Where

Robertson Nature Reserve in Country NSW

Distance

0.6km loop

Time suggested

15 - 30min

Grade

Grade 1

What to
bring

Drinking water, hat, sunscreen

Please note

• Remember to take your binoculars if you want to go birdwatching
• The weather in this area can be extreme and unpredictable, so please ensure you’re well-prepared for your visit.

Prepare yourself for a journey back in time as you enjoy a leisurely stroll along on this easy walking track.

Stroll along the wheelchair-friendly walking track and surround yourself with the dense rainforest that once covered the landscape around Robertson. Looking up at the sheer density of the vines, you can see why the Yarrawa Brush, as it it’s known, was so difficult to penetrate for early explorers.

If you’re keen on birdwatching, keep your binoculars handy and you might just spot Lewin's honeyeaters, white-browed scrub hens, crimson rosellas, wonga pigeons or satin bowerbirds. You’re sure to at least hear the distinctive whip crack call of the eastern whipbird.

Look out for wombat burrows, and if you look really closely, you might even notice the delicate rainforest snails and other invertebrates picking their way through the ferns and mosses.

For directions, safety and practical information, see visitor info

Visitor info

Maps and downloads

Learn more

Historic rainforest

The dense rainforest you’ll find at Robertson Nature Reserve once covered 2500ha of the red basalt soil area around Robertson. The Yarrawa Brush, or ‘Brush’, as it was called by the early explorers who were trying to forge a route from the highlands to the coast, was first penetrated by Charles Throsby in 1817. However, the area was not significantly cleared until the 1860s, when settlement around Robertson began. But by the early 1900s, more than 80 per cent of the Yarrawa Brush was gone. Today, only about 500ha of fragmented patches survive, making Robertson Nature Reserve a special window into the past as well as an important place for conservation.

Natural wonders

Robertson Nature Reserve is a tiny 5.3ha reserve, but it’s packed with natural wonders. It conserves one of the largest and least disturbed areas of rainforest remaining from the Yarrawa Brush. Step inside this dense cool or warm temperate rainforest and you’ll find unique shrubs, soft tree ferns, numerous vines and intricate fungi. Look up into the canopy at trees like sassafras, featherwood, coachwood and possum wood. Watch for the flashes of crimson rosellas darting through the trees or listen for the whip crack call of the eastern whipbird.