Browns Track near Wentworth Falls

[PocketPal2013]

Has anyone heard of an old walking track called Browns Track, north east of Wentworth Falls? Talking to an old chap in Wentworth Falls today. He says it is not Bruces Walk and predates that by over 15 years, c1915. There's no name like that in Brian Fox's book.

[Grabeach]

Have you spoken to Jim Smith about it? Way back, maybe early to mid 90s, he told me about a track in that area that had recently come to his attention. I don't recall a name for it being mentioned, but I'd bet on it being the one you want. Can't remember why I didn't go straight away to have a look!

[Geebung]

I haven't heard of it, but would be very interested if you hear more!

[tom_brennan]

Interesting. I wonder if it's related to the Brown of Brown's Siding (now Medlow Bath), though that was quite some years earlier (1880s?).

The area north east of Wentworth Falls is pretty rough. It all drains down into Wentworth Creek/Blue Mountain Creek, which have substantial cliffs as you descend.

[Allchin09]

Hmm, maybe he was referring to this pass?
http://www.david-noble.net/blog/?p=8666

[Grabeach]

Not even close, Alex!

[Allchin09]

Wentworth Falls, Blackheath, they're close enough aren't they? Hahaha.

[Allchin09]

Just spoke to Jim Smith, he said he hasn't heard of it! Maybe Browns Track was an unofficial name?

[PocketPal2013]

Thanks, fellow walkers. Maybe we'll find it one day.
On Friday I was exploring forgotten tracks around Mt York that probably date back to late 1800s. I'll see if I can put a photo in. A unique stone slab bridge over a deep but narrow chasm. The stirrups on the poles once held a handrail. I've dubbed the lookout there as "Stirrup Lookout"!
Check out my post under the heading "New book on Mount Victoria Chert history" in the Special, Discounts, Adverts section.

[bonaccordians]

I believe I have found evidence of an old track NNE of Wentworth Falls. It seems to begin to the east of Somme Ave extension and runs in a north easterly direction. Parts of it can be seen on satellite photos. Will investigate. Does anyone know what general area Browns track was in? The lesser known, forgotten tracks are always the most rewarding!

[ribuck]

Many decades ago, an "old-timer" bushwalker named Jim Brown took me on an extremely overgrown route from Lawson to Wentworth Falls. Jim's surname is probably just a co-incidence (because he didn't claim the route as "his"), and unfortunately he died last century.

We passed remnants showing that the walk had been developed a long time ago. Things like stone steps, the remains of wooden ladder-steps up to a small ledge, a rough-hewn bench under a small overhang, and some ironwork (including a short stretch of handrail). Jim was keen to point these out, and was obviously interested in these historical features.

Unfortunately I didn't pay a lot of attention to where we were going, as I was just tagging along for a bit of exercise that day, but I'm fairly certain it was not any part of Bruce's Walk, and was north of the electricity pylons. I think we walked a fair way along the Empire Pass Track before turning off. I remember crossing about three significant creeks, and ending up on Henderson Road.

Jim was keen to see this route brought back into use, but was doubtful that this would happen as there was private land at the Wentworth Falls end. We did cut across a short stretch of unfenced private land before coming out onto some type of vehicle track or fire trail.

Sorry that I can't remember anything more specific about this route, but I'm posting what I recall in case someone else can piece together the clues.

[Grabeach]

No disrespect ribuck, but the route and hardware you describe does sound an awful lot like Bruces Walk as I remember it from the late 1980s and as described in the Bruces Walk section of Jim Smith's How To See The Blue Mountains 2nd Ed.(1986). I also find it hard to believe that there were two tracks both starting in Lawson, crossing three creeks and ending up on Henderson Rd. If I'm right, you are the only person I have come across who has done (or at least admitted to have done) the Lawson to Bullaburra section of Bruces Walk which appears to have become private property even before Dick Rushton spent time locating parts of the track in the 1970s.

[ribuck]

No disrespect ribuck, but the route and hardware you describe does sound an awful lot like Bruces Walk

Grabeach, you are probably right. I've just taken a look at the Wikipedia article on Bruces Walk, and it does sound very similar, and David Patrickson's video of the section from Wentworth Falls to Bullaburra looks very familiar. I met Jim Brown in 1982, and Wikipedia says that Wilf Hilder and Jim Smith cleared the route in 1986, so I must have been there some time from 1982 to 86.

If I'm right, you are the only person I have come across who has done (or at least admitted to have done) the Lawson to Bullaburra section of Bruces Walk which appears to have become private property even before Dick Rushton spent time locating parts of the track in the 1970s.

Jim Brown's walk definitely started from Lawson Station, not Bullaburra. I clearly remember walking through Wilson Park into St Bernards Drive, so I don't think we could have walked the Lawson to Bullaburra section of Bruces Walk. After St Bernards Drive I'm pretty sure we started down the Empire Pass track. Perhaps we then went cross-country to pick up the dirt track that is shown on OpenStreetMap as an extension of Kent Street, then walked south-west along that dirt track to meet Bruce's Walk. This would have avoided private property at the Lawson end of Bruces Walk.

Going back to the original poster's question about Browns Track, I see that the track to the north of Somme Avenue was added to OpenStreetMap just four days ago by a user called Roaming-Oz, who is involved in a project to map walking trails in the area. He might know whether that track or the one he edited which runs east from Somme Avenue are historic routes.

[Xplora]

The lesser known, forgotten tracks are always the most rewarding!

Until they are posted on a forum and then overrun.
It may link up with the track from Brown Mtn on the other side of the Grose.

[rcaffin]

Lawson to Bullaburra on Bruces Walk?
Yeah, sure, quite a few will have done it, regardless. It's marked - or it was. You need 'The New Walk across the Blue Mountains", published by the NSW Railways Commissioner, price 1/-. Date ... hum, not sure. LONG ago anyhow.

Why the Railways? Because they were hoping to attract lots of walkers to use the Katoomba line for the travelling.

Cheers
Roger

[Grabeach]

Published in 1931. There is a copy in the National Library of Australia in Canberra. Must look at it one day. Don't know if there are copies available elsewhere.

Interesting history. Andy Macqueen (Back From The Brink) suggests it highly likely that the track was the idea of Jim Cleary (financier of the bushwalkers' Blue Gum Forest purchase) who was the Railways Chief Commissioner at the time.

[tom_brennan]

Don't know if there are copies available elsewhere.

State Library of NSW looks to have one.

[DaveNoble]

Don't know if there are copies available elsewhere.

State Library of NSW looks to have one.

and according to Trove, there is a copy at Lithgow Library.

[michael_p]

there is a copy at Lithgow Library.

According to the library website they still have it: http://library.lithgow.nsw.gov.au/cgi-b ... ?BRN=21577

Next time I'm in Lithgow I will have to try and get to the Library.

Cheers,
Michael.