Sunday 15/02/2026   Echo Point Access Road – Bundanoon Road – Fairy Bower Loop Walking Track – Fairy Bower Falls – Fairy Bower Falls Lookout – Fern Glen (rainforest gully) – Fairy Bower Loop Walking Track – Bundanoon Loop Road – Tooths Lookout – The Wishing Well – Gambells Rest Campground

                                         Bundanoon

                                         Morton National Park, NSW

                                         Gundungurra and Dharawal Country

                                         (Gundungurra and Dharawal peoples)    

                           

Participants: Stephen Davies (Photos), Sue Davies (Report), Brett Wright (Leader), Lee Wright, seven others

After years of trading stories about our various bushwalking adventures, we finally got out for a walk with Brett and Lee. This Sunday morning hike had us meet at Gambells Rest Campground at 8:25am where our party of eleven completed some introductions before heading off.

Download file: 20260215.gpx                         Track Info

 

For our walk, we were almost entirely on well-formed, drivable tracks along which we spent as much time chatting as observing our surroundings. Access to Fairy Bower Falls via Fairy Bower Loop Walking Track got us on a genuine, single walking track which passes through a nice section of forest, as it descends along the creek towards the falls. Just beyond, we caught a cloud-covered view of Bundannon Creek about 300m below, rimmed by sandstone cliffs.

The Fern Glen (rainforest gully) track disappears quickly, providing a very short bit of aff-track exploration. The gully itself, being filled with dense vegetation, provided no motivation to go further than the tiny, overgrown creek.

Heading back, we passed some heavily lichen-encrusted sandstone outcrops, which led me down to The Wishing Well. Enclosed by fencing and almost full of water, its perfectly round, vertical form would indicate it was not natural.

From here we headed back to our cars, getting to Bundanoon Hotel just as a light shower arrived, but in good time for lunch. 

Amongst other photographically recorded observations during this walk, we were able to confirm sightings of each of the following species: Superb Lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae), Amanita (Subgenus Amanitina), Shield Ferns (Genus Sticherus), Mountain Devil (Lambertia formosa), Scarlet Bracke (Trametes coccine), Lemon-yellow crustose lichen, Mixed crustose and foliose lichens, White crustose lichen (family Pertusariaceae or Lecanoraceae; species uncertain)

Photos

Wild Adventures Facebook Group

Map View

Clickable icons on this world map will open the related trip report

Contents

A detailed, searchable trip list with links to reports, photo galleries

 

Information on Parks signage along the way

Morton National Park

The Bundanoon section of Morton National Park has a great variet of walks and drives with breathtaking views from numerous looko Energetic walkers can tackle the steep descents to enjoy the cool f below the cliff edge. Others may preferra more leisurely walk on to the escarpment.

Erith Coal Mine Track (1 hr loop) 

Start: Gambells Rest • Grade: steep with steps • 2 km loop

This short, steep walk through woodland, heath and rainforest leads to a mine that was open from the 1860s to 1915. The metrethick coal seam was of poor quality and only used for goods engines. For safety reasons, fencing prevents entry to the mine. Thi walk can also be undertaken from the Erith Coal Mine car park off Echo Point Road.

Echo Point and Lovers Walk (1 hr loop) 

Start: Echo Point picnic area • Grade: easy • 2.2 km loop

Lovers Walk begins at the Echo Point picnic shelter. Follow the track to Bonnie View for a spectacular panorama. Return along the road passing the Wishing Well on your left. Where the road divides, keep left and then left again back to the picnic area.

Mount Carnarvon Track (30 min return) 

Start: Echo Point picnic area • Grade: easy, some steps

A short, pretty walk through bushland to the escarpment returning the same way.

Fairy Bower Falls Walk (2 hr return) 

Start: Gambells Rest picnic area 

Grade: steep in parts, steps • 3 km return 

Start: Fairy Bower Falls car park 

Grade: steep in parts, steps • 2 km return (1.5 hr return) 

Walk through Gambells Rest picnic area until you reach the road. Head right along the road until you come to the Fairy Bower Falls sign on your left. Follow the track down to the creek where you will delight in the lush, green rainforest. To walk to the bottom of the falls, cross the creek, follow the ridgeline where the track winds its way across a metal walkway down to the junction of the Amphitheatre Walk at Nicholas Pass. Turn right and this will take you to the bottom of Fairy Bower Falls. You can return the same way or continue on to the T-junction with Bundanoon Creek Track. Turn right here and climb this steep track to Tooths Lookout, turn right and follow the sign back to Gambells Rest.

You can also commence your walk at the Fairy Bower Falls car park by following the signs down to the creek and Fairy Bower Falls (as above). You can return the same way or at the bottom of the falls, take the track to the T-junction of the Bundanoon Creek Walk, turn right here. Climb this steep track to Tooths Lookout, turn right and follow the sign back to Fairy Bower Falls car park.

