The highlight of this Mount Irvine bushwalk is not Tesselate Hill itself, but the interesting Tesselated Pavements which is just below this peak, as well as some great views from the ridge that continues to the north-east. It’s a fairly long drive to the start of this walk, which is at the very end of Mount Irvine Road – it feels a long way from civilisation, before the bushwalk even starts. (A couple of decades ago, the steep and winding Bowens Creek Road offered an alternate route to Bilpin… it has fallen into complete disrepair, leaving just one road in and out of Mount Irvine.)
The bushwalk to Tesselate Hill starts as a rough road that continues from the end of Mount Irvine Road, servicing a couple of rural properties. There are a couple of unlocked gates, and a sign confirming that you’re going the right way.
The road passes a house on one side, and a large open field on the other, which is part of the Irvineholme estate – the first landholding and property in Mount Irvine.
In 1897 three young friends, Harold Morley, Charles Scrivener and Basil Knight-Brown—all fellow students at Hawkesbury Agricultural College—became the first settlers at Mt Irvine. On 1st July that year they applied successfully to the Government Land Board for approximately 1000 acres on Mt Irvine. Over the years until 1950 Harold Morley wrote a number of very entertaining and informative accounts of these early settlers’ experiences clearing their land, starting farming and building houses for themselves and their families.
The Story of Irvineholme, Mt Wilson & Mt Irvine Historical Society
The firetrail soon enters the Wollemi National Park, reaching a junction with the Mount Irvine East Trail on the right. The road now turns into a bushwalking track which continues to Tesselate Hill.
Despite reports of the trail being overgrown, it’s a pretty distinct track that goes all the way to the Tesselated Pavements along the ridgeline.
After reaching a tall overhang, the trail ascends to a nice vantage point looking back towards Mount Irvine, and soon after reaches the top of Tesselate Hill (795m asl) – the highest point of the walk. Not that you would really know other than looking at the topo map – there is no obvious peak or summit.
From the lofty heights of Tesselate Hill, the track descends to the Tesselated Pavement. It’s an enormous area of tessellated rock, with deep grooves in the rock from natural weathering processes creating a mosaic-like pattern. (It’s one of the largest area of tessellated sandstone I’ve seen around Sydney; along Shark Rock Ridge in Sydney’s north is a similar but slightly smaller area like this.)
There are some nice views from the Tesselated Pavements over the Wollangambe River (to the east) and Bowens Creek valley (to the west).
The Tesselated Pavements is also an Aboriginal site; evidence of the Dharug and Gundungara people meeting here include an engraving of a woman, and many grinding grooves.
It’s about a 6km return bushwalk to the Tesselated Pavements, but I’ve got plenty of time to continue along the ridge – my destination being a little unnamed hill marked on the map just with its spot height of 734m. First stop is another rock platform just below the Tesselated Pavements, which offers a few more nice views.
There’s no trail from here, but it’s fairly easy walking along the ridge with not too much undergrowth. The only challenge is that along the top of the ridge is a series of boulders or rock outcrops. Some you can just scramble over, as you follow the very top of the ridgeline…
…while others, well, you’ll want to skirt around the base to avoid a serious climb (in almost all cases going to the left, or western, side works best.
Just before the ascent to Hill 734, the ridge reaches its narrowest point, and on the eastern side a rock ledge perched above the top of a cliff provides a great vantage point.
Below is Bowen Creek which has cut a deep gorge through the landscape, and further to the east is Mount Tootie, and the cleared area that is part of the Itchenstoke cattle grazing property.
It’s a fairly easy “climb” up to the Unnamed Hill, which sits at the end of the ridge.
There is a small rock platform near the top of the hill, and a small pile of rocks marks the summit (there was never a trig point or official summit marker here). There are some nice views to the east and west, with a steep drop to the Wollangambe River on one side, and Bowen Creek on the other. To the north there is a slightly less steep drop to a saddle.
I head back the same way: with a bit more time it would possible to descend to the Wollangambe River, but that involves a fairly steep 300m descent, and finding a route through the cliff line above the river. It’s a fairly quick trip back along the ridge, albeit with a couple of slight navigational errors. The enormous rock outcrop which I veered around on the way out is less obvious on the way back, and I end up peering down to where I need to be… the upside is there are some great views from the top of this monolith.
The entire bushwalk is about 12km return; about twice the distance of visiting just the Tesselated Pavements (which is the highlight of the walk).
Getting to the Tesselated Pavements
If the Tesselated Pavements was a little closer to Sydney, it would no doubt get a lot more visitors… the start of the trail at the very end of Mount Irvine Road is 20km (25min) from Bells Line of Road, and 74km (1:15min) from Richmond. There is very limited parking along the shoulder of Mount Irvine Road, just before the “Road Ends Ahead” sign; I have read that you can continue by car through the closed but unlocked gate at the end of the road.
More information
- Mount Wilson & Mount Irvine – The Tesselated Pavements at Mt Irvine [PDF]
- Mt Wilson & Mt Irvine Historical Society – The Story of Irvineholme, September 2010 [PDF]
- Mt Wilson & Mt Irvine Historical Society – Harold Morley’s Story of Irvineholme, February 2013 [PDF]
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