skibug wrote:I've been told that the land between the turn off and Golden Stairs is owned by Scenic World - it's actually a historic mining lease. Whether that makes them responsible for the road I'm not sure, but would explain the inadequate maintenance.
A century ago this would be true, but definitely not the case now. Scenic World own a small area of the escarpment and small section down in the valley. Their property is the area where the Scenic Railway and Cableway land in the valley, and the boardwalk sections. Outside of that is National Park, including the surrounding areas that were once part of the old mine. It doesn't come anywhere near Narrowneck.
There is a road reserve which runs to just past the Golden Stairs. This is crown land managed by council. It is a formed road (as opposed to an something that is zones as an unformed road) which means it is managed and maintained. From that point on, the road runs through National Park. The road actually doesn't adhere very closely to the road reserve. Technically the first 500m of the road runs through council community land, which is the zoning of parks / council owned bushland.
So in answer to the original question, Blue Mountains City Council is almost certainly responsible for maintaining the road as far as the Golden Stairway. After that it's definitely NPWS. I imagine they have some sort of shared maintenance arrangement to avoid having two crews repair two halves of the road.