Bundanoon Creek Track (3 hr return)

Start: Tooths Lookout car park Grade: very steep • 2 km return

This walk is not for the faint-hearted – it is a real endurance test! Follow the track down a very steep incline (past the Fairy Bower Falls turn-off) to Bundanoon Creek. Cool off in the creek before the steep climb back. Make sure you allow plenty of time to complete this walk in daylight.

Amphitheatre Walk (2 hr return) 

Start: Gambells Rest car park Grade: medium, steps • 3 km return to Fairy Bower Falls Drive or walk to the end of Riverview Road to the start of the Amphitheatre Track. Water was the master architect of the ‘Amphitheatre’ where you walk along a natural ledge with cliffs above and below. The walk is an interesting experience — like looking onto an intimate stage full of trees.

Should you wish to continue to Fairy Bower Falls follow the track (Nicholas Pass) under the fern covered escarpment and stop off at the magical Fairy Bower Falls. Return the same way or, for a longer walk, return via Gambells Rest. 

This track has loose and uneven surfaces. Walkers should practice extreme caution.

Riverview Walk (40 min return Riverview Lookout) (1.5 hr return to Glow Worm Glen)

Start: Amphitheatre car park • Grade: medium • 2 km return to Riverview 

Lookout • 4 km return to Glow Worm Glen

A pretty walk across Fern Tree Gully through eucalypt forest to Riverview Lookout. Continue on to Glow Worm Glen by following Riverview Road north until it meets the Glow Worm Glen Track. Follow this track and turn right at track junction to Glow Worm Glen (day time only). Return the same way.

Glow Worm Glen Walk (1 hr return)

Start: William Street • Grade: steep with steps

Glow worms are only visible after dark. A torch is essential to negotiate the track safely To-beip protect the glow orms, turn off torches once you reach the alen, and keep quiet on the platform. Güided durag hool holidays and yep tours are available on request. Phone Fitzroy Falls Visitor Centre on (02) 48 877 270. William Street cul-de-sac has no parking.

 

The local landscape features, geology, scenic highlights, flora, fauna, Indigenous history, white history and other nearby walks in the area (Perplexity AI Model)

Echo Point – Fairy Bower – Tooths Lookout – Wishing Well lies on the eastern escarpment of Bundanoon, at the margin of the Southern Highlands plateau and the deeply dissected gorge system of Morton National Park. This locality combines a sandstone tableland rim with steep forested gullies, spring‑fed waterfalls and viewpoints over extensive wilderness.

Landscape and landforms

Echo Point Access Road and Bundanoon Road traverse a relatively subdued plateau surface at an elevation of roughly 650–700 metres, which terminates abruptly at the sandstone cliff‑line overlooking the valleys of Morton National Park. The Fairy Bower Loop Walking Track then descends the escarpment via benches, ledges and artificial steps and ladders, linking a sequence of hanging valleys, small creeks and rock overhangs.

Fairy Bower Falls occupies a narrow, shaded gully where a minor watercourse plunges over a vertical rock face into a moss‑lined amphitheatre, forming a classic hanging waterfall at the break of slope between plateau and gorge. Fairy Bower Falls Lookout and Tooths Lookout are established on cliff‑top projections, affording wide views south and east across dissected tablelands, deeply incised valleys and distant sandstone ranges of Morton National Park. The Wishing Well is located close to the rim near Tooths Lookout, in a small landscaped niche that contrasts with the surrounding rugged bushland.

Geology and geomorphology

The route lies entirely within the Permian–Triassic sandstone sequence that underpins much of Morton National Park, consisting of quartz‑rich sandstones interbedded with siltstones and minor shale. These strata represent former marine and near‑shore environments, and the prominent escarpments and ledges along the walk are erosional remnants of these resistant quartzose beds. Local soils on the crests and upper slopes are typically moderately deep yellow and brown podzolic profiles formed from weathered sandstone and related sedimentary rocks of the Shoalhaven Group.

The escarpment morphology reflects prolonged fluvial incision of the plateau by tributaries of Bundanoon Creek and associated drainage, producing steep gorge walls, rock shelters and overhangs where more massive sandstone units cap softer beds. Fairy Bower Falls is fed in part by spring discharge from perched groundwater within the sandstone, giving the waterfall relatively reliable baseflow even in drier periods and supporting lush moss and fern growth on the spray‑zone cliffs. The sense that the track passes beneath “huge sandstone cliffs” and through country that was once seabed is a direct expression of this sedimentary geological history.

Scenic highlights and visitor experience

From Echo Point Access Road and Bundanoon Road, visitors enter Morton National Park and quickly encounter a sequence of formal lookouts and track junctions leading towards the gorge rim. Tooths Lookout provides a particularly expansive panorama over the valley systems south of Bundanoon, with layered sandstone escarpments, forested slopes and distant plateaus forming a classic Southern Highlands vista.

