Located below Mount Banks along the Explorers Range, Banks Wall is the highest cliff face in the Blue Mountains. It stretches about 4km from Banks Gully on the western side to David Crevasse on the eastern side. There are multiple vantage points from along the top of the escarpment; Banks Wall lookout is at the end of the Mount Banks Trail, just before David Crevasse.
It’s an informal and unfenced lookout with no signage, which provides sweeping views over the Grose Valley from both a small outrop at the top of the ridge, and a rock platform along the edge of the cliff.
Looking up the Grose Valley to the north-west is Rigby Hill and the Birrabang Walls on one side of the Grose; on the opposite side you can make out the distinctive-lookin.g Hanging Rock and Burramoko Head, and beyond that Asgard Head.
To the south you can see the Govetts Creek as its snakes down Govett Gorge, with Bridal Veil waterfall at Govetts Leap and Hayward Gully Falls plunging over the escarpment.
Just next to the lookout is David Crevasse, a deep fissure in the Explorers Wall; it was named by Myles Dunphy after geologist and Antarctic Explorer Sir Tannat William Edgeworth David.
It’s an easy and fairly gentle bushwalk – or mountain-bike ride – with sunrise and sunset offering the most dramatic views.
Getting to Banks Wall
Banks Wall is reached via the Mount Banks One Trail, a cycling and bushwalking trail which traverses the eastern side of Mount Banks and then follows Explorers Ridge to the end of Banks Wall. (You can also combine this firetrail with a walking track up and over the the Mount Banks Summit.)
The trail starts at the end of Mount Banks Road, an unsealed road off the Bells Line of Road which is 49km (45min drive) from Richmond and 29km (25min) from Lithgow.
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