Crosslands to Jungo Rest Area on Great North Walk

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Crosslands to Jungo Rest Area on Great North Walk

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Difficulty: Moderate
Length: 9.3 miles / 15.0 km
Duration: Full day

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Overview: CROSSLANDS RESERVE PARK TO JUNGO REST AREA: 16.0 km (moderate to hard)

South from the picnic park in Crosslands Reserve following Berowra Creek to Galston Gorge through Berowra Valley Recreational Park. Up the ridge opposite Hornsby Heights; back down to the creek at Fishponds (& trig point); passing the turning to Bluegum Walk in the Elouera Bushland Reserve; skirting Westleigh as far as the Jungo Rest Area in Elouera Park.

There are some really amazing rock formations (natural) as well as another Aboriginal Rock Art Site (Westleigh) on this hike. Above Galston Gorge is a lovely viewpoint although the climb is hard. Learn more about Rock Art Sites at http://www.thegreatnorthwalk.com/rockart

Full details about the Great North Walk can be found at http://www.thegreatnorthwalk.com
We also recommend accessing e-trails and guides at Great North Walk books - http://tiny.cc/Buy2GNWbooks

Watch a hike movie http://vimeo.com/10912042

Download EZ Guide to Great North Walk and downloadable e-trails http://tiny.cc/EZguideGNW

Tips: ACCESS
It is easy to access this part of the Great North Walk at both ends and near the centre along a spur from Hornsby Station. From the Fishponds area on the GNW track, there are a signs leading to Hornsby.

Ginger Meggs Bronze Memorial was, until 2009, on display in Hornsby public library; 1 km from the Great North Walk spur to Hornsby. Ginger Meggs Park. However, it has recently been taken back into the National Trust art collection held at the S. H. Ervine Gallery near the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Great Deal –buy both Great North Walk books -http://tiny.cc/Buy2GNWbooks

PLACES TO STAY
Up this link track to Hornsby but a couple of kilometres away from the centre of Hornsby are accommodation options.
Almost opposite Waitara railway station (one stop from Hornsby or a 15 minute walk) is the Blue Gum Hotel with 11 country style rooms, self-serve continental breakfast and its own restaurant.
A little further down the Pacific Highway (2.1 kilometres from Hornsby railway station) is the Ascot Motor Inn with a wide variety of room styles, all with ensuites, a pool and restaurant; and the Spanish Motel with 26 rooms, an outdoor pool and restaurant (Tuesday to Saturdays).

Points of Interest

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Crosslands Reserve

This is a family-friendly park well used in holidays and weekends. There are toilets, water, picnic tables and barbecues plus boating and kayaking facilities here. Car parks can be busy so take care of kids and pets. Walks north (towards Berowra Waters) include many information signs. Walks south (also along Berowra Creek) pass a few small campsites- no facilities just space for a couple of tents.

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Rocks and Small Creek Crossings

A few kilometres south of Crosslands you arrive at the Rockyfalls rapids: an impressive series of rocks that limit boating upstream along Berowra Creek.

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Lace Monitor

If you move fairly quietly you may come across one of these beautiful lizards sunning itself on a tree trunk or fallen log. If you startle one it may rear up a little before scuttling off. They live around 20–30 years if they escape being eaten by currawongs, kookaburras and snakes when they’re young.

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Banksias

Banksia: Seventy-five of the known 76 Banksia species occur naturally only in Australia. These strange plants are named to honour Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), who, in 1770 while travelling with James Cook on the Endeavour, was the first European to collect specimens. A number of Banksia cultivars have also been developed. The flowers occur in cylindrical spikes between 50 mm to 100 mm long. The seeds are enclosed in follicles attached to a woody cone and are generally retained within the cone until burnt. Many Australians first learn about Banksias from May Gibbs delightful children’s stories of Old Man Banksia in the tales of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie.

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Galston Gorge

The walk upstream to Galston Gorge climbs and then drops dramatically to the road bridge over the gorge itself. There is another steep climb up after the crossing that is rewarded by the fantastic views from the ridge-top until the track winds back downhill towards Steeles bridge.

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Hawkesbury Sandstone

The ridges that border Berowra Creek and its tributaries are made of sandstone. These rocks are frequently heavily eroded an you can see many exfoliated rock ledges and cliff faces, as well as several wind blown caves. These natural rock formations are really beautiful.

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Sandstone & Hornsby Quarry

An eroded volcanic extrusion of which the northern section was worked as the Hornsby Blue Metal Quarries. They took the hard rock for road base and gravel from the early 1900s. In the late 1990s, the poor quality of the excavated material meant that the quarry became commercially unviable. It’s a controversial site now because its most visible feature is a large open excavation that is over 100 metres deep with surrounding slopes that are steep and exposed with the obvious accompanying dangers. Although zoned as ‘greenbelt’ as early as 1951, it wasn’t acquired by Hornsby Council from CSR until 2004 at a cost of $25 million — together with a mandated payment of around $100,000 on account of disturbances caused by this compulsory purchase. On the Heritage Register of the National Estate, the site is said to be the ‘largest volcanic neck in the Sydney area’.

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Steeles Bridge

Steeles Bridge: This bridge is an old military bridge that crosses Berowra Creek along the Quarry Road Track. This bridge appears to be an Australian adaptation of the Bailey Design Bridge.

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Fishponds Waterhole

Jimmy Bancks, the Ginger Meggs creator, stayed here for about twenty years including a childhood ranging throughout Old Mans Valley and up to the Fishponds, where we had lunch on Berowra Creek. His fruit-raiding exploits on the Higgins family orchards in Old Mans Valley are believed to have inspired many of the exploits of the comic strip characters.

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Pennant Hills Rock Carved Sign

About 200 m south of Fishponds Waterhole on Berowra Creek, walking upstream at the junction with the spur to Hornsby, there is a set of old carvings scored into the rocks, perhaps by the makers of the track years ago. These give arrows to P.H. (Pennant Hills), G (Galston) and H (Hornsby). Following the “P.H.” direction, we soon reach ‘the spa’, sometimes referred to as the Washpool — a crossing of one of the tributary creeks.

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Washpool

Around here the Great North Walk trail passes ‘the spa’, sometimes referred to as the Washpool — a crossing of one of the tributary creeks - a favourite swimming hole and also beautifully carved by water erosion.

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Westleigh (or Quarter Sessions) Aboriginal Rock Art Site

Quarter Sessions Campsite: this is where an Aboriginal meeting and camping place once was. Many carvings have been lost in European times but a few still remain here including two wallabies, some fish, other lines that have been described as a noose and a koala. There is a notice at the NW corner of Quarter Sessions Road, Westleigh on the loop of the road, next to the rocks. About 200 m from the Great North Walk at Westleigh.

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Ginger Meggs Park

The Ginger Meggs Park is a few hundred metres off the Great North Walk. The Park, so named in July 1997 to commemorate Jimmy Bancks (1889-1952), creator of Meggs, and an associated short walk commemorates Australia's longest running cartoon strip character and Ginger’s various cartoonists: Ron Vivian, then Lloyd Piper, James Kemsley (honoured by the Queen for this work) and Jason Chatfield. Brancks lived in this area from 1892 when his father, a railway worker was moved to a railway cottage near Hornsby - between the present Main and North Shore rail lines. During Brancks’ twenty odd years ranging throughout Old Mans Valley and the Fishponds on Berowra Creek he was inspired by the (often wicked) escapades of the recalcitrant Ginger. Ginger Meggs Park is a few hundred metres off the Great North Walk.