EVANS CROWN – 18 June 2023
There’s no doubt about it, Marcia knows where all the “good” spots are, particularly those that are photo opportunities. We’d planned had a big day on the Saturday doing SRT practice, then planned to headed over to Marcia’s for a Naughty (K)notting Night and dinner, and were wondering what we could do on the Sunday to make a full weekend of it, and Marcia came up with Evans Crown. I haven’t been there before, so I was keen.
So, what’s Evans Crown and where is it? Evans Crown is a massive granite tor. The boulders there begin their life as molten rock which cools underground. Over a long time, movement and faulting caused cracks in the rock, water seeped in forming cracks and then rain weathered the sides of the rock. At 1104m above sea level, Evans Crown is near the village of Tarana (which apparently has a very good Pub).
The Waradjuri Aboriginal people considered the rock a special place for initiations and coroborees and it continues to hold high significance for the aboriginal people.
Then, in 1813, Assistant surveyor George Evans followed the trail taken by Blaxland, Lawson & Wentworth (who were probably following routes established by the Aboriginals), and found himself at the granite Tor. He wrote in his diary “My course is down to the Riverlett (Fish River); it appears to lead me north if west. On the north side of it at this place is a remarkable sugar loaf Hill having a stone peak of it, which I named after myself. I am more pleased with this country every day; it is a great extent of grazing land … and well watered by running streams in almost every valley.”
Fast forward 150 years, and the pink granite was mined at the Tarana Quarry and is the orange-coloured material which forms the lower walls of the Sydney Opera house. It’s also an important monumental stone, and was used in construction of the ANZAC Memorial in Hyde Park. For many decades, the granite was extracted, crushed and laid as the platform surface for all railway stations in NSW which did not have an asphalt seal. Who would have known? and I wonder what happened to al the crushed granite when they updated all the Sydney railway stations?
The Crown, the rock at the top (photo Marcia).
From the car park, it’s a nice easy walk up to the granite area.
And then we went exploring! Lots of slots, can you imagine, we’re under a rock which is roughly the size of two caravans. (photo Marcia)
We climbed everything we could! (photo Marcia)
We’re right near a big drop with bolts t the top an rock climbers’ route beside us, lots of exposure to the left! (photo Marcia)
More rock climbing (photo: Marcia).
Exploring the Crown (photo: Marcia)
After climbing the Crown, we spotted this interesting rock formation, so headed cross-country to explore it. (photo Marcia)
I had the idea that we all have our backs to one rock and push the other rock with our feet, didn’t quite work out that way! (photo Marcia)
After the split rock, we made our way back to the tourist track. We’d scrambled up and over most of the rocks in the area, loads of fun.
Thank you so much for taking us here Marcia, a great day out!