Down The Nattai: Russels Needle

Opportunities for long bushwalks have been thin on the ground around NSW since last summer. First, there were the fire closures, then the closures post-apocalyptic fires (many, many still in effect), then came Covid-19. Finally, half way through 2020, regional travel was allowed and a few national parks started to reopen.

Somehow, I got onto Russels Needle as a reasonable trip. This trip checked all the boxes, not too much driving, an interesting route to a prominent outlook, and good camping down by the Nattai River.

There are multiple routes into the Nattai River gorge. Starlights track is by far the most popular and seems to attract a reasonable number of people. Other known routes are via Troys Creek, Slotts Way, and Rocky Waterholes Creek. No doubt there are many more possibilities. All of these have been affected by the 2019/2020 bushfires.

This is classic Australian escarpment country. Short bands of sandstone cliffs above rivers and creeks. We decided to walk down to the Nattai River via Troys Creek and exit via Slotts Way. The route down Troys Creek follows a very old fire road and currently has lots of trees fallen across the route making for slow travel.

As long as you take the correct turns off the main fire trail that heads north across the Nattai Tableland, the track is easily followed, albeit requiring clambering over, under and around fallen trees. The old fire roads have been left off the newest NSW topographic maps which challenges navigation a bit.

Eventually, Troys Creek track fades out near Emmets Flat which is right down by the Nattai River. Unfortunately, along with bushfires there is now a terrible invasion of exotic weeds all along the river banks.

We had lunch at Emmets Flat and then continued walking upstream along the Nattai River. Travel is currently easy with big sand flats interspersed with river stone walking. A couple of parties had come down Starlights Track and the trail is currently easy to locate.

About 3.30 pm we found a good campsite on a big sandbank which even had a bit of sun near the access to Slotts Way. Home for the night.

Next morning, we got up early and headed off upstream, the walking still easy. After a couple of hours, we reached a fork in the river where the north ridge of Russels Needle splits the valley. An easy but steep walk up the ridge leads to the base of the sandstone bluffs that make up Russels Needle.

We traversed south over loose steep ground on the east side of the Needle until we were able to scramble up to the ridge south of the summit. One set of cairns leads up to a lower summit which also has a nice view, but the route to the main summit lies further south.

Once one the ridge, the scramble to the summit is easy and can be done with no exposure if desired. The very top of Russels Needle is a cracked boulder on a rubbly looking cliff. We tagged the top but came back to more solid ground to enjoy our lunch.

After lunch, we walked back, packed up, had a cup of tea and walked up Slotts Way to the top of the plateau. This route is newly marked with fresh flagging and gets more defined the higher you go. Near the top there is a good lookout over the valley and across to Mount Jellore. The last bit of the footpad heads generally east under a short sandstone bluff until a small pass is reached.

We think we emerged from dense scrub near Starlights Track but are not completely sure about that, as we somehow ended up on an old fire road heading south. After walking along this for about 1.5 km, it dawned on me that we were apparently heading downhill in the wrong direction. A GPS reading confirmed this and we turned around walked back, and turned to left instead of the right at the track junction. Shortly thereafter I think we did pass the Starlights Track junction but I could be wrong about that too.  Soon after, we were back at the main track junction with just 1.7 km to walk back to the car.