Tragedy on the way to Beloon Pass in the Nattai

I don’t usually begin a trip report with the leader declaring, “This is my worst trip ever”, but this was certainly a memorable bushwalk! Not that any of us knew this yet, as our group of eight bushwalkers reviewed our planned route: down the old Nattai Road from Wattle Ridge to the Nattai River, along the river to a camping spot at the base of Travis Gully and then an assault on the rarely-visited Beloon Trig via Beloon Pass.

Day 1 – Down the old Nattai Road to the Nattai River (16.7km)

Less than a kilometre down the old Nattai Road, now Fire Trail W11E, we encounter our first unanticipated delay: perhaps it’s an omen for the rest of the bushwalk… Lying in the middle of the road is a very dead wombat. Although we are well inside the Nattai National Park on a firetrail closed to vehicles, a gate which is usually locked had been left open. The wombat appeared healthy at first glance, but was clearly beyond rescue, and poking out of mumma wombat’s pouch are two little baby legs. Rachel calls WIRES to rescue the joey; we find out later it was 1.9kg and is doing well.

In case you were wondering, a baby wombat joey stays in the pouch for 6-9 months before starting to come out (when they’ve reached 1 to 1.5 kilograms), and the pouch opens toward the back to stop dirt from filling the pouch when the mother digs tunnels.

In search of a more uplifting sight, Rachel proposes we make a short detour to the top of Point Hill to visit the rather unimaginatively named Point Trig. Unfortunately, all we can spot are two piles of stones, one of which may – or may not – be TS5193 POINT. The last official Survey Control Mark report from January 1979 states “no trace of trig found”.

As a consolation prize, the top of Point Hill does offer a view of Mount Jellore to the south through the tree canopy, and the cliffs above the Nattai Gorge.

We follow the Starlights Trail (the last time I was here was a solo bushwalk to Russells Needle in 2019) back to the main Nattai Road firetrail.

Before the valley was closed in the 1940s for the Sydney water catchment, the Starlights Track and Nattai Road were important stock routes. They provided access to the large pastoral leases that once operated along the Nattai River.

It’s about 7km to where the old Nattai Road deteriorates from a firetrail to a rough bushwalking track, passing an old gate which was installed to keep motorbikes out in the early 1990s (photo credit: Southern Highlands Bushwalkers Inc)

While there is still a distinct trail, it’s a lot different to what the trail was like only twenty years ago; the photo bottom right is from a Southern Highlands Bushwalkers walk in May 2005.

As the trail starts to descend, we reach the first of a couple of minor creeks that cross the old road alignment (this one is completely dry).

The vegetation becomes a little less scrubby and the old road becomes more obvious as it drops through a gap in the cliff-line, with a view over the Nattai River to the imposing High Range. Strewn across the trail is a larger number of boulders. Legend has it that after NPWS had officially closed the old Nattai Road, Jeff Sharer (who owned land at the junction of the Allum and Nattai River) brought in a bulldozer, cleared a previous landslide, and then hid the bulldozer along with an old grader under camouflage netting.

For the first time since leaving Fire Trail W11E at the top of the hill, there is visible evidence of the old Nattai Road down to the river, which zig-zags down the steep side of the ridge.

As the old road reaches the bottom of the valley, it continues above the river. While there are a few clear sections of trail, there are also very indistinct and scrubby sections. It’s much easier-going to abandon the old road aligment and follow the river, as we did on the way back.

Although we had intended to follow the old road all the way to where it meets the Nattai River at the junction of the Allum River, the decision was made to make a beeline down to the river and find a nice spot for lunch. Directly opposite our lunch spot on the Nattai River is Surveyors Crag.

Disaster Along the Nattai River!

Having made it to the river where we enjoyed a short lunch break, there was little enthusiasm to climb back up to the “track”. So we now continued along the river, with our intended camp spot another 8km downstream.

It’s fairly easy walking, with the dense scrub replaced by the wide, open banks of the river.

