Nowadays, the ol’ pub at Newnes is officially a general store and doubles as an information centre and seller of touristy items and other oddities. It has numerous photos and information on its walls that will keep you there for many an hour reflecting on the area’s past. The new (adjacent) toilet block also incorporates an outdoors wood-fired oven and BBQ area – perfect for socialising around on a cold country night.

Although the beer is gone, I’d still recommend Newnes to anyone for a few days of exploration, bushwalking and reminiscing on our hard-working past. Caravanners and camper-trailers will find the steep and winding road through the Wolgan Valley reasonably easy to negotiate, even though it’s quite steep in parts, followed by (weather permitting) well-graded gravel roads into the campgrounds.

Our recent visit was from Lithgow via the Castlereagh Highway (towards Mudgee), taking the Wolgan Road turn-off for the final 36km scenic (bitumen and gravel) drive into the old shale oil mining town. Our loan camper-trailer from Challenge Camper-trailers was a cinch to tow, plus we got talking to some fellow caravanners with a huge (long-term living) Kedron van who’d also found the trip easy and had set up for a few days of exploration and wildlife photography.

From the minute we parked on a flat patch of grass in the Little Capertee campsite, we abandoned all thoughts of a quick camp set-up in favour of close-up photography of wombats, wallabies, ducks. Plus there was a goanna that escaped our out-of-focus lens. Hmm… note to self: always leave your camera in autofocus mode!

Some of the area’s animal species that we didn’t see this time round were quolls, regent honey eaters, the yellow-bellied glider and koalas. We did, however, see many other various birds that, from my non-expert knowledge of all things feather-breasted, could have been anything from a pelican to a wedge-tailed eagle… or even a rooster. But, then again, they could have been anything with wings. Bird watching (or species recognition) is not my forte!

We also lost track of time on our initial wonderings as we discovered relics of times gone by. A set of moss-covered brick stairs to nowhere had us wondering what the rest of the building may have been. The solitary brick and sandstone free-standing chimney that stood tall, even after all these years, also had us pondering whose house it belonged to and the countless yarns the occupants would have told over time… over 100 years ago.

There are two sets of long-drop dunnies to choose from in the campsite, no showers and no other facilities, so best be self-sufficient and bring your own everything, including drinking water. Other than our long-term travelling fellow caravaners, we had the place to ourselves, but one could only imagine the crowds during long weekends and school holidays.

Once we realised how long we’d been neglecting setting up camp, we hooked in to setting the Challenge camper-trailer and sat back with a meal taking in the magnificent, giant sheer-sided sandstone cliffs that form the amphitheatre-like grounds we were lucky enough to be sitting in – life really doesn’t get much better than this!

If you’re contemplating some of the main walks here, and you really should, you need to set aside plenty of time as the Glow Worm tunnel walk is an 8km return walk, and the Historic Ruins walk, while slated as a two-hour walk, could set you back far longer depending on how much of the history you’re prepared to take in.

This walk really is a testament to the hard-working people of the time; there are countless brick retaining walls, parts of buildings and the many beehive-shaped kilns still standing. There are plenty of informative plaques to read, plus the track is well signposted allowing you to weave in and out of the site.

Some of the other walks are billed as ‘hard’ and ‘overnighters’, so backpacks, food, water and the usual camping gear should be carried.

Back in the heyday of 1903 to 1913 our government invested big time in extracting the oil from the local shale. Over the years and up until the late 1930s and early ’40s, a handful of private entrepreneurs (and later again the government) had their turn at mining both this and the nearby areas for shale oil, paraffin, kerosene and other products as well as setting it up as a staging point for a petrol pipeline.

During our drive in, we noted on our GPS that there was a plethora of roads either side of the main track, none of which are visible these days as they are totally overgrown. If only they had the latest mapping resources we now have, life would have been a whole lot easier… or more complicated!

Coincidently, in my past life as a surveyor, I turned down the opportunity to help with the moving of the historic Newnes Hotel in 1986 – from its original resting place nearer the river to its current and safer position on higher grounds. In hindsight, I wish I had been able to be part of the historic assignment. It would have been fitting to end the mammoth job by having a cold ale as ‘cheers’ to all who helped and donated their time, energy and skills. And to those hard-working sheilas and fellas and all the hard yakka they put in over a century ago!

Oops, there goes another pelican… or was it a pigeon or crow? I really must read up on our bird species…

Words & photography by Mark Allen