The Fairy Bower Loop Walking Track itself is a key scenic highlight, combining creek crossings, cliff‑base traverses and glimpses of the falls from both above and below. At the base of Fairy Bower Falls, water cascades over a multi‑tiered sandstone face into a shaded, mossy glen, creating an enclosed micro‑landscape marked by constant spray, fern‑covered rocks and the sound of falling water. The Wishing Well, originally conceived as “Tooth’s Folly”, adds a historic and slightly romantic element to the walk, reinforcing the long association of Bundanoon’s escarpment scenery with leisure tourism.

Native vegetation and plant communities

The immediate vicinity of the route supports several characteristic Morton National Park vegetation types, broadly arranged according to topographic position and moisture. On the plateau and exposed upper slopes near the access roads and lookouts, open eucalypt forest dominates, with tall eucalypts over a sclerophyll understorey including wattles (Acacia spp.), bottlebrush and related Myrtaceae shrubs.

On sheltered slopes, ledges and gullies near Fairy Bower Falls, patches of moist forest and localised warm temperate rainforest elements occur, taking advantage of persistent shade, higher humidity and deeper soils. These communities include tree ferns, soft ferns and other moisture‑loving species, forming a dense ground and mid‑storey beneath a taller canopy of eucalypts and associated broadleaf species. Wet heath and sedgeland occupy poorly drained benches and depressions more broadly in the park, although these are more characteristic of the wider plateau than the steepest parts of the loop itself. Native flowers are conspicuous seasonally across the area, with wattles, banksias, boronias and other shrubs providing significant floral display along tracks and in adjacent heath and woodland.

Fauna and ecological values

The escarpment forests and gullies around Fairy Bower Falls and Tooths Lookout support a diverse assemblage of forest fauna typical of Morton National Park. Birds are particularly evident: visitors commonly encounter lyrebirds and bowerbirds in the understorey and on the forest floor, along with parrots, cockatoos, kookaburras and numerous smaller passerines in the canopy.

Mammals present in the broader Bundanoon area include eastern grey kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, possums and gliders, which utilise the mosaic of open forest, woodland and gully vegetation. Riparian habitats along creeks and pools provide refuge for aquatic and semi‑aquatic species, including native water‑rats and, elsewhere in the park, platypus. The combination of intact forest, varied topography and relatively low levels of fragmentation along this portion of escarpment creates important habitat corridors linking plateau and gorge environments.

Indigenous Country and history

Bundanoon is situated on Gundungurra Country; “Bundanoon” is recorded as a Gundungurra name used to describe the deep, spectacular gullies surrounding the present township. The site of modern Bundanoon functioned as a meeting and trading place for the Wadi‑wadi and Gandagara peoples, reflecting its position at an interface between upland tablelands and lower country to the east.

Aboriginal occupation of the Bundanoon area extends back many thousands of years, with traditional knowledge emphasising movement along ridgelines and valleys following food, water and shelter, and cultural responsibilities expressed through ongoing “Caring for Country”. The deeply dissected gullies and reliable water sources, such as those at Fairy Bower Falls and along Bundanoon Creek, would have been significant for both practical and cultural reasons, although specific recorded sites in the immediate Fairy Bower – Tooths Lookout – Wishing Well precinct are not detailed in the available historical summaries. Contemporary local organisations explicitly acknowledge the Gundungurra as traditional owners of the land around Bundanoon and its escarpments.

Non‑Indigenous (white) history

Non‑Indigenous exploration of the district is documented from 1818, when Charles Throsby, assisted by Aboriginal guides, traversed the region while seeking a route from Marulan to Jervis Bay. Through the nineteenth century, the area around present‑day Bundanoon comprised farms and orchards, with more intensive settlement following the Land Act of 1861 and the progressive selection of land towards the escarpment.

Construction of the railway line to Goulburn in the late 1860s transformed the locality, with “Jordan’s Crossing” (the former name for Bundanoon) becoming a minor transport and resource hub supplying coal, freestone sandstone and timber extracted from the surrounding gullies. At least two coal mines and three timber mills operated in the nearby gullies, their outputs hauled up to the railway, and a major sandstone quarry between Bundanoon and Penrose provided building stone for prominent structures across New South Wales.

Within this context, members of the Tooth family played a central role in promoting Bundanoon’s escarpment scenery as a tourist attraction. Samuel Tooth, a railway foreman who settled locally, was instrumental in establishing Tooths Lookout, Tooths Walk and the Wishing Well (originally known as “Tooth’s Folly”), thereby formalising access to viewpoints and enhancing the appeal of the Fairy Bower area to visitors. Subsequent development of guest houses and boarding establishments in the village, including the Willamurra complex built by Joseph Tooth in the early twentieth century, further integrated the Echo Point – Fairy Bower – Tooths Lookout – Wishing Well precinct into a broader tourism landscape centred on scenic walking tracks and lookouts along the Bundanoon escarpment.

 

Map View

Clickable icons on this world map will open the related trip report

Contents

A detailed, searchable trip list with links to reports, photo galleries