Wednesday 29 June 2022
Photos courtesy of Amanda and Philip
Monga Mountain (960m asl) may not have been so named except that the first coast to tablelands road of the 1850’s was built over it. The gold rushes of southeastern NSW, Majors Creek and Kiandra in particular, demanded a bullock dray route for the feverish aspirants and their financially driven service providers to disembark ships at Nelligen and head inland.
The Kings Highway up and across Clyde Mountain is today the best known of the route, but the last leg, the low range separating the Mongarlowe and Shoalhaven Rivers, is less recognised. This final link was achieved via Monga Mountain and the road, slightly realigned in places, is still trafficable.
Eight Club members turned up at the Monga “gateway” just off the Kings Highway expecting a 7km easy walk but surprise! – we were immediately confronted by a missing bridge over the Mongarlowe River, demanding a rethink. Curiously, there were no public notices to the effect that the bridge was being replaced.
Being an adaptive lot, and under favourable weather, we abandoned cars on the King’s Highway and decided to walk on, up McRae’s Road to Monga Mountain and return in a circuit to the missing bridge site via Link Road, Monga Lane and River Road. All this area was burnt in 2019-20 so we avoided the prolific undergrowth and remained on roads and trails.
It was only a mere 16km, slightly longer than anticipated. It took 5 hours and the walking was most enjoyable.
Because of the activity associated with the original road, and there being a sawmill in the area for the last 170 years, the history of the area is rich and needed retelling. With the elevational and geological changes encountered, the vegetation was quite varied, from dry ridge tops to lush fern gullies and riverside vistas. The post fire tree ferned landscapes were a treat. We saw good examples of Narrow Leaved Peppermint, Silvertop Ash, White Ash, Mountain Grey Gum, Brown Barrel, Messmate and Ribbon Gum.
Ian