The restored Blue Mountains National Pass trail is a trek through history and nature.
The National Pass, a 6km trail that winds through the Blue Mountains National Park near Wentworth Falls, some 90 minutes’ drive west of Sydney, became one of the most famous walks in the region after it was hacked, smashed and dynamited into the cliffs overlooking the lush Jamison Valley between 1906 and ’07. It fell into disrepair and was closed in 2002 when decreed unsafe. However, its restoration has been as spectacular as the landscape it traverses, winning a National Trust of Australia award last year and a prestigious UNESCO Asia-Pacific Award of Distinction for Culture Heritage Conservation.
The project cost $1.5m and took five years and more than 1000 sandstone blocks salvaged from old road culverts, churches, houses – even the old GPO building in Sydney’s Martin Place – to complete. A standard sandstone step, says Scottish master track-builder Colin Delap, weighs 115kg-120kg. The steps were flown in by helicopter and then rolled, dragged or winched by hand into position.
Ranger Ben Correy, who managed the restoration project for the Department of Environment and Climate Change NSW, says that the challenges came from working in extreme terrain, from the walk’s spectacularly steep Grand Stairway, next to Wentworth Falls, to a stretch of track that runs along a ledge halfway up a 200m-high cliff, passing several waterfalls, through pockets of rainforest and under hanging swamps. The biggest challenge for the builders was protecting the track from water damage. “The wet places on the track are where it deteriorated the most and that’s where we focused our attention,” says Correy. The sandstone blocks, though, were used to keep walkers away from the saturated parts of the track, such as those near the waterfalls and swamps.
Sandstone was also used to create one of the region’s longest stepping-stone pathways, a spiral staircase created for a difficult part of the track. “This section is where the clay stone ledge ends, very abruptly,” Delap says. “The solution was to extend the ledge by rebuilding a stone wall that people could use as a ramp to get down. The spiral staircase just encapsulates the majesty of this amazing area. It is in this location that we decided to build a monument to the efforts of the original track builders.”
The stairs lead to a spot beside the falls where sandstone has been wedged between boulders, creating a virtually indestructible creek crossing, replacing the old timber bridges often washed away when the falls were in flood. “It’s based on the clapper bridges of England’s Lake District,” says Delap. “When it floods now, the main volume of water goes over the top and because it’s low-profile, the water’s broken up by the bedrock around it.”
A Scotsman employing an English bridge-building technique to overcome the destructive power of an antipodean waterfall? Perhaps it isn’t that surprising, considering the track passes close to locations such as Den Fenella Creek and Britannia Falls.
It’s not only the sandstone that has been salvaged from other sites. Tallow wood has been recovered from some of Sydney’s old wharves and used to create staircases and short timber bridges. Old pieces of railway line once used as fence posts now provide support on the track. It’s not all second-hand, though: sturdy new camouflage-green fencing replaces the chicken wire of old.
Delap carefully handpicked his track workers, with the small margins for error in mind. “This is not a job for everybody,” he said during the building. “This is not landscaping. You’ve got to have a love of the mountains. Winters here on this job are insanely hard. The biggest group we have is eight, down to a hardcore crew of four people. You can’t have any more than four on a work site because it’s too dangerous. It’s just too narrow.”
But a work environment could hardly be more beautiful. The team has moved on to other projects, but they are aware they have created a destination to be enjoyed by future generations. Says Delap, “Every time you laid a stone, you knew it would be there for hundreds of years. You knew your work would be seen and judged by millions of people. It was totally rewarding.”
The National Pass Track begins at the Valley of the Waters, Wentworth Falls. The complete walk is about 6km, but shorter variants are possible. Website
Source: Qantas The Australian Way November 2009