Exploration of Nayook Creek looking for the YAH Hut ruins

NEWNES – NAYOOK CREEK – AUGUST 2015
Mt Cameron Fire Trail > unnamed ridges and spurs > Nayook Creek > more unnamed ridges and spurs > Mt Cameron Fire Trail
We did the car shuffle and left my car at Deep Pass and then when we left the vehicles I very carefully hid my keys in one of the Mt Cameron vehicles.  All I can say is that it was just fortunate that we cut the walk short and exited at Mt Cameron because if we’d gone all the way to Deep Pass, I would then have had to walk (a very long way) to get my car keys! (Doh!)

So, a little background as to how this Adventure came about.  Ever since seeing a photograph in The Book of Nayook Creek, I’d wanted to go there as it was really pretty.  Unfortunately, when I came up with the bright idea for this trip, I didn’t have access to The Book and so wasn’t able to check exactly where that photo was taken, I just knew it was Nayook Creek.    When Peter  heard that I was going to Nayook Creek he asked if I was going to Yah Hut, I’d never heard of it but apparently the members of Catholic Bushwalkers back in the 1960s had built a wonderful hut on the banks of Nayook Creek.  It had since been demolished (well, most of it) by NPWS but Peter wanted to see the ruins again.  I was more than happy to put Yah hut on the agenda and we built the walk around that.

Jeff B, Trish N, Steve R, and Peter F joined me for the trip. The Adventure started on the Friday evening when two parties of two who travelled up at different times couldn’t find each other in the forest at night.  I had said to everyone, meet up with me at the campsite on the road to Deep Pass.  Trish and Jeff were the first ones to arrive and set up a nice campfire and settled in awaiting the rest of us.  Steve and I on the other hand arrived at about 7pm at the spot that I expected Jeff and Trish to be at and they weren’t there.  We knew they were ahead of us, so they must have moved on, so we drove down to Barcoo Swamp to see if they were there, nope, only other option was just to go back and camp at the spot and see what happened in the morning.  We didn’t have a very nice spot at all, very cold and no camp fire!  Next morning Peter F turned up, well, at least that was more than half the party.

We drove down to Deep Pass (where we were to leave one of the vehicles) and no one was there, there’s actually mob reception there so I started calling them, finally getting on to them, “where are you guys”, “we’re at Deep Pass”, “no you’re not, we’re already here”.  Ah, the penny dropped, there are actually two Deep Passes.  Apparently my directions of where to camp were a little ambiguous (Jeff and Trish would say way ambiguous).  I actually have a bit of a reputation for ambiguity now.

Anyway, eventually we all met up at Deep Pass (the proposed end) and drove to Natural Bridge (the start) on the Mt Cameron Fire Trail. It was at this point that I hid my keys in Peter’s car.  So, on with the walk.

We set out on the Mt Cameron Fire Trail, but having a track was short lived as we headed up to where I wanted to access Nayook Creek.  There was a little scrub bashing and pagoda climbing along the ridges we had no idea what was ahead in Nayook Creek. Did I mention this was an exploratory walk?

We found some nice camp caves up on the top near the cliff line and had morning tea up on top of a pagoda looking out over our creek.  We eventually found the spur we were looking for and started down, it was quite steep and the creek was getting closer and closer.  Eventually we came to the end of the spur and a 20m drop, after a bit of backtracking we entered a small side creek and walked down through ferns to Nayook.

The creek was very scrubby with lots of fallen trees, and the water was cold, it was obvious the way forward would be ugly and very untidy.  Whilst some stuck religiously to the creek bank, sometimes going way up high (this would be Jeff and Steve who don’t like walking in creeks), the rest of us took to the creek as it was too scrubby on the side but then it started to get deeper and we hadn’t waterproofed our packs.

It was hard going and eventually four of us regrouped back on the bank and bashed our way upstream.  We got to a junction and couldn’t see or hear Peter so we started going up a spur.  We were pretty close to where the hut should be but I didn’t know whether it was on the left or right bank, Peter had said it was up on a bit of a rise.  We called out and called out but no sound from Peter.  By this time I was getting a bit worried, but eventually he called out and said “what are you doing over there”,

“looking for the hut” we said “ah, it’s over here”.  So we scrambled through the scrub down to another creek (although this one was probably Nayook), and then up the other side.  About 50m up the bank we finally arrived at the ruins and our campsite for the night.  I have to say that the ruins are impressive, fieldstone walls about chest height and there were large logs which obviously had held up the roof.  It was built around 1960 and in its day had glass windows all around.

We had flat tent sites, a stunning view of the sunset on the cliffs, access to water and a very comfy campfire after a tiring day.  What more could you want?

Day two and what a difference a good camp fire and a frosty morning makes. We were all fired up and ready for another go at Nayook Creek.  We decided that if the Creek didn’t get any better by the next side creek that we had identified on the map, then we’d pull out.  Instead of going down into the creek, everyone was happy to stick to the cliff line where we encountered scrub, more scrub and forests of head-high fern trees. Some tried a high route on top of the cliffs, others opted for the low route and we finally met up at a nice camp cave for morning tea.

We decided that we weren’t up for walking in this scrubby creek all the way to Deep Pass and after a little debate it was a unanimous decision to find the nearest exit back to the cars.  So, we crossed a small creek and headed up a spur, and, who would have thought but we encountered more cliff lines and more scrub.

Luckily we decided to bail as when we were having lunch (30 minutes from where the cars were at our start point) I confessed that the keys for the car at our intended exit of Deep Pass were cunningly hidden in Peter’s car at our starting point. We were soon back at the cars and on our way to retrieve the Deep Pass car.  All in all a great group and had we not gone to explore the area, we would never have known that it would be a “never to be repeated” route.

Oh yes, whilst we were having coffee and milkshakes on the way home, two things happened.  We picked up a copy of The Book and yes, there were the photos of the lovely Nayook Creek (not where we went), obviously much higher upstream and we discussed going in from our intended exit to see what we missed … that’s how our adventures usually start!