The “nice” side of the river alternates, so taking the easiest route involves frequent crossings of the Nattai River. Which means wet feet. Except for Bill… with his patented “rapid crossing technique” he makes an entertaining but effective crossing that keeps his feet dry (at least, he claims they stayed dry)!

In the river… above the river… we make good progress for about a kilometre when disaster strikes…

Yulia has slipped in the river and landed awkwardly, the result being a badly broken wrist. Walking out or continuing is not an option. Within a few minutes we’ve triggered an SOS via an inReach device, and less than ten minutes later we’ve got confirmation that our location has been received and help will be on the way… then we waited… Just under two hours after we initiate the call for help we hear the unmistakeable thump-thump of a helicopter making its way into the valley.

As the pilot (Lachlan) expertly keeps the chopper stable just above the trees, Allesandro is winched down to patch up Yulia and get her ready for extraction.

Exactly half an hour later, the helicopter is back, and Alessandro, Yulia and one large backpack are winched up.

Although our intended campsite is still a solid six kilometres down the Nattai River, by the time the helicopter has departed there’s only half an hour before sunset. None of us feel like going walking further. Or setting up camp in the dark. We scout out a nice campsite just above the river, and have our tents set-up while it’s still light. Although pretty much any trace of the old road along the Nattai has long gone, numerous cleared, grassy flats above the river provide a hint of where some of the old farming huts may have been.

There was sufficient space now between the foothills and the river to make the going fairly easy, and occasionally we picked up a pad made by the few “scrubber” cattle who had penetrated this far. As the hills became higher, so the floor of the valley widened, and presently small, fertile flats appeared here and there, first on one bank, then on the other. All of these bore evidence of rabbits, and the rotting of posts on several of them testified to one-time human occupation.

The Nattai River: Tramp Through Echo Valley (1936)

Day 2 – Down the Nattai and up to Beloon Pass via Travis Gully (21.6km)

Our second day is going to be a big one, as we make our way down the river and then up to Beloon Pass, and onto Beloon Trig. As forecast, we wake up to an overcast day and some light rain as we set off down the Nattai River.

It’s easy walking along the river, albeit with frequent crossings ensuring wet feet (**except for Bill).

Imprinted into the sandy banks of the river are many emu prints; the Burragorang and Nattai Valleys are home to what have been described as “Sydney’s last population of emus” (the closest naturally occurring emu population to the Nattai birds are much further inland, near Mudgee in Munghorn Gap Nature Reserve and Goulburn River National Park). They are thought to be relocated animals that were imported by landowners at Yerranderie and Yanderra.

As we get further downstream, the valley opens up and there is expansive sandy bank along the Nattai River.

The low mist lingering below the Nattai cliff lines lends an atmospheric feel to the valley.

All good things must come to an end; the easy walking along the river is rather abruptly replaced by dense scrub as we head up towards Travis Gully and the route to Beloon Pass. (Travis Gully was probably named after James Patrick Travis, who held a special lease (Sp. L. 31-12, portion 161) in the Cumbertine parish.)

We eventually find ourselves in Travis Gully, which after the scrub-bashing feels like a highway… this route between Vineyard Flat (on the Nattai) and the Wollondilly is the key crossing point on the 132km long-distance Katoomba to Mittagong Trail. While construction of the Warragamba Dam from 1948 to 1960 and the catchment exclusion zone would have closed off this historic route between Yerranderie and Mittagong, a narrow “bushwalkers corridor” was negotiated. This “corridor” through Beloon Pass is largely credited to Wilf Hilder, a legendary and famously combative Sydney bushwalker.

Travis Gully starts getting a little more challenging and steeper as we continue, with increasingly large boulders to negotiate. On one of the moss-covered boulders, we lose another bushwalker… Rachel slips and fortunately avoids breaking her nose as she faceplants on the hard rock. While our group doesn’t require a second helicoper rescue, Rachel, Sarah and Ashley decide to return to camp, leaving four of of us to continue up Travis Gully.

