coast. Farming and selective logging have taken place in the past, and some remnant logging tracks and fences are evidence of this.
Now purely used for recreation, there are 18 bushwalking tracks and firetrails in the reserve, including:
- Kanning Walk – easy loop walk passing a historic cave (1km)
- Yanina Trail – firetrail to two lookouts over (3.2km)
- Warriwari Trail – short firetrail to a lookout, which is nice at sunset (1.2km)
- Sid Pulsford Walk – firetrail up the ridge and past a lookout from Green Point to Honeman’s Rock picnic area at the top (8.2km return).
The name of the reserve is derive from the local Aboriginal word “kincumba” meaning “towards the rising sun” or “to tomorrow”. The large open flat areas on the plateau (including Honeman’s Rock or Honeyman’s Rock) would have commanded panoramic views over the region, and were used by the Guringgai people as a meeting place and camp. As the highest open position in the region, Kincumba mountain was the first place to receive the morning sun as it broke over the eastern horizon.
- Central Coast Council – Kincumba Mountain Reserve brochure [PDF]
- Historial Encounters – Kincumber
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