Florence Avenue
An interesting loop walk that begins at the end of Florence avenue in Minto, descending down and along peter meadows creek and following it out to the Georges river at the Old Ford road before continuing down river and climbing the remains of some old steps back up to the road. The walk contains some incredible caves and some very interesting remnants of a life on the river once upon a time.
Address: At the end of Florence ave Minto Heights the road widens in to a cul de sac with some large painted white rocks. Leave your car here. The walk starts on one side of the road and circles around to end on the other. If the flagging is still there you should be able to see both from this car park area. The drive way directly in front leads to private property.
Distance: About 3km and roughly 60 minutes depending on fitness level and enthusiasm. There is a bit of scrabbling in places, particularly coming down from the road to the creek.
Address: You could also start this walk from the Keith Longhurst reserve at the end of Georges River road, walking The Old Ford Road to the river and then following the track from there or going left when the fire trail forks and finding the walking track that continues on at the end.
Distance: About 6km and 2 hours. Same sort of scrabbling and about 1km is walked on a not very busy tarred road.
The descent down from Florence avenue is a bit steep and scrabbly in places. I done at least one part on my backside!
Some beautiful caves on the way down to the river.
A stop off at the crossing for a swim and a quick play.
At the crossing you can push through some bushes in the middle of the river and find a pretty place to sit and take a break near the rapids.
This track following the river is one of the clearer and easier tracks that I have found in this area.
This was one of those “WTF is that moments” for me. A random red brick wall encasing a chimney and fire place stands absolutely surrounded by bush with nothing else really nearby except a pit and the river. You can see it not far from the main track.
This car just boggles the mind about how it came to be here..
A random cottage sits perched on an old retaining wall above the track and the remains of another one are near by.
A large sandy beach sits at the bend in the river.
There are several interesting buildings just before and past the beach as you start climbing up the cliffs, most of them no more then ruins. These possibly were built by the naturalists that have had clubs up higher on top of the cliffs since the 50’s and still do. So yeah also.. If you see a lovely set of stairs leading up the cliffs.. Better not to follow them unless that’s your thing… super nice people though.
The longer walk if you leave from the Kentlyn reserve parking lot starts where the main road diverts to the left.
I really enjoy this track, it follows a mostly rock surface for a while before descending down to cross the creek.
If at any point you are unsure of where the track is just continue straight and you should find it again
The crossing at Peter Meadows creek
A short scramble up the escarpment from the creek to the cliff ledges across.
Once you reach the cliff ledge you can take a left to check out some pretty cool caves sitting under the ledges. There are a couple of tracks on this side including one that follows a dry creek bed but I found these tracks kind of vague and difficult to follow and turned back.
After seeing the caves if you turn around and follow the cliffline there are some stairs that ascend to a track that heads to Florence avenue.
I have been on this walk several times now and keep finding interesting things each time I go back. A great place to explore as well as just a lovely place to spend some time on the beautiful Georges river and in the surrounding bushland.
Have you visited..?
