A very pleasant Royal National Park walk from the NPWS visitor centre at Audley to Peach Trees Trig Station along a ridge. The highlight for me was the vegetation, including many colourful and gnarled trees, wildflowers, and a variety of unusual seed pods. There were also birds, lizards and insect life. Just one spot with decent views, but you won’t mind given the many interesting distractions along the way. We finished the walk on a different track that takes you down to the Hacking River, and added to the variety of vegetation.
Visiting the site of the (former) trig station is on a very faint track, which is more of a bush bash. It doesn’t add much value to the walk and so is entirely optional. Track notes at the end.
Peach Trees Trig Station from Audley: The Scenery
Track Notes
Park at the Audley NPWS visitor centre. You have to pay the day entry fee if you don’t have an annual pass.
Walk past the cafe to the bridge over the Hacking River, and look for the sign posted track next to a toilet block. Climb up stairs and take the first left to climb the ridge. As you arrive near the top of the ridge there is a short side trip (20-30m?) to a viewpoint. You can see through branches back to Sydney and down to Audley.
Once on the ridge it’s one track the whole way to near Peach Trees Trig Station. You’ll pass the return track on your way as well as a rocky clearing with good views.
The very faint track (barely a track, then no track) to the site of Peach Trees Trig Station is not marked and you won’t notice it unless you have your topo map open on your phone. Open Topo Maps does have this faint track, and there are some markings in rock at this point. But to be honest this really doesn’t add much value to the walk so maybe give it a miss. I found the site – a bunch of rocks and someone hard engraved “TS” into the rock. There are views but not as good as the viewpoint you have already visited.
Note that if you start to descend (to Uloola Campground) then you have gone too far. Nevertheless, there is a way to return to Audley via Kangaroo Creek that I’d like to try (on a cooler day).
Returning
On your way back I can recommend taking the signposted descent to the Hacking River. There were more interesting trees and other vegetation. This track was a lot busier than the outward leg, perhaps because it was later in the day and various parties were climbing to the ridge that way.
Once you have descended to Wattle Forest picnic area, (where they have toilets), it’s a shortish walk on the road back to the start.
