Canberra Nature Park: Molonglo Gorge Nature Reserve

General Information

Grading: easy

Distance: 8 kilometers 

Total climb: 300 metres 

Time taken: 2 hours 50 minutes 

Maps:  Canberra 8627-3N 1:25 000; Bungendore 8727-2N 1:25 000 

Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO:  19 kilometers 

Start point map grid reference:  Canberra 55H GA 04479 88164 

Destination map grid reference:  Bungendore 55H GA 06798 87761 

End point:  same as start

Route

Description

This walk started at the Molonglo Gorge picnic area, which is off the Sutton Road approximately 5 kilometers north of Queanbeyan. We followed the Molonglo Gorge track along the very swollen Molonglo River.

At one point we had to scramble over rocks where the track was flooded, as can be seen by the location of the steps in the photo below.

After about 3.5 kilometres we reached the Blue Tiles picnic area where we stopped for a break.

 From Blue Tiles we started to climb up the escarpment, following a rough but clear track which kept us away from the pine forest and through native trees. One spot along the trail where the native and plantation forests met was particularly nice.

We eventually found our way on to Quarry Road, which is a wide and well-maintained forestry road. On Quarry Road at about map reference 55H GA 04891 88419 we came to a rough vehicular track on the left. This track has a sign that says "No Through Track", but this seems to be largely for the benefit of motor vehicle drivers. We were able to follow it down to connect with the walking track above the river in Molonglo Gorge (not the riverside one we followed on the outward journey), and from there it was an easy walk back to our starting point.