Along the steepest part of Travis Gully it takes us almost an hour for 500m of distance, as we look to find a viable route over, under or around the boulders. (At least we don’t have full packs – if you’re traversing Beloon Pass on the Katoomba to Mittagong bushwalk you’ll be carrying a heavy pack!)

Where there is no other option, we climb out of the creek and up the side of the gully to get around a few of the largest boulders, which is never enjoyable – as one trip report warned:

DO NOT LEAVE TRAVIS GULLY. Yes its hand over fist. Yes it’s a total bitch. Yes you’ll cry and beg for mummy. Yes you’ll swear. But it is the only way. You get to a tiny plateau, about the size of half a tennis court… You bushwhack all the way up Travis and then all the way down. Ignore all the happy, smiley people in the log book on the plateau. They are liars. It is awful.

Trip Report: The Robert Sloss Nattai Revenge Tour 2k24

The parkour gets a little less intensive and the boulders a little bit more manageable as we get higher up the gully.

We reach an obvious Y-junction in Travis Creek and veer left, with the walking becoming easy again.

A final bush-bash from the creek gets us, finally, to the top of Wanganderry Walls. It’s taken us 2:45min to cover the 3.5km from the Nattai River to Beloon Pass.

In terms of the effort-to-reward ratio, Beloon Pass is not in the top 10. Not even close. This is not a bushwalk you do for the views, which makes me question again why we’re here…

From Beloon Pass you can see the Wollondilly River, and beyond it the distinctive Yerranderie Peak and the Blackall Range.

The original reason we are here is to “bag” Mount Beloon and Beloon Trig – but it’s already almost 1pm, and the trig is about a kilometre through what is likely unforgiving terrain. (From the LIDAR map, the shortest and quickest route to Beloon Trig from the Nattai River side is probably up the right “fork” of Travis Creek – although a couple of minor cliffs lines need to be negotiated – rather than going north along Wanganderry Walls from Beloon Pass.)

We collectively agree this is as far as we’ll go – Beloon Trig is for another day – as we have lunch and sign the Beloon Pass log book (and recognise many names of bushwalkers who have traversed the pass on their way to or from Mittagong).

The trip back down Travis Gully from Beloon Pass is a little easier than the way up, mainly as we know what to expect – but is still very slow going.

Instead of taking the most direct line back to the Nattai River, we follow Travis Creek all the way to the where it meets the river – which is the best route. It’s very easy walking along the rocky creekbed for the last kilometre.

Once back at the Nattai, we spend a bit of time searching (to no avail) for the old “Beloon Pass” sign, which seems to have succumbed to bushfire. The route to Beloon Pass once started on an old firetrail from Vineyard Flat and “‘The turnoff to Beloon Pass was well marked” (David Noble, 2011) – there is no longer any evidence of these forestry roads.

The weather has improved for our return trek up the Nattai River, with Sharp Peak and Buckland Wall to the east glowing in the late afternoon sunlight.

Despite our tired (and wet!) feet, it’s pleasant walking as we criss-cross the river back to our camp site.

Back up the Nattai River to Wattle Ridge (15.1km)

Our last day is wet – as forecast – and we walk back out the same way we came in – the alternative exit route being a longer walk up the river to Emmetts Flat and then up Slott Way or the Starlights Trail. The only difference is that we avoid the old Nattai Road for as long as we can, walking along the river and then up the rocky side creek to avoid the scrub.

It’s been quite an eventful bushwalk but very enjoyable despite the drama – and Rachel has already planned a return trip this time from the Yerranderie side to hopefully “bag” the elusive and rarely-visited Beloon Trig!

More information

• The Sydney Morning Herald – The Nattai River: Tramp Through Echo Valley (9 May 1936)
• Reddit – Trip Report: The Robert Sloss Nattai Revenge Tour 2k24
• David Noble – Mittagong to Katoomba Walk – 3 – 9 July 2011