Currockbilly Mountain

In 2016 we walked up Mount Budawang (1138 metres). Exactly why it took us a further 6.5 years to return to the area to walk up Currockbilly Mountain is not easily explained unless my entry in our database for Mount Budawang offers a clue: “This is a really nice but way too short walk.” Currockbilly Mountain is a much more interesting walk, the same length drive, and is also a good power endurance work-out because the final 100 metres of elevation gain to the summit is steep.

The access is simple via a public road to the edge of Budawang National Park. Pretty much everyone who walks Currockbilly Mountain (an unknown and unknowable number of folk) is via a reasonably prominent northwest ridge that pinches out about 100 metres below the summit whence the ridge is gained via a final steep, but not too brushy slope. Once on the ridge, a turn to the south leads to the summit trig, while a turn to the north leads to open ridge terrain with good views in all directions. The views vary depending on how recently a fire has been through.

I did, however, have some trepidation suggesting this walk to Doug who is a stoic and uncomplaining participant on most of my adventures. Our last trip into the Budawangs had involved some considerable bush-bashing even though we had lucked into being only a day behind a group of eight walkers who had sufficiently pressed through the bushfire regrowth as to make our passage just a bit easier. Reports of further extreme regrowth however, are legion, with some parties reporting speeds of under one kilometre per hour!

Doug, however, had found a possibly useful website that maps the extent of the 2019/2020 bushfires with categories ranging from unburnt to extreme. The area around Currockbilly Mountain had much less fire damage than other areas we had recently visited which we hoped would correlate with less vigorous regrowth.

Heading roughly east from roads end, a foot pad leads up and over a small knoll and joins Webbs Fire Trail which runs north south. This is lovely old open forest with sparse underbrush and big tree ferns in moister areas. An old road gains a westerly ridge (spot elevation on map of 785) and contours around the head of a small creek before terminating at about 840 metres. From here, the going is straight forward and, apart from the steepness of the upper slopes, easy. The bush is open and easy progress is made up over two small knolls separated by minor saddles. There are many rock cairns and even a pretty good footpad along much of the route.

A final flat area on the ridge is reached at about 1020 metres (ASL) where the remainder of the ascent can be seen. Topping out on the ridge, a turn to the south and a faint foot pad leads to the old trig and rock cairn while turning north leads along another minor footpad to a broad saddle where a sturdy summit register is found along with the best spot for lunch in the sun with views in every direction. We could even see the Tollgate Islands off to the south.