This overnight trip led by Yuri (with myself, John, Gary and Carlos) heads down to the Colo River from the Culoul Range via an established but rough trail along Boorai Ridge. It returns the following day along a partly exploratory and off-track route up Boorai Creek. There are many Colo River loop bushwalks you can do – this is definitely not one of the easiest, but there are no technical sections, and it starts and finishes at the same place (you could also return via Crawfords Pass).
Down Boorai Ridge Pass
Documented by Brian Corlis in his extensive Colo River: Passes and Routes as Bucks Pass 7, this route starts near the Hollow Rock car park near the end of the Culoul Range Firetrail (Bob Buck was responsible for the naming and mapping many of the original passes to the Colo). While it’s described as starting from the end of an old fire trail, this trail seems to have been become overgrown with time, and for the first couple of hundred metres of our bushwalk we push through the scrub to find the walking track.
We’re soon on the bushwalking track, which follows a long ridge towards the Colo River. Despite the fairly thick scrub, there are some occasional views to the west, towards the Colo River and the fairly wild Wollemi Wilderness.
Although – as you’d expect – the trail descends to the Colo River, there is very little elevation loss for the first 5km. There’s one very short drop over a small bump in the ridgeline after about 2.5km, from which there is an expansive view over the Colo Gorge.
The trail then ascends gently along some small rises along the ridge; along the track we step over a fairly placid Diamond Python. Fully grown adults reach up to four metres in length, with an average of two metres, so this looked like a juvenile.
The trail drops a little before the second lookout, which offers some spectacular views over the Colo River, which is still 300m below us.
We enjoy a short break here, marvelling at the rugged and dissected landscape. The Colo River gorge is one of the largest sandstone canyon systems in Australia, stretching 30km in length and around 300m in depth for much of its length.
The rain has been replaced by sun and the day is warming up, so I’m glad to be going down rather than up. From here the descent gets increasingly steep, as the trail drops 300m down to the river in just over a kilometre.
There’s a few more tantalizing views of the Colo River as we descend.
The descent gets very steep as we near the bottom of the valley.
Between the end of the Boorai Ridge Track and Boorai Creek is a long, wide and very flat platform that makes a perfect campsite. We set-up our tents near the end of Boorai Creek.
It’s taken us about three hours to make the 6.8km descent, and by 1pm we’re ready for our next adventure.
In Search of Barakee Pass
On the opposite side of the Colo River is Barakee Pass (Bucks Pass 8), described as “An excellent pass with some exposure”. We head back up the river past the end of the Boorai Ridge trail, and find a shallow section to cross the Colo. We’re trying to find a way more or less directly up the creek.
A long ledge just above the Colo provides access to the narrow gully.
We’re soon in the deep and narrow gully: a 15m waterfall blocks access up the middle of the gully and to the right (north) are some low cliffs that would require ropes and slightly exposed climbing. But towards the left is a potentially viable route…
We gain some more elevation as we scramble up a break in the cliff line, but we’re only about 80m above the river when we hit a dead end. Just beyond a deep cave is narrow and awkward ledge, which has some significant exposure – but does offer some great views.
I retreat with John back to our camp, spotting an Eastern Long Necked Turtle in making it’s way down the river. (At least I think that’s what it was – it had a long neck…)
Yuri and Gary explore an an alternative route further to the east, and return an hour later having confirmed a viable and non-technical route above the cliff-line (which is consistent with Corlis’ documentation of the Barakee Pass as being “about 200m east of the creek junction”).
The return route via Dooli Creek and Boorai Creek
It’s a long day today with our route being almost completely off-track. Starting fairly early, we’re on our way by 7:30am as we make our way up Dooli Creek (earlier maps label the creek as Boorai Creek, but at some point it became Dooli Creek, which joins Boorai Creek further upstream). It’s unclear where the word Boorai is derived from; it may come from the Aboriginal word meaning ‘baby’ or ‘child’ in the Wurundjeri language – although this tribe was from an area near Melbourne. The name Dooli was also given to the creek in the twentieth century, and has no known relevance in the area.
It’s slow-going up Dooli Creek as we negotiate a route around, over and sometimes through enormous boulders and debris. The creek is completely dry for the first few hundred metres, as it flows underground to re-emerge from the sandstone bedrock in what looks like a spring just above the Colo River.
An impressive strangler fig battles for space with a large boulder, just before Dooli Creek vanishes underground.
There’s a few nice pools and swimming holes as we continue up the fairly rocky creek.
Our first short break is at the junction of Dooli Creek and Boorai Creek, where there is a beautiful rockpool with a small waterfall, framed by tall cliffs. It’s taken us just under an hour to complete the first kilometre.
We now veer left and up Boorai Creek, and progress remains slow – about one kilometre per hour.
Although we mainly follow the middle of the creek, a few times progress is quicker by following the side of the steep valley.
Altough it’s hard-going at times, it’s a picturesque landscape as we pick our way slowly up the creek, stopping to look at a few of the sandstone overhangs that have been sculpted by water and wind.
The gully gradually gets wider and less steep as we progress, but no less rugged as we progress.
After just under four hours (including a few breaks) we’ve covered about three kilometres, and reached one of the exit points, where a route can be found back up to the track along Boorai Ridge. From here progress gets a little quicker, as the gully opens up. There’s some very pleasant and easy stretches along the creek, broken up by enormous boulders or fallen trees that necessitate more scrambling.
More interesting overhangs are found along the creek, with some unusual sandstone formations.
Our speed is now accelerating to a dizzying two kilometres an hour, as we continue along Boorai Creek, stopping to check out more of the caves along the creek. (We would have been even faster without the caves, as it’s very hard to keep Yuri away from tafoni formations!)
After about five kilometres (which has taken us almost exactly five hours), the creek has turned into more of a trickle, and we stop for lunch on a boulder above the creek.
Our exit route is up a spur that we’ll follow back up to Boorai Ridge. There’s no cliffs marked on the map, but we encounter a series of long and quite impressive shelters, that prevent our progress up towards the ridge.
Along one of these long shelters is some interesting Aboriginal rock art, documented by anthropologist Jo McDonald as including red stencilled kangaroo tails, boomerangs, hands and a kangaroo skin bag.
Eventually we find a break in the cliff line and continue our ascent up to the spur, through thick undergrowth. I’m relieved when we reach the “nose” of the spur, which offers a nice view back down towards Boorai Creek, and look forward to a nice and gentle walk back up to the ridge.
Unfortunately, my hope of an easy walk are dashed by the thickest scrub we encounter on this two-day bushwalk. A lovely mix of dense post-fire re-growth, with a liberal sprinkling of lawyer vines and – as I discover a few hours later – an army of leeches ready to pounce as we flounder in the vegetation. (Not sure if leeches actually pounce, and in case you’re wondering the collective term for leeches is probably a clew or a wriggle, as they are a class of segmented worms.)
We finally reach the track along Boorai Ridge, after a relentless two kilometres of pushing through horrible scrub, for the final kilometre back to our cars.
Getting to the Colo River loop via Boorai Ridge trail
The bushwalk starts near the Hollow Rock parking area (which is not signposted) just before the end of the Culoul Range Trail, a firetrail off Putty Road. A 4WD is preferable after rain due to a few very muddy sections, but an SUV will get through. It’s about 12.5km from Putty Road to the start of the walk (allow 30-45min) and 46km (about an hour) from Colo Heights.
More information
- Brian Corlis – Colo River Passes and Routes [PDF]
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