Williwa and Hill End

It was time to explore a place I've never camped at before and to be honest it is a place where I probably would not camp on my own. We are talking about Williwa, located somewhere between Turon Gates and Portland in the NSW Central West.

As is usually customary, Dave from Shintara came along for the trip and we spent the first night at Williwa, which is a free camping area in the Sunny Corner State Forest.

I brought the RV5 with me and Dave brought the slightly smaller but still easy to set up RV1. These were promptly set up on arrival and then effort to gathering firewood for the night was taken care of. We wound up collecting quite a bit and without the restrictions of requiring a fire pit, we were able to set up quite a nice fire, badly needed in this part of the world in the depths of winter.

We then set about cooking tea. We usually just cook for ourselves and this takes care of differing tastes, what kind of oil to use, who does the cooking and who does the washing up, etc. Practicing self sufficiency makes for a peaceful time away and everyone does their fair share of the work.

As night came upon us, we settled in our chairs by the fire and had a discussion about the drive to the next camping spot, at Hill End, which is an old favourite because there is good mobile reception there (on Optus but not Telstra or TPG) so things like 000 calls can be made in an emergency without having to have the satellite phone handy. I've never had to deal with a serious emrgency on camp but the reassurance of knowing it can be done is a good thing.

A good night's sleep followed by a nice hot brekky had me right for the day's activities on Saturday, 8th June. We packed our camps and drove to Hill End via Bathurst and the famous Bridle Track, a gravel track between the outskirts of Bathurst and Hill End. It was actually the first road between the two areas and was open for business before the road between Hill End and neighbouring Sofala was completed.

Due to landslips at a few locations going back through the Track's history, the Bridle Track doesn't always follow the original route carved out but it is very close. At the time of travel, the Track is still in good order.

We arrived at Hill End well in time to set up camp, head to Green Valley Creek to collect firewood and return to camp to build the fire before cooking the evening meals.


Hill End can get bitterly cold during winter and having a nice large fire allows campers to sit away from the fire whilst still collecting its heat without breathing in the smoke. A night by the fire, sipping some top shelf port was followed by another good night's sleep.


This is the main object of camping, not just to explore what exists across this wide brown land but to get away from the routine of work, the hustle and bustle of the concrete jungle and communication with 99.9% of the outside world.


For me, camping will always be a reset switch and on many camps there are things to explore and things to learn about the way people lived prior to all the modern conveniences we now have available to us. In the photo below, the Royal Hotel, one of around 28 pubs that once operated in Hill End, is the sole survivor and with its foundation stone laid in 1871, is steeped in history. Today, it has a good bistro which is quite popular and if planning a visit, it pays to be there early so you aren't waiting in a queue.


Sunday came and we had a bit of a sleep in, which was followed by breakfast and then a clean-up and break of camp. Another camp was done and dusted and it was time to head back to the said concrete jungle to plan and prepare for the next camp.

Written at 20:38 on 20 October 2024 by Brad.

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