Reflections of a Rural Social Worker: Grieving losses: Fire in the Yerranderie Area, NSW

Our journey into this remote area of the Blue Mountains National Park was from Oberon, back in October 2007. Yerranderie is an old Silver Mining town that became isolated and mostly deserted after the construction of Warragamba Dam, Sydney's water supply. I feel fortunate that we were able to visit this area in the past, but sad that it has been recently burnt.

Just before entering the Blue Mountains National Park we saw two men on motor bikes wandering along and looking lost. We stopped to see if they needed assistance, pointed them in the right direction to the Correctional Centre (where they wanted to go), then continued along an immediately rougher trail through eucalyptus forests, every so often dodging kangaroos and following a narrow ridge line where the sides of the track dropped steeply to just discernible valley floors far below. We were now following the former Oberon-Colong Stock Route which was now the only access road to Yerranderie, since the construction of Warragamba Dam had cut off its access to Camden in the east.

We passed a trail bike rider emerging from a side track shortly before reaching Mt Werong Picnic and Camping Area, where a brief stop allowed us to re-check maps (even though I had a detailed one sitting on my lap). We decided to detour along the narrow and rough Ruby Creek Track to see if we could find the Ruby Creek Mine, despite a sign warning of a locked gate ahead, and came to a parking area with a walking track.

Here we followed an undeveloped foot pad, marked regularly by arrows on posts, which meandered through the forest. As we had no idea how far we needed to walk before we would encounter the mine, we almost stopped after about 1 km. But then we decided to push on and shortly afterwards came across the remains of a mine below us next to the creek. The ruins of a corrugated iron hut also stood at the end of a road, indicating to us that we could have driven in here if we had proceeded a little further down the main road to Yerranderie before turning off! However we would have missed the walk through the forest. I enjoyed the return walk much more, taking in the forest, recognising familiar landmarks and having some idea of where we were going.

Eventually we reached the Cruiser and then the road, only to join a convoy of vehicles all unfortunately heading in our direction, resulting in us eating dust as we progressed onwards along the rough track of the narrow ridge. However we were still able to see the views of the blue mountains plunging down to deep valleys when less dense patches of forest made this possible.

Further on an area of tree ferns clinging to the mountain-side under the shade of the forest provided added interest and a delicate flowering creeper added regular splashes of purple to the forest floor in a number of places. Then the vegetation changed again – to an under-storey of bracken and an egg-yolk coloured flowering shrub beneath more scrubby looking trees. The shrill chirping of cicadas was ever present as, what must be thousands, joined in the chorus.

The vegetation constantly changed even though the cicada chorus did not. We went up steep winding sections, down very steep winding sections, crossed saddles and a few creeks, wound around the edges of mountains and left the convoy far behind where it had stopped at a high level area of rock platforms (which we will check out on our way back out).

After finally reaching Yerranderie and finding the Private Town we faced some confusion about where to pay our entry fee, until the convoy arrived and the Caretaker magically appeared, watched the convoy depart (as one bossy lady informed them that they had taken the wrong road and should have stopped and waited for directions at the top of the hill), and finally attended to us.

Yerranderie Private Town

Then, armed with a clear conscience and a purchased booklet about Yerranderie, we wandered around the old buildings and then along old mine roads, exploring the surrounds of the Silver Peak and Colon Peaks Mines where we were serenaded by Bell-birds. Yerranderie Peak was an ever-present feature to the south, towering over the landscape. We discovered that Yerranderie had been abandoned in the 1940’s but full-scale mining of the still lucrative silver and lead lodes had ceased in the 1920’s after the cost of transporting it over the rough mountain tracks to Camden proved prohibitive and a miner’s strike. Yerranderie was made up of several settlements, of which Private Town and Government Town were but two and a number of substantial mines dotted the surrounds. The area became a ghost town and the buildings began to crumble until a Val Lhuede, a young architect and bush-walker, purchased the area of and around Private Town in 1971 and set about restoring some of the buildings. She also arranged for the construction of an airfield so that she could fly herself and her bush-walking friends in and out.

Silver Peak Mine

The safety catch on the Miner's Cage was invented here

Colon Mine remains

Following this we ventured along the track past the cemetery towards Tonalli River, this time in our vehicle. After bumping steeply downwards on a narrow and very rough, rocky track we were brought to an abrupt halt by a locked gate. From here it would have been necessary to continue on foot down a steep descent (which meant a steep ascent afterwards), so we parked under some shady trees and admired the views of the mountains through the forest whilst we consumed our welcome lunch. This was very pleasant apart from continually chasing a persistent bee back out our open doors, only to have it repeatedly return shortly afterwards. I didn’t think we were so sweet!

We returned to Government Town and briefly viewed the Police Station, Court House and the free camping area (liberally dotted with members of the convoy) before tackling the return journey to Oberon.

This time we followed the notes in our 4WD Treks Close to Sydney book, stopping to examine two flat rocky areas on the way back. One of these was identified as an aboriginal heritage site and both afforded us a closer look at the terrain we had been travelling through. We found that it pays to stop and look over the edge and this especially applied when I walked to the other side of the track and found a steep fern-covered slope falling down into a deeper valley which was backed by more blue ranges.