Christmas in Kangaroo Valley and New Years by the sea.

December 2021

Having spent the previous Christmas day at home and having our planned trip up to Avalon cancelled thanks to the snap lockdown of the Northern Beaches area we were extremely looking forward to a road trip Christmas to Kangaroo Valley.

We booked a farm stay and would be celebrating it with our friend Joanne and her son Cameron.

Happy Valley

The town itself is located 160km (2 hours drive) south west of Sydney. It’s motorway driving down to Bowral before heading into the wilderness, passing Fitzroy Falls before descending down the Southern Highlands.

The fist thing you come across as you enter the town is the heritage listed Hampden Bridge. A single span suspension bridge with four large Victorian Gothic Revival crenellated turrets on each end. It is 125 years old and was designed by Irish born engineer Ernest de Burgh who was responsible for a number of bridge building projects across New South Wales at this time. It is the oldest timber suspension bridge in Australia which is incredible given it is still used by trucks and traffic.

Originally the valley was home to the Wodi-Wodi Aboriginal tribe but by the early 19th century, settlement by cattlemen and tree loggers displaced them. Australian Red Cedar, in plentiful supply in the area quickly became the main industry. By the 1870s the town started to form with the building of churches and a school as dairy farmers flocked to the region, including some from Fermanagh, Ireland.

There are a number of heritage listed and old building in the town built around 1890. The Tourist Information Office is located within the old bank – The English, Scottish and Australian Bank (ES&A). In 1970 they would merge with ANZ to form the ANZ Group.

The Friendly Inn Pub provides the set-piece dwelling of a busy main street full of cafes, shops, an ice creamery and pioneer museum. Opened as the Commercial Hotel it had to be partially rebuild after a fire in 1933 with the verandah and awnings being added.

Our farm stay was located a couple of kilometres from the town in a modern two bedroom house with a huge kitchen and some great views.

We spent a couple of days on the farm with a variety of activities – feeding goats and cows, hunting for eggs from the chicken coop, keeping an eye out for the resident wombat as it’s burrow was near the cottage.

Of course we also had all manner of Christmas fun – including the building of a toy kitchen that included 50 screws and nails #ToughGoing and Cillian’s first BRIO train.

The Christmas Movie was of course – Home Alone.

Dams and Waterfalls

Down the road from our accomodation was the impressive Tallowa Dam and reserve. The dam creates the reservoir of Lake Yarrunga and has an innovative fish lift that allows them to be collected and transferred over the wall to their spawning areas further upstream.

On the day we parted ways with Joanne and Cameron – they were heading south – while we were heading north – we stopped off at the nearby Fitzroy Falls. We actually tried going there during our stay but the fog was so heavy we could see nothing so with a break in the clouds we decided to give it another go.

Its a popular spot but not overcrowded so we had large periods of time on walking the boardwalks by ourselves. Cillian in the baby carrier strapped to dad. The lookouts were very impressive with expansive views across the Morton National Park and the 81m waterfall was flowing after a number of rainy days.

On our return journey we got the photos we were after.

New Years on the Coast

We split this trip up so that we could get some beach time in. Heading north from Kangaroo Valley we stopped for lunch in the town of Bowral. After that we had to climb back down from the Southern Highlands at Bulli Pass so that we could get to Austinmer and our next accomodation.

This one was a tiny granny flat – not much choice over the holidays – but we had not been to this part of New South Wales yet so we spent most of the day out and about. Austinmer is one of a collection of villages that stretch from Wollongong in the South to the Royal National Park (RNP) to the North. They all hug the coast and are lined up with the Princes Highway (M1) on the high ground to the West.

We spent a couple of days exploring a number of beaches and playgrounds – our favourite being the headland at Bulli. We also found a great seafood restaurant South Sailor that had great fish tacos in Thirroul.

Scenic Route Home

We decided to drive the long way home, driving along the Pacific Highway and then through the RNP. This afforded us the chance to stop at Bald Hill Lookout. With hardly a cloud in the sky we had a great opportunity to look back along the coast to Wollongong and take some great pictures.

Readers will know that we are keen movie location hunters and one of the movies we covered in our post about Sydne, The Man From Hong Kong (1975) had scenes filmed here. One of the characters, journalist Caroline Thorne (played by Ros Speirs) is a hang glider and this is a popular Sydney spot for that activity.

There is a large memorial dedicated to Lawrence Hargrave, an Australian engineer, explorer, astronomer, inventor and aeronautical pioneer. Born in Greenwich, London he lived locally and used the lookout to test various kites and flying machines of his creation. His work inspired Alexander Graham Bell and (allegedly) paved the way for the Wright Brothers to continue his work in powered flight.