Bushwalk Australia

Dunphy's Camp site (or car park) - Coxs R - camp near top of Bungalooloo (carrying water - ugh!)
Wonga Mt - Veyrets Horse Track (almost all gone now, very steep!), up Kowmung R, very nice
Up long spur to Mt Feld (extremely dry), Scotts MR, Butchers Ck (looks awful, but nice tent site and acceptable water possible)
Yerranderrie for morning tea at PICNIC shelter(!), guest house Lodge locked, then back to Mt Feld carrying water
SMR to CBC site (Kowmung House, water), camped near Kowmung Lookout (carrying water)
Down Cookem (50 minutes) and back to Dunphy's.

We seemed to do a lot of carrying water this trip. It's heavy.

White gate at N end of SMR has sign banning bushwalkers, penalty $11,000. Sign is wrong: you have to go through it for ~1.5 km to Cookem fork - on the LEGAL bushwalkers corridor.

There are now small dams 'for firefighting' along SMR. Water is very opaque, and would need filtering and treatment (pigs), but it IS water.

Cheers
Roger

Was there any water in Butchers Ck? I was there on trip shortly after rain, and it was completely dry (we were relying on it...)
I'd be interested to know that it's holding water after all the dry weather we've had recently.

Yes, there was water in Butchers Creek, but not next to the gate. The pool there is - erk! You need to search up the water course a little way. When it is present, it is in a slot in the soil like an alpine creek. We did not need to filter it, but we did treat it with a Steripen wand. But note that the area did have a little rain a few days earlier.

The Tonalli was far worse. Quite ... yuk.

There is a good rain water tank at the picnic shelter (my god!) at the E end of Yerranderie.

Cheers
Roger

Good to know that there is some water there. I've been told by someone who has been walking in the area for a long time that the whole Blue Breaks region has been gradually getting drier and drier. Personally, I'd be rather reluctant to drink the Tonalli anywhere around Yerranderie after looking at some of the lurid coloured mine drainage catchment ponds in the area...

Tonalli: arsenic contamination from Silver Peak Mine (and others). Known problem. Previous owners 'donated' the mine to NPWs to avoid the liability of the clean-up.
Butchers: well, the graders have stuffed the creek at the gate, but a bit of exploration upstream or downstream should get you water.

NEW: numerous 'Water Points' have been installed along Scotts Main Range: small dams adjacent to road. OK, VERY cloudy in most cases, and there are (of course) pigs, but filter (for suspended clay) plus UV Steripen should keep you alive. Note that the Steripen does NOT like cloudy water: the clay blocks the UV photons. Filter first.

We found carrying 5 L was enough for afternoon tea, dinner, breakfast and morning tea for two of us. You may need more.

Cheers