I’ve been meaning to do the bushwalk out to Venus Tor for a while – starting from the Mount Hay Road, the route initially follows the well-marked track to Mount Hay, before continuing to Venus Tor.
The first 1.8km is easy walking, as the track ascends towards the top of Mount Hay. Originally called Round Hill – owing to its shape when viewed from the Nepean River – it was later named after Robert William Hay (who was the Under Secretary to the Colonial Office in 1789).
There are increasingly nice views as the track gains altitude, back towards the Mount Hay carpark and across the Grose Valley to Mount Banks.
A bit further along is a view down the Grose Valley, with the Wallford Wall to the left and Edgeworth David Head to the right, with the distance Mount Banks in the distance.
The views abruptly end just a few hundred below the summit, as the track enters thick scrub that covers the top of Mount Hay.
After passing the Mount Hay Trig (it’s not actually a trig, but a large rock cairn near where the trig would have been), the trail descends the northern side of Mount Hay.
A small rock platform seems to be where the trail ends… but a rough trail continues from the right-hand side of the rock, descending to a saddle below Mount Hay. Occasional cairns mark the indistinct trail from here.
You can now see the rocky Venus Tor through the trees to the north-east.
It’s easy to lose the track in a few spots, as it drops steeply down to the saddle between Mount Hay and Venus Tor.
From the saddle, there’s a good view looking back to Mount Hay of the steep terrain, while ahead is Venus Tor with Round Hill Gully below it.
The trail now roughly follows a contour, with the steep cliffs of the Grose Gorge to the west, and the very inhospitable terrain of Round Hill Gully to the east.
The scrub is fairly light, but it’s easier to try and follow the faint trail as it now heads fairly directly towards Venus Tor.
Venus Tor looks pretty formidable from its base, but a convenient ledge provides access to the top of the large rock outcrop.
While Venus Tor is a fairly prominent geographic feature, it was only officially named in 2002 when Geoff Fox submitted the name to the Geographic Names Board (the name being in honour of Marie Byles and Marjorie Shaw, who named the nearby and smaller Venus Beacon Tor in 1905). Paradoxically, Venus Tor is named on most topographic maps, while the much smaller Venus Beacon Tor just below it, is not. I suspect Venus Beacon Tor is in fact the same feature as Venus Tor.
From the top of Venus Tor there are unobstructed views: to the east, looking across the vast Blue Mountains National Park, is Grose Head North and a number of ridges and peaks.
Towards the south-west is Mount Hay, with the Mount Hay Wall forming the southern boundary of the Grose Gorge; on the opposite side is Edgeworth David Head.
From the eastern end of Venus Tor is a view of Boorong Crags – my next destination.
The trail from Venus Tor is even more indistinct., but there is a rough track for most of the way to the Boorong Crags, which makes progress through the thick scrub a bit easier. The first challenge is to find a way down from Venus Tor; a slot on the southern side a slot provides a viable route.
The route drops into a small saddle, before ascending to the top of the Boorong Crags.
Although this small rocky outcrop is marked on the topographic map as Boorong Crags, the long rocky outcrop includes Venur Tor – the highest point of the crags. Myles Dunphy named it after what he claimed was the Aboriginal name for “big rock”: Boorong Crags. Abo. Big Rock. Great residual rocks standing on South rim of Grose canyon one mile north east of Mt. Hay, directly opposite to Mt. Caley. This is a little confusing, as “boorong” means “big rock” only in the language of the Bundjalung, who lived in what is now northeastern NSW and southeast Queensland.
Nomenclature aside, there are more views from the top of the Boorong Crags over the Grose Valley to Mount Banks, and back over Venus Tor and Mount Hay.
I’d considered continuing further – Michael Keats and Brian Fox described a vantage point further along the ridge at GR 619 788 as offering “hypnotic quality and views and views and more views”. But while it didn’t look far on the topo mapo when I was planning the Venus Tor bushwalk, another couple of kilometres of bush-bashing through some fairly thick scrub on a fairly warm day wasn’t very tempting. I (mostly) re-trace my steps from the Boorong Crags, back over Venus Tor.
I make one small detour on the way back, which is a descent into Round Hill Gully to check out the creek. While the creek is dry at the very top of the gully, a short walk downstream takes me to a spot where I can re-fill my water bottle, with a shallow pool just deep enough to cool off.
The scrub is not too thick, and it’s a relatively quick walk back up to join the track.
Despite the steep-ish climb back up to the top of Mount Hay, it’s a fairly easy walk back to the car.
I’m happy I finally got out to Venus Tor, and I’ll no doubt be back as there are lot of possibilities to extend this bushwalk which include continuing along the Mount Hay Range for more views, or descending to Mount Hay Creek and returning via the Hurley Heights Trail.
Getting to Venus Tor
The trailhead for the Venus Tor (and Boorong Crags) bushwalk is from the end of the Mount Hay Road, which is about 16km (30min drive) from Leura. Most of the Mount Hay Road is unsealed, but unless there has been heavy rain it’s suitable for all cars.
More information
- Michael Keats & Brian Fox – The Upper Grose Valley: Bushwalkers Business – Walk 12: Venus Tor and More
- The Bushwalker magazine (Volume 34 / Issue 4 / Spring 2009) – Shining a Light on Venus Beacon covers the issues around the naming of Venus Tor and the Boorong Crags
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